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| Attention |
It's clear that the "attention economy" in the US has run amok when adults hatch a plot to market themselves by making us believe their son was trapped in a runaway weather balloon. The parents of the media-dubbed "Balloon Boy" got the attention they craved, but it may land them in jail.
They're not the only ones willing to sacrifice good sense for notoriety. Scroll through blogs and twitter feeds and you'll find attention seekers there too. They're easy to spot. Usually, they're saying something outrageous just to be in the spotlight.
What I find puzzling, though, are the people (some of them consultants), who seek attention by tearing down others. When responding to a blog or twitter message, it seems that some people feel they can abandon the basic rules of civility they would observe toward anyone they met in person.
And some obviously relish the buzz that Internet fights can generate. It's a shame that so many of these arguments devolve into childish name-calling and other insults. When I see these exchanges, I'm sure the consultants involved have lost touch with three realities of our business.
First, problem solvers are collaborators, not aggressors. Who wants to hire a person who goes on the attack over every disagreement?
Second, every word you put out into the market is there for clients to see. If you throw a hissy fit on your blog because someone didn't like what you said, a client may rightly wonder how you'd react if the issue was truly important.
Third, clients expect consultants to respect them and their teams. If you're willing to unleash a public tirade against a total stranger, what might you do once you land in their office?
When I first started in consulting, a mentor offered a guiding principle about behavior toward others, especially in tense situations: "When you're upset, the most emotionally satisfying response to an argument is usually the worst possible one." This simple point seems more relevant now than ever.
Enjoy this month's issue.
And send me an email if you have comments.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor
Join the Conversation:
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| Beating Feast or Famine Blog |
You've probably heard the phrase "feast or famine"--a cycle that professional services providers would like to avoid.
Most likely, you'd prefer clients to be lined up and waiting for your help. The reality is, though, that most services providers are likely to experience both extremes of the cycle: streaks of challenging, profitable work, followed by stretches of the doldrums, with a shrunken pipeline of new sales opportunities.
As one consultant put it, "One of my biggest challenges is how to juggle the pursuit of new opportunities with my 100 percent commitment to existing clients."
To generate ideas that can help you eliminate the ups and downs from your business, I launched a new blog called Beating Feast or Famine. This blog replaces the Guerrilla Consulting blog, which I began writing in 2004.
So far, I've written on topics such as why idea merchants win in the market, the bankrupt language of sales, and the all-important rule of noise. Visit the blog, have a look and, if you're interested, subscribe to the RSS feed.
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| MCNews 12 Index of Professional Services |
October brought more encouraging news for the US economy, at least at the macro level. In the third quarter, the US economy grew by 3.5 percent--the first real expansion in more than a year. Some of that growth reflected the government's "cash for clunkers" program, which boosted auto sales in the summer.
Still, the high unemployment rate, lack of available credit, and the poor housing market are likely to keep the economic recovery at modest levels, at least in the short term.
Commentators continue to babble about a jobless economy, which sounds like a self-cancelling term to me. If consumer spending drives the lion's share of the US economy, it's tough to imagine a strong recovery when so many people are out of work.
The MCNews 12 Index surged in October, growing by 2.8 percent and finishing at its highest level since August 2008. Some investors are still reeling from past losses, but the Index has returned 24.4 percent for the year. By any measure, that's a strong performance.
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MCNews 12 Index |
YTD
Change |
| October 2009 |
897 |
+24.4% |
| September 2009 |
872 |
+20.3% |
| August 2009 |
862 |
+18.8% |
In earnings news, Wipro, the global IT services firm, reported better than expected earnings. And FISERV, the IT consultancy to the financial services industry, posted healthy third quarter profits. Both firms relied heavily on cost cutting to achieve their numbers, but customer demand has also picked up, leading to top line growth.
In spite of the insider trading scandal involving the now-defunct trading firm, Galleon (see article below about McKinsey & Company), IBM's share price seemed unfazed. IBM Senior Vice President Bob Moffat was among those arrested in the scandal. According to an IBM spokesperson, after being placed on administrative leave, the thirty-year IBM veteran "retired" from the company.
No doubt, Moffat needs the time to fight the charges against him. Through his lawyer, Moffat has asserted his innocence.
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| Interview: Lon Safko |
"The most important thing about social media is to be sincere, authentic, and transparent."
Lon Safko is the coauthor of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success. He and his colleagues wanted to offer a definitive voice on social media, so they spent the better part of a year researching the topic and interviewing experts on all aspects of social media.
