How to Find Your First Consulting

How to Find Your First Consulting

After quite a few years in this business I would say that there are two important sources of contacts for getting that first contract - recruiters and acquaintances. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have said that acquaintances and people you network with would be the primary source, but nowadays I actually think that reputable consulting recruiters are the best bet. This is a personal opinion, however, and this may differ for everyone depending on circumstances. When you are out to get that first contract however, the task may seem daunting, especially if you haven't really networked too much before. Again, most resources I've found out there are really too general to be of much use - telling you to network is fine, but giving specific pointers on where and how is more constructive. My goal is to be more specific. Here are some ideas to help you get on your way%u2026

LET PEOPLE KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE --> this is a general tip - there are many ways of doing this including letting your co-workers and friends know, speaking with employers and family friends, even people you know only slightly but who have worked with you in some capacity in the past. You never know who will be that great lead so spread the word and don't be afraid. Attend a few networking events, for example - such events are in every town I've ever lived in, and they can be found through contacting your local business owners association, chamber of commerce, or doing a search under "business networking" on the Internet (make sure you add your local coordinates like the name of your city or neighbourhood). There are also many workshops for entrepreneurs and small-business owners, as well as consultants that can be found through local small-business organizations, colleges (often under "continuing education") and other businesses in the area. I have no idea why but many of my own networking contacts were made through local real-estate agents - they tend to know everyone.

IF YOU SPECIALIZE, IT BECOMES EASIER TO FIND THE FIRST GIG --> if, as I suggested in the "7 Steps" article, you really focus your full-time work on the area of interest, you will, almost by default, make the networking connections you will need when you're ready to start out on your own.

BLOGS, INTERNET, EMAIL --> the Internet is a beautiful thing - and as a consultant you'd be smart to use it. First of all, I would recommend a personal website - simple websites can be made easily using accessible tools like Apple's iWeb (can you tell I am a Mac devotee?) or any of the multitude of other resources. A personal website can do a couple of things - expose you to potential employers/ recruiters (especially if you are smart and use keywords that index your site at the top of search engines), and legitimate your purpose and your business. Joining online newsgroups and lists that deal with consulting issues in your area is also a good idea, as is emailing people/companies online that peak your interest. Finally, if you are a gmail user, you can set up "google alerts" which send messages to your gmail account based on your keywords of interest e.g. consulting jobs.

UTILIZING ONLINE RECRUITMENT BOARDS --> this is a topic in itself, but a really short introduction will help to get your feet wet. In theory, recruitment boards are an easy way to find a job - you post your resume (either upload it or fill out the particular board's online resume form) and then you wait. Experienced consultants will usually be flooded with calls from recruiters for their particular skills. New consultants, unless they are in a very sought after specialty, tend to be flooded with various phone calls, including marketing ones, that might not really offer good leads. At the same time, the boards allow you more input in where you want to work, how you want to work, and so on, for example, on most you can choose the geographical area you're most interested in. However, the boards are a great place to start, post your resume, and update it as you gain experience - eventually you'll start getting the calls you want!!

Some good board to try are www.hotjobs.com, niche boards (doing a search on your particular specialty will usually do it),www.dice.com (for IT jobs), and www.hotgigs.com. www.jobster.com is also excellent because it will pull jobs for you from several different boards.

RESUME ISSUES --> one of the main issues you might think you have is a lack of "experience" as a consultant - and in many cases it will be an issue. You can, however, adjust your resume to reflect your skills rather than experience - at least until you have a couple of contracts under your belt. In this way you are showing a potential employer what you have to offer - essentially you are selling your knowledge and yes, it will be a bit tougher, but as I keep on repeating - consulting is not for the faint of heart. You just keep on trying.

What Type of Consultant Can I Be?

What Type of Consultant Can I Be?

Aha! So you've decided to get out of the rat race, good for you!! Now what?

As I mentioned before in my "7 Steps" article, you do have to decide what you want to be when you grow up before you decide to become a consultant. In theory and sometimes practice, you can be a consultant in ANY discipline, as long as you are an expert whose skills can be utilized to better manage a business, a home, or a life. Essentially, your job is to provide constructive advice, but quite often in the real world, you end up doing a lot of things that a consultant's job description doesn't overtly include! For example, a consultant often becomes a mediator/negotiator between two parties who don't agree, such as in a feasibility study, which is a fancy way of saying "let's see if this product/service fits our budget and company."

I really hate some of the generic labels attached to consulting - what in the world is a business process consultant? Whatever you want him/her to be, trust me! EVERY consultant will essentially be a "business process" consultant. So when you're deciding what you want to do, stay away from adopting generic HR labels created to make job postings sound more impressive, in my opinion, and which do not always describe what it is that you will actually be DOING!

First, narrow down your field (but not too much). "Huh?" you say. Well, you do want to be an expert at something, but with the reality of our job market you also want to keep your options open enough to be able to re-train if need be. You can be a consultant in any field, but some popular fields are

* IT (Information Technology, which includes both technical (software engineering) and functional (process and implementation) specialists)
* Marketing Consultant - which is a broad field that essentially helps develop new and improved marketing strategies.
* Human Resources Consultant - includes all aspects of HR including benefits, payroll, recruitment, retention, sometimes labor relations are included here.
* Design Consultant - big big field - any design, any kind of knowledge, may include architects, graphic designers, furniture or jewelry designers, or fine arts/engineering majors with good business skills. Take your pick.
* Management Consultant - again, this is one of those generic terms. If you take a dictionary, a management consultant is defined as "adviser to business about efficient management practices" (www.dictionary.com). This is also an important category if you are a Canadian applying for a TN visa to work in the US, and also one of the most difficult to obtain specifically because it's so diffuse.
* Project Manager - a leg up on the management consultant, a good project manager is usually very hard to find. Project Managers (see my article on 7 Steps) can work in any field, and they are usually the person who does just that - organizes a large project. This means PMs are usually the "blame it on" person, but many derive great satisfaction from being able to multi-task and address many issues at once.
* Communication Consultant - believe it or not, there is actually an Association of Professional Communication Consultants (http://www.consultingsuccess.org/), and they are probably the best resource on what they actually do. The consultants I am aware of, work in a variety of fields that have to do with writing, journalism, publishing, and web-oriented media.
* Alternative Technologies/Environmental Consultants - a very fast growing field of those of us interested in a greener world%u2026or at least A world in the future. This may include experts in alternative energy/fuel sources, green building design, etc.
* Manufacturing Consultant - again, a very general grouping for a very large field - this might include any number of technologists, engineers, industrial designers, etc. who have a set of skills necessary in a business venture.

