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| Planning |
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It's that time of the year again. About now, you begin to hear a lot about planning for the upcoming year, whether it's the need to crank up next year's business plan or to commit to personal resolutions.
Consultants are great planners. They know exactly what to do, from preparing an insightful market analysis to developing new service offerings. Once the plan is locked in, though, market realities can quickly force a firm to change the course so carefully specified in the annual plan.
When presented with a substantial, unexpected market opportunity, few, if any, firm leaders will remain slaves to their plans. Top performing firms go where the market takes them.
What's important is to balance opportunistic behavior with a healthy commitment to staying with the plan over the long run.
The question firms wrestle with is what part of the plan gets sacrificed in the name of pursuing a great market opportunity?
The answer is different for every firm, but the approach to the question can be the same for all.
As part of the planning process, ask: What are the three things we must do this year to secure our success in the years ahead?
The answer to that tough question will guide your decision making as you evaluate the unplanned market opportunities you're sure to uncover.
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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November was a tough month for stocks--the S+P 500 dipped by almost 5 percent. And the stocks in the MCNews 12 Index followed the broader market index, falling 4.2 percent. The Index fell into negative territory for the year, as ten of the twelve MCNews 12 companies saw shrinking stock prices in November.
Accenture's stock price sunk to its lowest point of the year. EDS stock is languishing, and BearingPoint's stock hit another new low for the year. On the bright side, both Hewitt and Watson Wyatt continue to defy the market's downward pull with year-to-date stock price gains of 36 percent.
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MCNews 12 Index |
YTD
Change |
S+P 500
YTD Change |
| November |
965 |
-3.53% |
1.30% |
| October |
1007 |
.71% |
6.59% |
| Jan to Sept |
979 |
-2.13% |
7.28% |
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.
Learn more about the MCNews 12 Index 
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| Interview:
Patrick Lencioni |
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 "The primary source of job misery and the potential cure for that misery resides in the hands of one individual--the direct manager."
Patrick Lencioni is a consultant, bestselling author, and president of The Table Group, a consulting firm that specializes in executive team development and organizational health.
Lencioni's bestselling books include Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars, Death by Meeting, and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. His most recent book is The Three Signs of a Miserable Job.
We asked Lencioni why 77 percent of people say they hate their jobs and what we can do about the $350 billion that's costing organizations in lost productivity.
Read
our interview with Patrick Lencioni
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| The
Writing on the Wall, by Alan Weiss |
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 Let's Be Honest with Ourselves
One of the pivotal, early moments in my mentoring (or even qualifying someone for mentoring) is when I ask, "How much did you make last year?" That is a simple question, not unlike "How tall are you?" (It's not like I'm asking, "What do you weigh?")
It's very easy to answer and you don't have to give me the decimals. But if you don't know the answer to that question you're either not really running a business or you're kidding yourself.
Read
the article
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| My Client Is a Jerk |
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Three Keys to Transforming Relationships Gone Wrong
by Charles H. Green
 Have you ever had a difficult client? I don't mean the client from hell; I just mean garden variety difficult. These clients come in lots of different flavors.
Fortunately, there is a common thread to most all difficult client situations, which, if we understand it, can help us succeed.
Read
the article
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| Reality Bytes |
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How Women Buy?
Do women behave differently than men when buying professional services? Yes, according to executives at Deloitte, the global professional services firm.
Since women now occupy almost half of all managerial and professional positions in the US, Deloitte believed that understanding any differences between the buying behaviors of men and women could help its own professionals be more successful.
Among the findings of Deloitte's research: Women buyers want to know and trust their consultants personally--not just professionally; they generally prefer business lunches to dinners; and they often want to meet all of the people who will work on a consulting assignment, not just the leadership team.
Deloitte's findings have drawn skeptics but, given that more than 40 percent of purchasing managers are women, the question is worth asking.
CFOs Are Restless
CFOs are jumping ship in record numbers. According to a study by Liberium Research, in 2006, more than 2,300 CFOs of public, North American companies bailed out. That's a 23 percent rise from 2005.
The churn at the top is accompanied by a drop in average CFO tenure to roughly 30 months, which is a 50 percent decline from five years ago.
Consultants who can help their clients ease the CFO transition process, whether the CFO is leaving or just starting, will likely find a receptive audience. And keep close tabs on your CFO relationships. Your former client may be facing new challenges in a new position.
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| Coming
Attractions |
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 "The necessary outcome of strategic planning is not analytical insight but resolve."
David Maister is widely acknowledged as the world's leading authority on the management of professional service firms. His first book on the professions, Managing the Professional Service Firm, was published in 1993 and became a standard for all professional practice managers.
His books also include True Professionalism, The Trusted Advisor, Practice What You Preach, and First Among Equals.
In his latest book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker (due out January 2, 2008), Maister says that knowing what to do to succeed as a professional may be simple. But knowing how to go about doing it stymies many individuals and firm leaders.
Join us next month when we ask Maister how to close the gap between knowing and doing.
Look for the next issue of Management Consulting News as we welcome in the New Year on January 1, 2008.
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