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INSTITUTE
OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS |
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News and Views |
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eNewsletter for the New England Consulting Community January 2006  |
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In this issue: Member
Feature Articles |
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| Looking For Articles The Newsletter Committee is looking for articles. Please contact Mike Kayat at if you have an article you'd like to submit. |
Newsletter Sponsor
Deltek |
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Welcome to this month’s IMCNE newsletter! I hope you are all had a good consulting year in 2005. And I wish you continued and bigger success in 2006. In this issue, we have a letter from our Chapter President, Carol Bergeron, which provides an update on the various projects in development during last year and a view of what’s planned for 2006. We also have two member articles. The first article by Katharine Bird White discusses a systems approach to monitoring the vital signs of healthcare organizations and physicians practices. The second article by yours truly is about Peter Drucker, the consummate management consultant, who passed away in November. I met him in the early 1990’s and like so many, I’ve referred to Drucker’s works for guidance and ideas on management and strategy in my executive & consulting roles. We are interested to hear about any instances of where you have received project leads from other IMCNE consultants, or opportunities to provide articles or make presentations. Have you teamed up with other IMCNE consultants on projects? The newsletter is an opportunity for you to provide news on your achievements and learn about your fellow consultant’s activities. Please send your news, articles, book reviews and commentary for the February 2006 issue to: Look out for the request in one of the weekly e-mail updates.Good
consulting! All the best for 2006. |
A New Year, A Fresh Perspective Happy New Year! I hope 2005 was a fabulous year for you both personally and professionally and may 2006 outshine it. Here at IMCNE great things are what you can count on in 2006! We are focused on:
I have had the pleasure to work with a highly responsive board of directors and volunteers who are proud of our 2006 roll-out which to date includes: More Opportunities to Understand Your Wants and Needs We have made getting your feedback on what you value most a priority. Since summer we have conducted six fast feedback surveys. This month for instance we are conducting a fast feedback survey to identify the Professional Emphasis Groups, groups formed for business development purposes, most in demand. We solicited your feedback on the evening programs you attended last fall. Each survey takes all of 2 to 3 minutes and may be done conveniently on-line. Your input makes a difference. Please keep the information flowing so that we may identify patterns and trends over time and let the insight serve as a basis for future IMCNE offerings. Provocative Programs The Programs Committee has been busy orchestrating a superb line up for 2006. We started the year with the insightful Derek Smith of Kennedy Information who shared the latest research on Management and IT consulting trends, industry sector growth prospects, pay rates of consultants and other interesting facts of which we should all be aware. Learn to draw media attention so clients recognize you as the expert through the engaging Fern Reiss of Expertizing.com in February. Our March program, with dynamic panelists Jack Derby of Derby Management and Nick Miller of Clarify Advantage, will share the do’s and don’ts of highly successful consultants. April’s Consultants Conference with Alan Weiss as our keynote speaker is an event not to be missed. Don’t worry; you will be hearing a lot more about this soon. For a complete list of 2006 programs and the IMCNE Value Statement download this pdf file: A Growing Network of Diverse Professional Consultants As you know from my fall message, building lasting relationships is a core value of IMCNE. Why? Because lasting relationships fosters personal learning and business development. That is why we integrate networking into all of our events. We want to make it easy for you to connect with your peers. Whether your goal is to establish new contacts, rekindle old ones, or contribute in valuable ways by volunteering for a committee, don’t miss out on the many opportunities to expand your personal network. This year we will proactively grow the numbers of diverse professional consultants you network with. Thus we have embarked on a membership outreach campaign and are committed to forming strategic partnerships with other dynamic associations. We initiated 2 new strategic partnerships, with the WPI Venture Forum and the Merrimack Valley Venture Forum, thus raising the total number of strategic partners to 9. There is no doubt your input yields results, so please stay tuned on how you can help us help you in expanding your network. Unprecedented Value to Members Value to the members of IMC continues to grow and currently includes:
*IMCUSA member benefit I am proud to be part of a great group of folks at IMCNE who are committed to creating more and better value for members and the New England consulting community. This brief update simply highlights 2006 initiatives and is not all inclusive. Like any organization IMCNE will grow and evolve as its members wants and needs change. We will continue to solicit your input, experiment with new ideas, refine existing ones and suspend those no longer in high demand. I encourage you to keep the ideas flowing and become part of the vibrant IMCNE community. Getting actively involved is rewarding, provides great visibility, and benefits you and your peers. Sincerely, Carol Bergeron |
| Member
Spotlights Isn't
it your turn to be in the spotlight? Send your name, your business
name and 1) recent awards/distinctions/professional certifications
you've received; 2) public speaking engagements; and 3) published
articles. (Be sure to include key facts, such as when, where and
for whom.) You must be an IMC member or affiliate to be featured.
