David A Fields
JANUARY 27, 2016
For a consultant, there’s nothing more frustrating than a prospect who clearly needs you, but doesn’t realize it or has less urgency than a stalagmite. How do you shake sense into the decision maker? How do you knock the project loose so a rich opportunity falls into your lap? Diagnostics. Over a decade ago I wrote a whitepaper for my corporate clients claiming, “In sales, nothing you say matters.
Management Consulted
JANUARY 25, 2016
ALIXPARTNERS CONSULTING. Today, we continue our Firm Profile series by looking at AlixPartners. AlixPartners is an international business advisory firm based in Southfield, MI known for its work in corporate turnarounds, bankruptcy assignments and restructuring. With over 30 years of history behind it, AlixPartners has worked with several high profile clients, including GM’s Saab division, Kodak, Barney’s New York, and JCPenney.
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Leadership Planning with Liz Weber CMC
JANUARY 20, 2016
As I finished a client’s strategy session report this morning, I kept thinking about how the CEO has changed over the past five years since we last worked together. He’s still brilliant, tenacious, out-spoken, aggressive, driven, blunt, and not politically correct -- Can you see why I like him? Yet he’s changed. He’s no longer afraid to laugh. And that change has caused a huge shift in how he and his senior staff interact, plan, work, produce, profit, and succeed.
Tom Spencer
JANUARY 31, 2016
(Source: Flickr ). If you have gone through the consulting interview process and are not offered a position with your target firm, then you should find out why. There are two reasons this is important. Firstly, getting specific feedback on your performance is the only way you can learn and improve. Secondly, you may discover that the firm has formed an inaccurate opinion of you.
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Chad Barr
JANUARY 27, 2016
Reflection Point: Advancing technologies have been accelerated to the point that artificial intelligence is impacting and disrupting every imaginable area such as: 3D printing, human cloning, genetics, smart appliances, space and medical research and many more. I previously discussed this in my article Taking Control of Technology , when I suggested that machines seem to conquer all.
Management Consulting Connection brings together the best content for management consulting professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
David A Fields
JANUARY 25, 2016
A client asked me the following question about outreach: Let’s say I reach out to Sally and she doesn’t respond, how long should I wait before reaching out again? What if we have a conversation and it doesn’t lead anywhere; then how long should I wait before contacting her again? My reply to the consultant was: This depends a lot on the strength of your relationship to begin with.
Management Consulted
JANUARY 17, 2016
Welcome back to our case interview frameworks series, giving you a step by step approach to solve any case that’s set before you. If you haven’t read our first article yet, we encourage you to go back and read it before continuing. Case interview frameworks are used to open a case and to solve a case. It’s very important that you think of both of these, opening and solving the case, because the frameworks are meant to be very practical, action-oriented, metrics-driven and clear
Consultants' Consultant
JANUARY 11, 2016
Consultants Consultant: Here are 7 different ways to derive your elevator speech. The post That damned elevator speech! appeared first on Consultants' Consultant.
Tom Spencer
JANUARY 24, 2016
Back in September last year, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about how low oil prices could lead to a global recession. An article by the Guardian last Friday repeated the sentiment with a suggestion that low oil prices could hurt the stock market. Look out, Chicken Little, the sky is falling! The doom and gloom argument appears to be based on two factors: Falling oil prices will hurt oil producers like Exxon and Chevron.
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Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr
Chad Barr
JANUARY 20, 2016
Reflection point: I was 21 and had just completed my three years of compulsory military service in Israel, when one of my friends shared a newspaper ad with me looking for people of my profile to travel to the US and bring the Israeli culture to summer camps. I ended at this beautiful place by the lake called Cleveland, Ohio, where I met my future wife to be, Laurel and where we raised our family.
Women in Consulting
JANUARY 25, 2016
By: Susan Monroe. We just launched WIC’s 14th Annual Best Practices Survey. I’ve been here for most of the surveys and every year I learn something to put into practice in my business. I’d be foolish not to. Hundreds of consultants—many of whom are tops in their field—share what helps make them successful. You’ll learn about everything from how they close deals to how they boost their productivity and more.
David A Fields
JANUARY 20, 2016
Life’s great as a consultant when you’re bustling through a project. Until the project’s done. Then you pop your head up and life’s rough while you’re hustling to get another project. Until you land one. Then you’re back to bustling… …and on it goes. Hustle and bustle. Feast and famine. Grins and grimaces. The bane of independent consultants’ existence.
Management Consulted
JANUARY 10, 2016
Welcome to the New Year Management Consulted Subscribers ! This leap year, 2016, is exciting on many fronts. The year promises the world’s first space hotel, NASA’s Juno spacecraft arriving at Jupiter, soccer’s Euro 2016 in France and the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the US Presidential Elections (aka circus) and much more. Along with all the excitement, this new year guarantees new business challenges and with that, a steady demand for consulting services.
