November 2009

 
"Lead" All About it: the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) Continues Successful Horizon Series

AMCF members gathered at New York's Union Club on October 28th for the second program in the Association's Horizon series, which invites recently published authors from business and academia to discuss and debate challenges facing the corporate world.  Despite gloomy weather outside, participants enjoyed an illuminating dialogue on the topic of leadership and what it takes to steer an organization in times of prosperity and times of crisis.

"A year ago, we elected a new president to lead the country through some unprecedented challenges," John Furth, President and CEO of AMCF, explained. "We wanted to examine all the various facets of being a leader in times like these and discuss implications for the management consulting community and our clients." Kembrel Jones, the Dean of Students at Wharton School of Business, then took over the podium to moderate the day's session.

Mike Useem from the Wharton School kicked off the day's discussion by sharing a Leadership Checklist he has developed during his many years of research and study on the subject. At the heart of this Checklist is the need for leaders to make a personal connection with employees and colleagues and to be honest, decisive and strategic. Authors Joe Grano (You Can't Predict a Hero) and Gary Cohen (Just Ask Leadership) revived the age-old "nature vs. nurture" debate as it applies to business leadership: are exceptional leaders born or made? Both have impressive resumes of business achievement and though they took opposing sides, Grano and Cohen shared common ground on certain principles, in particular the importance of humility as a defining characteristic of successful leaders.

Reacting to the authors' commentary and sharing their own lessons were leaders from a variety of industries including consumer products, financial services and executive recruiting. All three members of this final panel emphasized passion and sincerity as keys to running a successful business, and that there's no magic formula for ensuring a perfect leadership fit. As Stuart Sadick from Heidrick & Struggles quipped, "Great leaders are great - until they're not."

For updates and news on future Horizon Series seminars, visit http://www.amcf.org.

July 2009

AMCF Receives U.S. Commerce Association's 2009 New York Award

Click here to view press release

You're a Rock Star: Leveraging Social Media as a Management Consultant

To inaugurate AMCF's new Marketing Affinity Group, the Association hosted a Social Media 101 presentation tailored specially for management consulting professionals on June 25th in New York. Social media and email marketing expert Jason Baer of Convince and Convert joined Elizabeth Sosnow, managing director at BlissPR for a presentation on leveraging thought leadership in the new social media landscape. Because social media hinges on connections between people, it presents management consulting firms with the opportunity to promote their most valuable asset - their people. However, it also challenges them to let go of legacy thinking about intellectual capital and how best to build relationships so they can embrace future-defining technologies in new and original ways.

"White papers are not great conversationalists," explained Sosnow. "Social media represents a revolution in the way consultants view thought leadership. It challenges them to break content down into bite-sized pieces which they can share and promote via blogs, social networks and other social media tools."

"Consulting firms are great at creating content," said Baer, who gave demonstrations and tips on popular social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, RSS feeds and Google Alerts and Blog Search. "The next step is to make it relatable."

Throughout the presentation, Sosnow provided commentary based on findings of the BlissPR study (see http://budurl.com/blissSMstudy). She noted that the consulting industry is still trying to understand how to best utilize these tools and in some ways is behind other service industries. Some of her findings included:

• 41% of firms studied have experimented with some form of multimedia (podcasts, video, etc.)
• 35% of the firms had some presence on YouTube
• 26% of consulting firms studied were using Twitter
• Of 15% that had one or more blogs, only three sustained active communities or attracted two or more comments per post
• Only 13% had posted content to presentation-sharing website SlideShare

"This event generated the highest turnout of any affinity group gathering so far this year," said John Furth, president and CEO of AMCF. "Jason and Elizabeth delivered a high-quality, dynamic program that addressed a topic of such great interest among our members. We look forward to continuing this dialogue within our Marketing Affinity Group."

For updates and news on future affinity group meetings, visit http://www.amcf.org.

Consultants, Books and Business: Horizon Series Kicks off with Strategy Summit

On June 16, AMCF held its inaugural Horizon Series event at New York City's Harvard Club. Moderated by Jeffrey Rayport of Marketspace, LLC the event brought together leading authors in business and academia.

