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| Welcome |
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The market for consulting services leapt to $285 billion in 2006, and many clients are rethinking how they engage consultants, according to research by Kennedy Information. Corporate clients are shying away from broadly defined initiatives in favor of more focused projects demanding specialized skills. The upshot: clients are more receptive to hiring smaller, specialized consulting firms.
For consultants from large and small firms, this is yesterday's news.
Most consultants spotted this trend several years ago and redoubled efforts to market and deliver targeted offerings to their clients. In fact, some reorganized their businesses, including their recruiting strategies, to accommodate emerging client preferences. Naturally, such shifts worked better for some than others, but few firms were unaware of this development.
Consider this trend as news in that it serves as a wake-up call to reexamine your marketing and service strategy. Firms that are asleep at the wheel on this market reality will find their marketing expenses exceeding revenue.
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 |
| April |
1,039 |
3.9% |
4.09% |
| March |
1016 |
1.6% |
.98% |
| February |
1043 |
4.3% |
2.04% |
| January |
1000 |
NA |
NA |
The Professional Services industry turned in a solid performance in the early part of this year but, in April, failed to outperform the S+P 500 for the first time. Overall, industry returns are strong, but the market reacted unfavorably to news from two of the large outsourcing fims in the MCNews 12 Index, resulting in a drag on the composite return.
Learn More about the MCNews 12 Index 
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| Interview:
Dan Heath |
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  Given the importance of making ideas stick, it's surprising how little attention is paid to the subject.
Most of us have heard that humans only use ten percent of their brain power. That assertion, though widely accepted, isn't true. But it's one of those ideas that has stuck throughout the years.
This month, Dan Heath, Director at Duke Corporate Education and coauthor of the bestseller, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, explains why some ideas endure and other fizzle out.
For consultants, Heath offers ways to frame any idea to make it more influential--and sticky.
Read
our interview with Dan Heath
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| The
Writing on the Wall, by Alan Weiss |
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 On the Eve of Destruction
I'm intrigued by consultants coming to me for coaching help who have dug a hole for themselves, become aware of their predicament, and consequently resumed digging with even more vigor. "A fanatic," said philosopher George Santayana, "is someone who loses sight of his goal and consequently redoubles his efforts."
Read
the article
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| IT Firms Jostle with Strategy Firms |
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 by Fiona Czerniawska
Who would have thought ten years ago, that the likes of Accenture and IBM would be ranked alongside McKinsey in terms of the quantity and quality of their thought leadership--the intellectual high ground of consulting?
Over the last year, Accenture has succeeded in putting far more space (at least in volume) between itself and its nearest rivals, to a point where it now matches McKinsey's share of the thought leadership market with 9 percent of the total. IBM is in fourth place with 5 percent.
What's happening?
Read
the article
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| Dealing with Unreturned Phone Calls |
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 by Ford Harding
From a recent post on Harding's new blog at www.hardingco.com/blog:
Recently, my contact management software reminded me to call Lois. She is the logical point of contact at a firm where I would like to do business. I have known Lois for five years and her boss for six. Over those years I have made twenty-five calls to one or the other of them, and they have returned exactly five.
The last time I spoke with Lois, she informed me that they were working with a competitor. That was almost three years ago. Since then all efforts to contact Lois and her boss by phone have gone into a void. A few e-mails lobbed in for variety have also received no response.
What should I do? What would you do?
Read
the article
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| Coming
Attractions |
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 "To truly thrive, learn what makes you uncomfortable." - Harry Beckwith
Next month we welcome back Harry Beckwith, author of the modern marketing classics, Selling the Invisible, The Invisible Touch, and What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business.
His latest book is You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself, which he coauthored with spouse, Christine Clifford Beckwith. Based on their thirty years of selling experience, the Beckwiths offer dozens of ideas to help package and position your most important product--you.
Watch for the next issue of Management Consulting News on June 5, 2007.
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