Some real world examples:

An IT or HR consultant can specialize in a particular type of software, an example would be PeopleSoft or SAP, which both are utilized in HR to deal with payroll, benefits, recruitment, and other HR specialties. A marketing consultant can often be someone who is not necessarily a marketing specialist but rather someone with niche knowledge. What does that mean? Well let's say you are a teenage behaviour specialist (a psychologist or sociologist) and you can offer a company behavioural research data that will help them streamline their marketing process. You're probably going to get hired if you can convince them that your knowledge has some value to both the company and the consumer.

Second, narrow it down further until you identify the skill set you want to address. For example, think about your past employment, volunteer work or any other organizational involvement - were there processes that didn't work? Did you have constructive, specific ideas on improving them? Were that this specific you ever asked or told by an employer issue could use expert involvement? Read blogs, newspaper articles in business papers and magazines, trade publications, and talk to people around you who are involved in a discipline you're interested in. Check out government publications on fast growing areas (many abound), and decide on what you want to be doing in 10 years. Most of all, don't choose something you don't like or have no idea how to do - some people are really good at pretending they're experts, but that will last only until you come across a real expert, and you don't want to take that hit to your reputation.

Third, scan employment websites, newspaper ads to see what the consulting positions you are interested in pays, and what kind of fields your skills seem most utilized. Don't be afraid of alternative fields - 10 years ago no one cared about alternative energy sources and now those environmental type jobs are booming.

The bottom line is this - you could probably be a "Sewing Machine Utilization Consultant" if you really wanted to, and could sell yourself and what you can do for someone well. The point is you need to do some research, see what the companies out there look for, and make sure htat you have a SPECIFIC skill to offer. Wishy washy "I am a consultant" statements mean nothing and tell the person you want to hire you nothing about what you can DO for the company. The bottom line is almost always monetary, and so be prepared to explain how your particular brand of consultancy can benefit them aka. make them more money, or make the money-making process more streamlined or save them lots of money - you get the point. Also remember that a wedding planner is, essentially, a consultant as well, so learn to think and define yourself outside the box.

How to Get Clients to Implement Your Recommendations

 Most new consultants are obsessed with creating good power
point presentations. While there is much emphasis placed
on this skill, there is another one that is ultimately more
important -- especially in the long run.

It is the skill of getting clients to implement what you recommend.

Someone recently asked me how I created my LOMS program
and why I did it the way I did.

It turns out there was a specific reason and it has to do with my
on-going fascination on how to get humans being to change their
behavior.

The explanation that follows is excerpted from my answer
to this question. It also reveals a lot about how people (your future
clients) do or do not change their behaviors.

I suggest reading the following excerpt with this perspective in mind.

That charity has trained over 1 million children globally on
personal space assertiveness training (for young kids) and
self-defense training (for older kids, seniors and the
disabled).

What I found incredibly remarkable about kidpower was the
incredible retention rate of what they teach their students.

For example, she was explaining to me how one of their very
first students was a 13-year-old girl who they taught in a
three-hour one-time class how to defend yourself when being
attacked by a male attacker.

Fifteen years later with no additional training, this girl
(now a 28-year-old woman) was taking a walk with her
boyfriend.

The boyfriend had recently fired an employee at work, and in
the middle of this walk, the disgruntled employee comes
charging at the couple with a baseball bat -- with the
intention of bashing the boyfriend's head in.

The boyfriend is of course stunned and paralyzed by the
shock of the unexpected attack.

So the woman, without even thinking about, takes down the
attacker in a single move, disarms him, and incapacitates
him, all in the span of about three seconds.

Keep in mind, the only training this 28-year-old woman has
had was a one-time, three-hour class fifteen years ago!

Do you want to know the secret to this incredible retention
rate?

Well I did too... so I took a version of that class for very
young children (where the focus is not on self defense, but
rather protecting your own personal space... which if a young
child can do -- without even realizing why they are doing it
-- will ward off about 95% of the violence committed against
young children).

And once I took the class, in about fifteen minutes, I
discovered kidpower's incredible secret of skill retention
under real world conditions.

First, they told us what to do.

Second, they showed us via demonstration how to do it.

Third, they made us do it six times!

Every phrase. Every hand gesture. Every change in body
language.

Literally every specific thing we were supposed to do, they
made us practice it in real-life role playing.

So even though I am a business adviser to kidpower (they are
a pro bono client), I rely on Irene to be my teaching
adviser, particularly in the area of skill retention (which
I have come to realize is quite different from knowledge
retention).

So her advice to me is you need to get your students to
actually "do" the skill, not just take notes on how to do it.

So linking this back to case interviews, let me explain the
role of my various case interview training suggestions, and
how it maps back to what kidpower does.

My Case Interview Secrets videos explain what to do in a
case.

Going through Look Over My Shoulder the first time shows you
via demonstration how to do it.

Practicing with a live case partner or going through LOMS
multiple times while practicing out loud every step of every
case is my version of making you actually do what I told you
and showed you how to do.

Because doing well in a case interview is a verbal skill as
much as it is a thinking skill, it is important that your
case interview prep has a verbal component.

It is for this exact same reason I strongly discourage LOMS
members from passively listening to the cases in it, and
instead encourage people to use a stop and go approach...
hitting the "pause" button on the recording and
askingyourself, "Did this candidate do it right or not?"

If not, "What would I have done differently?" ... and then
(very important) actually say out loud what you would have
done instead, as if you were the candidate.

This is learning by actively "doing," rather than passively
listening.

If you have access to a practice partner, it is quite useful
to practice these skills -- once you've learned what to do in
Case Interview Secrets, and have seen how it is supposed to
be done via demonstration in LOMS.

But, some people simply do not have any access to - or only
very limited access to - practice partners.

In those cases, going through LOMS multiple times using a
sort of "re-enactment" approach is an effective alternative,
as demonstrated by the person who sent in today's email.

I still think best practice is a 50/50 split between LOMS
and live practice, up until about 20 live practice cases,
and then focusing only on live practice after that.  But if
the live practice is just not an option given your
circumstances, then LOMS alone is a good second best choice.
I have elaborated on this thought process behind my
recommendations for several reasons.

1) If I tell you what to do, but do not explain why... you
won't do it. But if I do explain why, you are much more
likely to do it.

2) Once you start working in consulting, do not forget this
rule -- if you want clients to buy in, don't just make
recommendations... explain why you recommend what you
recommend.

If the reason just makes an incredible amount of sense, it
substantially increases your odds that the recommendation
will be accepted.

3) When you do strategy work, one of the most common
engagements after a strategy project is implementation --
getting your clients to actually do what you previously
recommended.

If you expect them to execute your strategic recommendations
just because you recommended them... well guess what, you will
be in for a rude surprise, because many will not do it.

