Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan's PSF (Professional Service Firm) Barking Board

Do Professional Associations Really Regulate The Profession?

2008-10-02T21:31:00.002-07:00

There was an interesting article in the 17 September 2008 Vancouver Sun, entitled “Rogue Nurses Leave Quietly”.

It turns out that between January 2006 and November 2007, as a result of participating in various criminal activities, 45 nurses cut a deal with their professional and licensing association, the College of Registered Nurses and quietly quit their profession.

Simply said, the College failed to discipline 45 nurses who broke the College’s ethical code. The College failed its basic mission: To regulate the profession.

These nurses were involved in various nasty acts, including...

Stealing narcotics for their personal use
Physically and emotional abuse of patients
Administering incorrect medication
Mismanaging blood transfusions.
Physically attacking elderly residents
Being drunk on shift

These nurses made an agreement with the college to quit nursing, and in return the College didn’t press charges against them. Basically, they got away with their crimes.

The only trace of their criminal act is a brief listing in the College’s newsletter, BC Nursing.

And some really quit the profession, but six of them re-registered and continues working as nurses.

And this is not even a one off case. On average, 40 nurses per year leave the profession due to misconduct, but without disciplinary hearing.

The only reason the College must publicise these misconducts is if the cases go to formal disciplinary hearing. But, despite the 40 cases per year, the College hasn’t held such disciplinary hearings in years.

So, here you have it...

A friend of mine jokingly says that the people who know their stuff actually do it. People who know it less teach it. And the ones who are hopeless to achieve even the lowest level of competence, they form associations, organise certification programmes and try to regulate the profession they are hopelessly incompetent at.

In my view all these regulation bodies are all about shameless money grabbing.

In 1998, when I came to Canada, the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists (APEG) almost took me to court because I “dared” to call myself an engineer in some formal correspondence.

I was told I had no right to call myself an engineer in British Columbia, unless APEG permits me to do so. And it turned out all it would have taken me to obtain this mystic permission was by becoming a member and paying my membership dues. So, then I learnt that this is how almost all professional associations operated. You pay and you can purchase titles and positions.

That's a rather loud and clear message about credibility.

Over the years, I’ve come across only a handful of truly professional associations that don’t merely “regulate” the profession, but actually help and support their members in the quests to become masters of their chosen professions. Two of them definitely are the IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) in the UK and BCRPA (British Columbia Recreation and Park Association) here in Vancouver.

I also believe that it’s not the associations that regulate members, but members regulate themselves through their own core values and ethical standards.

And when scumbags join these associations, they carry on as scumbags. Well, member scumbags. Nothing changes.

I bet many of the naughty characters at Arthur Andersen, Enron, WorldCom, etc, were members of various professional associations to buy their titles. But at the end of the day they gave in to the temptation of wrongdoing due to their own personal values, and not even the code of ethics of their respective professional associations could hold them back from cutting corners.

Then the question comes up: Do we really need these “professional" associations?

I suppose, by now you know my answer. Well, hell... no.

Writing and Submitting Consulting Proposals With Clients' Businesses In Mind

2008-09-13T06:50:00.002-07:00

Many consulting firms make the mistake of skimping on marketing to save money, and rejoice when they count how much they've saved. But this joy is rather lost-lived when they realise that if they don't market, they have to engage in the ultimate money-wasting activity: Responding to request for proposals and battling it out on price with purchasing and procurement departments and being treated as fungible vendors.

In this article we discuss how consulting firms can improve their processes of writing and submitting client-centred proposals to real buyers and avoid the dreaded bid-judges of purchasing departments. If you like the idea, then check out the September issue of Commando Consulting in which we discuss Writing and Submitting Consulting Proposals With Clients' Businesses In Mind.

Commando Consulting January 2008: Offering Paid Initial Consulting

2008-01-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

Over the many years of consulting it's become a common practice for firms to offer free initial consulting before engagements to let prospects "taste" what they have to offer. It's also become an expectation and many prospects expect a bit too much for nothing.

What can be done? I think the answer is to adapt the "start small and build on it" mantra. That is, starting with a small but paid engagement, and then clients can decide whether or not they want to go to the next phase at a higher investment option. So, let's take a closer look at...

