INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
New England Chapter

News and Views

In this issue:

Member Spotlights

CMC Corner

Welcome New Members

Share Your
Success Story

Member Feature Articles
Four Questions for Consulting Success
by Ken Lizotte CMC
Brainpower for You and Your Clients
by Carol Bergeron

Upcoming Events Calendar

Book and Article Reviews

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Best Practices in Consulting Workshop
by Alan Weiss

News From Committees

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.

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From the Editor's Desk

Welcome to this month’s IMCNE newsletter!

As we enter the last quarter of the consulting year, I hope that 2005 has been a growth year for everyone. Both Q1 and Q4 of each consulting year are typically busy periods for building new business and I wish all within IMCNE continued success.

In this issue we have two articles from IMCNE members. The first is provided by Ken Lizotte and discusses how we can maintain our edge as consultants. The second by Carol Bergeron provides information about utilizing the brain power and energy of college interns. We’ve also included two book reviews covering the real challenges of corporate growth and innovation.

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 consultants' activities. Please send your news, articles, book reviews and commentary for the November 2005 issue to: mkayat@metrisys.com. Look out for the request in one of the weekly e-mail updates.

Good consulting!
Michael Kayat

Member Spotlights

Fifi Ball and Sally Brickell (Squared Away) presented “Butterflies in Your Stomach: How You Can Use Public Speaking and Training to Build Your Business and Improve Your Digestion” at the September 12 monthly meeting of the New England chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers.

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.

CMC Corner

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.

Welcome New Members

Steve Head
HEADNetworks, LLC

Steve Weissman
Kinetic Information LLC

Share Your Success Story

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!

Member Feature Articles

Four Questions for Consulting Success
By Ken Lizotte CMC

Whether just launching your consulting practice or a grizzled veteran of many years, it pays every so often to evaluate your chosen approaches to practice management and business development. In slow and fast times alike, the right methods can insure success and keep you swimming in profits. How you answer the following four questions will tell the tale:

Question #1: What Business Are You In?

Defining your value proposition (“value prop”) is essential. Quite simply, you must be unique. To simply proclaim yourself a management consultant will not be enough - there are truckloads of us already out there!

My plumber runs an ad in local papers proclaiming: “I want to be your family’s plumber!” That simple commitment held great appeal for me, suggesting that this guy would take care of my pipes even when my upstairs toilet started wreaking havoc on a Saturday night. Better that than the expected response of his competition, “I can get there on Monday.”

Question #2: Have You Organized Your Practice?

Your organizational set-up should not distract from your priorities, i.e., client projects, prospecting, keeping up with trends, staying in touch with your network. You should also be able to blend your work and family life in such a way that your practice is not your life! Consider these points:

1. Keep updating your technological tools. You need a reliable computer, cell phone, fax service, DSL etc. Invest in tools that are requisite for you and update them periodically.
2. Make sure your office space is psychologically in tune with your work style. Do you see clients in your office? If so, an outside office makes sense. But if you always travel to your clients’ sites, save some dough and keep your office in your home.
3. Time overload is a beast which, fortunately, can be contained. Duke Ellington once said, “I don’t need more time, I need a deadline!” Apply deadlines to first priorities, leaving the rest for tomorrow. Postpone phone calls, luncheons, reports that can wait.

Questions #3: Does the World Know You Exist?

Once your uniqueness has been defined, make the world aware of it, by:

• Managing Relationships—It’s not enough to go out and meet people. You’ve got stay in touch with them after that, and keep reminding them of your value prop and that you are still in business at all! Ignore this and 98% of those you meet will forget your very name.
  
  Set up an email list, adding to it as you meet new folks. Send announcements and/or newsletters periodically. Let your relationships know when you capture a major project, perform admirably for a client, publish a new article or a book, or win an award. And communicate in this way regularly, not just once or twice a year. Quarterly is good, monthly even better.

• Becoming a Thoughtleader!—Position yourself as a leading thinker and practitioner in your field by publishing articles and books, speaking to professional groups, conducting surveys on vexing issues in your target market. Routinely develop provocative ideas. Since few of your competition will do the same (they’ll be cold-calling instead), you’ll rise above your competition by default. Don’t forget to alert your publishing and speaking victories to your e-network (see above).

Question #4: How’s Your Attitude?

Finally, attitude can be everything. How do you feel about what you can achieve and how you are doing? To remain sharp and healthy, read books, take vacations, spend quality time with your family, eating well, exercising… de-stress.

Burnout happens when we lose control of our days, each one a bottomless pit of mind-numbing tasks and burdens. Thus success also requires getting away from it all and experiencing “Non-consultant You.” Do so and the rest will fall nicely into place, not just today and tomorrow but next week, next month, next year.