If you want them to make this change in their operations,
you have to show them how to do it... and if you need specific
employees like sales people, research engineers, etc.. to
change their behaviors, you need to create a way for them to
practice these new skills (required to implement your
strategic recommendations) without fear of failure and
embarrassment.

It is far easier for a front line employee to ignore your
recommendation (or shoot it down, or explain why it won't
work, or argue as to why it is a bad idea) than it is for
them to do something that is out of their comfort zone.

So if you encounter a client that is resisting change, keep
in mind the source of this resistance often is not an
objection to the logic behind your recommendation, but is
rather due to the factors I've just outlined.

I am actually in the middle of a strategic planning session
with a client quite ironically in the moving industry
(ironic because one of the cases in LOMS is in the moving
industry and after weeks of analysis, this real life client
is virtually exactly like the case in LOMS... even though this
client found me after LOMS came out).

And one of the requests from the CEO was to have me
demonstrate an alternative sales approach to key members of
the sales team tomorrow morning.

So don't say, "We need to have the sales team execute
differently," show us (or rather show them) how it is done...
so they can visualize how they could do it. So I will be
doing exactly that.

Now one of the dirty little secrets at MBB is that the
percentage of clients that implement recommendations from
MBB is nowhere close to 100%.

I do not know the actual number, but a surprisingly high %
of clients either do not implement at all or implement so
slowly that it takes years to do so... and the lack of results
in those years leads detractors to point out that the
strategy clearly does not work.

You can minimize some of this tendency by keeping the points
I mentioned above in mind.  Don't just make a
recommendation, help the client visualize what the
recommendation in practice would look like.

It is stuff like this that separates consultants that create
good slides vs. consultants that make client businesses
better.

I recommend being the latter.

Authority, Power, and Influence as a Consultant

In all corporate environments, you need to pay attention to
who and what has power.

This is a human dynamic that is rarely discussed out loud
but is always present in any corporate environment. As a
new consultant, it is something you MUST pay attention to.

Let me give you some examples.

Authority = Who is officially in charge.

Your senior client is the person with the authority.

Authority is one of many types of power.

Another type of power is influence.

Influence comes from who you have access to, and of course
whose opinion you can alter.

As a consultant, your "power" when working with front line
employee-type clients comes from your access to senior
management, your influence (or perception of influence) over
senior management, and your ability to request senior
management to exercise their authority to help you
accomplish a goal.

Your power with senior management comes from having access
in this case to facts and analysis that the senior clients
do not have access (or easy access) to.

Your power also comes from your perspective as an outsider.

Do not underestimate this.

Many senior clients very much value a fresh set of eyes on
their situation.

Often many months after working together, they might ask you
to recall what your first impressions of their business,
markets, or company was many months prior.

Be sure your remember those first impressions!

Those impressions are usually made in the first month or so
of working with a client.

However, the client often doesn't know you or your team well
enough to ask for those impressions until several months
later.

So be sure to make a mental note of these impressions.

In addition, these impressions can often help determine your
team's initial hypothesis about the client's situation.

You might be wondering what kind of insights you could
possibly bring to the table on a first impression basis...
especially if you are younger or don't have an MBA. 

You might be surprised!

(By the way, if you have this attitude, I suggest you lose
it. An MBA is not the end all and be all about business. It
is simply one of many ways to learn about it.  An MBA is
useful, but it also has its limitations and liabilities -
which I will elaborate on at some point in the future.)

By far the easiest (and equally useful) observation you can
make is that of noticing inconsistency.

There are many different types of inconsistency to look out
for. Here's a partial list:

1) The company says it is focusing on X, but in reality it
does not.

The client says they are focusing on growing their XYZ
product line, but in reality, there are no sales people
dedicated to selling it (or perhaps they are supposed to
promote it, but in practice they do not).

In addition, there is only one person in marketing who
tries to market it, and there are no dedicated R&D efforts
to improve the products in this area.

This is inconsistent.

Now you might think this hypothetical example is too extreme
to be possible, but it happens more often than you might think.

There is enormous value in you noticing it and pointing it
out to a senior client (and the best way to do that is to
state the observation in the form of a question).

"Jane, I couldn't help but notice a disconnect (by the way,
McKinsey people love that word) between your stated focus
and how your resources are allocated.

Is there a particular reason the resources are allocated
this way that I haven't been able to notice?"

Notice how you are essentially saying to the client, "Hey, I
think you screwed up," but you are phrasing it in such a way
that asks the client if YOU made a mistake.

There are many ways to delicately phrase a remark about
this situation. The key rule of thumb is to make the point
without emphasizing blame or judgment.

This is just one subtle way to bring up the point without
it being conveyed as a criticism, attack or judgement.

By the way, in my example above, I probably would not use
the word "disconnect" with the client initially in this
context.

Once I have a well established relationship, I would tend to
use much more direct language with a client.

Well established = the client knows you are looking out for
him/her... so the client perceives any comment you make as one
designed to protect him or her.

In contrast, earlier in a relationship, a client is not sure
if your comment is one passing judgement (an attempt to
usurp the client's authority position) or one designed to be
helpful.

Incidentally, this is why consulting is a relationship
business. When you have a long-term relationship with a
client, you can get away with saying very direct and blunt
things and have it be taken favorably.

In comparison, an equally skilled consultant from a
different firm could say the exact same thing and have it be
taken negatively by the client.

Now let me circle back to my original topic of noticing
inconsistencies. Here's another one:

2) The company thinks it is doing X in the marketplace, but
customers disagree.

So maybe the company thinks they offer the fastest service
in the industry. Maybe customer's barely notice... sure it's
5% faster, but that's such a small difference that no
customer actually cares. Yet the client believes they do.

Again, it seems like such a major disconnect (there's that
word again) that it couldn't possibly happen in a big
company.  Yet it does.

Here's why.

The customers used to appreciate the speed difference, but
over time, competitors have closed the gap such that the
client still leads the industry -- but not by much.

And the senior clients didn't notice this shift in the
marketplace.

It's the same reason why on any given day I do not notice my
daughters changing that much.  From Monday to Tuesday, they
look the same, act the same, and pretty much seem the same
to me.

But when my parents visit every few months, they always say,
"Oh my, look how much she's grown... wow."

My reaction is always, "Huh, what are you talking about?"

The pace of change in a 24-hour period is too small to
notice. But when you put 365 of those 24-hour periods in a
row, or 2 - 3 years' worth, it is not surprising some of the
changes do not get noticed initially (that is, until you
point it out!)

Here's another little secret.

In many big companies, the senior executives don't actually
spend a lot of time talking to customers.  There might be 7
layers of employees between the executive and customers.