Offering Paid Initial Consulting.

Commando Consulting: October 2007 - Five Signs of a Smart Client Acquisition Strategy

2007-10-12T05:16:00.000-07:00

As the world of consulting is becoming more and more competitive, consulting firms are basically forced to step beyond haphazard and reactive client acquisition techniques, like word of mouth (hope and pray they come) or the local country club. They have to step up to proactively fill their sales funnels with both short- and long-term opportunities. And this change hits medium-sized consultancies the worst.

Large firms and most solo consultants have always had proactive client acquisition programmes to create leverage, and most tiny firms (between 2 and 10 people) are likely to carry on with their current "fly the seats of their pants" approach. But it's middle-sized firms with an ear count of 100 plus that have to make drastic changes to their operations.

They don't have to, but without systematised client acquisition programmes they will be forced into the stressful world of competitive bidding. And we know that bids, issued by the purchasing and procurement departments, focus on price not on value. So, let's see how to avoid these nasty bidding wars by considering the Five Signs of a Smart Client Acquisition Strategy.

What To Avoid At Presentations

2007-10-02T06:31:00.000-07:00

Many consulting firms still live and die by throwing presentations to win engagements. I've just bumped into some good points about what to do and what to avoid at presentations.

Rainmaker advisor, Ford Harding has some advice on what to avoid, entitled 3 x 5 Presentation Don’ts.

And Suzanne Lowe has a great blog entry on Five Biggest Professional Service Presentation Don'ts.

So, if you get your engagements through presentations, it may be a good idea to check out what these experts have to say about improving the quality of your presentations and to avoid the typical traps many of your competitors may be making.

What The Urban Dictionary Says About The Big 4

2007-09-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't read it yet, you may want to check out Michelle Golden's blog entry on the Big 4 accounting firms over at the Verasage Institute.

The Good Practice Of Turning Down Ready-To-Buy Prospects?!

2007-09-12T06:39:00.000-07:00

Over at Ford Harding's blog I bumped into a great story entitled The Amazing Flip. It tells the story of a firm that basically requires prospects to sell their opportunities to the firm. The firm's default setting of sitting down with prospects is "No," unless prospects can sell their projects to the firm.

It doesn't specifically show from the article, but I can assume that the firm is fully booked with top-notch clients. So, the universal truth is really true that nature abhors vacuum, and if we chase away bad prospects, the n we automatically give way to great prospects and great clients.

The problem I see is that in most consulting firms, rainmakers are not allowed to turn down business. Since so many firms operate on the hooker's mantra of "We do anything for anyone for money," this can be a hard proposition.

In my employment years I was fired twice for rejecting inappropriate prospects. They were either verbally abusive or went a bit too far on haggling. My sales managers told me my job was to turn every hunk of warm meat with a wallet into paying clients.

However, if we consider how much bad clients can cost a firm , this proposition sounds rather practical. Ron Baker at the Verasage Institute rightly says: "Bad clients drive out good clients."

My personal belief is that no clients are better than bad clients. If we have no clients at all, at least we know where we stand and can make alternative plans for the mortgage payment and putting food on the table. But if we are flooded with obnoxious, belligerent ambiguous clients, we never know what can happen next. I've had my fair share of them and probably you too. So, let's be more selective of whom we accept as clients.

Anyway, this is a great article, so go an read the The Amazing Flip.

What Is Bullying Costing Your Consulting Firm?

2007-09-09T21:52:00.000-07:00

The Workplace Bullying Institute has just released it's 2007 survey on workplace bullying. It seems the issue is much more serious than most of us think. The findings are both interesting and sad. Well, we've always known that most managers, due to the traditional promotion process, are not suitable for managing, and this survey just proves it. 72% of bullies are incompetent managers bullying their people.

What makes these figures even sadder is that so many consulting firms tolerate bullying because it comes from either "high-performing" prima donnas or "respected" managers in important positions. Even many of those consulting firms that pontificate that people are their most important assets tolerate bullying.

Why is it tolerated? Because it doesn't have an entry in the accounting system, so firm leaders don't relate bullying to financial loss. But obviously there is. And the price is pretty high.

