The History of Dynamic Innovations Squad

With this comprehensive company history I'd like to give you a better understanding of why and how Dynamic Innovations Squad came into existence and how it works with its clients, thus, hopefully, giving you greater confidence in the services and the knowledge products I offer to management consulting firms.

I got into consulting in the early 90s. At that time I was still enjoying a career in engineering. However, I quickly learnt that it was not so much my engineering expertise that made the difference but how that engineering solution related to the whole business and how it impacted people. So, I started learning more about business and people.

After a few years and an engineering degree later I discovered I wasn't cut out for engineering and working in isolation in a lab, but rather to collaborate with other people to try to bring out the best in them, and create some neat shit together. Yes, I realised that I was a people person, not a lone wolf.

So, started my business... I chose management consulting firms as my target market because I was intrigued with the oddball "Professional service firm" business model. My idea was that I could help consulting firms by using the leadership and team development skills I had learnt in the military and skydiving. And of course, a few other things.

I Noticed Several Problems With Traditional Consulting, Consulting Firms and Their Methods...

General Patton once summarised the problem for the military, but the very same problem applies to consulting firms...

General Patton on Winning... "It's the cold glitter of the attacker's eyes not the point of the questing bayonet, that breaks the line. It's the fierce determination of the driver to close with the enemy, not the mechanical perfection of the tank, that conquest the trench. It's the cataclysmic ecstasy of the conflict in the fighter, not the perfection of his machine gun, which drops the enemy in flaming ruin. Yet volumes are devoted to armaments and pages for inspiration."

What good ol' George means is that great armies are made of soldiers of great character traits not merely by certain tonnage of machine guns, grenades, tanks and rockets and certain number of hours of tutelage in the classrooms of a military school.

When I started out, the biggest problem I saw consulting firms face was that they focused on hiring MBAs and other fiendish credentials even if they came (as most did) with the kind of character traits that would never fit into a consulting firm. Most of their highly schooled candidates were more competitive than collaborative, more opportunistic than strategic and more expedient than ethical.

Why?

Because these employees had impressive credentials from impressive universities, so the firms' partners thought that with a few MBAs onboard they were on the gravy train forever.

It's just an interesting side note that according to a recent study (Academic Dishonesty in Graduate Business Programs: The Prevalence, Causes, and Proposed Actions based on 5,000 MBA students), 56% of students admitted to cheating. Their justification is that business is about cheating and lying anyway, so there is nothing wrong with it.

In a 2005 study by Wetfeet, over 800 students, who pursued careers in management consulting, were asked: "Please select up to 3 factors that make your top ranked company appealing to you." Only 2 (0.25%) people said that "Ethics" was one of their top 3 factors for choosing a consulting firm. (Even the category "Other" was rated more highly than "Ethics.")

So, using traditional recruiting methods, all you are likely to attract is a bunch of hyper-competitive cheaters and liars, because for some reason this is what their MBAs prepared them for. So, in the end, you'll have a firm with highly skilled people without an ethical backbone and one single moral fibre in their bodies.

The other problem I saw many management consulting firms subject their clients to was to catch a fish for clients without teaching them how to fish. These firms have made clients cripplingly dependent on them. And of course, these firms kept charging for the kind of work clients would have the capacity to learn in a week or two and do it for themselves forever without any external help.

This originates from the problem that most consulting firms are pathetically poor at marketing their own services. And this even includes many marketing consulting firms too. Hint: Most of them get their clients using armies of salespeople and call centres in Asia. So, when they get their clients, many of them resort to "milking" them for a long long time to stretch the project.

It is plain unethical but very legal and lucrative.And sadly, when firms have to choose between ethical and lucrative practices, many of them choose lucrative, and are willing to forego ethical practices.

Many firms' focus has shifted from care to commerce; from improving the client's condition to making a killing. And that bugged me. I knew there had to be a better way. A better way that better serves both clients' and management consulting firms' long-term prosperity, not merely their "quick buck" mentality.