Many executives rely (I would argue over-rely) on getting
reports, market research studies, and yes, even presentations
from consultants.

Personally, I think this is a mistake on their part, but it
is what it is... and it creates an opportunity for you.

One of the things I used to do a lot is interview a bunch of
my client's customers, interview all the front line
employees about what their customers are saying and what the
company should be doing about it... and then synthesize it and
present it to the senior client.

This is where all those criticisms of the consulting
industry come from.

The front line employees can't believe their employer just
paid $2 million to tell their bosses something they've known
for years.

The reaction is, "Geez, just give us the money instead,
we've been telling you for years!"

Yet, despite this criticism, there actually is value in
doing this.

Where does the value come from? And why does it exist?

Often the senior client doesn't trust the information being
passed up from the front lines.

The senior client can't tell if the people lower down in the
organization are exaggerating, trying to cover up their
mistakes, heavily biased, or trying to promote a particular
agenda. In short, the client is not sure his or her front
line staff is objective and can put front line feedback into
a big picture context.

Other times, the information is presented in the form of
lots and lots of opinions with no structure, no quantification,
and no recommendation about what to do about it.

So perhaps they heard the comments before, but they had no
idea if 1) it was true, 2) if it's actually significant, or
3) what do do about it.

(Now you know why interviewers tested you on problem-solving
structure so much during the case interview... it's because
clients (especially the more junior ones) are terrible at
it, and senior clients have difficulty getting good
information from their staff.)

So taking a bunch of unstructured opinions from the front
lines, re-organizing it in an issue tree format and
illustrating how the client's only course of action left is
to improve customer service (because no other option makes
sense or the economics don't work) does add value.

It adds value because by process of elimination (sound
familiar?), you've led a client to the only possible logical
conclusion (still sounds familiar doesn't it?)... such that
they now have the confidence and conviction to take action...
whereas before they just heard a lot of opinions.

This is also why I have continually emphasized the synthesis
approach to presenting recommendations at the end of a case
interview.

I did so because that is exactly how you want to communicate
with clients... tell them what to do first when opening a
conversation (or tell them what is important) and then tell
them why (and always, always in that order).

Hopefully I have impressed upon you how something as simple
as noticing inconsistencies in a client's organization,
operations, or strategy can provide enormous value.

Also notice how noticing inconsistencies doesn't actually
require much industry knowledge or even business expertise.

This is also one of the reasons why I can meet a CEO for the
first time, spend less than an hour with him or her, and
have the prospective client just be amazed at how fast I am
able to notice certain things about the business (things that
took them three years to conclude, I'm able to do in 35
minutes).

In reality, all I'm doing is just extremely fast pattern-
matching of the client's situation with situations I'm
familiar with. And one of the patterns I am always searching
for is inconsistency.  It is something you should be looking
out for too.

The key takeaways for today is to not only notice these
inconsistencies, but to also realize the enormous value you
can provide by communicating these inconsistencies to your
clients.

Tips for Keeping Your Products

You have the next great innovation of the 21^st century to unseat Google. Problem is, you don’t have all the cash reserves Google does. Hmm, what to do? Here are some tips for launching what the lean evangelists of the world refer to as a Minimum Viable Product, or “MVP”.

Homework

1. Define yourself: Not a 20-page business plan. Who is going to read that? Will it even apply two weeks into development? Debatable. Instead, define your business in the existing landscape. Are you disrupting the industry with a new and better approach? (Hint: you should be.) Who exactly can benefit from your solution? If it’s a new product or service, make sure there is demand. A great product that no one wants is a waste of your time and money. Mixergy just offered a compelling piece on this very topic.
2. Existing solutions: Everyone thinks they’re inventing something that doesn’t exist. Possible, but not likely. Do some analysis. See what’s out there, even if remotely in the same vein. Sign up for their services. Learn what works and what doesn’t. The more you can bring to the table, the less time you’ll spend refining during design and development, which will be more costly at that stage to rethink.
3. Research existing tech: Chances are, whatever your idea is, there are pieces of supporting software floating around the interwebs that you can leverage and integrate, at least for now (a fully custom re-arch in 2 years is another story, but you’re not there yet). And some of them are likely to be open source, aka free! This research will, hopefully, give the digital vendor you partner with, a running start.

Budgeting and Vendor Selection

4. Use your cash: Your bank account is not likely to be bottomless. If it is, stop reading this, go buy a surfboard and relax. For the rest of us, the first piece of the puzzle is determining what you can afford. Angels and VCs should not be a consideration at this stage, nor should substantial bank loans. Budget for what you (and your partners) have at your disposal.
5. Selecting the right digital partner – step 1: Find an agency that specializes in working with startups (they exist). Ask them about their typical project costs. If their average client’s budget is 10 times yours, they’re probably not the right size agency for you.
6. Selecting the right digital partner – step 2: Make sure agency you select is accustomed to helping clients vet out the technology vision to support their business plans without charging you consulting fees for planning and exploration. Most firms will blindly offer a ballpark estimate. The gems will spend time analyzing your needs, helping you craft the solution that fits and then offering a proposal.

Perfect Schmerfect

7. Start simple: The lure of scope creep is tough to escape. It’s like when you go car shopping. You start out modest, looking at the base model Toyota Carolla. One week later you’re in the Audi dealership trying to figure out if their fully-loaded A8 will do the job. Included features that are absolutely core to your offering and focus on launching only those. An alpha, beta, v1.0, whatever, should be “just enough”. But whatever you do launch, make sure it’s complete. You want 3 features that work, not 10 features that are half-assed.
8. Soft launch: Do not make the mistake of shouting to the world about your newly minted product with press releases and Facebook fan page announcements. It’s in beta because it’s not ready for hundreds or thousands to begin using it. Hold off on the article in TechCrunch until you can handle that spotlight. Once your audience gives you a thumbs down it will be difficult to recover. Tip-toe for now. Form a line and make people sign up for an invite, which may even help to build the sense of anticipation.
9. Listening & trying: If you followed tip #8, you told only a select few about your product. Hopefully you were humble enough to give this version away for free and ask for feedback, in exchange. This is the hard part. You have to listen to the commentary with one, good ear. Steve Jobs listened with neither, but you’re not Steve Jobs, right? You built your product with a vision and certain demographic in mind. Stay true to this. Make it irreplaceable for that group. Don’t try to cater to everyone or no one will love it. Then once you have an idea of changes you need to make, test out variations and see which works better and run with it.
10. Just ship already: The theme here is to disregard your fears about being perfect. The most successful innovators are exceptional about putting their ego aside and having the balls to ship something to market. They listen and tweak and change course until they find their sweet spot. If you wait until it’s “perfect” it’ll either never happen or someone else will beat you to it.

