AMCF Panelist on Social Capital

Upcoming AMCF panelist and Chief Knowledge Officer for Saint Consulting Group Seth Cargiuolo has posted a video on his blog addressing social media’s complicated relationship with the traditional norms of intellectual property. While Seth states that ultimately social capital belongs to individuals and not their employers, the real takeaway is that firms can and should respond to this new reality proactively.  Along with a distinguished set of panelists, Seth will address this topic and others at AMCF’s Marketing Management Affinity Group event on May 23rd at Deloitte's New York office.

Click here to register for the event

Annual Legal Issues Update

General counsels and other in-house lawyers from a variety of consulting firms gathered in Chicago at the offices of Drinker Biddle for AMCF’s annual Legal Issues Update on Thursday, May 3rd.  Presenters included Steve Goodman, Vice President and General Counsel for Hitachi; Laurent Masson, VP and Intellectual Property Lead, Avanade; Dominic Davison-Jenkins; Managing Director, and Roger Marks, SVP, of Aon Global; Walter Bardenwerper, General Counsel, Towers Watson; Britton Guerrina, Deputy General Counsel, PwC and others. All presentations from the event are available to members by logging on to the Members Only section of the website.

Click here to see the presenations through the Members Only login

Consulting Services as Exports

U.S. exports are typically thought of in the narrow sense of goods, food, and raw materials.  But consulting and other service-sector industries have also played a large role in a multi-year U.S. export boom.  Madison Riley, a Managing Director at AMCF Member firm Kurt Salmon, spoke with NPR about his firm’s lively overseas business and the new foreign markets Kurt Salmon has entered in recent years.  The segment appeared on the April 21st edition of All Things Considered.

Click here to read a writeup and listen to the All Things Considered podcast at the NPR website

AMCF Looking for Manager, PR and Marketing

AMCF is looking to fill a manager position to oversee the association’s PR and Marketing activities. A Bachelor’s degree in Communication or Business with 5+ years in media, marketing or a PR-related field is required. See full background and job description by clicking through to AMCF’s Careers page.

Applicants should email resume to info@amcf.org and include “Manager, PR and Marketing” in the subject line.

The Evolving Role of Purchasing in the Acquisition of Professional Services

AMCF organized a CFO roundtable on February 24th at Virtusa’s New York offices to discuss the increasing role of procurement in the sales and marketing process of professional services. Speakers included Gary Luefschuetz Esq., a Partner at Accenture; Carlos Nicot, the Founder and President of Optizas and Pedro Villanova, an SVP in charge of Citigroup’s Global Technology Sourcing. Hay Group’s CFO Stephen Kaye moderated the session. The write-up is available to AMCF members.

Click here to read the write-up by logging into the Members’ only section of the website.

AMCF Gallery Page

AMCF's members and friends can now view pictures from AMCF events at our new gallery page.  Currently featured are photos from our 2011 Healthcare Leadership Forum in Chicago, the 2011 and 2012 Indian Leadership Forums, and most recently, the 2012 AMCF Awards Gala.  Prints of the Awards Gala photos are also available for purchase on the AMCF Photobucket site (after registering for a free account).  If you have any photos from recent AMCF Events you would like us to post, please send them to us.

Click here to see the AMCF Gallery Page

In the Spotlight: The 2012 AMCF Awards Gala

The first annual AMCF Awards Gala took place on the evening of Thursday, March 1st at the University Club in New York City. Following the first day of the Global Leadership Forum, the AMCF Awards Gala recognized finalists and named winners in ten categories.

Click here to see the Award Winners and the AMCF Press Release from the event.

Social Media on the Sub-Continent

AMCF and member firms Tata Consultancy Services and Deloitte Consulting sponsored a forum on January 18th at the Nehru Center in Mumbai to discuss strategic perspectives and recent research on social media's ability to transform Indian corporations.