So, in order to establish my brand as one that management consulting firms could trust as a respectable firm, that is, not merely in business for the quick buck, but making a lasting positive difference in clients' lives I had to establish a model I can base my operation on.

Inspired by The Military... The "Ultimate Professional Service Firm"

...more specifically, a particular military model called the commando, a small group of specially skilled generalists, operating in close collaboration based on mutual trust, respect, speed, agility and surprise. Do you know that the military spends millions or even billions of dollars both to acquire state of the art weapons and other warfare gear and to develop highly skilled professionals with the right character traits who are ready, willing and able to put something "bigger" than themselves into the focus of their missions?

Similarly, in the world of commerce, the consulting firm model is the proverbial commando, in which a small team of cross-trained generalists are expected to produce unique value to improve their clients' condition through dispensing unique value, that is, customised intellectual property which in turn improves their clients' condition.

In a short space of time those "vicious" drill sergeants train new recruits from the level of no skills to such level of mastery of skills that they can fulfil their missions when the stakes are high and the heat is on.

And the same skill development methods, that turn seemingly unskilled new recruits into class act fighters, who can make split second decisions based on limited information at fairly high accuracy when there is very little room for error, can also work when building world-class consulting firms out of groups of energised, passionate and enthusiastic folks.

Military leaders know that their units are expected to pull off amazing performance or their countries can be in great danger.

And when we use commando "training tactics" and operational principles, we can turn a consulting firm into as "lethal" and potent of an enterprise in commercial warfare as a commando is in military warfare.

Based on my own experience during my military service in the early 1980s, I knew if I could use my military knowledge to build a bridge between the military's commando model and the business world's consulting firm model, then I could help consulting firms to achieve consistent results for their clients, unprecedented profitability for themselves and a higher level of professional fulfilment and personal growth for their associates.

Lots of the stuff you learn on this site or through working with me comes from the military, based either on my own personal experience or what I've learnt from military leaders like Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan (Two of my distant ancestors), Hannibal, Napoleon, Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, Grant, Patton and many others. And of course from the two men who are often referred to as two of the greatest commanders in history: Alexander the Great and the Russian field marshal Alexander V. Suvorov. I believe many of their acts in the army can be replicated in consulting firms with great success.

And similarly, we can also learn from military curmudgeons like Major General Ambrose Everett Burnside, who rather got his Union army slaughtered than admit his mistake and change tactics.

And since this approach produces consistent and predictable results in the military where the stakes are high, it can also produce great results for consulting firms that are preparing for battle in the world of commerce.

You can maximise your results, while minimising your need for trial, error and the emotional hardship that comes with them.

Vogue On The Outside Vs. Functional On The Inside

For many consulting firms success means to be able to show vogue-ness on the outside. More upscale offices with furniture made of imported exotic wood. Fancier company cars for the managing partners. Success is all about show and appearance, and very little focus is channelled towards improving substance and internal performance.

It reminds me of General George B. McClellan in the US civil war. He built a Union army that could expertly march, drill and parade. McClellan demanded blind obedience to follow his orders to the letter and was very precise with following protocol. Nevertheless, he kept losing battles. Grant was less demanding on style but kept winning battles. McClellan was vogue in style and vague in substance.

So, my idea of helping my clients is based on modified military-type training. No, it excludes running, shooting and other warfare skill development. What I mean here is the training method itself. In the military you have to be able to use vital skills without thinking. Every skill must be embedded in the subconscious so deep that you can use it within milliseconds of receiving certain stimuli. And this is the kind of skill development that is hardly ever offered outside the army.

It's one thing to have a prepared, scripted appointment with a prospect and yet another to be skilled in conducting a spontaneous discussion with someone in the grocery store or in the gym, so successful that the person is almost ready to hire your firm to help her company with a major issue.

The key was linking these skills to the person's talents, character and core values. And then when I started linking skills, characters and values, and the firm's objectives and people's personal life goals, my success rate exploded.

