Posted on April 16, 2007
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This is an excerpt from Consulting Magazine. It talks about the generation gap that exists with the new crop of campus recruits (specific to consulting). The magazine points out that these recruits are starkly different from their predecessors. It calls on the leaders who want to attract and motivate new talent need to correctly identify the differences. And the differences are:
| Old Age |
New Generation |
| We get 98% of our hires from 3 B-Schools |
20% of our workforce is in semi-retirement |
| I get 3 weeks vacation - but I never take it! |
I want to work for 12 months - and then take a 3-month sabbatical. |
| I hope to be doing this in 10 years as a partner. |
How will this prepare me for a career in industry? |
| What a great offer! Let me talk it over with my wife. |
Your offer is at least intriguing. But I'll have to talk it over with my tribe. |
| If you don't come in on Saturday, don't even bother coming in on Sunday. |
Sure, you can work from home. |
Julie Howard, president & COO of Navigant Consulting, says
They view that they have greater opportunities and perhaps greater social responsibilities in this world than we did coming out of college. And, therefore, you know, they should be thinking about giving back to communities. They may think about trying a bunch of different types of work opportunities. They may think about going back to school in ways that we never thought about it. So we are facing a different generation that views how they work, where they work, how long they work, and those opportunities that this world affords them differently. And that’s okay. But then this behooves all professional service companies to rethink their strategies.
Howard goes on to suggest a rethinking of business model and recruiting strategies. I think it is bigger than just a model change. When there is a mix of old age consultants and the new cadets, there will be noticeable clash of habits and personalities. Habits mould the culture of an organization. Problems arise when the world changes (like new expectation of new age consultants) but the old habits stay. People need to change with the times, provide new set of responses that hold more promise to the future.
Technorati Tags: Consulting, consultants, Opportunities, Culture
Posted on March 20, 2007
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An excerpt from Guerrilla Consulting.
Five telltale signs that you might want to fire a client:
- You’ve stopped growing professionally from the client’s projects.
- The client has disengaged from your project, leaving decisions to others.
- It’s tough to get a meeting with your key client sponsor.
- Your project profit margin is eroding.
- The client nit-picks your invoices or payments are consistently late.
I might as well add some more.
- Make a conscious effort to replenish the client base, by dropping those below the 20th percentile
- When your exit strategies are no longer working.
- If you cannot get renewals without burning additional cash.
Technorati Tags: Consulting, Marketing, Client Relationships, Engagement
Posted on April 12, 2006
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PR firm Edelman, has come out with their 2006 Annual Trust Barometer report. Excellent read, whether you are a consultant or not. Some of the salient points:
- Professional services ranked in the top five in terms of trust in the US, Europe, and Canada.
- Most trusted sectors - retail and technology. Energy is being hammered in most parts of the world.
- Trust in US government agencies - downhill, at 38%.
- Why is trust important - study finds that people refused to buy products/services from companies that they don’t trust. Worse, they spread the word.
- Steps to build trust - Attentiveness to customer needs, quality products and strong financial performance (i guess that is more for stockholders)
- Unfortunately in the US, employee or CEO blogs don’t contribute much to the trust. Must be the lack of transparency in the medium.
All said, this is an excellent read for consultants. I wrote about Authentic consultants here , and on Trust eroders here. This article just reinforces the value of trust worthiness of consultants.
PS. The Pharma sector ranks 9 out of 11 (lower the better). This is not so great for me, as I am currently on a pharma engagement. Unfortunately there is nothing a professional services consultant can do, to build trust in sectors pertaining to his/her expertise. Pharma’s need to step it up, by communicating not just the benefits of a drug but also the possible side effects (remember Vioxx ). More transparency please.
Technorati Tags: consultants, consulting, trust, edelman, professional services, pharma, authentic consultants
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