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| Time |
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Ask a consultant how things are going, and you might hear, "I'm swamped," or "I'm crazy busy." So, it's not surprising when consultants tell me that, when it comes to being effective marketers, lack of time is their toughest challenge.
If I just had more hours in the day, they say, I could roll out a winning marketing strategy.
But blaming lack of time for inattention to your marketing is often just a convenient excuse to spend time doing something else. Naturally, we have to do justice to our clients, families, and friends.
But it's funny how we always manage to squeeze in time for the things we really want to do. And some important, but maybe not so alluring activities, like marketing, never make it to the top of the list.
Assuming that you want to focus more on marketing, how can you squeeze time from an already packed schedule? The best place to start is by taking a hard look at how you currently spend your time each day.
In a recent study, researchers found that information workers spend almost one-third of each day on a combination of non-urgent interruptions, like unnecessary email, and the time it takes them to refocus on the pre-interruption task.
You're unlikely to recapture all of that lost time. But it's possible you could find several hours a week for marketing simply by scrutinizing this aspect of your work day. How busy you are, really?
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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Feast and Famine
The bad news for the US economy continued to pile up in June. Oil prices surged past $140 per barrel and consumer confidence, which sank to a sixteen-year low in May, fell even further in June.
The US Federal Reserve held its key interest rate at 2 percent, but noted that "in light of the continued increases in the prices of energy and some other commodities and the elevated state of some indicators of inflation expectations, uncertainty about the inflation outlook remains high." Translation: The Fed governors are spooked.
The broader market indexes reflected the bleak economic news. The S+P 500 Index has fallen more than 4 percent this year. And, the Dow Jones Industrial average has dropped roughly 20 percent from its all-time high, causing some analysts to call this a bear market for Dow stocks.
The MCNews 12 Index shook off this spate of bad news and is holding onto a 13 percent return for the year. Shares of Accenture jumped after the outsourcing and consulting firm said its fiscal third-quarter profit jumped 36 percent and that fourth-quarter sales would exceed analysts' expectations.
Other firms in the MCNews12 Index are turning in strong performances, including CSC, IBM, Satyam, and Watson Wyatt.
Meanwhile, the news keeps getting worse for BearingPoint. In June, the NYSE halted trading on BearingPoint stock when its share price fell below $1.05, a threshold that triggers a suspension of trading.
The company also disclosed that its chief financial officer resigned after less than a month on the job.
BearingPoint stock is down more than 90 percent in the last twelve months and has not had a profitable quarter in three years.
Is BearingPoint an acquisition target? It's not hard to imagine, but only time will tell.
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MCNews 12 Index |
Monthly
Change |
S+P 500
Change |
| June 2008 |
1,010.44 |
-.24% |
-6.74% |
| May 2008 |
1,012.90 |
2.25% |
-1.56% |
| April 2008 |
990.59 |
11.51% |
5.13% |
| March 2008 |
888.27 |
-4.87% |
-1.74% |
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:
James Hoopes |
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 "The idea that leaders are models of morality is so widespread in corporate life as to amount to a cult."
James Hoopes, a Distinguished Professor of History at Babson College, turned a critical spotlight on the role and effectiveness of today's business gurus in his book, False Prophets: The Gurus Who Created Modern Management and Why Their Ideas Are Bad for Business Today. Now, Hoopes has tackled another troubling issue he calls the "Cult of Moral Leadership."
In his latest book, Hail to the CEO, Hoopes points out the risks that well-intentioned, but misguided, leaders can create for their organizations, their followers, and themselves.
He offers a new model in which leaders earn moral influence, rather than exploiting it, and thus become more effective as leaders and as people.
Read
our interview with James Hoopes
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| Flying Solo, by Alan Weiss |
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 How to Stop Wasting Good Time on Bad Prospects
I've frequently heard people say things such as, "The worst vacation I ever had was still great!" or "The worst roller coaster I've ever been on was still a blast!"
Unfortunately, that euphoric philosophy does not apply to buyers. There are good ones, mediocre ones, and then there are those who are worse than pestilence.
Too severe? Allow me to explain.