And it didn't explode because all of the sudden people learnt more skills. It wasn't about the skills. The big difference came from changes in their characters, values and beliefs. Stephen Covey calls it a change of paradigm. A change in the way they think. When people start saying, "I believe we can become a world-class consulting firm."

Since most of my consulting projects are fairly short (90-day high intensity, rapid results gigs), my work is very intense, so I can work only with a small number of clients. And while I've been successful with this "hard arse" high-impact military approach to help consulting firms on three continents...

...Some Problems Keep Raising Their Ugly Heads

1. As we increased the intensity of solving the current issue on hand, some seemingly unrelated problems came up. And this caused some setbacks and we had to extend the deadline in order to deal with the current issue in context of the firm's daily operation and long-term strategy, and not to fall for the quick fix that removes the problem from the context and fix it in isolation. But most of my projects are short because we in my work with my clients, we contract to deal with only one issue.

And here is an important, yet often overlooked consideration regarding change: There is an inverse exponential relationship between the number of change initiatives and the magnitude of change. The more things you try to change, the smaller the magnitude of that change is. This is why most complex change initiatives fail.

If, for instance you find that too many sub-ideal prospects are becoming clients, we will look at the hole in your interviewing process, so 8inappropriate prospects can't "infiltrate" your client roster any more. So, in our work together, we dedicate the first 60 days to create a "world-class" interviewing process which only ideal clients can get through. And if some other relevant issues come up, we have a 30-day time cushion to deal with that too.

2. My clients started relying on me to help them to remedy the "undesirable residual side effects" created by other consultants who tried to solve problems in isolation, and failed to recognise the importance of the holistic approach, that is solving problems in context. And this is where we have to create more extensive projects, spreading beyond 90 days and requiring some high-level and long-term commitment from clients.

So What Does This Mean For You?

One of the most important objectives of consulting is to build on clients' strengths. But we can build real strengths if and only if we align people's knowledge, skills and innate talents. If you have a talent for numbers and analysis (left brain talent) but are employed as a graphics artist (right brain talent), then you can never reach you peak potential.

This realisation made it possible for me to "push" people to a higher level of performance, and since they would play to their natural talents, they could perform better with lower level of stress and effort, not to mention supervision.

So, I started fiddling with the "Flow" model, created by Hungarian-born psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. In case you're not Hungarian and have a hard time with the pronunciation, you can use Csikszentmihalyi's own pronunciation model. He jokingly refers to his name to be pronounced as "Chicks sent me high".

From the model, it was as obvious as a ham sandwich that the more expertise people have, the higher level of challenges they can handle without stress and frustration. I just had to make sure they stay in the high end of the "Flow Channel" to achieve amazing deeds.

Here is Csikszentmihalyi's definition 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."

Combining Disciplines, Talents and Skills

Of course there are lots of consultants out there with plenty plus one approaches, and they all swear that their approaches are the best. To emphasise their points, many of them have written "best-selling" books. And I assume they all have valid points.

But...

Most of those books are applied to industrial companies that produce things. Just look at books on selling. Most of them still purport the same old "find the pain -> agitate it -> close, close, close" scenario. But there is a world of difference between selling pots, pans and fire alarms and selling consulting services. And most business books don't cut the mustard for consulting firms.

Running a successful consulting firm is about bringing out the best in people. The consulting firm is the only truly "knowledge-based" business model that sells highly customised intellectual property to improve their clients' condition.

And to have people who are mentally, emotionally and physically fit for dispensing intellectual property, you have to align people's talents and skills, and link them to organisational objectives and values. Just like in the military: You can be the best shooter, but if you don't have the discipline to get up in the morning to do your morning run and exercise regimen, then you get penalised because in action you would jeopardise your whole unit. Obviously one of the military's core values is excellent physical health.

The Holistic Approach in Segments

When assessing a new client, we take into consideration the purpose of consulting firms. So, imagine managing a consulting firm is like cooking. You start with the end result you're seeking...

