FREE Practice Management Black Paper For Management Consulting Firms Reveals the...

Ten Deadly Management (Mal)Practices That Often Bring Consulting Firms to Incalculable Suffering or Even Agonising Death!"

"Tom, thank you so much for the black paper, it is one of the most incisive interpretations of the consultant's dilemma I have had the pleasure to read. Thanks again." Alan Halford & Associates, Business & Management Consultants www.alanhalford.com.au

Dear Colleague,

The way most consulting firms operate can be the best described as a one-time transaction basis between a fungible vendor and an apathetic, indifferent client. It's not a new recognition that most consulting firms don't have a Trusted Advisor type transformational relationship with their clients. It's merely a money and activity transaction: "Give me the money and we'll perform some tasks for you."

With a little attention these transactions could be changed to long-term peer-level relationships based on mutual trust, respect and peer-level candour. Essentially, this is what this Black Paper is all about. You'll find it valuable if, you...

...are worried about your best people deserting you when you need them the most.

...you are struggling to find and work with the cream of the crop of your target market.

...you are frustrated by your people's apathy for client acquisition or even their own careers.

...you are forced to accept clients your competitors have already fired or rejected

I like the most about your Black Paper is that I don't have to be a slave to my client; which is easy to get trapped in. By slave I mean losing my freedom, putting clients before professional development and putting clients before my team. The three biggest benefits our firm can gain from these insights are that professional development needs to be given high priority, we must set boundaries for client contact and being in the value you provide to clients. It really reinforces key issues in consulting relationships. Chris Foster, Green Taylor Partners www.greentaylor.com.au

In this black paper I tried to summarise some important information that can help you to avoid some deadly leadership, managerial and practice development blunders which infiltrate so many consulting firms, jeopardising their balanced growth and overall profitability and making their partners engage in strategic hair-pulling as a last desperate resort to deal with the problem.

The consulting firm is the only form of business that provides highly customised and even personalised services (basically care, protection and guidance) to its clients, and delivers value in close collaboration with clients through one-to-one relationships based on mutual trust, respect and peer-level credibility.

The other difference is that while industrial companies can become successful by being sufficiently systemised and staffed by lower-skilled people who use those systems to achieve desired results, professional firms, above and beyond creating systems and processes, must also compete for attracting top tier talents.

So, considering the collaborative nature of client relationships ("what can WE JOINTLY achieve?" vs. industrial companies "What can I do FOR you?"), for a consulting firm to achieve industrial significance, it must thrive to attract both top-tier talents and cream of the crop clients with sexy, exciting project opportunities.

While it is clear that consulting firms are diametrically different from mass-production-based industrial businesses, the sad reality is that far too many consulting firms are managed as if they were industrial companies using manual labourers to mass-produce commodities.

Associates are often treated as necessary expenses, being expected to conform to rigid systems and processes and they are evaluated on metrics which work in industrial companies, selling commodities to customers, but not in consulting firms, selling care, protection and guidance to clients.

Sadly, you can summarise so many consulting firms' purposes in one sentence: To constantly and purposefully screw our people and our clients in order to fatten the partners' bank accounts. I know it sounds harsh, but hey, the reality can be pretty wild and hard to believe.

There are several big differences between industrial employees and associates of consulting firms. Two major differences are:

While industrial companies are highly compartmentalised, that is, sales, marketing, manufacturing, HR, accounting, etc., consulting firms operate as one cohesive unit with 100% transparency.

While industrial companies sell commodities to customers (people buying commodities at competitive prices), using a dedicated sales force, in consulting firms every single associate and partner is selling unique experiences to clients (people buying care, protection and guidance at premium fees). That is, in consulting firms there is no dedicated sales department and other silos.

From this black paper titled Ten Deadly Management (Mal)Practices That Often Bring Consulting Firms to Incalculable Suffering or Even Agonising Death, you will discover...

• How dangerous industrial management practices can infiltrate and ruin consulting firms, and how to keep them out


• Why requesting and checking resumes are the wrong way of hiring talent


• Why chasing money can only derail you from following your vision and kill your firm... dead... very very dead


• Why putting clients first is a huge mistake, yet a common lunacy in most consulting firms


• Why and how a dedicated sales force can ruin your firm's reputation and your services' perceived value


• Why charging competitive(ly low) hourly fees is a road to financial suicide


• How traditional compensation methods ruin teamwork and firm-wide co-operation


• And much more...

I liked your Black paper because it was straightforward, used real examples from your life, and was easy to read (without a lot of management gobbledygook). With a name like black paper (instead of white), and having read your comments on the Get Clients Now message board, I figured it would be cheeky, irreverent, and thought-provoking. It was, in fact, all those things, plus it really got me thinking about the difference between applying brute force to consulting efforts (and then crashing and burning), and working far smarter and more effectively. I have seen quite a few consultants crash and burnout from working night and day, snuggled up to their Blackberrys, and I want to avoid that. I don't own a Blackberry, and turn off my cell phone at night, so I 'm on the right track! I am redoing my fee approach to focus on "value", rather than time spent. Also, I realized that my web site, while not "me" focused, wasn't sufficiently "you" focused, so I am changing that too. I have also instituted programs to charge based on response time, value given, and knowledge transfer, rather than time. I recommend this Black Paper, because, as I said above, I know quite a few consultants who are pounding themselves into the ground, rather than truly enjoying the benefits of their own expertise and knowledge. Jodi Kaplan, Principal www.kaplancopy.com

For a free copy of my black paper, Ten Deadly Management (Mal)Practices That Often Bring Consulting Firms to Incalculable Suffering or Even Agonising Death... fill in the mysterious form below, and the magic of technology will soon plop the report right into your email inbox.