And a recent article in Fast Company magazine, entitled "The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't" explains the staggering costs of tolerating even only one bully in the workplace.

Running The Risk Of Stealing Your Firm's Clients

2007-09-04T04:55:00.000-07:00

Fellow VeraSage member, Michelle Golden at Golden Practices discusses a very interesting practice that could seriously impact consulting firms ' profitability, but due to lack of trust in associates , and very often among partners, most firms shy away from this approach.

The essence of the practice is that you let your people work so closely with your clients that they could actually steal their clients from your firm if they left your firm. It tells a lot about trust in your associates and their intention of investing their careers in your firm.

Working With Consulting Firms

2007-08-07T04:46:00.000-07:00

I've discussed it several times in various articles, but I think it's worth repeating. Many large firms have their own methods of milking their clients to maximise billable hours, but as the years are ticking by and clients are becoming smarter and smarter about these financially abusive practices, it's getting harder and harder to pull it off.

So, the best bet is to stop doing it rights now and start listening to clients about what kind of relationships they're seeking with consulting firms.

I've recently come across blog entry, "Can Clients & Consultants Work Together?" Part 1 and Part 2, where the author outlines some specific issues that infuriate clients.

The danger is that these are widely accepted practices and many firms may not even realise they are doing it. It's like people who swear a lot. They don't even notice it but everyone around them does.

Anyway read both Part 1 and Part 2, and see which point may apply to your firm, and what you can do to eliminate it.

[Commando Consulting] June 2007 Issue: Who Qualifies Your Prospects? Sales Or Marketing?

2007-06-10T20:56:00.000-07:00

We all know that every engagement starts out as a sales lead, and then it's up to us to properly qualify those leads. And at this point we're about to reach a fork on the road of converting leads top paying clients, and we have to decide how we want to qualify them. And here lies a big problem too. Most consulting firms don't have Ideal Client profiles, and try to run after each and every opportunity almost indiscriminately.

And as the saying goes, the man who chases two rabbits goes to sleep hungry. And as a former rabbit farmer, I can only confirm this statement.

And what happens when consulting firms operate on an "Any business is good business" basis? These firms often end up with lots of low-margin clients. All the associates are busy beyond imagination, but it's barely enough for the firm to stand still.

What usually happens to client acquisition at many consulting firms is that, as a part of marketing, partners define the ideal client profile, and then as the rainmakers go out to make rain, and since they want to meet and exceed financial projections, they accept any client who offers money. And it's even worse in false consulting firms where there is a dedicated commissions-based sales force. That creates an instant discrepancy between sales folks and the rest of the firm. So, the poor rainmakers often make acid rain that burns holes on the firm's purse and money starts leaking away.

Also, sales folks don't have time to fiddle around with ideal client profile and similar nonsensical minutiae. They want to make instant sales and see money in their own piggy banks... Right now.

And because of the difference between the sales folks or rainmakers and the other people involved in client acquisition, they assess opportunities drastically differently.

Sales folks usually use the broadly-used BANT system. BANT is short for Budget, Authority, Need and Time frame. The problem with this model is that it is 100% financially-focused and pretty self-centred. Qualification is set up from a rather ambiguous perspective...

Why Real Talents Hate Tracking Their Working Hours...

2007-05-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

Over at the VeraSage Institute we've been discussing the stupidity of internal time tracking for associates on an almost non-stop basis. Internal time tracking is one factor that turns consulting and other professional knowledge firms into manufacturing plants, churning out "one size fits all" type solutions, thus screwing up their own profit margins and bit by bit turning the industry into a commodity.

Then the other day I was working with a Vancouver-based firm exactly on this time sheet elimination project. The managing partner has bought into the time sheet-less concept but he was concerned about the other people's reaction.

Before we went into the room to meet the troops, I asked him to make a note on each person's comments regarding time sheets.

Then we went in and I asked associates to express their views for or against time sheets and tracking effort time.

I've always known that most people are fear- and scarcity-driven, but this was amazing.

The main reason why the rebels rebelled against the elimination of time sheets is because they fear that they may do some work and, since they can't account for the time and effort, they wouldn't get paid for that piece of work. To me this was strange because they were on annual salaries plus bonuses, depending how the firm as a whole was doing.