Ken Lizotte CMC is Chief Imaginative Officer (CIO) of emerson consulting group inc. ( Concord , MA ), which transforms consultants and their firms into “thoughtleaders.” He can be reached at ken@thoughtleading.com or by visiting www.thoughtleading.com

Brainpower for You and Your Clients
By Carol Bergeron

Have you ever had an assignment that could benefit from the fresh perspectives offered by someone motivated to contribute and get some great professional experience? Sounds like a win/win scenario? That's because it is. Perhaps you have a project to complete and need additional capacity. Perhaps your business development efforts for your consulting practice require renewed focus. Perhaps a client of yours has needs an intern could fill. Why not tap into the brainpower of a college intern? Whether the expertise you need is in accounting, finance, data analysis, IT, E-Business, marketing or operations, Bentley College has an active internship program for both undergraduate and graduate level students.

It is easy to do. Just scope out your job needs, estimate the hours and time frame, decide if the work needs to be performed on-site or remotely, determine if the internship is a paying or nonpaying position then post it at Bentley College at: http://ecampus.bentley.edu/dept/ocs/employers/i_resumedrop.html

You will be responsible for responding to students who apply, interviewing for the best fit and providing direction and management to the intern you select. You get your work done and an intern gets some great professional experience. While internships often run on a school year schedule, which is why Bentley has begun recruiting for January 2006, list even your part-time positions that start now! When you access Bentley and experience what interns can do for you, please share with the rest of us through News and Views.  

For more information on internship programs click the following link: http://ecampus.bentley.edu/dept/ocs/employers/hiringintern.html or contact Janet Kenney at Bentley College , Recruiting Coordinator, jkenney@bentley.edu or 781-891-2442.

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Upcoming Events Calendar

November Program

Evening Speaker Program
Thursday, November 3, 2005
5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Positioning Your Consulting Practice for Growth:
Models That Work
with Bob Gatti, Gatti & Associates,
and Harald Horgen, The York Group
Holiday Inn, Newton, MA

Breakfast Brainstorms
Free to IMCNE members and affiliates, $10 for nonmembers

Monday, November 7, 2005
7:45 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.
Radisson Hotel, Manchester, NH

Monday, November 14, 2005
7:45 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.
Want to Grow Your Business? Get Organized!
Rebecca's Café, Burlington, MA

PEGs
IMCNE Professional Emphasis Groups, or PEGs, are interest groups organized by consulting specialties (healthcare, marketing, finance, etc.) to assist with practice development issues. These groups are open to members and affiliates.

Owner Managed Business PEG
Monday, November 21, 2005
8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
Rebecca's Café, Burlington, MA

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.

Book and Article Reviews

Open Innovation:
The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technologies
By Henry Chesbrough
Harvard Business School Press (2003)

I’m working with an increasing number of clients who are trying to define and implement strategies for business growth utilizing new technologies in their current or new markets. In uncertain times, with the reduced “R” of R&D budgets and with rising global competition, companies need to be innovative about being innovative.

This book compares the “closed” innovation (or “NIH”) approach, utilized by many companies with internal research groups that generates new technology and patents but not so many new products, with the new “open” innovation movement that is now necessary for companies to innovate to survive. The closed innovation is giving way due to several factors, including: out-licensing options for unused technologies, venture capital, mobile smart and often frustrated employees (who create innovation), and presence of out-sourcing partners.

Companies that adopt the open innovation paradigm can operate in a wider world of knowledge, cooperating with others that provide access to new intellectual property and technologies, so speeding up time to market with lower risk and costs. Larger companies can form alliances with smaller, emerging companies or start-ups in different markets and transfer know-how to these innovation incubators for a range of applications together with new business models. Alternatively, smaller companies who own extensive intellectual property can license this to larger companies, several times over in different markets.

Open innovation provides new opportunities for companies (our clients) to find new knowledge & technologies for sustaining growth in fast moving and competitive markets, along with profitably leveraging their own non-core technologies. Markets are evolving where ideas and patents are being traded. Flexible and win-win business models are keys to success. Technology itself is a product.

The Growth Gamble: When Leaders Should Bet Big on New Businesses – and How They Can Avoid Expensive Failures
By Andrew Campbell and Robert Park
Nicholas Brealey International, London (2005)

This book addresses the strategic issue about when increased business growth is not the best option and how to determine which option has the best chance of success. A company with strong core competencies and products but facing declining markets can focus on innovation, search for new growth areas and ventures including mergers & acquisitions, take more risk and most likely fail. At least 90% of attempts fail as gambles are made by desperate executives on new and promising initiatives and a company’s accumulated wealth is wasted.

Innovation and growth initiatives within a company often fail for three main reasons:

1. The company’s competitive advantage for a new business model or in a new market is not enough to cover the costs of learning to compete in these new areas;
2. A company’s competitors are more experienced and better positioned in these new areas;
3. The new ventures provide a serious distraction from the company’s core businesses.

An alternative approach is for managers to be more selective and invest in a new business only when the opportunity has a high enough chance of success outside their core business. This may even mean a company has to accept low growth but being able to deliver good financial results and increased shareholder value. The book provides tools for managers (and consultants) to gauge when a company is in different growth stages and be able to provide appropriate strategies for corporate change or screening of any new opportunities.

Please send book reviews to Mike Kayat at
If you come across any interesting articles, please send those in.

Be Aware