Assuming the role of President and Owner of a well-established consulting firm is a unique challenge. Kirsten Kuhlmann recently did just that at Oakland, Calif.-based Cliff Consulting, assuming the role once held by founder and UC Berkeley Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Professor Bob Cliff. Kuhlmann has a rich background with 25 years of executive leadership and business management expertise, and recently sat down with Consulting to talk about the changing of the guard at Cliff and her plans to continue the firm's momentum.
Consulting: What are some of the core values Bob Cliff instilled in the company that you hope to continue as the new owner?
Kuhlmann: Bob's such a natural kind of person that goes in and looks at operational efficiencies to all solutions, and all work that he did with clients is always practical and always as I frame it, in the "chess game" of elegant solutions; to make sure it's streamlined and going after the right things and always connected to the right strategic directions the company is going after, as well as his strong desire to always have ego-less consulting. Our agenda is about their agenda, and it's all about the people. How do we best help our clients? How do we make them successful?
Consulting: What's been keeping you busiest so far in your new role?
Kuhlmann: I had joined the firm back in August last year as a consultant, so I already had some bandwidth of the organization. Right now we're involved in a major transformation of integration of four business units into one for a major, major bank. I've also been having one-on-ones with clients, getting closer connected to the consultants, because whether it's about clients or our business, it always starts and ends with the people no matter what you do. So it's been all about getting a closer look at the organization. It's about understanding what the consultants desire too, how do we frame it and set up for continued success?
Consulting: What are some of your top priorities going to be?
Kuhlmann: It's really about taking Cliff to the next level. Just continuing to leverage all the great work that [former firm president] Robin [Nasatir] and Bob [Cliff] had done, but also continuing to drive it forward. How do I build a stronger internal EQ component? It's not just about being super smart, but it's being about real consultants and real people, and how do we build the internal capacity around the EQ. There's always things to learn about that and how you interact with people, but it's also then looking at new clients in different areas. We've had strong footing in healthcare and financial services and non-profits, but also knowing there's opportunities in other areas to go and plenty of clients that need this kind of help.
Consulting: What are some of Cliff's biggest strengths? Why do clients keep coming back?
Kuhlmann: It's really the ability to go in and help clients plan or frame large, critical projects and then deliver them and implement them. That's the big one. The component that it's all about people and bringing the people along, as well as the practical solutions and making sure it's really tied to the organization and where the company needs to go and making sure that whatever is getting delivered or implemented, whether it be new technology, launching a new product, doing a new integration after a merger—making sure all those major projects and initiatives get deployed in a way that's successful for the organization.
We've been with some of our clients for 20 to 25 years. We have a high return rate and a high extension rate. It's really because when we go in, we don't bring an army of people. We leverage resources already inside the organization and actually leave skills behind, so in many ways organizations are in a better place after we leave. It's this piece I had said about this strategic and the tactical, working up and down the chain to get these things done. Clients have said to me time and time again it's the practical solutions, not the overly complex.
Consulting: What do you hope your mark will be on the legacy of the firm?
Kuhlmann: When I landed here as a consultant, it was the beauty of finding the exact intersection of the work that I love to do, which is going in when clients are struggling to move any sort of strategic initiative or major project forward, where you need alignment of people inside and a very clear path of how you're going to move forward. It's leveraging on that, which is all the work Bob and Robin had done, and the extra piece I think I will bring, and I think this is still forming, is to continue to move forward. The unique piece that I bring is that I've been an executive in my past. I've sat in the shoes of our clients, have done similar initiatives, had similar responsibility. So it's adding that piece to that as well as the focus on the people and really amping that a bit. I have people on the team who have been here for 25-30 years, so they in many ways are my sense check. I go back to them and say, these are some things I'm considering, no matter how small. You can't futz a little bit with things without having an impact, so I always like to understand why things are done, whether for clients or if it's in the business here. Why have they done things a certain way, what was the motivation to do that? Once you're aware of that you can actually make a conscious decision about where you're going to head and what you're going to do.
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