When the groups session ended, the managing partner and I sat down and I asked the partner to evaluate each associates performance. What emerged was profound but not exactly surprising.

There was a direct correlation between loving time sheets and low performance. peak performers were jumping with joy at the notion of eliminating time sheets. The no-hopers insisted on keeping time sheets.

The partner looked at me rather surprised. Then it hit me... Holy sausage, man!

If you haven't read The Flow from Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, then read it now. Here's the essence. This is how Csikszentmihalyi defines the state of Flow:

"Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost."

Can you imagine to interrupt "Flow work" every 6 minutes to fill in your time sheet and account for your time and effort? If Newton, Einstein and other great inventors had been forced to account for their times, we would would still be living in caves.

Now let's look at the Flow diagram and see what's happening here.

Apathy: Low skill low challenge
Boredom: High skill low challenge
Anxiety, stress, fear: Low skill high challenge
Flow: High skill high challenge

Who are the people who insist on keeping time sheets? People in the Apathy and Boredom areas. David Maister calls these people cruisers and losers.

And who are the people who hate time sheets? Yes, the people who operate in the Flow. David rightfully calls them dynamos. They are the people who have excellence in their DNA's and do their best work every time they touch something because they learnt this behaviour from their parents. They don't need time sheets and micromanaging. They are naturally conscientious of their work, and are proud and inspired to do great work.

And what about the anxiety part: In my experience, this area is shared between dynamos as they're stepping up to the next level of performance but haven't yet mastered all the newly needed skills, and cruisers and losers who are anxious about to be found out.

Back to this partner. When he realised how much time and effort it takes to "manage" low performers, after assessing their contribution to the firm, the decided to offer them a better opportunity somewhere else.

Then I asked him what had blinded him to these people's poor performance so far. he said: The time sheets. These people have put in plenty of time and - seem to have [my comment] - exerted large amount of effort to do their work.

I think they exerted large amount of effort to cover up their low performance. So, here it is again. Get rid of internal time tracking for your people, and you automatically weed out the ones who you can do without without any negative effects.

And the time sheet-less culture will attract more people who like working in the "Flow." And who are the people who like operating in the "Flow?" They are the real talents. These are the people who were born on this planet to do what they do. Let them do it, and let them bring joy and profit to your clients and your firm.

Commando Consulting May 2007 - Does Your HR (Human Repression or Human Remains) Department Keep Talented People Out Of Your Firm?

2007-05-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

Well, the answer is 99.9% "yes."

Conventional wisdom says that consulting firms should rely on their HR departments to hire talented people, but they hardly ever do. What they do, with amazing accuracy though, is bringing in people with impressive resumes who look great on paper, but when the rubber hits the road, that's all they most often have: Impressive resumes.

Now imagine if you will...

The Courageous Coffin Carving Corporation, a premium consulting firm helping funeral homes to be more profitable, is looking for a marketing manager. The company's current annual revenue is $45 million and the purpose of hiring a new marketing manager is to bring in new clients and help to take the firm's profitability to the next level. The forecast is to increase sales by $20-25% in the first year of the new marketing manager.

Joe, the VP of business development, following protocol and conventional wisdom, contacts Pam the HR manager: "Pam, we need a new marketing manager."

"Fine Joe, I'll hire one for you." - says Pam.

With that, Pam puts a normal ho-hum ad in the local paper. Marketing manager wanted: You must have an MBA in marketing and must be familiar with the Maximizer contact management system.

And here's where the first flaw lies... I could even say, this is the wasp's nipples...

Interview With Service Marketing Thought Leader, Mike Schultz

2007-04-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

This morning I had the privilege to have a great telephone discussion with Mike Schultz, the founder partner of Wellesley Hills Group, a Framingham, Massachusetts-based consulting firm specialising on helping professional service firms to better market and sell their services.

But Wellesley Hills is more than a plain, pedestrian, garden-variety consulting firm plodding through life project by project. It's really a think tank.

Mike is also one of the co-conspirators behind RainToday, an online knowledge repository for professional service firms.

The topic of our discussion was Mike and his partners' recent research study, entitled "What's Working in Lead Generation."

