|
| Welcome Back |
 |
For our US-based readers, it's back to work today after a long weekend celebrating Independence Day. It's not supposed to be a good idea to send out a newsletter on the heels of a Holiday, but so many of our readers live outside the US that I'm sticking to the publication schedule.
Another Note of Thanks
Last
month I asked readers to help push my Guerrilla
Consulting blog into the win column in MarketingSherpa's
Readers' Choice Awards. Well, it worked and I won the
B-to-B Marketing category. I'm expecting the grand prize—a
coffee mug—to arrive any day now.
For those of you who helped with your vote, thanks.
Don't
miss this month's book giveaway. The details follow
below. If you can send an email, you have a chance to
win. So have a look.
If
you have comments on this issue of Management Consulting
News, or anything else, please send me an email.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor, Management Consulting News
|
| Book
Giveaway: Change Management Pocket Guide |
 |
 Consultants Kate Nelson and Stacy Aaron of Change Guides LLC just published The
Change Management Pocket Guide, which features twenty-six
change management tools that can help you on any project—and the book
fits in your pocket, literally.
Kate and Stacy are giving away their new book to the first five people who send an email requesting one.
To win, you must be one of the first five readers to respond, and you
must be willing to let us publish your name in the August 2005 issue of
Management Consulting News. You'll also have
to provide your postal mailing address, but you can send that if you're
one of the winners.
To enter the contest, send an email to mcnbooks@changeguidesllc.com.
Want to learn more? Go to ChangeGuidesLLC.com.
|
| Interview:
Keith Ferrazzi
|
 |
Keith
Ferrazzi has been called "the ultimate networker" but
it's a label he loathes—thankfully. That's why we wanted
to talk to him. He's brought a human element to the
art of reaching out to others.
The cover of Ferrazzi's book, Never Eat Alone, claims that the book reveals the "secrets" to success. Though they may not really be secrets, Ferrazzi has valuable knowledge many of us have forgotten or lost. His book is a quick, practical read, and so is his interview with MCNews.
|
| Five Worthy Blogs |
 |
Here's a quick rundown on five blogs in my newsreader. These blogs will give you a good sense of how to blog, the ways companies are using blogs, what's being said in the blogosphere about everything, and what's hot in the book world.
BlogWrite for CEOs, by Debbie Weil
Weil tells you how to write a thought leadership blog, including tips, resources, and blog coaching for CEOs and other high-level executives.
GM FastLane, by Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors
FastLane is a prime example of how one of America's largest companies can tiptoe around the bureaucracy and get a blog out. It's a highly visited—and visible—corporate blog.
Management Consultants' Blog, by Tony Restell
Published by Tony Restell and the Top-Consultant.com staff, this blog includes posts of interest to prospective consultants, veterans of the business, and clients.
BlogPulse, by Intelliseek
BlogPulse summarizes recent activity, statistics on blogs, trends, personalities, and issues in the blog universe. Use the blog to find out what people are saying in their blogs about you, your clients, and your competitors.
The blog also includes a trends feature which you can use to display a chart showing the buzz generated by any given topic or the comparison of buzz across a set of topics.
800-CEO-READ, by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten
This one has everything you want to know about business books and other books too, from two of the most genuine people in the book business. Don't miss this blog.
|
| Is IT on the Ropes? |
 |
The news from Hudson, a professional staffing and executive search firm, isn't good. Apparently, confidence among Information Technology (IT) employees is falling faster than AOL's dial-up subscriber base.
The Hudson Employment Index shows that IT employee confidence fell twenty-one points in May 2005 to the lowest reading ever recorded by this index. The dip in confidence is attributed to IT employee concerns about potential layoffs and the impact of current workplace trends on personal finances.
According to the InfoWorld 2005 Compensation Survey, IT professionals are getting grumpier by the year, with almost two-thirds of IT professionals open to overtures from new employers. That's a surprising trend given that IT salaries are bouncing back to the high levels of 2001.
The problem: IT professionals feel underappreciated, with almost two-thirds reporting that executives have a simplistic view of IT as an expense, and they lack an understanding of what IT can do for the business.
Adding fuel to the fire, more than 25% of IT pros worry that their jobs will be shipped offshore in an effort to further rein in IT costs. Claiming that executives have an IT blind spot isn't new, but it could be getting worse with so many options for managing IT, like outsourcing and using offshore resources.
As consultants, it's a good time to let CIOs, COOs, and CEOs know that IT salary increases are helpful, but other issues impacting IT productivity are just below the surface. Encourage your clients to open the books on their plans for IT, rather than letting employee uncertainty lead to a brain drain.
Encourage your clients to bridge the knowledge gap between IT and the business. It's easy to accuse executives of not understanding the inner workings of IT, but it's equally the case that many IT pros don't understand the business. It's a two-way street.
If you're a communications or training and facilitation expert who can straddle the worlds of IT and the operating units of a business, you'll find a great market for your services by helping to solve this problem.
|
| The Top Hotels in the World |
 |
Given the sheer number of hotels in the world, it's tough to decide where to go. In response, Travel and Leisure magazine created the annual T+L 500. The survey identifies the top 500 hotels in the world, and shows you ratings, which rooms to book, and what makes one hotel different from all the rest.
From the T+L 500, we've picked the top of the top in major geographical areas for our own ultimate hotel guide. Look for the report on all 500 hotels by viewing the T+L 500.
We picked the hotels with the best overall rating. You can also search the T+L 500 using seven other criteria, including location and value.
Africa and the Middle East
Singita
Kruger National Park, South Africa
Asia
The Peninsula
Bangkok, Thailand
Australia and New Zealand
Lizard Island
Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Canada
Wickaninnish Inn
Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Caribbean, Bermuda, and the Bahamas
Cap Juluca
Anguilla
Europe
Boyer Les Crayères
Reims, France
Mexico, Central, and South America
Hotel Monasterio
Cuzco, Peru
United States
Peninsula Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
|
| Coming
Attractions |
|
 Next month, Daniel H. Pink, author of the bestseller, Free Agent Nation, will be our guest. Pink, who is also a contributing editor at Wired magazine, has a new book out titled, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.
In the book, Pink argues that the era of "left-brain" people is ending and that, in the future, professional success and personal fulfillment will belong to those who learn to hone their "right-brain" abilities. Join us as he tells us how.
Look
for the next issue of Management Consulting
News on August 2, 2005.
|