Among the presenters were Tonya McKinney, Director of Digital Strategy at TCS; Gaurav Mishra, Social Media Director at MSLGROUP; Uday Parmar, Managing Partner at BTL; and Dr. Siddharth Singh, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Indian School of Business. Presentations from the event are available to AMCF Members in the members' only section of the website.

Click here to go to the AMCF members only login.

AMCF Member Navigant Aggresively Hiring Again

Consulting firms have been hiring again since 2010, many to build back capacity slashed at the depth of the recession. But whereas caution has slowed growth in many consulting segments, Chicago firms are hiring at a rapid clip, according to a recent article in Crain’s.  AMCF member firm Navigant went out ahead of the curve, increasing its Chicago employee base by over 10% for the year ending October 31, 2011. Now firms of all size and specialization are following suit.  Accenture, Huron, and KPMG have all announced intentions to add consultants in their Chicago offices. 

Click here to read the full article.

Deloitte Acquires Life Sciences Firm Intrasphere

AMCF Member Firm Deloitte has significantly expanded its life sciences consulting capacity by acquiring the New Jersey based firm Intrasphere.  Intrasphere’s business and technology solutions assist pharmaceutical companies in drug safety and regulatory compliance. The acquisition of the firm by Deloitte creates a new Drug Safety and Regulatory Consulting Practice within Deloitte Consulting LLP, which will be lead by Principal Dan Ressler. “The addition of Intrasphere's capabilities to the Deloitte portfolio of life sciences consulting services enhances our position in drug safety and regulatory consulting and expands the foundation on which we will continue to lead this market,” said Ressler in a press release.

Click here to read the entire press release at Deloitte's website

Sloan Award Winner Ginny Rommetty to be IBM's Next CEO

AMCF Member firm IBM recently announced that Senior Vice President Ginny Rommetty will replace Sam Palmissano as CEO.  An IBMer since 1981, Rometty entered the management ranks early in her career and helped build Global Business Services—the firm’s consulting practice—into the profitable juggernaut it is today.  She also advocated IBM’s acquisition of PwC Consulting and took on the behemoth task of integrating the businesses after the deal went through.

AMCF awarded Rommetty with the Carl Sloan Award for achievement in the consulting industry in 2006 and, moving forward, wishes her the best in her new post as IBM’s chief executive.

Click here to read an IBM press release.

IBM Continues to Build Its Analytics Capabilities Through Several Strategic Acquisitions

Since late summer, AMCF Member IBM has been on an analytics acquisition spree.  On the last day of August, Big Blue announced the acquisition of UK-based firm i2 to bolster crime prevention and anti-fraud services for both public and private clients.  The next day IBM announced it was set to acquire Algorithmics, a Canadian firm whose analytical-capabilities will "strenghten and expand IBM's risk consulting services" for clients in finance. And in October, IBM announced it would further enhance its security offering by buying Q1 Technology Labs.  The acquisition of Q1 will help IBM provide clients with real-time security data to combat cyber-theft of sensitive information.

Click here to read about IBM's Acquisitions

The Selection Committee for the 2012 AMCF Awards

AMCF is pleased to announce an independent panel of well-known, experienced executives from business and government as well as journalists and professors for the 2012 AMCF Awards Selection Committee.  This group will be actively engaged in reading, discussing and deciding on all submissions.  In addition to their expertise and knowledge of management consulting and client-related consulting projects, they were chosen based on their ability to remain unbiased and independent in their evaluations. We are very proud of the accomplishments, diversity and prominence of this group.

To read more about the committee and its individual members, please click here.

Selection Criteria for the 2012 AMCF Consulting Project Awards

AMCF has already seen some exciting submissions come in for the 2012 Consulting Project Awards and eagerly anticipate more.

There are five main criteria by which to judge submissions. Now these criteria have been drilled down into sub-criteria to give entry coordinators a better indication of what the Selection Committee will be looking at when reading submissions.  AMCF encourages submitting firms to use these criteria to further refine the points they’d like to highlight and put forth the strongest possible narrative of value delivered to clients.

