Showing results for: Consulting


Apr

26

2018

BFFs: Consulting’s Virtuous Cycle

Forbes’ annual “Best” Consulting Firms has elicited a fair bit of chest-thumping by many of the the 229 firms that made the list. Then again, with 32 sectors and services areas and multiple sub-lists by size and function, virtually every firm scores well in one category or another. So huzzahs all around, and feel free to pop the champagne.

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Apr

19

2018

“Consulting as a Product” Becomes Product

I’m often asked what’s meant when consulting firms “productize” their services. In the classic sense, we’re describing how they codify their service process/delivery for repeatability and scalability.

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Apr

12

2018

Wither Mid-Market Consulting Firms?

Fairly often, I’m asked about “mid-market” consulting firms. We typically characterize providers with revenues of $100m-$500m as occupying the mid-market -- not small and specialized like boutiques, but not gargantuan and multi-dimensional like global firms.

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Apr

6

2018

Client Heal Thyself?

Reading assertions of management consulting's demise resembles those stories where the hero experiences perpetual near-death experiences, but never quite dies. A recent special report from The Economist offers that same riff; this time artificial intelligence (AI) will, among other things, put the nail in the coffin of general management consultants.

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Mar

29

2018

Is Consulting Still a People Business?

Data has always been considered the currency of modern management consulting. Collect enough data, run it through myriad analyses, and one derives “knowledge.” Consultants then apply that knowledge to a business problem, which results in recommendations for improvement.

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Mar

22

2018

Taking the Long View to Growing a Consulting Firm

Consultancies typically follow a fairly linear path in terms of growth and maturity. There are various thresholds that firms face - primarily in size - that can prove difficult to cross. Many firms remain mired at levels <$20m annual revenue due to their inability to manage rapid growth.

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Mar

8

2018

Playing Consulting’s Blame Game

A recent study in the UK questions the value management consultants have created for National Health Services, the UK's publicly funded national healthcare system. The NHS is the largest single-payer healthcare system in the world ... and a ripe target for efficiency programs.

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Mar

1

2018

Looking Inward Serves Management Consulting Well

About once every nine years, management consulting used to go through a ritual; the world would hear that McKinsey was electing a new global managing partner. Like the devout worshipers flocking St. Peters square, all eyes would turn upward awaiting the burning of partners' ballots. White smoke or black smoke? Who would wear the shoes of Marvin Bower?

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Feb

22

2018

The Path Less Traveled Should Scare Consultants

Consulting’s foundation has always been built on the partnership model. I had two reminders this week that cracks to that model are becoming more pronounced.

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Feb

15

2018

The Infinite World of Management Consulting

American astronaut Scott Kelly holds the distinction of having spent an entire year aboard the ISS. His book, Endurance, contains recurring passages that take place the ISS's cupola, a section of the space station where he and his crew-members were offered panoramic views of the Earth and the cosmos. From this perch, one could reflect on the smallness of our little blue marble against the infinity of space.

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