1. ...more valuable services for their clients at higher fees


2. ...more valuable careers and quality of life for their people

These are the ends. Everything else, including a profitable firm, is just means to the end. You reach a new level of client value and quality of life, and then you'll jump in your firm's profitability. And that financial jump allows you to deliver even higher client value and step up to a higher quality of life. And the cycle repeats. So it's simple. Is it easy? No way, Jose!

The consulting firm is the only business model that sells highly customised and personalised intellectual property and brainpower through collaborative relationships. Clients perceive them and receive them as care, protection and guidance. Therefore consulting firm musts concentrate on three major strategies to achieve the above three objectives...

The next step of cooking is the raw materials, that is, high-quality ingredients. For a consulting firm, these ingredients are...

1. Clients who fit into your "Ideal Client" profile


2. Sexy and exciting projects that fit into your "Ideal Project" profile


3. Top-tier talents who fit into your "Ideal Talent" profile with the right strengths (character + talents + experience + skills + schooling - pretty much in the same order of importance)


4. Effective and repeatable systems, standards and processes to automate the routine, so you have time to humanise the unique

And now we use five key processes to turn the raw materials into the desired results. look at them as the cooking process. They are perpetually...

1. ...perfecting firm leadership and management


2. ...raising client satisfaction


3. ...improving internal performance


4. ...enhancing skill development and talent integration


5. ...thriving to acquire better clients and projects

And while in projects we work only on one area, we work on it as a part of the whole and we are monitoring how the whole changes. Why is this important? Just imagine turning a bus or a long truck. You turn the vehicle on the front, but you keep watching the rear end to make sure you don't bump on the pavement and run over some unsuspecting people.

Benefiting From Thousands of Hours Of Learning, Research, Client Work and... Well... Major League Screw-Ups

Now you can discover what it really means to operate a happy, healthy and fit consulting firm. Ever since I set my eyes on helping consulting firms to improve their performance, I've been involved in learning the most up-to-date stuff from some of the greatest industry experts. Yes, I could pontificate that I've studied at the London Business School, and that's nice, but my real street-smart knowledge comes, besides my years in the military and skydiving, from being coached and mentored by some of big guns.

So, I believe that some $420,000 worth of my education, the hundreds of books read and "digested", the hundreds of hours spent at seminars, workshops and conferences and thousands of hours of client work have equipped me with the skills I need to help other consulting firms. And my past as a butcher, farmer, gravedigger, embalmer, engineer, crematorium attendant, etc. have only broadened my horizon and expanded my perspectives. I can advise clients what cut of meat to eat to stay healthy, but if they die for some reason, I can also prepare them for the funeral and then bury them.

Now some people may say, "Tom, then you're not a specialist but only a generalist." In a way, yes. And what I've seen over the years is that the best consultants are all generalists and not specialists.

Grand Master Award winner science fiction writer Robert Anson Heinlein American author put it this way...

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

With a bit more seriousness, Rajat Gupta, the worldwide managing director of McKinsey & Co. has put it this way...

"Some of our best people are those who studied literature or the classics, and who later received business training. These people tend to understand the array of forces at work in organizations, and they approach decisions in a very well-rounded way."

Visionary, designer, architect, poet, author, and inventor, R. Buckminster Fuller put it this way...

"Our failures are a consequence of many factors, but possibly one of the most important is the fact that society operates on the theory that specialization is the key to success, not realizing that specialization precludes comprehensive thinking. The word generalization in literature usually means covering too much territory too thinly to be persuasive, let alone convincing. In science, however, a generalization means a principle that has been found to hold true in every special case... The principle of leverage is a scientific generalization.

So, there you have it...

My speciality lies in that I only work with management consulting firms. I specialise in an industry not on one single process, like sales, marketing, human resources or even organic chimney sweeping. Besides, the best management consulting firms are 100% non-compartmentalised, so using specialists would be as useful as a fart in a windstorm.