The report categorises professional firms into four groups in terms of their ability to generate high quality sales leads: Excellent, good, fair and poor.

One big difference between the two opposing ends of the scale is that 91% of the excellent firms know the decision-makers by name, so their first contact may be cold, but they have the advantage of being able to address the buyer by name.

In case of the fair and the poor group, only 13% of them know the names. Most of their contacts are made with nebulous entities like "Dear Sir", "Dear Madam" and "Dear President." of course, if you are not addressed by name, why should you respond.

The other distinguishing factor is that firms in the poor and fair groups are prospecting for instant sales.

The other interesting finding of the report is the three most effective ways of generating quality sales leads are...

Making warm phone calls to current contacts
Speaking at conferences and trade shows
Running your own in-person events

And the top 3 ways to generate quality leads are

Client / partner referrals
General Referrals
Cold Calling / telephone prospecting

And here is the kicker. Another study from Mike, entitled How Clients Buy, proves that direct mail is the most effective way of getting butts to seats. Yet what do you hear from most consulting firms? "Direct mail doesn't work in our industry." And they repeat this idiotic phrase like demented parrots in spite of the fact that several of their competitors are successfully using direct mail.

They blame the direct mail method, although the problem lies in their own inability to properly apply it to their businesses.

The other important point is to understand and apply the two-step lead generation process. First we have to offer something valuable and only then we can expect people to give us their money.

And here lies the difference between hunting and fishing...

When hunting, people chase their preys and kill them individually. The approach works if you try to feed only your family. But if your job is to hunt enough to feed a town of 100,000 people, then you've got a problem. In order to generate your "quota", you have to hire an army of hunters and manage them, buy them weapons and ammunition, not to mention that you have to share the catch with them.

On the other hand, fishing is drastically different. I used to be a fisherman, so gained some - about 10 years - first-hand experience. I would select a good location on a certain river or pond, and would start "feeding the location." I would feed the location to entice a large amount of fish. And the combination of the environment and the bait defined what kind of fish would come. I had a clearly defined "Ideal Fish" profile in mind.

And you know what? The fish came. After a few weeks of feeding, there was a preponderance of fish at the location. I would just sit down, cast my hook and pull out the fish. There was no chasing and no struggle. The process was pretty effortless. But it needed the foresight and the patience of only feeding but not fishing the location for a few weeks.

But it didn't work for everyone. Why? Because most people didn't have the time to feed the location. They wanted instant gratification. So, they were chasing the fish from location to location.

Similarly, this kind of magnetic lead generation, based on attraction, doesn't work for many consulting firms because they are too busy chasing and hunting prospects, a large percentage of whom are suspects. And every hunter knows that when you're chasing animals, they run away from you. Thus, when you chase prospects, they run away from you.

So, if you want to improve your lead generation and leave the dreaded feast and famine behind once and for all, then check out What's Working In Lead Generation.

Where Client's Ego Can Lead To...

2007-04-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

The other day I was watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The world-renowned Chef Ramsay tries to sort out a disaster-ridden restaurant, the La Parra de Burriana, on the Costa del Sol in Spain, run by a British guy called Laurence.

There are some major problems with the restaurant, but all the problems can be traced back to the owner's inflated ago. The basic scenario is that Laurence knows everything better than everyone else. The restaurant is on the verge of bankruptcy but Laurence still refuses to change his way of running it.

He has a 72-item overcomplicated menu prepared in a totally braindead way, and what makes the situation even worse that guests don't really like what Laurence and his "servants" cook in the kitchen in a rather haphazard, fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants manner.

Before opening, Chef Ramsay prepares an emergency menu in case Laurence's menu fails. Well, it's failing but Laurence refuses to switch over the Gordon's menu.

Instead of efficiently cooking fish and veggies in proper pans, Laurence uses a big dirty hot plate. And everything he cooks on it comes out less than appetising.

The guests are coming and the disaster is about to unfold. meals go out raw and messed-up.

Finally, when the shit seriously hits the fan, Chef Ramsay gets the go-ahead from Laurence on cooking and serving his emergency menu. He demonstrates to Laurence that cooking in pans is easier, quicker and more hygienic than cooking on the hot plate.