Please keep in mind that the submission deadline is October 31st. Contact Jack Underwood with questions at junderwood@amcf.org or 212-262-3055.

Click here to read the Selection Criteria and Explanations 

John Furth Article Appears in Global Business Magazine

AMCF President and CEO John Furth has recently analyzed the consulting industry for an article in Global Business Magazine. Looking at markets both at home and abroad, and drawing on sources such as Kennedy Information and external scans from AMCF Board Meetings, Furth said we can expect modest annual growth--around 4-5%--across the industry in the next few years.  Furth indicated, moreover, that the battle for top university talent and a decent amount of M&A activity will continue as firms seek to build (or rebuild) capacity and strengthen their offerings.

Click here to read the entire article at Global Business Magazine

Mercer to Extend Health & Benefits Offering Through Acquisition of Mahoney and Associates

AMCF Member firm Mercer is set to acquire Mahoney and Associates, a welfare and health advisory practice based in Fort Lauderdale.  According to a Mercer press release, the two firms have signed a definitive agreement and Mercer should close on the acquisition by the end of August.  "This transaction allows us to deliver expertise through the most highly regarded brokerage firm in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area," said David P. Rahill, Mercer's U.S. Leader of Health and Benefits Business, "we believe this will be a highly attractive service position for the clients we now jointly serve."

Click here to read the full press release

Virtusa Acquires ALaS

AMCF member firm ALaS consulting has been acquired by the worldwide IT consulting firm Virtusa.  ALaS’s consulting staff of 150 will bolster Virtusa’s offering in the finance and banking industries, and ALaS President Erik Digiacomo will lead a new capital markets business line. “This acquisition will further enable Virtusa to identify and execute transformational programs, take on the downstream technology implementation and strengthen Virtusa’s strategic position across its BFSI client base,” said Virtusa CEO Kris Canekerante in a press release.

Click here to read the entire press release on Virtusa’s website.

In Wake of Recession, Firm Leaders Sacrificed Compensation and Lowered Prices

As the world economy started its slow recovery in 2009 and 2010, consulting firms were caught in a bind having to balance short-term profitability needs with long-tern sustainability. Data collected by AMCF for its annual OR Report showed that firm leaders took a unique approach and actually cut their own pay – in some cases dramatically - to achieve this goal. This, in connection with rate card and price reductions allowed them to keep a lot of their talent intact and productive. This strategy is paying huge dividends in 2011: as demand has taken off, these fully-staffed and well-oiled firms are the first to capitalize. More trends and analysis is available on the Members' only section of the website.

Click here to see more analysis and trends from recent OR  survey data through Member' Only login.

AMCF Panelists on the Federal Government's Acquisition Process for IT Projects

AMCF's March 2011 program "Smarter Federal IT Initiatives: High Quality, Cost-Effective and On-Time" focused on improving the federal government's acquisition process.  The online journal Federal Computer Weekly followed up with five AMCF panelists, representing both government and service providing firms, to elaborate on their ideas for making the federal goverment's acquisition process more effective.

The featured panelists include: Steve Cooper, IT Director for the Federal Aviation Administration; David Swatlowski, an acquisition manager in the Department of Defense; Trey Hodgkins, Senior Vice President at Tech America; James Bryan, Vice President at The Center for Organizational Excellence and Kathleen Turco, Associate Administrator of Government Policy at the General Services Administration.

Click here to read the entire article at Federal Computer Weekly

Click here to go to the full writeup through Members' Login

SantaRomana & Associates Named "Amazing Entrepreneur"

AMCF start-up member SantaRomana & Associates has won the Atlanta-based "Amazing Entrepreneur Award" for 2011.  As the inaugural winner of the award, SantaRomana & Associates receive a prize package designed to help expand their venture and due recognition as an innovative consulting start-up in the Greater Atlanta region.  SantaRomana & Associates is based in Lawrenceville, Georgia and specializes in feasibility studies, business plans, and full-cycle project management for small and medium-sized businesses.

Click here to read the entire article