As Abraham Maslow once said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." And narrow-skilled specialists work exactly that way. They keep swinging their "specialist" hammers regardless of the nature of the problem. Yes, they drive in some nails, but also smash up some China, some chandeliers and some grass cabinets. So, finally they cause more harm than good.

For an advertising agency every business problem can be solved with more advertising. For the leadership training firm every business problem requires one more leadership workshop. And the worst of all: For the motivational speaker, it's one more motivational speech.

So, Where The Cricket To Go From Here?

Here you have several options. I suggest you start with the free stuff...

Firm Management Black Paper: If you've found this summary intriguing join my newsletter, where every month we dig into one specific issue and dissect it in some detail. Each issue is about 4-6,000 words. In spite of the length, it's a fairly easy read because I keep it free of big ostentatious words. I write in pretty colloquial English, which is both educational and entertaining. Provided you don't get hung up on the occasional mild four letter words. They are there to make the point, or as the experts call it in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), pattern interrupt.

Indexed Articles: There are some 70 indexed articles on the website right now and I keep adding to them. Some are available to the wide wild world to read, and some, the meatiest ones are available only to the readers of my newsletter.

Blog Posts: Whenever something comes to mind that is worth sharing, I post it on my blog. (Opens in a new window)

Speaking and Facilitation: I regularly facilitate workshops for firms and speak at various professional associations.

Consulting Projects: They are short-term (typically 90 days), high impact "Blitzkrieg" (German for lightning war or flash war) type projects. I like to go deep into clients' firms, raise hell and stir shit to find the root cause of problems, help clients to solve their problems (No, I can't solve your problems.) and then get the hell out and let clients get on with their lives.

Retainer Engagements: My retainer engagements provide access to my brain for a small group of clients. They don't have projects per se. They just value my input on a continual basis.

"The most important element of conducting warfare is to aim for a swift victory and avoid a prolonged campaign." ~ Sun Tzu - The Art of War

Why does my approach work in a world where most change initiatives take years to implement? Because, thanks to my military background, I can push the meaning of "commitment" and "accountability" by a few notches higher than normal, and for 90 days we drive the firm at ramming speed, which was the highest speed ancient galleys used to sink other galleys by ramming them on the side. Our objective is to ram and sink some of the obstacles that hold firms back from peak performance. Of course, for some, the word "ram" may sound too violent and aggressive. My take is that as long as I'm violent and aggressive with problems only, while being caring and compassionate with people, the word "ram" has a place in my consulting vocabulary.

And the other thing is that we work on one issue only in a focused manner. In this context focus, that is, F.O.C.U.S. means Follow One Course Until Successful.

Why is this important?

Imagine you have a car accident that leaves you with a collapsed lung and a broken leg. You are taken to hospital and the doctors start working on you. But... There is a sequence. First the lung doctor sorts out your lung and your breathing and only then can the leg doctor fix your broken leg. Otherwise, what's the point in fixing the leg of a corpse? After that there is only one more journey for the corpse, and, as former gravedigger and embalmer, I've never seen anyone take that last journey on foot. Let me know if you have. I may be missing something.

And one more important observation... The lung and the leg doctors never work on you simultaneously. Doctors focus on one single problem at any one time. You never hear a doctor say: "While John is delivering your baby, Joan is giving you a flue shot and Jill is fixing some fillings in your teeth. And if we have time, Liz is giving you a nice brain scan."

While this approach may sound retarded, this is exactly what many consulting firms do. And then whatever happens to the client, no one knows what exactly caused the change, so if the change is undesirable, no one can undo it, and the client has to live with the problem... Or be killed by it.

So, this is it. Hopefully, now you have a better picture of how Dynamic Innovations Squad (essentially me, hiding behind a fancy name) works and your firm might be able to benefit from this oddball "commando" approach.

And thanks for taking time to learn a bit more about the method to my madness.

Aim higher

Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur