As the U.S. enters month six of the Covid-19 pandemic, several consulting firms are shifting from temporary playbooks to more strategic long-term solutions to longer-term remote work, rainmaking and assisting clients virtually. It's a challenge, for sure. But with no definitive end date in site, some of those early best practices are becoming more permanent standard operating procedure, both for clients and firms themselves. Consulting caught up with Keith Denham, Managing Principal, CohnReznick Advisory, to discuss how the firm is adjusting to the new normal in the age of Covid-19.
Consulting: What have been your biggest challenges as Managing Principal of CohnReznick Advisory during the Covid-19 pandemic? How would you say the firm is handing the pandemic?
Denham: I'd say that my team and I had to take the quickest 180 degree turn of my career—a big change of focus and a major shift in priorities to address immediate client needs. Instead of advising our clients on things like growth strategies, we suddenly needed to address workforce and workplace enablement to help them move forward towards "the next normal." This has included helping them reinvent their real estate strategies, identify new tech solutions that best align with their work cultures, upgrade their back-office systems and infrastructure to accommodate a virtual workforce, and help position their organizations for the office of the future. Today, as most of us have found, we are learning to make remote-work collaboration more personal, fostering a sense of community that once heavily relied on face-to-face meetings. This is happening not only with the industries we serve—from healthcare to commercial real estate to financial services─but within our own teams as well.
Consulting: How are those changes impacting client service?
Denham: We needed to adapt our service model to exclude the face-to-face meetings we were accustomed to. Our teams are passionate about rolling up our sleeves to deliver high-touch, relationship-based client service. So, we needed to get creative about cultivating that same connection virtually. Part of that was getting better at facilitating online meetings. Our client strategy and business transformation sessions have always looked to embed the latest technologies, including the use of our on-premises Innovation Lab. These discovery engagements became strictly online visioning sessions.
Similarly, we revisited privacy procedures to make sure our team was up-to-date on how to securely share and store the information we needed from those meetings. As we emerge from the pandemic, it seems likely that organizations will permanently adopt some level of remote work. We're working with our clients to design a long-term program that can help their business functions run seamlessly while also helping employees stay both productive and engaged.
Consulting: How's the business been doing since March? How's the Advisory pipeline look going forward? Have you tried to forecast—or reforecast—2021?
Denham: March was a scary time for us, but over the past six months we've experienced a mix with our clients – some are hurting, others are thriving. We've seen explosive growth with our Government and Public Sector Advisory services as we help our clients leverage analytics and innovation to improve their preparedness and response to emergencies. We're leveraging technologies that are helping them optimize and expedite distribution of their FEMA disaster recovery/COVID funding to affected communities, while also minimizing their risks of fraud, waste, and abuse.
On the federal side, we're helping large government agencies use the most advanced technologies found in the commercial space– innovative new products, systems, and Cloud solutions. Our work in the federal space is running the gamut: from the telecom sector's advancement of 5G to helping everyone working with the Department of Defense get ready for its upcoming Cybersecurity regulations.
Aside from the COVID-19 pandemic, I think 2020 will be remembered as an inflection point for social justice and corporate responsibility. So, am very excited that we have begun working with our clients to help them define their roles in driving change. As we look to the end of this year and ahead to 2021, ESG and diversity will continue to gain momentum as focus areas for companies. So, we are talking to clients every day about how to form and implement their own ESG strategies. We've also begun helping them build diversity portals to put greater emphasis on minority hiring and procurement, and implementing best practices in driving tangible change.
Consulting: What are clients looking for right now? What type of work are they seeking from the firm? What specific services can the firm provide during the pandemic?
Denham: Companies want a "one stop shop" to help them solve a host of issues. They want comprehensive solutions now—advice, products, bots—and it's easier to hire a conductor to do it for you than to conduct the orchestra yourself. As the pandemic has put a strain on their internal resources, they are more open to outsourcing and looking for advisors to deliver comprehensive solutions more than ever before. Efficiency is key.
As I mentioned, we've been working with clients on their remote-work strategies which also includes cybersecurity and privacy. When it was determined we had to move to a remote-work environment, many organizations had to quickly adopt new technologies and policies. We've been working with clients to help determine if they have the right cybersecurity safeguards in place and ensure that their privacy policies are compliant with current privacy laws. Enforcement of these laws has not taken a break.
Consulting: What's morale like at the firm right now? How difficult has it been for you to keep the firm's culture in place with everyone working from home and very little in-person interaction?
Denham: This has undoubtedly been a tough time for all of us both personally and professionally. So, our interactions with our clients, and among each other, now come with a higher level of compassion. We are treating every touch point, whether it's with a client or a colleague, with an extra degree of empathy. People are more understanding if someone is late to a meeting or if a meeting must be canceled at the last minute.
Remembering that we are all humans adjusting to all-new circumstances has helped us remain positive and step up to help each other. It's also given us a chance to get to know each other on a more personal level. Whether it's a son poking his mom's arm, a cat walking over a keyboard, or interesting wallpaper in the background, it's helped us all take the time to pause and learn more about each other.
Consulting: How do you see the pandemic shaping the future of consulting? In other words, do you see any best practices or new strategies that may emerge from this time? Will it impact anything long term or do you envision things going back to "normal" as we come out of this pandemic?
Denham: The "next normal" will be a hybrid, combining the best of the old ways of doing business with the best of the new. Now that we've seen that a "work from anywhere' approach is not only possible but also something many employees will require, it gives us, as well as all companies, the opportunity to take a fresh look at the ways we are using technology, optimizing real estate and operational strategies, and redefine our work cultures.
Consulting: Any surprises—in any aspect of the firm, the people, the clients or the industry—over the last six months?
Denham: Early in the pandemic, we experienced the first shutdown with our Hong Kong office. I was quickly impressed by how effectively and efficiently those employees dealt with a work-from-home mandate. This gave us an early understanding of work-from-home and allowed us to prepare for it when the same thing happened to us in the U.S. six weeks later.
I was amazed at how quickly we could transition to a remote-work environment and work as a team to be more productive and efficient in ways I never thought possible. Necessity is the mother of invention, and many of the lessons learned and ways we have come together to address the pandemic will be carried through in the long-term.
I also find it surprising that, since the pandemic began, I've only been to one face-to-face meeting and have none scheduled for the foreseeable future. And, for the most part, clients are not requesting our teams to be onsite at their locations as we found ways to make video calls just as effective as being onsite.
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