It’s All Your Fault! So Start Working Harder

I don’t know why so many people blame others for their failures or mishaps in their lives… Maybe it’s their ego, maybe in society failure is seen as weakness, maybe people will make fun of them…Or maybe it’s just easier to blame others for their problems? “It’s not that I’m doing anything wrong, he’s preventing me, or he’s the reason for so and so” I’m not sure why that is though…I don’t understand it. I find it SO easy, after letting go of my ego, to say “I failed because I did this, or didn’t do this.” And the process of learning from it is instantaneous.
I recently started getting into day game, which in the shortest way to describe it, is pick up. But there’s more to it than just meeting hot girls. Day game is about how to “pick up” some one you like whether you’re at the supermarket, the mall, or on the street. (among other places). Who doesn’t want to be able to strike up a conversation with someone they see and like?  In my two month start of this, I’ve drawn an incredible number of parallels between what may seem like completely opposite things. Now, before you turn away and wonder why the heck I’m talking about pick-up on an Entrepreneur website, hear me out!
“She won’t like me because I’m ugly”, ”I’m not ripped like the Jersey Shore guys” , “She’s out of my league”..
“I’m not apart of the Startup cliques, they’re a close circle of friends”, “I don’t have any connections”, “I can’t compete against Company X”, “My product is great, people are just dumb and don’t like it.”
There are plenty of parallels in the excuses people come up with. Most of which they think they have no control over. But here’s the thing, they’re wrong. The only thing preventing a startup from going out there, from competing, or from getting the super hot girl, is the guy or girl in charge not going out there, not making moves and not listening to customer feedback. Now, you may be wondering, well if you’re born Ugly, you really can’t do anything about that… But what gets the attention of woman is confidence. That doesn’t mean you should go out looking like a slob. If 90% of the equation in getting the girl is confidence, knowing how to lead a conversation, knowing how to build attraction, and  most importantly, going out there and approaching, then the 10% of Ugly means NOTHING. But then you must admit something to yourself. If you don’t get girls, which is seen as being manly, you’re half a man…And if you can’t succeed in business, you can’t provide for your family, and that means you’re half a man…So what, not everyone is born the most successful entrepreneur, or the best with woman…So youre half a man… Work on it and become a full man! But look, there’s no reason you should fail. While many failures bring you closer to success in starting companies, that doesn’t mean you will eventually become the next Steve Jobs, but you’ll definitely get luckier, the harder you work. It’s a numbers game. The more approaches, the more rejections, the more you reflect on what YOU did wrong in the previous hundred conversations and learn from them, the closer you are to getting a date.

If you:

If you approach a girl, and you forget about things to say, you could fail.
If you start a company, and aren’t good at writing emails, you could fail.
If you approach a girl and only talk about yourself, you could fail.
If you build a startup and only talk about the produce but don’t listen to feedback, you could fail.
If you approach a girl, and have a great conversation, but then she flakes for a date, you did fail.
If you startup a company, and launch it, get good press, but no one buys your product, you fail.
If you approach 1000000 girls, and you get 1 date, you win.
If you startup 1000000 companies that fail, and get the 1 success, you win…And then everyone can tell you how lucky you are. (Mark Cuban)
And now, think of this… When a guy gets with a girl, they call it “Getting lucky.” Which is odd, because it wasn’t luck. He tried with 10000 girls before, and finally developed the right skills, with the right girl, and won. Or maybe he is naturally good with woman. No one in the startup community thinks it’s luck that they start a great company. Sure there’s a little bit of luck in that equation, in the same way that it’s luck that the girl will like you, because most might not. I know I’ve been on the side that says other guys are lucky because they are gorgeous, and I may be average looking. But when I look at my business and see the success I have had, people tell me I’m lucky. I’m not lucky, I worked hard to get where I am.
So that brings me to my original idea for this post…I realized, the reason I may not be getting girls, isn’t because I am “needy” or don’t like going to clubs, it’s because I haven’t put in the work to get the girl, to figure out how to build attraction, and how to get over approach anxiety. I said to myself “The only reason is because I have not worked hard enough at it… And if I work hard enough at it, I can succeed.” And you know what, I had been putting in the time (temporarily stopped to focus on my last stretch of game development) and I had been making progress. The minute you realize the reason you fail is no fault other than yours, and truly look in at yourself and say ‘I need to take responsibility for every single thing’ you will not only feel great, but you’ll be on the road to success. Just like in business, no one will like your startup if you don’t have the confidence in yourself. How can you pitch and convey confidence and energy if you aren’t happy? You need to love your idea and yourself, before anyone else does, in the same way a girl won’t like you unless you like yourself first. You need to get your validation from within.
When you go to networking events, maybe you’re afraid to say hi and introduce yourself. Well, I think if you introduce yourself to enough people, you’ll eventually find your business partner. The more times you try, the closer you are to succeeding. The more skills you develop through failure, the better prepared you are to continue. And the most important parallel, never be afraid to fail. Because you will and one day you can look back and see how much you grew.

How to Build Your Network as a New Consultant

The most powerful network in the world is not Facebook.

Facebook is just a tool to stay in touch with people you
already know.

What really counts is who you know, and much more
importantly who knows you. The most important network in the
world for you is your own network (not Facebook's).

It has become quite apparent to many of my readers that they
do not have a very strong network. Some have found it easy
to network their way into a consulting firm interview,
others find it extremely difficult.

Now that you are working or transitioning to work again, it
is time to take a look at shoring up your network.

The time to build a network is when you don't need any help
from them.

The best way to get a network of people willing to help you
is to help them first.
At best, I would help a lot of very bright, super ambitious,
over-achieving people launch their careers.
Give first, and people will remember who you are and offer
to help when you need it.
Those who serve others the most end up benefiting the most
too.  (By the way, there is a gem of a client development
strategy in that last sentence in case you missed it.)

Now the reason I mention this is because there is a very
fast way to build one's network -- by borrowing someone
else's network!

I will be providing networking tips to the club members on
how to network with each other, providing access to each
other, and basically instantly add a global network of super
achievers to your network... pretty much overnight.

How to Get Promoted in Consulting

There are three key secrets to getting promoted in a
consulting firm.

Here is one of them:

"Do what is needed, not just what is asked."

In your first few weeks and months in consulting, you will
typically be assigned TASKS.

This is just temporary to make sure those who interviewed
you did not make a mistake!

How your career progresses from this point forward will vary
quite a bit depending on the client you serve, your manager,
your firm, your office and numerous other factors.

Your responsibility will fall along a spectrum with tasks on
one end and outcomes on the other.

It is the difference between a manager saying, "Please
analyze sales records for the last three years and test
these hypotheses." vs. "You have been assigned the XYZ
division, figure out how to grow it by 50% over the next
three years."

So the question is: how do you transition from a
task-orientation role to an outcome-oriented one?

Sometimes you'll get a manager or partner who will just
throw you into the deep end and you'll have a ton of
responsibility right away. Other times, you will need to
prove yourself before you transition over.

Here's the key to making that transition. When you are
assigned tasks, focus not just on what was asked of you, but
also on what is needed to help the client achieve the GOAL.

The "goal" is NOT get these 3 tasks done. The goal is the
OUTCOME the client is trying to achieve.

What typically happens in the middle of an analysis is you
discover something unexpected. Perhaps the data indicates
your team's (or client's) initial hypothesis is totally
wrong.

Just like in a case interview where when you discover
something unusual and you have an "Oh, that's interesting"
type moment, you are usually within striking range of
uncovering a major insight.

Now you have two options when you reach this point.

The first is to just finish up your task assignment.

The other is to finish up your task assignment (what you
were asked to do) and then refine the hypothesis based on
the new information, and test it analytically (BEFORE
being assigned the task by a partner or manager).

(This is doing what is needed...e.g, anticipating and doing
the natural next step, before it is "assigned" to you.)

When you present to a partner or manager, out of every
three or four presentations you deliver, there will often
be one slide within a presentation that will contradict the
hypothesis the partner and manager had in mind.

This slide will get everyone's attention.

And once they digest this conclusion, the partner will
usually start thinking, "Hmm... if that's the case, then I
wonder if X is true."

Now if you are just doing what is assigned, most likely the
manager will look to you and say, "Why don't you look into
this deeper level analysis tomorrow."

If you are doing what is needed (not just what is asked of
you), you would then say, "You know, I was thinking the
EXACT SAME THING... and if you turn to the next slide, you
see it shows that X actually IS true."

It is this magic moment that your reputation in a firm jumps
up a notch.

I had many, many such presentations at McKinsey where a
partner would see a slide, reach a natural conclusion, and
automatically wonder if a revised hypothesis was true... only
to find that I answered that question on the next slide.

I rarely did this in my first year (as I didn't realize this
was possible), but routinely did it in my second year.

Once you do this often enough, your managers and partners
come to realize that you can solve problems INDEPENDENTLY.
(This is THE phrase you want to be associated with you)

The role of those review meetings suddenly changes.

Before the meeting's focus was on the manager or partner
reviewing your results and THEM driving the next step in
the analysis.

But, once you switch over to being an independent problem
solver, the meeting's role becomes one where you are simply
keeping the manager and partner informed -- so they can
answer basic questions from the client about your part of
the project intelligently.

Once again, it is very important than you transition from a
task-oriented problem solver to an outcome-oriented,
independent problem solver.  And the key to that is to "do
what is needed, not just what is asked."

As I mentioned earlier, this idea of doing what is needed,
not just what is asked is one of three key strategies to
get promoted in consulting.

IN CONSULTATION YOUR REPUTATION IS EVERYTHING

In consulting, your personal reputation is everything. It is
the one thing by which everything else in your career
revolves around.

Here is the thing with reputations.

Once your reputation is set (whether it is good or it is
bad), it is very hard to change.

If you are seen favorably, more partners want you to work
with them, you get more choice of projects, you're able to
pick better projects, better clients, and better teams... and
not surprisingly, this often leads to you performing even
better.

Conversely, if your reputation starts off poor in a
consulting firm, you start a downward spiral.

Fewer partners want you to work on their engagements. You
get the worse managers (the ones nobody else wants to work with).

These managers don't coach you very well if at all... without
the coaching, you tend to do worse than your peers (while
still being held to the same standard) and the entire
process repeats and reinforces itself: If you ever end up in any professional
services business where your reputation was poor, the best
thing you can do is just quit and start over with no
reputation at another firm.

Apparently (and I now agree with this), having no reputation
is much better than having a bad reputation.

So what separates consultants who are strong performers vs.
those who are not?

While the list of distinguishing characteristics is long,
one trait that many McKinsey partners and engagement
managers often talk about is "coach-ability."

A new consultant is not expected to know everything from day
one. However, what is expected is that a new consultant will
be open to, listen to, and react favorable towards feedback.

So if your manager tells you that you need to do certain
things differently, if you are coachable, you will listen
and make improvements.

If you're not, you will be considered un-coachable and
stubborn... and often that is the beginning of the end of
one's career at a firm.

The people who often have the most difficultly with this
coach-ability trait are the consultants who have the highest
IQs and the biggest accomplishments before starting in
consulting.

Often this type of person finds it inconceivable that they
could possibly be doing something so poorly, when they used
to be so successful.

Rather than working on improving these new skills, they
start to argue with the manager as to why the manager or
partner is wrong.

This is not to say that managers and partners are always
right, but if you are arguing every feedback point... and
you're getting consistent feedback from multiple sources,
take a hard look at the data and consider that maybe the
feedback is right.

Some people have a very hard time with this, and ultimately
it hurts their careers -- hopefully only temporarily, but
often permanently.

This lack of "coach-ability" is really just a more specific
instance of someone generally being unwilling to learn from
others.

This more general trait is one that is absolutely positively
mandatory in consulting.

If you do not want to have to learn new things, don't go
into consulting!

You learn something new every day -- whether you are a new
analyst or a director with 20 years experience.

It is a factual reality of the profession (and some people
like me love it... others find it torture).

This is important to realize.

It is often very obvious which consultants in your office
are the ones who just got assigned to a new project. You can
often tell just by walking by their desk.

How can you tell?

They are the ones with a 1 - 2 foot stack of papers on their
desk that they are busy reading to "get up to speed" on a
new industry, a new client, and a new type of business
problem.

Often there are dozens of industry reports to read, dozens
of client materials to review, and entire stacks of practice
development training materials geared around a particular
kind of problem.

In most consulting firms, your colleagues will all have
strong learning skills.

Incidentally, this is one reason consulting firms favor
candidates with strong academic backgrounds -- at least you
don't have to worry that they are not capable of learning
something new (now getting them to be willing to learn is
something entirely different).

It's unlikely you will be more talented than your
colleagues. So the only differences between you and your
colleagues is what you learn and when you learn it.

For each project, there is a generally an obvious set of
documents to learn. Often one of your colleagues on a client
team (generally the one who used to be the "new" person on
the team prior to your arrival) will pass along his or her
big stack of papers to you... and eventually you will pass it
along to the next new person.

The project-specific learning materials tends to just
materialize when you need them. So everyone tends to learn
the same things at the same time in the lifecycle of their
role on a project.

Again, there is not much difference here.

Then there are the things one learns across multiple
projects... the skills of being a savvy consultant.

Most people will learn these skills within their first
two years of their consulting career.

Some will learn some elements of this through their firm's
new consultant training. Others will learn through feedback.
And finally, others will learn through trial and error.

HOW TO ANALYSE DATA IN CASE INTERVIEW

One of the skills that's being tested during a case interview
is something I call data sufficiency. 

Basically, you have a bunch of data and the question is do
you have ENOUGH data to make a particular conclusion.

This is certainly something that is tested during a live,
in-person, face-to-face case interview.

It is also a skill that is often tested in a variety of formats
including written tests before the first case interview.

An example of this is the McKinsey Problem Solving Test
which is a written test that evaluates your data sufficiency
skills (among others).

In parts of the McKinsey Problem Solving Test (also known
as the McKinsey PST), you are  given a bunch of data and
some possible conclusions. Your job is to figure out which
conclusions are or are NOT supported by the facts presented.

Now this test is not intended to torture you (though I know
some people might argue with me on this one).

It turns out this is a very important skill once you're on the
job as a management consultant, especially as a first year
analyst or associate.
Data sufficiency is an important skill to master.  Other
firms also look for this skills -- though how they do it
varies from McKinsey.

Most firms will just test for this skill implicitly during
a case interview and test verbally throughout the case. 

Some firms, notably Monitor and in some countries BCG,
are testing for this skill in written tests similar to McKinsey's.

These are all variations of the same thing.

Given a set of data, will you determine the correct, logical, and
factually supported conclusion every time?

It's important because if you can NOT do this correctly 100%
of the time, then consulting firms can not put you in front of
client without extremely close supervision -- in other words,
they can't hire you.

The Importance of Budget Building

Budgeting is one of the most important skills to have to keep your expenses on track, and achieve freedom from debt and financial flexibility. Creating a personal budget will also help develop strong money management skills.

Personal budges allow you to make plan for the future and attain greater financial security. By using a budget, you'll know how much money is coming in every month as well as how much needs go out to cover your expenses. Once you know the difference, you can either adjust your lifestyle so that there's less wasteful spending, or you can take the money that's not being used to save for you or your family's future needs.

Many people don't realize how useful it can be to plan a budget, budgeting will allow you to find and save the money you need for any number of things, including vacations, college, a new home, or retirement.

Using a budget will teach you to value your money, and help you understand its power in your life if you know how to spend it more wisely. Also, if you find that you're in debt, having a budget in place will help you to conquer it quickly. Once you're out of debt, you can more effectively save for your future.

To create a budget, you should find a budgeting platform that you're comfortable with. Most people like to use a simple spreadsheet application on the computer. There are also several different budget software options available on the internet for download, either for pay or for free. Of course, if you're not comfortable using the computer, you can always make a budget with pen and paper.

Create two columns: one for income, and one for expenses. You'll want to begin by listing all of your fixed expenses: loan repayments, fixed-contract bills, etc. After this list your "variable" expenses: things which you have to pay for in a predictable manner, but which might cost a little more or a little less each month; these things could be food, entertainment, dining out, and many others.

For these items, put down an estimated amount of how much you currently spend. Add together all the totals in the expenses category, then list any income, and add that together as well. Don't forget to deduct taxes and other costs from your gross income to get your net income.

Subtract your expenses from your income to find the difference. If you have a surplus, then you can use that money for savings: vacations, a home, or even for emergencies. If, however, you find that you have a deficit, try to find places where you can adjust the amounts that you pay so that your budget is at least balanced. (Variable expenses are a good place to start.)

You'll find at 20-25% of your total costs can be reduced simply by cutting back in areas like entertainment and paying off your credit cards. If you're able to pay off your debts quickly, that's more money that you gather interest on in savings, rather than paying interest on it.

Also think about comparing your budgets from month to month to see if there are places where you're doing better, or could be doing better with a little tweaking...

Anger management

Understanding anger

It's important to realise several things about anger before you start tackling it. First, anger is a normal process that has allowed humans to evolve and adapt. It isn't a bad thing in itself, but problems occur if it isn't managed in the right way.
Anger is also a mixture of both emotional and physical changes. A big surge of energy goes through your body as chemicals, such as adrenaline, are released.
Once the cause of the anger is resolved, you may still have to deal with the physical effects - all that energy has to go somewhere. This can be taken out on another person, such as a partner, or an object - by punching a wall, for example. This last option can lead down the road to self-harm.
The other alternative is to suppress the energy until the next time you're angry. This may mean you release so much pent-up emotion that you overreact to the situation. Realising this can lead to feelings of shame or frustration when you reflect on your actions, and to further repression of your feelings.
On the other hand, just letting your anger go in an uncontrolled fashion can lead to a move from verbal aggression to physical abuse - don't forget, the other person is probably feeling angry with you too.
But there is a flip side to anger. Because of the surge of energy it creates, it can be pleasurable. This feeling is reinforced if becoming angry allows the release of feelings of frustration, or if a person's response to your anger gives you a sense of power.
It's important to acknowledge and keep an eye on this side of the problem - it can have an almost addictive element.

Recognising why you get angry

It's important to be aware of the positive feelings you get from anger as well as the negative ones.
By recognising the positive and negative feelings associated with your anger, it's important to find other means of achieving and concentrating on the positives ones.
Each person's positives are different, so there will be different solutions for everyone, but some strategies might include:

• Trying a non-contact competitive sport.
• Learning relaxation or meditation.
• Shouting and screaming in a private, quiet place.
• Banging your fists into a pillow.
• Going running.

Any of these may help to vent your frustration and burn off any feelings you're bottling up.

Anger management techniques

However, this still leaves the problem of dealing differently with those situations that make you angry. This takes practice.
The first thing to do is list the situations that make you angry. Note down exactly what it is about them that makes you angry - it may be the immediate situation, or it could be that it represents a build-up of issues you haven't resolved.
Now ask yourself four questions about your interpretation of these situations:

• What evidence is there to show this is accurate?
• Is there another equally believable interpretation of what's going on here?
• What action can I take to have some control of the situation?
• If my best friend were in this situation, what advice would I give to them?

This won't dispel the anger for every situation, but when you're angry it can be difficult to assess a situation accurately. If a situation arises unexpectedly and you feel your temper rising, walk away and complete this exercise if you can.
If your anger isn't resolved by this, make sure you've given enough thought to what exactly you’re angry about. You need to be sure exactly before you can resolve it. It will usually involve a person, but not necessarily the one who's the target of your anger in the situation and this is the person you need to work the situation out with.
To do this, find a time to raise the problem when you feel more in control of your temper. It may be a good idea to agree a time in advance.

CUDSAIR

It may feel like a tall order to discuss the issue without getting angry, but following a plan may help. Professor Richard Nelson-Jones has developed a good structure to use, called CUDSAIR. This stands for:

• Confront.
• Understand.
• Define.
• Search.
• Agree.
• Implement.
• Review.

First, it's important that you confront the problem and not the person. State the nature of the problem and how it makes you feel. Be clear that it's the problem - not the person - that makes you feel like this. This way you'll develop a joint definition and ownership of what's going on.
Next, it's important to understand each other's view of the situation. It may help to agree that each person should be able to say what they think about the problem without being interrupted by the other. After this, identify areas where you disagree. Don't discuss the disagreements yet, just agree that you disagree. This is how you define the problem.
The next step is to search for solutions. Here, be as outrageous as you like - but again, don't make personal attacks. Generate as many possible solutions as you can - at the moment, it doesn't matter how unrealistic they seem.
Finally, you have to agree on a solution. This is probably the most delicate part of the whole process. It's important that you both make concessions and acknowledge those that the other person has made. It's also important not to have unrealistic expectations - it's likely that the final solution won't be ideal for either of you, but the resulting compromise will probably be better than the problems the anger generated.
It's important that you both keep to the agreement. It's also important not to overreact to any breaches. Point them out, but there's no need to get angry. You have the agreement to back you up.
However well you both stick to the agreement, it's worth having a review some time in the future to go through the CUDSAIR model again and see if things can't be improved further.

Time to Rethink Business Strategies

Many companies are being forced to set a new direction in the post-crisis environment, and these new mandates mean a regenerated need for consultants. However restricted budgets and the continuation of the challenging business environment mean that many corporations are reconsidering their relationships with consultancies and many feel this may lead to significant changes in the consulting industry overall.

With a slow return of positive global economic indicators, numbers for the consulting industry are coming back up to pre-recessionary levels: billing rates are increasing again, as they did for years before economic disaster struck in 2008, pipelines are bulging and recruiters are busy.

Even with a downturn in public sector business, reports show that private sector growth is positive fueled primarily by the financial services industry. Overall, fee income from banking in the U.K. grew by 35 percent in 2010 as compared with an overall fee growth in the private sector of 10 percent. Consulting demand from other service lines such as TMT, energy & utilities, pharmaceuticals & life sciences and retail & consumer goods are all strong, with most of the demand driven by supply chain and logistics work, whereas risk, regulation and broader operational consulting is fueling the demand in financial services.

Off to a Good Start
Many publicly-traded consultancies are off to great starts. Accenture has had a strong start to the year with nearly 20 percent growth over last year, reporting its second highest level of consulting bookings ever in their first quarter earnings report, while the Management Consulting Group, which owns Kurt Salmon and Proudfoot, has seen an 88 percent increase in operating profits.

With cash reserves high and demand rebounding for consulting services worldwide, it was inevitable that consultancies would dip back into the acquisition market in 2011.
A handful of big name firms have added pieces, ranging from small regional units to large international players in the past few weeks.

Ernst & Young for instance, picked up the private boutique ISA Consulting to strengthen its advisory division. With the acquisition of the smaller firm’s business performance
management, business intelligence and data integration areas, E & Y is attempting to be better positioned to provide business insight and drive improved corporate performance. Deloitte, KPMG and Capgemini are also actively expanding their business advisory and business consultancy divisions.

Campus Recruiting Heating Up
Another indicator of growth in the consulting industry is that MBAs are enjoying record levels of recruitment attention from consultancies in 2011, and if top MBA forecasters are correct, demand will continue to increase by as much as 37 percent in 2011. Virtually all of the leading firms are hiring and large players like Accenture and IBM expect continued growth in this activity as client companies look to reduce costs. Experienced hires are also on the rise due in part to high attrition rates driven by consultants who have not seen pay raises over the last three years.

Reports predict that consultancies will have to hire 23 percent of their current headcount in order to tackle attrition and meet growth rates. For companies faced with the difficult tasks of rebuilding key business units damaged in the crisis or in the following economic downturn, hiring consultancies to address their business concerns is an expensive undertaking. Consequently, many large multinational corporations are looking for alternatives to traditional consultancy engagements and in some cases this has given rise to the use of internal consulting units.

In-house consultancies are small departments staffed with project, change or strategy managers responsible for solving many of the same problems their employers would have hired outside consultants to accomplish. Not only does the addition of an internal consulting division save money, but it also provides an organization with high quality reusable skills and resources.

A Threat From Within?
Industry experts believe that these internal consulting units pose a genuine threat to traditional consulting firms and look to Germany where this trend has gained significant traction. The downside, however, is that in-house consulting divisions will struggle to provide insight on matters that require specialized knowledge, and may also be too close to their own brand and too invested in the corporate power structure to make the hard decisions, and deliver the demonstrably objective messages, regularly sought from external unbiased consultants.

Another trend growing in popularity is the “consultant-manager” or interim manager role. This role often comprises of a former senior consultant hired into the client’s organization, with the specific experience and in-sights of the consulting industry, whose mandate is to supervise and direct the work of both independent consultants and internal teams.

Obviously, this approach guards the client against costly “project creep” which gives rise to the growth of large-scale programs employing scores of junior consultants, which may be more beneficial to the consultancy than to the client. The consultant-manager is responsible for making projects shorter, more intense, and less lucrative for the consultancies. The advent of these two new approaches could theoretically curb growth in consulting and leave us with a very different looking consulting industry.

A third option is seen in the growth of small, sleek consulting firms such as Satori Consulting, which have models heavily weighted towards senior consultants with experience from Big Four firms. Satori’s business model aims at putting competent, seasoned consultants into a client’s business operations and allowing them to add project management direction and process expertise into projects delivered through the client’s internal resources.

This paradigm takes the benefits of other approaches and rolls them into one. “Our business model protects the client from having to buy the large consulting teams that are typical large company sales models demand. Partners at the big firms are under enormous pressure to sell millions of dollars worth of work clients tell us that this pressure can become apparent when it comes to projects. On the other hand, Satori’s model allows the client to pay only for what they need, optimize their talent in-house and still get the independent, fresh perspective of a skilled, independent, senior consulting professional,” explains a partner at Satori Consulting.

Conclusion
Whatever your approach, it seems clear that with an improving, yet uncertain, economic climate and the largest financial regulatory changes in history, consulting is on the rise. How businesses decide to fold consulting services into their organization will be an important strategic decision that could well decide a firm’s competitive advantage in a changing and challenging marketplace.