Economists Robert Barbera and Michael Panzner debated the severity of the current crisis, with Barbera asserting that "belief in the invisible hand shifted to confidence in the infallible hand," which motivated an exaggerated appetite for market risk that positioned the economy for a large-scale decline. On the bright side, Barbera said, such crises are cyclical and banks' and government's efforts to restart the credit market's engines will lead to recovery soon. Panzner countered his remarks with the prediction that "we're entering a Modern Dark Ages" thanks to decades of prosperity culminating in the culture of excess that peaked in 2006-2007. The worst is yet to come, he warned, pointing out de-globalization and isolationism as likely consequences of the U.S.'s economic meltdown.

A panel of strategy heads from four major multinational corporations - IBM, Sony, Xerox and Hitachi - offered a variety of strategic approaches to the downturn, but the consensus was that we're not out of the woods economically. Companies are still working with reduced budget across the board, so consulting firms need to deliver demonstrable value to keep their clients satisfied.

Corporate innovation is one way for companies to flourish from within despite external forces beyond their control. Robert Wolcott of the Kellogg Innovation Network challenged the misperception that big corporations are too cumbersome to innovate and only start-ups have a shot at developing truly revolutionary products and services in today's business environment. Fortune's Geoff Colvin encouraged business leaders to focus on solving customers' new problems rather than simply cutting prices to stay afloat, and to take advantage of the recession as an opportunity to discover an organization's star employees and reward them accordingly.

"We're extremely pleased with the success of our inaugural Horizon series event," said John Furth, president and CEO of AMCF. "We look forward to continuing the Horizon series this fall with a new group of authors and strategy experts."

For updates and news on future Horizon series seminars, visit http://www.amcf.org.

June 2009

Jeffrey Zients to apply private sector expertise to federal government

Click here to view article

May 2009

AMCF Talks Relationships: Sustaining Valuable Client Partnerships

Keeping clients "for life" can seem like the quest for the Holy Grail in today's cost-sensitve business world, but most of the more successful management consulting firms have a handful of clients with whom they have found long-term success.  On May 20th in Chicago, the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) hosted an evening with well-known consulting expert and business author Andrew Sobel to explore what makes those long-lasting trusted client partnerships work so well. A group of top consultants from Chicago and across the country engaged in a lively discussion of what works and does not work for creating these client relationships, after listening to an informative presentation from Sobel based on his most recent book, "All For One: 10 Strategies for Building Trusted Client Partnerships," and a panel discussion led by Sobel and featuring Kathryn Hayley, CEO, Aon Consulting and Stan Martin, CEO, Adroit Consulting.

The discussion centered on the ten core strategies outlined in "All for One," five of which focus on the individual and the other five on the consulting firm as a whole. The individual strategies discussed included:

The strategies that focus on whole-firm efforts included the following:

Words of wisdom from the discussion included the following notable quotations:

- "Every executive has two agendas - a business, or programmatic agenda, and a personal agenda such as promotion or legacy. Addressing both agendas is critical to the client relationship." - Andrew Sobel, Author, "All for One."

- "Training for senior people on the global leadership team - three days with no blackberries - has made an impact for our firm this year, and has driven more value-based conversations." - Kathryn Hayley, CEO, Aon Consulting

- "A recession is a terrible thing to waste," Stan Martin, CEO, Adroit Consulting, quoting a client, on making the most of challenging times.

- "Seven years of AMCF meetings have taught me that no one has a monopoly on the solution for the best approach to rainmaking." - Rick Carter, President, Equation Consulting

April 2009

Leadership Lessons for Washington from Management Consulting

On March 18th, leaders in the management consulting community gathered at Olives restaurant in the W hotel on New York's Union Square for a roundtable dinner discussion hosted by AMCF. The topic, President Obama's new administration and potential implications for the profession of management consulting, was introduced and facilitated by Donald Baer, Chairman of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates and Worldwide Vice Chairman of Burston-Marsteller.

Baer drew upon his experience as a senior adviser to Bill Clinton's administration during the 1990s to provide insights on the current leadership in Washington, beginning his remarks with the assertion that "there are five people running the country right now and they are also humans just like you and me." The evening produced a dynamic discussion about the demands and challenges facing leaders in the current environment, both politically and from a business standpoint. From this dialogue emerged four crucial directives for leadership during tumultuous times, regardless of political leanings:

March 2009

Integrating & Motivating Top Talent Emerge as Biggest HR Challenges in 2009

When AMCF asked attendees at this month's Human Capital Management Meeting what's keeping them up at night, integrating and motivating talent in today's difficult economic environment easily topped the list. Concerns around developing future leaders and differing approaches to managing locally vs. globally also ranked high among the issues that are currently top-of-mind for consultants in the HR field.

"Our clients are really looking for guidance on integrating new talent into their organizations, particularly following a merger or acquisition situation," says Elizabeth Wood, Director of Business and Technical Leadership for IBM's Global Business Services, who moderated the morning's discussion on critical issues. "For higher-level executives especially, ensuring a cultural fit is essential across companies of all sizes and industries."

Meeting participants included executives and representatives from AMCF member firms IBM, Deloitte, FTI Consulting, Capgemini, Saint Consulting Group, Battalia Winston International, Tunnell Consulting, Target Teams Inc., SSP BPI Group, Kurt Salmon Associates, Hitachi Consulting, DG McDermott Associates, Tata Consultancy Services, and BridgeStreet Worldwide. In addition to the roundtable discussion, participants heard presentations from two industry leaders: Roger Carlile, Executive Vice President and Chief HR Officer at FTI Consulting, who spoke on leadership development during a recession, and Annette Favorite, Vice President of HR for the S&D Americas group at IBM, who provided an inside look at IBM's own HR resources transformation.

"We're very pleased with the turnout of this first AMCF event for 2009," said John Furth, acting president and CEO of AMCF. "Given the strategic and insightful dialogue that took place, and the positive feedback we received from participants, I would characterize the Human Capital Management meeting as an unqualified success. We look forward to organizing more events for this dynamic affinity group throughout the coming year."

February 2009

22nd Annual Operating Ratios for Management Consulting Firms:
Report Now Available

When it comes to operating a successful firm, benchmarking against competitors and industry leaders is a crucial element of business strategy. To help management consulting firms determine how they measure up, AMCF has released its 22nd report of Operating Ratios for Management Consulting Firms.

The study, conducted annually by the AMCF, provides management consulting companies with the latest comparative statistics for professional services firms and covers industry norms for:

January 2009

AMCF Goes "Back to Basics" with a Successful 2008 Symposium

Times may be tough, but the current economic landscape in no way dampened the mood at the Association of Management Consultants'' (AMCF) annual meeting. AMCF capped off 2008 with a three-day event at the Millennium UN Plaza Hotel in New York beginning on the evening of December 10th and concluding on December 12th. The Symposium brought together senior executives and leaders in management consulting from all over the world, including representatives from top firms Deloitte, IBM and Capgemini.

Guided by the theme "Back to Basics & Beyond: Rethinking What We Already Know," this year's speeches, panels and discussion groups addressed opportunities and challenges for management consulting firms from globalization to Web 2.0. Presenters and participants alike reflected on lessons learned in previous years and ways to apply that knowledge in today's rapidly-evolving business environment.

"Usually you hear speakers of this caliber at large conferences, with hundreds of people in attendance," said Michael Saint, CEO of The Saint Consulting Group. "The AMCF Symposium provides the opportunity to hear from the most highly regarded professionals in an interactive, intimate setting. It is an invaluable experience." Among this year's featured presenters were:

AMCF Starts 2009 with New Leadership and Board Transition

The Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) announces John Furth as President and CEO to succeed Betsy Kovacs. Formerly with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Accenture, John brings over 18 years of experience in the consulting industry. "My goals are to increase the relevancy of AMCF to our industry, help to guide our members through these trying economic times, and add even more value to the events and programs we organize throughout the year." said John.

