March, 2016

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How to Avoid Overpricing Your Consulting Project

David A Fields

Project pricing is like a balloon in a room made of nails. I’m not sure why such a room would exist or how you would get the balloon in there, but go with me on this one. On the pricing floor are the rusty nails that cheapen you and let the air out of your credibility or win you projects you can’t afford to deliver. But you’re probably more worried about the needle-sharp nails on the ceiling.

How To 163
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Booz Allen Hamilton Interviews and Culture

Management Consulted

BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON . Welcome back to our Firm Profile series. Today we’re going to be looking at Booz Allen Hamilton, a firm with a great name and a confusing history. Headquartered in the Greater Washington, DC area, Booz Allen Hamilton is well known for its governmental work. But after several sweeping changes to Booz Allen Hamilton’s infrastructure, the question now hanging over Booz Allen Hamilton is how it’s going to weather the storm and if it will come out stronger on t

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Peter Drucker on the Harm of Overestimating Our Expertise

The Clever Consultant

This little nugget from the classic Managing Oneself epitomizes the need for self-awareness to grow professionally.

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Recasting IT for the Digital Age

BCG

Focus Tuesday, March 22, 2016. Digital technologies continue to rapidly reshape the business landscape. (See the appendix, “Technology Trends to Monitor.”) A striking feature of this ongoing transformation is that, despite these technologies’ underlying technical complexity, a significant share of many companies’ digital campaigns is being driven largely by the business function, with only limited conceptual involvement by the corporate IT department.

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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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Transforming the Word “CRISIS” from Negative to Positive

Melissa Agnes

photo credit: ra2studio/shutterstock. A LinkedIn connection of mine recently wrote me an interesting message. He began the message with the sentence: “Why CRISIS is a bad word,” and followed it up with the following wordplay – People: C reate their problems; R eact by blaming others; I nfer that all will be okay; S ecure themselves behind false claims; I ndependent they become instead of working as a collective; and.

Culture 76

More Trending

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The 4 Easy Hurdles Between You and Thought Leadership

David A Fields

The benefits of thought leadership for consultants are well established. More inquiries from more clients, less competition and higher premiums on your projects. Plus, you’re invited to speak at conferences, write articles for prominent magazines and pose for your effigy to be carved into mountains. All of which lead to even more client inquiries. It’s a good thing.

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Business Book Review: Case Interview Secrets

Management Consulted

In case interview prep, Victor Cheng has risen to a household name in the last 5 years, and his book Case Interview Secrets is one of our recommendations for those looking to break in to the industry. . A Stanford graduate who worked in consulting during his early career, Victor speaks from his experience as someone who sat on both sides of the interview table.

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Where Are You Going?

Chad Barr

This week’s reflection point: To successfully market your business you need to review the positioning of your business. This hot topic is one that I am often asked to talk about. To help you assess the positioning of your company I prepared these key questions for you to review and answer: What is the purpose of your business and why does it exist? If you fast forward a year or two into the future, how would you paint the success of your business?

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TED’s Open Approach to Brand, Identity, and Communities

BCG

Article Thursday, March 24, 2016. A well-known brand and a unique business model are terrible things to waste. Companies devote blood, sweat, and tears—and lots of money—to protecting their brand, which acts as a proxy for their image and reputation, and their business model, which can be a key source of competitive advantage. Once organizations create a strong brand and business model, the last thing they want to do is give them away.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

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

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Why HR Should Have a Seat at the Crisis Management Table

Melissa Agnes

Image credit: bikeriderlondon/shutterstock.com. A couple weeks back, I published an article that discussed best practices for communicating with your key stakeholders in a crisis. But while external communications are typically top of mind in a crisis (at least for the organizations with a mindset on communication), there is an equally important stakeholder group that is often overlooked when it comes to crisis management: the internal stakeholders.

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Scarcity or Abundance

Tom Spencer

Not enough, or more than you need. It’s generally one, or the other. Are you working for the money, with grand plans for what you will do when you one day finally have “enough”? Or are you just happy to be here, every day, because you can’t believe they are paying you to do what you’d happily do for free? Are you waiting until you have the money you think you need, before you start living the life you want?

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The 7 People Every Consultant Must Have On Their Team

David A Fields

Successful, independent filmmakers know one person can’t make a movie. At a minimum they need a director of photography to run the camera, a sound person, a lighting person/gaffer (I’ve always wanted to use the word gaffer in a blog), plus a production assistant. Successful, independent consultants know the same thing (about consulting, not films). Whether you are in a solo shop or a boutique firm, it’s critical to surround yourself with at least a skeleton crew comprised of the right people.

