September 27th, 2023

Feedback and Development

Feedback, both positive and constructive, plays a pivotal role in your personal and professional development. That being said, navigating the dynamics of providing and receiving feedback can be very challenging and is something you are always faced with in the world of consulting/professional services. As mentors and managers, one of your primary responsibilities is to … Continue reading “Feedback and Development”

September 7th, 2023

Leverage for Junior Consultants

Regardless of your current position, you likely began your consulting career with a low level of experience and have gone through a unique journey to get to where you are today. How did you navigate this journey? Were you fortunate enough to have a mentor, or were you left to your own devices? Irrespective of … Continue reading “Leverage for Junior Consultants”

September 5th, 2023

Ensuring Alignment When Crafting a Proposal

At the core of determining and aligning on the scope of a project are proposals. While proposals can be commonly perceived as a document whose primary purpose is to set pricing terms, the most effective proposals ensure that we are in total agreement with our client. This means our proposals should set expectations regarding the … Continue reading “Ensuring Alignment When Crafting a Proposal”

August 28th, 2023

Motivating Consultants

What truly motivates individuals in a professional setting? Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessarily only money. According to an MIT study, once basic financial needs have been met, monetary incentives lose their effectiveness. In fact, in some circumstances, financial incentives may can even decrease productivity. So, if money is not the most effective … Continue reading “Motivating Consultants”

June 8th, 2022

The PS Dilemma of Managing Just-In-Time Talent – Part 2

As discussed in a previous blog  (The PS Dilemma of Managing Just-In-Time Talent), leveraging a Just-In-Time (JIT) Professional Services (PS) Talent staffing without having a corresponding operating model can lead to increased risk to both delivery excellence and financial performance. Smoothing the natural peaks and valleys of a JIT model is key and many manufacturing … Continue reading “The PS Dilemma of Managing Just-In-Time Talent – Part 2”

August 2nd, 2021

Professional Services Talent – The Talent Pyramid

Professional Services (PS) organizations often do not leverage common functional or organizational structure to accomplish their mission. This means that direct-line reporting relationships between individual contributors and managers typically do not exist, instead it is a matrixed project-based structure. For embedding PS teams, this is different than most other groups within the organization and, therefore, … Continue reading “Professional Services Talent – The Talent Pyramid”

May 2nd, 2018

Talent Development & Customer Intimacy

Talent Development & Customer Intimacy As I stated in my last post, talent is always important and is one of the key drivers of building and sustaining customer intimacy. Your people will constantly be generating new Ideas, then taking those Ideas to your customers and delivering on the promises made. In addition, these teams are accountable … Continue reading “Talent Development & Customer Intimacy”

May 2nd, 2018

The Talent Imperative: Why People Make the Difference in Customer Intimacy Business Model Transformations

Many of our historically product-focused clients are shifting their organizational and operational focus to address buyers’ needs in their key markets. Talent is always important but is particularly critical as businesses move to these customer intimacy-based models that require a deep understanding of the market needs. A transformation to an intimacy-based business necessitates an array … Continue reading “The Talent Imperative: Why People Make the Difference in Customer Intimacy Business Model Transformations”

August 7th, 2013

Issues Building New Practices in a Customer Intimacy Business

We work with many new practices that include: people from our clients’ legacy businesses; consultants with vertical expertise that are recent hires; and other new hires that might sell solutions.  While they each have been successful in their own careers and think they know how to build customer intimacy, in practice it is often a challenge to get the group to work together effectively.