Email them to Mike Kayat at
, Subject: IMCNE spotlight. |
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For all of you who have been contemplating becoming CMCs but haven't known where to start, IMCNE will soon begin a 6-month mentoring program aimed at helping you not only get started but also get finished! With the help of an established CMC as your guide, you will complete all CMC requirements and finally get your goal of CMC status off the back burner. For details on this program, contact Bill von Achen, CMC at 978-440-8022 or . An
invitation to IMCNE CMC members — This section is dedicated
to you. If you have commentary you'd like to share, here is a forum
for you. Send your commentary to our Editor, Mike Kayat, for consideration.
Email Mike at
, Subject: CMC Commentary. |
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Jack Flanagan Abhilahsa Munshi |
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Did you get a speaking or writing engagement? new client or prospect? or team up on a project or new business venture based on relationships formed through IMCNE? If so, then we want to hear your success story next month! |
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Member Feature Articles Vital Signs Mean Vital Business for Healthcare Consultants When was the last time you had a health check up with your healthcare provider? If you are like many people, you might put it off and, when plagued by a problem, you found yourself in the local emergency room. Imagine now the “patient” is the physician office practice itself. When was the last time the practice got a health check up? Chances are the practice has not subjected itself to a full “review of systems” to check where a healthcare consultant intervention might be needed. Historically, acute care settings subjected themselves at least every three years to a full “diagnostic”, aka, the triennial Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) survey. Currently JCAHO accredited organizations undergo surveys that are largely unannounced, requiring an everyday diagnostic, and timely intervention to restore optimal organizational health, knowing the surveyor will locate the organizational “pain” if left unattended. Most often, physician office practices are not accredited by the JCAHO, and have been beneath this diagnostic radar. Physicians and their office staffs are understandably focused on delivering care to office visit in a fast paced, challenging environment. The physician partner would be the likely leader to initiate the check-up yet, physicians themselves attest that they didn’t receive training to lead in medical school. There is thus a tendency to keep up the pace and “fix”only what is obviously “broken”, thereby “missing out” on a regular review of systems that is so necessary to ongoing health: patient and office practice alike. So what would the impetus now be for a practice to get a health check? Shrinking reimbursement has been a significant catalyst for physicians to seek consultation as they find themselves working harder and longer hours, experiencing less effective work-life balance, and at the same time, realizing less margin. Here is an opportunity for a healthcare consultant to leverage more than a financial look at the business for physician office practices. To ignore this opportunity would be like only looking where the patient in pain points, and not to other systems that could be impacting the pain. Beyond the solely financial look at the business then lies an assessment method that is organized by “A Review of Systems”, covering six systems as follows: the “optical”, (the practice’s vision for the future), the “muscular” (leadership bench strength), the “central nervous system” (strategy and business planning), the “sympathetic nervous system” (human resources) the “respiratory-inspiration” (marketing) and the “impulse conducting” (technology). Final assessment areas include “metabolic balance” (operational effectiveness) and system integrity (sustainability of practice) A sub-optimal score represents sub-optimal health of the practice, signaling the need for targeted interventions. An organization that aims for the optimal health score, through this internal benchmarking process, positions itself to deliver high quality and cost effective care, the chief “side effect” being happier employees, more consistently engaged referral sources and highly satisfied patients and families. Taking these vital signs for healthcare organizations, and physician practices in particular, can mean vital business for consultants. Katharine Bird White M.S., C.S., CPHQ is Leadership Coach with Lighthouse Performance Strategies, Inc. DBA Healthcare Renaissance Consulting (www.healthcarerenaissance.net).Peter Drucker: Management Consultant In November last year, Peter Drucker passed