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| Keep Out of Reach of Children |
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 Standing on tiptoes, I barely reached the bottle of spot remover on the top shelf. I nudged the bottle forward and it fell into my hands, with its warning label displayed prominently, "Keep Out of Reach of Children."
Our own messages should be so unambiguous.
Maybe businesses, and consultants, could learn a thing or two from warning label writers. Instead of gumming up our writing with hyperbole and jargon, we should aim for that kind of simplicity.
Naturally, most business communications can’t be boiled down to six words on a warning label, but we can avoid language like this:
"…help clients identify, design, implement, and evaluate the business structure and processes needed to optimize internal efficiencies and leverage external opportunities."
Hopefully, your writing doesn’t reach this level of banality, but isn’t there an opportunity to clarify, even just a little bit, almost everything we write? This month, I’m going to make an extra effort to write to the point.
Moving right along, this month we present a new feature, the MCNews 12 Index of Professional Services, which tracks the performance of the industry. Each month, we'll give you a snapshot of how investors are assessing the overall health of professional services, and compare that with the S+P 500. Have a look at the index and let us know what you think.
Ross Dawson, this month's guest interviewee, has provided three copies of his book, Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, which we will give to the first three people who request the book. There's no charge for the book or shipping. So, send us an email. The first three people to contact us will win the book.
Enjoy this month's issue
And send me an email if you have comments.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor
Management Consulting News is a publication of MindShare
Consulting.
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| MCNews 12 Index of Professional Services |
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The MCNews 12 Index reflects general investor sentiment about the state of the global professional services industry.
The twelve publicly-traded companies included in the MCNews 12 Index account for roughly $80 billion in combined annual revenue, and serve clients around the world.
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MCNews 12 Index |
YTD
Change |
S+P 500
YTD Change |
| March |
1016 |
1.6% |
.98% |
| February |
1043 |
4.3% |
2.04% |
| January |
1000 |
NA |
NA |
The Professional services industry got off to a quick start in 2007, outpacing the S+P 500 by more than a 2:1 margin. That pace eased in March, but the industry still leads the market as we head into the second quarter.
Learn More about the MCNews 12 Index 
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| Interview:
Ross Dawson |
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  Consultants need to be very clear about the decision to invest their efforts in specific clients. For some clients, it's just not going to be worthwhile.
Ross Dawson doesn't think traditional client account management is sufficient to forge a high-value and enduring relationship with a client. He coined the term "Knowledge-Based Client Relationships" to illustrate his unique perspective.
Dawson's book, Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, which professional service firm leaders embraced, is now available in a second edition.
We asked Dawson about his views on managing client relationships, competing when you're selling to procurement professionals, branding for professional service firms, and how consultants should view the need for specialization.
Dawson has contributed three copies of his book's new edition for our readers. If you'd like to receive a copy, be one of the first three people to send us an email and your book will be on its way.
Read
our interview with Ross Dawson
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| The
Writing on the Wall, by Alan Weiss |
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 The Glass Half Full (or Perhaps, Overflowing): A Matter of Perception
I hear about the "woes" of the consulting profession all the time. You've heard them: There is no universally-recognized accreditation; competition from larger firms; price-conscious buyers; yadayadayada.
Yet, some of us have managed to flourish. How can that be? It's all a matter of one's attitudes and perceptions about this profession. After all, the first sale you have to make is to yourself.
Too many consultants are not obtaining that first sale.
Read
the article
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| Big Four Make a Comeback in Thought Leadership |
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 by Fiona Czerniawska
In the last couple of years, three of the "Big Four" firms have rebuilt their consulting practices and this group is once again a force to be reckoned with, as evidenced by their recent performance in thought leadership (reports, articles, white papers, and books).
Can the Big Four firms with their global resources and strong brands pose a significant threat to their rivals in the consulting space?
Read
the article
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| Reality Bytes |
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Maybe These Consultants Need a Consultant
Former civil servants, mainly based in Telford, England, work for Capgemini on an outsourced Revenue and Customs contract. They recently voted to authorize a strike action.
Capgemini's labor woes stem from a dispute over the company's pay offer to employees, which representatives of the employees' union called a "slap in the face." The employee turnout for the strike vote was an impressive 75 percent, with nearly 75 percent of those voters giving thumbs up to the strike action.
The unhappy employees are responsible for software support, development, and testing.
Accenture to Double Management Consulting Practice
Accenture announced that it is expanding its consulting capabilities globally, with plans to nearly double the number of management consultants worldwide in the next three years. The company cited client demand for growth, new business models, and other, jargon-laden reasons for the latest move.
Accenture currently has approximately 13,000 management consulting professionals. The plan to nearly double that number over the next three years is intended to add depth to Accenture's offerings in developed and emerging markets.
Heads-Up to Performance Management Consultants
AMR Research reports that North American companies will spend $23.8B in 2007 on business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM). Researchers define BI and PM as the tools, applications, and processes that help companies control and manage business performance.
"We are nowhere near the business intelligence and performance management saturation point. The vast majority of companies say they will expand their purchases this year," said John Hagerty, vice president and research fellow at AMR.
The report looks at five categories of the PM and BI markets, and predicts spending in 2007:
- Business intelligence ($6.6B)
- Dashboards and scorecards ($5.5B)
- Analytics infrastructure ($4.3B)
- Planning, budgeting, and forecasting ($4.1B)
- Analytics applications ($3.4B)
What's the opportunity for consultants? 18 percent of companies say that a lack of resources to work on BI/PM is their primary business challenge.
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| Coming
Attractions: Dan Heath |
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 "If you want to spread your ideas to other people, you should work within the confines of the rules that have allowed other ideas to succeed over time."
In next month's issue, things are bound to get sticky. Our guest will be Dan Heath, Director at Duke Corporate Education, and coauthor of the bestseller, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.
Heath and his coauthor, brother Chip, draw insights from such diverse fields as marketing, politics, urban legends, and fables to show why some ideas, slogans, or behaviors resonate and persist.
Don't miss this opportunity to find out how you can defeat what the Heath's call the "Curse of Knowledge" to create your own sticky messages.
Watch for the next issue of Management Consulting News on May 1, 2007.
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