breaking the rules of consulting
DESCRIPTION
Save your blushes - and your margins.Consultancy is changing as client needs change - and as business practices modernize. This report breaks with orthodoxy and shows you the new pathways to consulting success.TRANSCRIPT
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Breaking Rules in Consulting
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Breaking Rules
Enhancing your decision making...in just
5 minutes
A Futures Coaching initiative
www.futurescoaching.com
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#1 Avoid perfectAs a naïve consultant, I always use to try
to give clients a 'perfect' solution...only to see little actioned
In fact, I should have been tailoring the solution to the client's culture and their
ability to impementAn optimised solution is
a customised solution
An explorer wants a wind up radio, not digital wizardry
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#2 Promote youthAs a 22 year old in my first consultancy,I made a (truly awful) client presentation
after just 3 months:I learnt from the 'fall' and I got better
Typically, in French consultancies, people are still 'juniors' at 35 & talent is wasted
Go with youth & let them make mistakes; your confidence will be repaid
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#3 Radicalise tenderingTenders are tempting:
clients at least have a budget However, they often come with an
incumbent & a commoditising mentalityUnless you want to destroy your
margins and integrity, they only way to win a tender is to be radically different
from the crowd
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#4 Shift mental mapsClients take decisions when they see
the world differentlyFor me, a key consulting task
is to transform mental maps;to get to an 'aha' moment
Once an omlette is made, you can never return to raw eggs
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#5 Keep it shortMost clients haven't the time, the
energy nor the organisational stability for long-term processes
Keep steps short, keep processes containable
Deliverables from one project can always feed in to the next
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#6 Go outsideWe tell clients to network,
crowdsource, open source – then use internal consultants for our thinking
Break the rules by using outsiders to bring new perspectives
And clients love the agency/experts/clients mix
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#7 Be humbleMy first lesson as a consultant:
clients often used me for reassurance, for political purposes or because of
resource gaps – but NOT due to a lack of know-how
Key insight for consultants, be humble; what you are providing is unlikely to be
über wisdomPS. Humility also means listening well!
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#8 Bad clients stay bad I've been incredibly lucky with
sensational clientsOccasionally a bad client pops up: the
ones who distrust consultants and 'keep them in line' by beating them up
One logic says, hang in there since over time you can win their trust but
my rule says: once a bad client, always a bad client
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#9 Reject reportingOld style consulting: take brief;
internal work programme (with take out
meals at 11pm and at weekends); reporting; go down the pub to celebrate
New style: discuss brief; collaborative process which involves client in
solution; interactive workshop(s) to leverage the findings into business
decision making
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#10 Work on what matters It's easy to produce lots of output; it
feels right to work long hours; it's rewarding to be creative – but
ultimately what matters is what makes a difference to the client's
performanceAdd value by adding value
And do so in a way which is credible, reliable and trustworthy
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Enhance your decision-making
join forces with
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What is Futures Coaching up to during May 2012?
Helping reinvent the supermarket proposition
Preparing an international innovations project for a industrial global brand
Building a Key Note for NGO Fundraisers in Geneva
Pitching to build an international development strategy for a major European agency
Participating in a brand positioning workshop in Jakarta
Networking in Singapore
Researching banking technology trends
Pitching some new book ideas to Pearson
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Website: www.futurescoaching.comBlog: http://futurescoaching.typepad.com
Email: [email protected]
LONDON • PARIS