Read
the article
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| Pretend Your Audience Is Naked? |
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Most of us get a twinge of anxiety before speaking to a group. That probably explains why Amazon.com carries almost fifty different titles on performance anxiety. Some offer tips of dubious value, like pretending your audience is naked.
I'm not sure that image would reduce anxiety as much as it might make me want to bolt out of the room.
You might be able, though, to overcome one common source of performance anxiety: The belief that the audience is keenly aware of your inner nervousness. Psychologists call this false belief the "illusion of transparency."
Research has shown that observers are not as aware of your anxious state as you may believe. What's troublesome is that this belief often causes unneeded stress and can lead to a poor performance.
In a 2003 article published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers explored the possibility that speakers could reduce performance anxiety with a simple reminder that their anxiety was not written all over their faces.
The researchers gave some speakers a short reminder about the "illusion of transparency" before a speech; they gave others no reminder. Afterward, the speakers who got the reminder evaluated their performances more positively, expected their audiences to rate their presentations more highly, and judged themselves as appearing more relaxed than the speakers who didn't get the reminder.
Furthermore, when audience members evaluated the presentations, without knowing which speakers were which, they rated the reminded speakers as being more relaxed, composed, and effective than the speakers who didn't get the reminder.
Next time you head to the podium, remember the "illusion of transparency." The audience has no idea how nervous you are. Oh, and try to resist spoiling the whole thing by telling them that you are.
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| Memo to Organization and Change Consultants |
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Researchers at IBM released their 2008 Global CEO Study: The Enterprise of the Future. This year's study surveyed 1,130 CEOs, general managers, and senior public sector leaders from around the world.
Among the findings this year: eight of ten respondents expect substantial changes in their businesses over the next three years. Some of you are probably muttering, "So, what else is new?" What's new is that, two years ago, only two-thirds of the respondents expected substantial change.
Another interesting point from the study is that CEOs also revealed that their ability to manage expected changes is 22 percent lower than their expected need for it. This "change gap" is three times higher than respondents reported in 2006.
What's more, CEOs said that the number of change initiatives considered to have limited, or no, success rose 60 percent since the 2006 survey. With this level of need for change, and the reported track record of success, look for continued, strong demand for organization and change consultants.
The 79-page research report lays out a model for the organization of the future, which is worth looking at. The 2008 Global CEO Study is free and available from IBM.
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| Beating Procrastination in Teams |
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A procrastinating team member, whether that person is from your firm or the client team, can endanger an entire project. People who choose to cram in the bulk of their work right before a deadline can wreak havoc with project plans, create unnecessary rework, and raise everyone's blood pressure.
When you assemble a team, you bring together people with diverse work skills and different conceptions of time and schedules. When some project managers are confronted with a procrastinating team member, they give up. If possible, they replace the laggard. If that's not feasible, they look for ways to work around the person.
But those solutions create problems with team member transition, client communication, and fairness to others on the team. So, what is the alternative?
Researchers have studied the impact of procrastinators on teams and have come up with two simple tips. First, it may be beneficial to explicitly consider individual work styles when putting a team together. Including even one person on the team who gets work done early can pull the performance of the entire team along, including the procrastinator.
Second, be sure your team talks about time and task completion regularly. Group discussions of schedules and deadlines promote a shared focus on task completion. Some managers mistakenly assume that the team shares this focus, so they fail to emphasize it.
Procrastination isn't just a minor irritant. Half of the managers surveyed in one study reported that their teams often missed deadlines. The cost to the client and the consultant for needless procrastination can be eliminated by understanding the work style of your team members, creating a shared set of norms about task completion, and keeping a sharp eye on the project.
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| Coming
Attractions |
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 "There are two main reasons that companies go out of business: They are lousy at financial management or people management."
Next month, we'll talk with Ken Blanchard, the bestselling author of more than forty books, including the classic, The One Minute Manager, and Full Steam Ahead!
Blanchard will talk to us about his latest book, The One Minute Entrepreneur, which lays out a strategy for making any new business venture flourish.
Look for the next issue of Management Consulting News on August 5, 2008.
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