We asked Safko why and how consultants should use social media tools to build their practices and serve clients.
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| Podcast: What's Happening in Consultant Hiring |
We've all heard that the market for hiring consultants has slowed to a crawl. Some firms have put a freeze on new hiring and others are laying people off. To get the scoop on what's really happening in the market, I asked Jason Sanders, executive recruiter for senior-level consultants.
Sanders has been placing consultants with world class firms for over fifteen years, so he knows what works. In our conversation, we talked about the state of the consultant hiring market, how consultants can position themselves to make a career change, and how to find a recruiter who can help you.
Upcoming Webinar:
Jason Sanders will host a free, one-hour webinar with Les Moeller, Vice President with Booz & Company. Moeller leads that firm's North American Consumer and Retail Practice, and is the author of The Four Pillars of Profit-Driven Marketing.
This event will be on Friday, November 13, 2009, at 1 PM EST. Sign up at moeller.eventbrite.com.
If you want more information, you can email Jason Sanders at jason@globalconsultingforum.net.
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| What One Thing? Daniel Pink Answers |
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Daniel Pink is an internationally recognized authority on managing change in the workplace. For more than two decades, he has been helping clients with mergers, reorganizations, leadership changes and cultural shifts.
Pink is also the author of a trio of provocative bestsellers on the changing world of work, including A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.
McLaughlin: If you could give someone just one piece of advice about finding career success in today's world, what would it be?
Pink: The best career move is to find what you love to do, what you're great at, and pursue that. I think you will be more valuable in the workforce. If you love accounting and you're great at it, you’re going to be okay.
I worry about the folks who pursue careers because their parents, teachers, or spouses give them outdated advice and they're dutifully marching into careers they don't really care about because they think it's the way to make money. Not only is that bad for their individual self-actualization but I think it's a bad career move, too.
Look for Pink's new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, in December 2009.
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| McKinsey Is Rocked...This Time |
You know the phone lines were burning up on the day the world learned about the arrest of Anil Kumar, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company.
Kumar stands accused of participating in one of the biggest insider trading schemes in decades, one that was allegedly hatched by executives at trading firm, Galleon. Kumar, who is free on $5 million bail, was hauled off to jail with other accused co-conspirators, including Galleon founder, Raj Rajaratnam.
Predictably, McKinsey executives immediately put Kumar on an indefinite leave of absence and went into damage assessment mode. Perception is reality at every consulting firm, so even if the courts exonerate Kumar, he'll always be "that guy who was arrested," and McKinsey will have a blemish on its reputation.
The arrest couldn't have come at a worse time. Not long ago, Huron Consulting Group replaced its entire top management team and restated three years of earnings because of an accounting scandal. That restatement slashed Huron's past profits by almost 50 percent.
And Deloitte, one of the "Big Four" accounting firms, is still pursuing legal remedies against former partner, Thomas Flanagan, for breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. Flanagan, a former vice chairman of the firm, allegedly hid trades in shares of Deloitte's audit clients and lied about that to the firm.
Are these the actions of a few rogue individuals, or is this the tip of the iceberg for services firms? I doubt that the firms in question will make anything other than the "these are isolated events" excuses, but clients may take the opposite view.
Even though the courts have yet to decide the fate of the individuals in these cases, it's easy to understand the outrage when multi-millionaires appear willing to sell their professional independence and their firm's reputation for a few more dollars.
Whatever the outcome of these cases, they make the business of consulting a little harder for all of us.
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| Stop Selling and Win More: Presentation Slides |
Every consultant has a story about the sale that got away. When the market is strong, it's easier to take your lumps, learn a lesson or two, and move on to the next opportunity.
In today's market, though, buyers are savvier, the sales process often stretches out interminably, and the client's option to "do-nothing" is often your biggest competitor. Closing sales has become more challenging than ever before.
I recently conducted a webcast on this topic for a group of consultants and thought I'd also make the slide deck available to anyone else who was interested. Feel free to download the presentation slides.
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| Coming
Attractions |
"Leaders must ensure that their clever people aren't burned out by their obsessions."
Next month, we'll talk with Rob Goffee, Professor of Organizational Behavior at the London Business School. Goffee is the author of Clever: Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People.
Research shows that a handful of top performers create a disproportionate amount of value for their organizations. We'll ask Goffee how leaders should think about working with, retaining, and getting the most value from their stars.
Look for the next issue of Management Consulting News on December 1, 2009.
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