Yet, Laurence needs some heavy-duty convincing to buy into some of Gordon's "Best Practices", including but not limited to reducing the menu to a manageable level.

Eventually the egomaniac Laurence realises that Chef Ramsay is in his corner, trying to turn a losing restaurant into a winning one.

Do you have clients who're vehemently defending the status quo, although the status quo is taking them down down down?

They are like the charismatic, courageous military curmudgeon, Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside. He rather had his Union army slaughtered than admit his mistake and change tactics.

A short while ago I had a prospect who kept repeating her firm was the best in her area of expertise. After a few repetitions my red flags went up.

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher once said.

Similarly, when a prospect keeps repeating how amazingly successful her firm is, you can small the rat. After 14 years in business, she absolutely refused to do any other "marketing" than cold calling. So, after we decided not to work together on her firm's marketing, she hired a call centre in Pakistan, and now they are harassing the whole north America with their pitch...

"Hello. You don't know us, but we're leading HR experts. Do you want to hire us?"

How lame is this? And she's likely to spend the rest of her life cold calling to drum up some business.

So, be careful with egotistical prospects regardless of the amount of money they would pay you. It's just not worth. As clients they deteriorate rather quickly, so you'd better stay away from them.

The Gengis Khan of Client Acquisition...

2007-02-26T19:44:00.000-08:00

Larry Bodine has a brilliant post on his blog about client acquisition at law firms, entitled Gengis Khan Principle: Why 10% Generate 80% of the Business.

And the situation is pretty much the same in consulting firms. There are many content experts who refuse to get involved in client acquisition, so they're in the mercy of rainmakers as to what kind of work they get from them.

And while rainmaking is fine, I believe constant and consistent lead generation is even better. The aim is not to turn interested people into clients right away, but help them to climb into your funnel and the automated lead nurturing system guides them until they have projects and are ready to hire your firm.

But for now, follow the link to read Larry's article on the Gengis Khan Principle: Why 10% Generate 80% of the Business.

The Proverbial Grand Canyon Between Leadership And Talent

2007-02-13T08:03:00.000-08:00

We all know that the smaller the gap between management and front-line consultants, the higher the overall morale and enthusiasm of people will be. Yet, we can see quite a few consulting firms that remind us of the disaster Bob Nardelli created at Home Depot, and for which he was eventually booted out.

Some details have recently appeared in the New York Times.

Nardelli created a great example of elitism at Home Depot. One aspect of this elitism was that he offered catered free lunches for top management in the executive lunch room, while the “grunts” would eat downstairs in the “grunts’ eatery” on their own dime.

In contrast to Nardelli’s pompous elitism, the new CEO, Frank Blake has already started changing the culture into one that appreciates talent and promotes company-wide relationships regardless of rank and position.

Read the New York Times article and learn from it. How many Nardellis do you have in your firm? How much longer are you willing to tolerate their behaviour just because it brings in money.

To Market or Not to Market... This is the Question

2007-02-02T07:05:00.000-08:00

Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog has a new great post on marketing professional services. He uses it mainly for law firms, but the same concept applies to management consulting firms as well.

Realistically, just as many law firms are pretty poor at marketing their services, so are many consulting firms. And this poor marketing comes from two problems.

They don't believe that marketing is a significant part of operating the firm
Therefore, they never invest in hiring a good marketing person

And as a result of this negligence, many otherwise brilliant consulting firms suffer from the dreaded feast and famine cycle, and they seem to spend more time in the famine cycle.

So, read Larry's post, Can You Beat this 25-question Sales Training Quiz?

Leadership in the Military

2007-01-12T15:53:00.001-08:00

Tom Peters has just posted a brilliant entry on his blog in which he compares commercial leadership and military leadership. While many people believe that the military is about command and control, it turns out that it's commercial leadership that's about command and control.

In the world of commerce any idiot can be appointed as a top executive or even president or CEO. Or any president can appoint his imbecile son or daughter as vice president.

But in the army it doesn't matter who is whose son or daughter. They have to start from the very bottom and earn their promotions bit by bit.

Just read Tom's post, and think about how this militaristic leadership style could work for you.