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Savings Consultants are needed in today’s market more than ever. With an increase in expenses, businesses are looking for opportunities to save. Often unknown to businesses are savings in expense reduction, specialized tax savings, specialized savings including medical underpayments, health benefits cost reduction, zero cost processing, and more. Blue Coast Savings, with over 20 years in business, assists Savings Consultants in helping these companies move toward more profitable businesses.
Consultants' Consultant
JANUARY 31, 2016
Consultants Consultant: Research that reflecting on what we do and what we learn means we learn better. And we’re more productive. Not a surprise for anyone trained as a trainer or teacher, but maybe news for the rest of us. And of course knowing isn’t doing (i.e. knowing that you need to pause doesn’t mean that you […]. The post Stop and think appeared first on Consultants' Consultant.
Tom Spencer
JANUARY 17, 2016
(Source: Flickr ). If you have received an offer of employment from the consulting firm of your choice, you may still want to negotiate the terms of the offer. How should you go about doing this? Use your bargaining power. Your ability to negotiate the terms of your offer depends on how much bargaining power you have. The consulting industry is currently experiencing growth in various markets, and so it may be possible to negotiate a more favorable employment contract.
Chad Barr
JANUARY 13, 2016
Reflection Point: I’ve been fortunate to work with and study some of the most effective global marketers and identify what they do to achieve success. Many of these ideas are discussed with our clients and implemented to help them achieve greater results. Here are some of these ideas: Have a clear definition of the buyers you are trying to attract.
Women in Consulting
JANUARY 18, 2016
By: Linda Popky. Marketing today is out of control. There are so many new techniques and tactics, so many ways to reach out and not just touch our audiences, but often to annoy them as well. So many things have changed over the last few years, but so many have not changed a bit. How do you survive this brave new world? These are the questions that bothered me as I was writing my new book Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.
David A Fields
JANUARY 18, 2016
A consultant asked me the following question: You talk a lot about speaking and writing as ways to become more visible to your clients. Are those the only ways? Are there any other effective ways to become visible if I’m not a great writer or speaker? Here’s the answer I gave the consultant: There are five “marketing musts” for consultants who want to build their visibility.
The Source
JANUARY 19, 2016
By Alison Huntington. M&A is one of the issues a client is most likely to pick up the phone to a consulting firm about, and luckily for TMT consultants, there’s been a huge amount of it across the industry. 2014 saw deals hit their highest level since before the financial crisis, creating lots of opportunities for consultants in pre- and post-merger integration work, and in due diligence.
Consultants' Consultant
JANUARY 1, 2016
Consultants Consultant: There is something about hordes of people dancing. There’s something even better about hordes of people you have seen dance before all dance to the same song, even though they’ve been in different movies across different centuries! This clip starts slow – if you’re in a hurry for motivation, skip to about 1:00 minute.
Tom Spencer
JANUARY 10, 2016
Builders intuitively know that if you are building a house then you need both bricks and mortar, and they need to be arranged in a certain way in order to construct a safe, functional and attractive residence. The bricks provide strength, the mortar holds it all together, and the architect’s plan ensures that they are arranged in an appealing way.
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Case studies are proof of successful client relations and a verifiable product or service. They persuade buyers by highlighting your customers' experiences with your company and its solution. In sales, case studies are crucial pieces of content that can be tailored to prospects' pain points and used throughout the buyer's journey. In marketing, case studies are versatile assets for generating business, providing reusable elements for ad and social media content, website material, and marketing c
Chad Barr
JANUARY 6, 2016
Reflection point: Yesterday, we launched our new Innovation bimonthly digital magazine and the feedback and comments have been absolutely amazing. One of the questions I received was regarding the objectives of this magazine. Here are the reasons why we decided to create this magazine and its objectives: Bring fresh ideas and strategies to stimulate our clients’ minds and help them accelerate their business growth and success.
Women in Consulting
JANUARY 4, 2016
By: Renee Daggett. Time after time, there are rulings from the IRS stating someone lost their deduction due to bad record keeping. Karen Hough had to pay $100,849 in taxes because she “estimated” the business expenses. She relied on her testimony to prove the deductions, while the IRS required documentation. She did not have cancelled checks or receipts.
David A Fields
JANUARY 13, 2016
I’m going to assume you’re a darn good consultant. Not much of an assumption, really. I trust you. As a darn good consultant, you know that the path to new business is offering the Right Solution to the Right Target with the Right Chocolate Bribe at the Right Time. But when is that time? Well, of course you know the right time is when your prospect is aware of a big issue you can address and considers it a top priority.
The Source
JANUARY 13, 2016
By Edward Haigh. Corporate communications can be pretty dull at the best of times. The controls that firms put in place around external communications are predicated on the need to stop something terrible happening, rather than on the need to start something wonderful happening. They’re about being safe, and the price of safety is usually the removal of anything remotely interesting.
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Just because we're working with a distributed team doesn't mean we have to abandon time-tested tools and methods like whiteboarding. Digital look-alikes often cramp creativity and all but eliminate the humanity of shared interactions. Hardware solutions are also limiting and, of course, expensive and immobile. In an increasingly digital and remote-first world, it’s important for us to select tools and processes that allow us to mitigate if not eliminate the above problems.
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