Monthly Archives: October 2016

TNF #057: Result = Activity x Competence

TNF #056: Internal networks

Welcome Professionals…

…recently I witnessed an interesting big failure. One of the Big 4 audit firms bought a small specialty consulting firm. They hired their full staff of 6 consultants. Within a year after the acquisition, all but one consultant had left. Only the most junior person stayed, while the most senior management consultants – some of which with more than 15 years of experience – moved to different companies. What went wrong?

I happen to know key people on both sides. So I tried to find out and learn from this interesting case.

Talking to the one side, the specialty consulting firm, their members said: “We could not benefit from any synergies. We never received any cross-selling leads. Even worse, we rather experienced a conflict of interest with partners of the new mother company.”

The Big 4 side said: “They kept completely separate and even a bit isolated. They did not adapt to our operating model neither to our business culture.”

Maybe the acquisiton was not a good fit. Maybe the two business models and company cultures were too far apart. Either way, one large failure is quite obvious.

The two parties both failed in building internal networks. Every top management consultant working in a consulting firm needs a set of strong inter-company relationships. Successful work in such a setting is only possible when team members can rely on each other in terms of knowledge sharing, best utilization of resources in staffing, and building business development teams best foot forward.

In failing to build and support strong internal networks, the Big 4 company lost its investment and the consultants of the specialty consultancy took a dip in their career.

So, be nice to your colleagues – and connect,

Malte

TNF #055: Persistence is key

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Welcome Professionals…

…I was reminded of the importance of persistence this week. For a time of 2 weeks, I had to interrupt my daily workout due to a cold. When I started again, I was surprised how weak my muscels had become only due to this break of 2 weeks.

It is so important that we keep our positive habits consistently. We need to keep our routines of practicing and continuously improving our skills. The moment we stop, the skill level will degrade rapidly.

This is not only true for physical sports, but also for creative thinking, slide writing, story telling, networking, giving speeches and so on and on. Persistence is key!

Wishing you a great and persistent week

Malte

TNF #054: Let go

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Welcome Professionals…

…this week a friend told me about his new concept of letting go. He is a very successful salesman. He has sold all sorts of things in his life, machines, clothes, ideas – at the moment he is selling luxury travel.

Sometimes, he told me, he is getting stuck with a potential buyer. He offers everything the customer is asking for, ticks all boxes, but still cannot get to a close. When he recognizes that he might be chasing the deal too hard, he decides to actively let go of the potential customer. He tells himself that it does not matter if the person buys today, tomorrow, or never. He makes a farewell statement and let’s the customer alone. Surprisingly, this is the moment when quite many of these customers actually buy.

Well, I don’t know if this works for me. I am going to try it with my potential clients. Maybe I can tell you later about this.

What I do know is something very similar. To let go is the same concept that works with my brain when thinking about a concept. When I am chasing ideas like my friend is chasing deals. When I turn away a bit frustrated and tell myself that this actually does not matter much, I am let go. I do something else – and there it is. The idea comes to my mind. The trick is about relaxing the brain.

It can be best achieved by pursuing an activity that does not require much brain power. Best results I get when doing some physical workout or going for a walk. Checking the media creates too much sensual overflow. But really letting loose can be a very powerful tool in a profession where creativity counts.

Let (‘s) go

Malte