Compensating Partners In Consulting Firms

2006-12-23T17:54:00.000-08:00

There is an article on CNN Money, entitled The real CEO pay problem. It talks about how insanely corporate CEO's compensation have grown over the years. It seems that even CEOs whose companies are losing are awarding themselves with astronomical salaries, bonuses and stock options.

It seems that 4-star generals must be pretty incompetent in their work in comparison to CEOs when considering the pay difference between generals and privates. It turns out that the average 4-star general's pay package is merely 6 times larger than that of the average soldier.

So, what's happening in corporations?

The average CEOs compensation is 250 times larger than the average worker's pay package.

The other interesting fact is that the typical CEO performs only 28 minutes of productive work per day. The rest is basically "strategic naval-gazing."

I have a sneaking suspicion if army generals were performing at the same ridiculously low level as most CEOs do, by now bin Laden or Castro would rule the world.

The interesting fact is that in the army, the higher a person goes in the pecking order, the higher his responsibility becomes. But in the corporate world, the higher people go, the more untouchable they become to their peers, and the more unaccountable they become to their companies' strategies and visions.

Pursuing Stardom Or Personal Excellence

2006-11-15T20:30:00.000-08:00

Ever since Edward Bernay invented his "science" of public relations in the 1920s, many people have jumped on the PR bandwagon to turn themselves into celebrities. The waves they ride on can be summarised by a comment from Bernay, “While most people respond to their world instinctively, without thought, there exist an 'intelligent few' who have been charged with the responsibility of contemplating and influencing the tide of history. A highly educated class of opinion-molding tacticians are continuously at work, analyzing the social terrain and adjusting the mental scenery from which the public mind, with its limited intellect, derives its opinions."

I've just read about two upcoming violin virtuosos. The Scottish woman, a Menuhin Institute (The proverbial Harvard fro Violinists) student, openly admits that her priority is to make music not to become a star. She wants to explore her talent and achieve whatever she can possibly achieve by becoming the best she can be. So, she spends all her time practising, bettering her play day by day.

The other woman, another upcoming virtuoso from Vancouver, has decided to take a different direction. She also practises a bit, but her main focus is to become a celebrity. So to achieve her goal, she works hard on her image and hires the best PR agencies and spin-doctors to turn her into a celebrity.

Some people are obsessed with becoming celebrities and winding up at the Oprah show. Some “just” want to do their best to achieve mastery in their professions.

Who do you think laypeople recognise as the greatest violin virtuoso ever lived? Niccolo Paganini.

But who is the virtuoso “the industry” recognises as the “master of masters”? A Hungarian guy called Joseph Joachim, who is totally unknown for most laypeople.

The world of classical music is similar to professional firms. Some firms do everything they can to become celebrities by blowing their own trumpets and manipulating their markets. The others focus on doing high-quality, honest, and ethical client work, so happy clients could spread the word.

Many firms maintain fairly large PR departments for the sole role of seeking out opportunities where the senior partners can perform some uncensored self-aggrandisement. And of course all this is done at the expense of client work and internal standards.

The objective is no longer doing world-class work, but using various channels, screaming to the world that, “We are a world-class firm doing world-class work.”

And here we can think of Arthur Andersen and some other firms. They threw a hell of a lot of money at the wall of branding and some stuck. Actually, in the case of Andersen, quite a lot stuck. They built a nipplepiercingly brilliant brand. But they did it at the expense of internal standards. They did it by violating their values to their clients and their people. But that wasn’t important because the game was to become a celebrity. The idea of becoming a world-class accounting firm was pushed to the back burner. (Actually it was probably pushed off the cooker altogether as an unimportant topic.)

And Andersen had its moment of fame for a short while. And then it’s gone.

I reckon the same will happen to the violinist from Vancouver. The media, using the standard manipulation tricks (read “Trust Us, We’re Experts” by Sheldon Rampton and John Sauber) will help her to achieve her goal, and turn her into a celebrity. But will she ever become a world-class violinist other violinists recognise, respect and want to play with? That's yet to see.

A Swiss skier, Pirmin Zürbriggen was the candidate for the gold medal in the combined slalom at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic games. All he had to do was to complete his second run. But as he took off, he started pushing the envelope… Pushing… pushing and more pushing. Then he fell and blew his hopes for the gold medal.