Peggy Vaughan, Vice President of Global Business Services at IBM has been elected Chairman of the Board succeeding Jocelyn Cunningham, FSI Chief People Officer at Deloitte. "I'm delighted to serve as AMCF Chairman and to continue the great work this organization has consistently provided for the profession of management consulting," said Peggy. Steve Sashihara, President and CEO of Princeton Consultants and former AMCF Treasurer has been elected Co-Chairman.

In its 80th year, AMCF is the premier association of firms engaged in the practice of management consulting. AMCF today remains in the forefront of promoting excellence and integrity in the profession. Headquartered in New York, AMCF serves as a resource for information on the management of a consulting practice. It provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, helping consultants to better understand developments within the profession and to capitalize on new opportunities. AMCF serves as the voice of the industry on major issues, representing the profession before government and regulatory bodies, working to improve standards and practices and enabling firms to work smarter.

The mission of AMCF is to promote knowledge exchange and professional standards for the community of management consulting firms through value-driven programs, research and communications. The association also promotes a better understanding of the profession among the business community, government, academia and the public.

Former AMCF Chairman Named in Top 25 Consultants of 2008

AMCF congratulates Deloitte principal Jocelyn Cunningham on her recent honors as one of Consulting Magazine's Top 25 Consultants of 2008. Jocelyn, who served as AMCF's Chairman from 2006-2008, runs the securities and capital markets practice at Deloitte.

During her tenure as Chairman and throughout her involvement with AMCF, Jocelyn has been instrumental in the organization's growth as a global community devoted to serving the interests of management consulting firms. The same qualities that drove Jocelyn's success as a leader within AMCF earned her recognition from the broader consulting community: comprehensive industry knowledge, an action-oriented approach to business, and a respected personal brand which she continues to build via her dynamic professional network.

"We're always delighted to recognize the achievements of our members, especially those as vital to AMCF as Jocelyn," says current AMCF Chairman Peggy Vaughn. "As an organization, we are proud to have accomplished professionals like Jocelyn among our ranks and we congratulate her on this much-deserved honor."

For more on Jocelyn Cunningham's award, see the Consulting Magazine story.

Five Consulting Companies Named to Fortune Magazine's
"Top 100 Companies to Work For"

In Fortune Magazine's just released "Top 100 Companies to Work for in 2009" (by size), five of the top 25 are consulting firms:

17. Ernst & Young
18. Booz Allen Hamilton
20. KPMG
21. PricewaterhouseCoopers
23. Deloitte

Click here to view the complete list

• John Clarkeson, Chairman Emeritus of the Boston Consulting Group
• Julio Quinteros, Vice President, Goldman Sachs & Co.
• Dr. Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies, McGill University
• Matthew Bishop, Chief Business Writer for The Economist
• Don Baer, former Senior Advisor to Bill Clinton
• Susan Molinari, Republican Member of the US House of Representatives, 13th District (NY)

The AMCF also honored Dr. Henry Mintzberg as the recipient of this year's Sloane Award, presented by the Foundation for Excellence in Management Consulting to an honoree who demonstrates outstanding dedication and achievement in the field of management consulting.

AMCF extends thanks to its members and this year's sponsors Microsoft, Maconomy, and Kennedy Information for a successful annual meeting in 2008. Now entering its 80th year, the organization looks forward to more exciting events in 2009. 

• Fee arrangements
• Financial operating results
• Employee recruiting
• Compensation and benefits
• Billing procedures
• Other key management areas

Regarded as the most comprehensive and accurate picture of the management consulting industry, AMCF's study also provides 21 years of data for tracking emerging developments in the industry. Other highlights include SEP/IRA information, compensation and retention findings for administrative staff, and signing bonuses for new hires.

AMCF's Operating Ratios report is available free to participating member firms or for a fee to non-participating members and non-members. The report can be ordered from the organization's website at http://www.amcf.org.