One on One

Of the Fortune 500, about 70 companies have been on the list every year for 50 years. The average age of these firms is 115. These firms have been built to last. What's their secret? Brad Jackson, co-founder and CEO of Slalom Consulting, suggests that the common denominator of those 70 firms is that they’ve built a culture of innovation. How they’ve managed to do that is another question, entirely.

As companies struggle with growth in the core of their business, clients ask all the time: What unleashes growth, year after year? Thanks to research and analysis, Deloitte Consulting has identified just how critical growth and market differentiation is to industry leadership. So how do you achieve it? Simple… innovation and it must be supported with meaningful investment, says Jim Moffatt, Chairman & CEO, Deloitte Consulting.

Every year since 2005, Booz & Company has conducted the Global Innovation 1000 study, which investigates the relationship between what companies spend on R&D and their overall financial performance—and every year, the firm reinforces the conclusion that there is no correlation between the two.

Some people think innovation is needed in all parts of the organization. The truth is organizations need to be rigorous and disciplined in regularly assessing where innovation can have the greatest impact, whether helping to get more customers, making employees more loyal, eliminating cost, or something else, according to Ric Merrifield, a Partner with Seattle-based Strategy firm Level 11.

What if you could enjoy a huge increase in your consulting firm’s success without finding more clients, competing for more projects or winning more engagements? You can, if you increase the size of your projects. Most consultants have almost everything they need to double their average project size—without doubling the workload, according to David A. Fields, Founder and Managing Director of the Ascendant Consortium.

Human Relations is having something of a renaissance in terms of its overall effect in helping a company achieve its long-term goals. Robyn Clark, Global Management and HR consulting firm BPI Group’s Managing Director of talent solutions, says now more than ever C-Suite executives are in need of a trusted advisor, and more and more are turning to HR leaders to fill those shoes.