And the question came up: Considering that he was already 99.9% of the champion, was it necessary to push so hard?

Later on there was some speculation about his action, and a ski instructor who knew him said that Zürbriggen didn’t ski for the gold medal or world championship title. He skied to bring out his personal best. For Zürbriggen it was not about merely achieving certain goals (win the gold medal) but achieving his maximum potential.

And this is the question you have to ask yourself regarding your firm. Are you seeking a celebrity status or are you building a world-class firm?

Do you want the media recognise you as a world-class celebrity, or do you want your clients and peers to recognise you as a world-class master of your chosen profession?

The media recognition is like a shooting star and it’s good for your ego, but the peer and client recognition last for a long time and good for your heart (Not to mention your piggy bank). You also know that whatever you’ve earned, you’ve earned it in return for your contribution, not as a result of manipulation.

Time Management Considerations For Professional Service Firm Managers

2006-10-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

Although professional firms should get out of the “trading time for money” mindset, time management within the firm still remains a crucial issue. The objective is to deliver more client value per hour, and harvest higher profit per hour.

So this month’s newsletter we look a bit deeper into this fiendish time management issue for firm managers, and how they can make time more profitable.

So here are some thoughts for this month, entitled...

Time Management Considerations For Professional Service Firm Managers

Hopefully you find it valuable.

Consultant = Court Jester

2006-09-20T17:06:00.001-07:00

I’ve just found a very interesting entry in David Maister's blog, called Passion, People and Principles. The entry is entitled The Dream Job?, It’s basically an excerpt from “Lear’s Fool: Coping With Change Beyond Future Shock” by D. Verne Morland.

It compares the role of a court jester to that of a consultant. Just think about it. Consultants are supposed to be those respected outsiders who can overstep the “corporate mark” and can make disturbing and provocative announcements to improve their clients’ condition.

But instead, many consultants are too busy stretching assignments and inflating billable hours by doing what’s beneficial to them almost regardless of whether or not it’s beneficial to their clients.

This article will give you both a good laugh and maybe (I hope) a few minutes of serious pondering upon our roles as consultants.

Of Sailors and Mountaineers: The Inherent Dangers of Internal Competition

2006-09-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

I’ve just realised that I made a pig’s ear of the last newsletter issue. I uploaded everything correctly to the server, and then sent a test message to myself to test the link to make sure it works. And then I went back and sent out the announcement.

And what happened? I sent it out to my test list, which is my own email address. So, I received it in due course but no one else.

Having rectified the problem one week later, here I send the link for the latest issue: Of Sailors and Mountaineers: The Inherent Dangers of Internal Competition.

Hopefully it reaches you this time and you find it valuable.

One little favour from you if you are in BC, Canada. A friend of mine is looking into employing one new person who can be employed on a government subsidy basis. The government pays one half and she pays the other half of the wages. Do you know how this systems works? Could you email me some pointers, so I can direct my friend in the right direction? Thanks a lot.

Thoughts?

Comparing Consulting To A Military Mission

2006-08-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

Imagine an army that, as a result of being led by an idiot, has been wiped out except one man. At that moment the general at headquarters calls in a "military consultant" to save the day.

The consultant accepts the "consulting gig" based on what the general told him.

Then he discovers some disturbing facts. From his fact-finding, he discovers that there is only one single soldier left of the whole army. He is pretty beaten, thirsty, hungry, dead exhausted, disheartened with headquarters' blazing incompetence, barefoot, butt-naked and has an empty rifle in desperate need for a major overhaul. So, basically there is no hope in hell to win the battle.

"Well, general, based on what you have, you have no chance to win." – says the consultant.

"We don't care" - Yells the general. "You’re the expert. You either win the battle for us or we'll sue you for breach of contract, and do everything in our power to ruin your reputation."

"But you misrepresented the situation in the first place" – says the consultant.

"Never mind. You're the expert. Figure something out, or we'll take you to court for incompetence, negligence, misrepresentation and breach of contract" – says the general from headquarters.

So, there is one more reason you have to create an Ideal Client Profile.