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| Interesting...but Useless
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The direct mail piece sitting in my mailbox offered me a free 'Lawn Analysis.' All I had to do was call the toll-free number for this well-known garden supply company, and ask for the service.
Too bad I don't have a lawn.
That marketer wasted money trying to educate me on a problem I don't have. And according to a recent study of 1,000 managers in the US and the UK, there's lots of other useless information jamming the circuits in our clients' businesses.
In fact, more than 50 percent of managers say most of the business information they receive has no value. If you've followed our recent articles by Fiona Czerniawska on the subject of thought leadership, you'll know that consultants are busy cranking out the articles, books, presentations, special reports, and white papers. The logic is that market visibility follows when you provide valuable information.
But many clients would suggest that one consultant's perception of value is like someone else's free lawn analysis. So, before you print that report or send that article, ask yourself about the relevance, currency, and value of your content. What will a client actually do with the information? Don't publish or send anything until you can answer those questions
Enjoy
the issue.
And send me an email if you have comments.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor
Management Consulting News is a publication of
MindShare
Consulting, LLC.
P.S. Don't miss the next session in our Path to Profit webcast series on February 26, 2007. This month's topic is innovative strategies for your web site. Using the results of our study of more than 700 consultant's web sites, we offer you a practical framework for getting more from your web site investment.
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| Interview:
John Kotter |
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  The people at the top may think there's plenty sense of urgency, yet if you dig down into the organization, you discover it's not nearly what it needs to be to sustain change through the whole process. 
This month, we're joined by Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter, who is widely regarded as the world's foremost authority on leadership and change.
Kotter's international bestseller Leading Change, which outlined an actionable, eight-step process for implementing successful transformations, became the change bible for managers around the world.
His latest book, Our Iceberg Is Melting, illustrates the eight-step change process within an allegory, making it accessible to the broad range of people needed to effect major organizational transformations.
We asked Kotter about his views on how organizational change is changing, and what consultants should know to keep pace.
Read
our interview with John Kotter 
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| The
Writing on the Wall, by Alan Weiss |
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 The Stratification of Consulting
I was trying to coach someone the other day who was creating a proposal for a prospect. She was using a professional proposal format, was writing well, and had asked the buyer good questions. So far, so good, right?
Well, as they say, not exactly.
Read
the article
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| Do Strategy Firms Still Lead the Thinking?
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 by Fiona Czerniawska
The intellectual high ground of management consulting, or 'thought leadership,' has traditionally been held by the strategy firms. But is this still the case in today's highly fragmented and dynamic consulting market, where the competition for white space is fierce?
Read
the article
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| Reality Bytes |
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Will Anyone Read Your Press Release?
If you've just mailed out carefully prepared, printed press releases about your business, think about this: According to a study published by Speaker Magazine, only 2 percent of the recipients will take the time to read it. Send that same press release by e-mail, and the open rate could get as high as 50 percent.
And if you use press release wire services, like Business Wire and PR Newswire, expect journalists to be watching. More than 75 percent of journalists surveyed scan these news sources for ideas.
Eight Firms Crack Fortune's List of '100 Best Companies to Work for'
Professional service firms grabbed 8 percent of the top spots on Fortune's 2006 list.
Ranking |
Firm |
8 |
Boston Consulting Group |
25 |
Ernst & Young |
32 |
Plante & Moran |
45 |
Bain & Company |
58 |
PriceWaterhouseCoopers |
63 |
Booz Allen Hamilton |
76 |
Deloitte & Touche USA |
97 |
KPMG |
Boston Consulting Group also leads the way by offering its employees the highest average annual salary of any others in the group. With the exception of Deloitte & Touche USA, these same firms made the list in 2005.
Stuck in the Middle?
Ask 1,400 middle managers around the globe to describe their companies and the response you're likely to get: mismanaged.
Managers in the middle feel squeezed. Almost a quarter of them are searching for new jobs, and money is a large part of the motivation for jumping ship. But that's not the only reason. Managers don't feel appropriately recognized for the work they do, and they don't see a career path in their current positions.
When these factors are combined with the stress these workers experience trying to balance their work and personal lives, turnover is inevitable.
This reality is an opportunity for senior executives to engage with mid-level managers on a range of issues about the workplace, compensation, recognition, and professional development. Your clients can take some simple steps today to keep their best managers, or they can stand by and watch as management recruiters help these individuals find new career opportunities.
Source: Accenture
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| Coming
Attractions |
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 'Messy people and organizations behave differently than neat ones-a difference that can provide advantages.' - Eric Abrahamson
If you've ever looked at your desk and thought, 'I have to clean up this mess,' don't miss next month's interview. Our guest, Eric Abrahamson, is a Professor at Columbia Business School and the coauthor of A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder.
He tells us that the costs of being neat and orderly can outweigh the advantages.
Join us next month as we find out from Abrahamson how disorder can actually make people and systems more effective.
Watch for the next issue of Management Consulting News on March 6, 2007.
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