away, a week before his 96th birthday. Drucker lived through interesting times and became the leading management guru during the formative years of management consulting. He influenced leaders in industry and government around the world. As Drucker wrote somewhat self-effacingly, “I’ve anticipated a great many things that are now staples, not because they are terribly profound but precisely because they are terribly obvious... I was at the right spot at the right moment. Interest in the discipline of management would probably have arisen anyway. It was ready; it was ripe... And the impact of my management principles has been primarily on the practitioner, as it was meant to be, not on the schools of business.” The majority of his more than 30 books were written after he was over 60 years of age. He published the last one (the 35th) in 2004 when he was 94. In these books he described new management concepts for corporations and public institutions that can make these organizations more effective. There are several classics like Concept of the Corporation, The Practice of Management, Management by Objectives, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He wrote or co-wrote hundreds of articles & papers and even wrote two novels along with an autobiography. As a management consultant, he worked with many Fortune 500 companies and government institutions. His contributions covered many areas of corporate management and organization, developing and analyzing many concepts and ideas including the following list:
I’m doing Drucker an injustice by trying to summarize his point of view but he always tried to reduce the facts he saw to simple concepts and questions. Motivated, dedicated, well-informed, well-managed, highly skilled, empowered employees are critical to the success of any organization. Clearly defined objectives, effective goal setting, marketing and innovation are necessary and key requirements for winning customers and maximizing profits. People are important, not machines or buildings. There is still a lot of work to do, according to Drucker. “We know more about top management’s job – but very few companies really do much about it. The greatest overall change has been in awareness of the problems, not in performance.” And he also stated that, “Ignorance of the function of management is one of the most serious weaknesses of an industrial society – and it is almost universal.” This situation is even more important as the world moves to post-industrial global knowledge-based economies. Michael Kayat is Principal Managing Partner of Metrisys, LLC (www.metrisys.com) which is focused on providing strategy, business development, sales and marketing services to emerging technology clients. You could be sharing your wisdom and observations with your fellow IMCNE members. Submit your article of 250-300 words for consideration to News & Views Editor Mike Kayat at , Subject: IMCNE article.
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February Program
IMCNE Professional Emphasis Groups (PEGs)
Breakfast Brainstorms
Strategic Partner Events — Check out our Calendar of Strategic Partner and Other Events on our web site for more information on events of interest. Click www.imcne.org/spcalendar.html, then click on the appropriate link for detailed information that could save you money. |
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Please
send book reviews to Mike Kayat at
Management The most common cause of executive failure is unwillingness or inability to change with the demand of a new position. When you have 186 objectives nothing gets done. I always ask, “What’s the one thing to do?” There is an enormous number of managers who have retired on the job. Management by objectives works if you know the objectives. Ninety percent of the time you don’t. Every task of a developed society requires management. Entrepreneurial innovation will be as important to management as the management function. The purpose of business is a satisfied customer…Inside an enterprise there are only costs. - Peter F. Drucker Living life Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, |
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Advertising Rates Would you like to advertise an event, product or service in this e-letter? Request our advertising fee schedule by emailing IMCNE's administrator at or by calling 800-696-7399. About IMCNE Learn more about IMCNE's programs, membership details and services to New England consultants by clicking here or calling us at 800-696-7399. News and Views Editor Mike Kayat Metrisys, LLC - Sales, marketing & business development services for emerging technology companies Phone: 978-371-0823 Email: Mail: IMCNE "News & Views", P.O. Box 774, Westford, MA 01886 Copyright © 2006 IMC New England |
Happy New Year and see you at our next event!