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| Small Stuff |
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Last month, Spanish cyclist, Carlos Sastre, cruised to victory in the grueling, 23-day Tour de France race. Sastre won the 2,200 mile race in 87 hours, 52 minutes, and 52 seconds. The second place finisher, Cadel Evans of Australia, rode in 58 seconds behind the leader.
It's common for athletes to win events by razor-thin margins, and we're used to hearing and reading about such dramatic finishes. But the fact that many consulting sales are also won by a hair is not so well known.
If you ask consultants how they win the most competitive sales, often they will point to the small stuff like doing that extra client interview, verifying the facts two or even three times, and anticipating every possible client question. Sure, the overall project strategy must be solid, but what often makes the difference in a win is how you manage both the big and small stuff.
So when you're in the middle of a competitive sales process, ask yourself three simple questions:
- What don't I understand about this project yet?
- What's missing from my proposal as it stands right now?
- If I was the client, what would make me buy this proposal over the others?
Your answers to these questions will help uncover big and small issues. If you want to win consistently, ignore the common advice that tells us not to sweat the small stuff. Those details could just be your own 58-second lead.
Enjoy this month's issue.
And send me an email if you have comments.
Mike
McLaughlin
Editor
Management Consulting News is a publication of MindShare
Consulting.
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| MCNews 12 Index of Professional Services |
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US Economic News |
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McNews 12 Index |
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What a month for the sputtering US economy.
The US Congress, pressed by the Department of Treasury, authorized an unspecified appropriation to prop up the balance sheets of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac). And, the US Congress also signed off on a housing relief bill intended to help homeowners work through problem mortgages.
July was also a month for breaking records. General Motors reported the third worst quarterly loss in the company's history. GM lost $15.5 billion in the second quarter, as North American sales plunged off the cliff.
The US government added to the gloomy news with its forecast of the 2009 federal budget deficit, which is estimated at a whopping $482 billion. On the plus side, Exxon/Mobil broke its own record for the highest profits ever by a U.S. company, reporting quarterly profits of $11.68 billion.
The broader market indexes continued to move downward with the worrisome economic news. The S+P 500 Index was off 1 percent in July, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up some ground but remained flat for the month.
 The MCNews 12 Index ignored this gloom and doom and turned in another strong performance. |
The MCNews 12 Index ignored this gloom and doom and turned in another strong performance. IBM, Satyam, and Wipro all reported strong profit performances in the quarter. So far this year, the MCNews 12 Index has returned more than 15 percent to shareholders, while the S+P return is off 5 percent.
But, there's uncertainty on the horizon. Some analysts are waiting for consultants to catch the same flu bug that's plaguing other parts of the economy.
In other news, EDS shareholders approved the $13.9 billion acquisition of the company by Hewlett Packard. After settling five shareholder lawsuits, the path to the combination was cleared. Look for that transaction to be finalized by the end of the year.
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MCNews 12 Index |
Monthly
Change |
S+P 500
Change |
| July 2008 |
1,034 |
2.32% |
-1.22% |
| June 2008 |
1,010.44 |
-.24% |
-6.74% |
| May 2008 |
1,012.90 |
2.25% |
-1.56% |
The MCNews 12 Index reflects general investor sentiment about the state of the global professional services industry.
The twelve publicly-traded companies included in the MCNews 12 Index account for roughly $80 billion in combined annual revenue, and serve clients around the world.
Learn more about the MCNews 12 Index 
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| Interview:
Ken Blanchard |
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 "There are two main reasons that companies go out of business: They are lousy at financial management or at people management."
Ken Blanchard changed the language of management with his groundbreaking book, The One Minute Manager®, which is one of the most successful business books of all time. Since then, he's helped countless organizations across the globe. He is also the bestselling author of more than forty books.
Blanchard talked to us about his latest book, The One Minute Entrepreneur, which lays out a strategy for making any new business venture flourish.
Read
our interview with Ken Blanchard
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| Flying Solo, by Alan Weiss |
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 Talking the Walk
Over the past decade or so, we've drowned ourselves in the somewhat banal "walking the talk," as if it had never occurred to people that they are a hypocrites for demanding behavior that they, themselves, don't model.
Read
the article
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| Dude, Where's My Laptop? |
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 We all know the airport security drill: Shoes off, laptop into a bin, and then watch your belongings roll along the conveyor belt as you pass through security.
It's easy to lose track of your stuff as the TSA watches your every move.
According to a study by the Ponemon Institute, every week, more than 10,000 laptops are reported lost at the 36 largest airports in the US alone. What's worse is that 65 percent of the lost computers are not reclaimed.
The problem is pretty bad at smaller US airports too. The study reports that 2,000 laptops are lost in those airports, with almost 70 percent remaining unclaimed. The reason for the high number of unclaimed computers: 77 percent of people surveyed believed they had "no hope" of recovering a lost computer at the airport.
If the number of unclaimed computers is truly this high, more than 400,000 laptops are unclaimed every year. What the heck are airport managers doing with all of those laptops?
The reminder from the study is to protect your laptop when traveling. Keep your eyes open and don't get distracted by the security screening process. You may be the only one who is watching your stuff.
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Memo to Women Consultants |
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 Are You Planning for Retirement?
According to a new study by Hewitt Associates, which looked at almost 2 million employees at 72 large organizations, women are less prepared for retirement than men.
Hewitt's study not only found that women need to save more for retirement than men, but it also concluded that the gap between the amount women need to save and the amount they are actually saving is larger than the same gap for men.
| Hewitt's advice for women is to begin investing for retirement earlier, and more vigorously. |
The study's authors report a number of reasons why women aren't well prepared for retirement. For example, though women's incomes have jumped in recent years, their earnings are still lower than most men, and that makes saving for retirement more difficult. Women also tend to live longer than men, so they often need a bigger nest egg to secure retirement than men do.
Hewitt's advice for women is to begin investing for retirement earlier, and more vigorously. By starting a retirement fund two years earlier than planned, the resulting fund can be 18 percent larger at retirement, according to Hewitt. And by boosting the percentage of your annual income that you place in a retirement account, even by a small amount, you can make a big difference in the balance at retirement. The report also suggests that women could choose to stay in the workforce beyond the typical retirement age. But there must be a better way than that.
The report is available at www.hewittassociates.com.
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| The State of HR Outsourcing |
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As HR executives look at their options for outsourcing, many are opting for a selective or piecemeal approach, according to a study by Watson Wyatt.
The study of 182 US companies found that retirement plan administration topped the list of outsourced systems, while only 22 percent of companies outsource payroll.
| HR executives are continuing to push for more influential roles in their organizations. |
In the years ahead, look for more organizations to evaluate their options for outsourcing health and welfare benefits administration. Expect less emphasis on the outsourcing of recruiting and performance management, which are considered more strategic processes for the growth of a business.
HR executives are continuing to push for more influential roles in their organizations. And selective outsourcing of the biggest administrative processes and systems can offer executives an opportunity to remake the role of HR.
What will be helpful for these executives is objective advice for managing large-scale outsourcing projects, and for transforming the HR services delivery model.
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| Coming
Attractions |
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 "One of the biggest surprises in our research was the staggering percentage of business failures that were due to errors in planning as opposed to errors in execution."
Next month, we'll talk with Chunka Mui, the bestselling author of Unleashing the Killer App. He will talk to us about his latest book, Billion Dollar Lessons, which warns about seven strategies that are most likely to lead to a colossal business failure.
Look for the next issue of Management Consulting News on September 2, 2008.
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