Film 163
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Harvard junior weighs internships in VC and Consulting

Management Consulted

Pierre was a junior at Harvard University who was offered 2 very exciting internships – one for BCG in management consulting (plus, after this call he got an offer for Bain as well) and the other for a VC firm in New York. He was torn between the two types of options, so he jumped on a call with Jenny Rae to try to figure out which one would suit his personality better, which avenue would provide better opportunities during and after his stint, and ultimately which of the two he should acc

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Savings Consultants Are Needed in Today's Market More Than Ever

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.

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Do You Have a Glossy Brochure?

Chad Barr

This week’s reflection point: Years ago, after submitting a proposal to one of our prospective clients, he notified me that they had elected to go with one of our competitors. I followed up several months later and discovered that they had a dreadful experience, that opened the door for us to engage in conversations again. He did eventually become a client of ours and in a subsequent conversation I asked him what was the reason he originally selected our competitor. “Please don’t thi

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MIT Media Lab’s Joi Ito on Digital Innovation and Disruption

BCG

Video Tuesday, March 22, 2016. The MIT Media Lab encourages the unconventional mixing and matching of seemingly disparate research areas. Today, faculty members, research staff, and students at the Lab work in 24 research groups on more than 350 projects that range from digital approaches for treating neurological disorders, to advanced imaging technologies that can “see around a corner,” to the world’s first “smart” ankle-foot prosthesis.

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The Correlation Between Corporate Culture and Successful Crisis Management

Melissa Agnes

Your corporate culture directly impacts your organization’s crisis management. Successful crisis management has a lot to do with an organization’s corporate culture and the mindset it instils in its team members. In other words, the way you choose to look at risk directly impacts the way you respond to risk and the way you overcome it – or not!

Culture 61
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Types of Consulting

Tom Spencer

(Source: Flickr ). There are many different types of consulting. As an aspiring consultant, you would be well advised to understand your options so that you can make an informed decision about which kind of consulting is right for you. Here are five (5) of the main types of consulting that might interest you: Strategy: Think BCG , McKinsey and Bain (although it is worth noting that these firms are doing less and less “pure” strategy work and more operations, implementation and restructuring).

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TOOLS and METHODOLOGIES for developing DECISION SUPPORT PACKAGES

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.

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Consultants: How to Overcome Your Personal Demons and Choose Success

David A Fields

Years ago I watched the movie A Beautiful Mind, the biopic of Nobel Prize winner John Nash. That movie profoundly changed how I walk in the world and how I approach consulting business development. It allowed me to overcome personal demons and thrive as a consultant. Perhaps it can do that for you too. Let me explain: Consulting is a hands-free profession.

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What Gets You Up in the Morning?

Strategy+Business

Optimism and an eagerness to seize opportunities can be a far more useful source of executive inspiration than fear.

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Start Mind-Mapping Your Business Success

Chad Barr

This week’s reflection point: Today’s newsletter comes to you from Los Angeles, where I’m presenting at Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting® Convention. Surrounded by thought leaders, I’ve spent the morning exchanging ideas with my fellow presenters. I just had breakfast with my good friend Bruce Turkel , a branding expert, who shared with me an incredibly intriguing concept: Crafting and presenting your keynote presentation by leveraging mind maps.

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Lotus Nation: Sustaining Vietnam’s Impressive Gains in Well-Being

BCG

Report Tuesday, March 22, 2016. Vietnam's success over the past two decades is undeniable. The country has moved from a largely agrarian economy to one powered by manufacturing. Food is more plentiful, health care more accessible, schooling more affordable, and disposable incomes higher than ever. But the country faces significant challenges, some of which stem from its rapid progress.

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Why You Need to Use Case Studies in Sales and Marketing (and How to Start Now)

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

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The Role of the Executive Team in an Integrated Company

Kates Kesler

We work with many large, global organizations as they move toward more integrated operating models. One of the key levers in creating real connections across business units, regions, and functions is the redesign of the executive team. It is perfectly appropriate for an executive team overseeing a fairly unconnected and autonomous business portfolio to come to the table as representatives of their component of the business.

Company 50
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5 Reasons It’s Okay To Say “No”

Tom Spencer

If you are using your talents in a way that interests you for the benefit of other people, then that’s a good thing. Charities, non-profits and religions may come to you for aid, but it’s valid to refuse if your gifts to them would detract from the good work you are already doing. Giving more than you can manage can create an imbalance in your relationships with other people, which can damage or destroy those relationships when you discover that they do not reciprocate to the same ex

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What to Do When Faced with Competition for a Consulting Project

David A Fields

Text and images are © 2016 David A. Fields, all rights reserved.

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You Should Work Out Loud in the 21st Century

Women in Consulting

By: Ayelet Baron. If you have been engaging with my thinking on building thriving 21st century organizations, you will know that this is the best time to be alive as we live in an open and connected world. If this is our first encounter, I look forward to connecting and learning from your thinking. That is what is so exciting about our century: our ability to find the right people at the right time to have conversations and co-create.

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The Art of Remote Collaboration: How to Successfully Whiteboard with Remote Teams

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.