April, 2016

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How (Exactly) to Make Room for a Blockbuster Year of Consulting

David A Fields

Last week we agreed the single, most powerful step you could take to double (or triple) your consulting business is to let go. (See this article.) I proposed letting go of tasks, pride, and certain clients, and readers suggested letting go of fears, offerings and past mistakes, for starters. We need to excise low-value activities, people, thoughts, calories, or whatever other flotsam we have in our lives and businesses.

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Inside Nudging: Implementing Behavioral Science Initiatives to be released in June 2016

Steve Shu Consulting

My new book, Inside Nudging: Implementing Behavioral Science Initiatives , will be released in June 2016.

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2016 Top 10 U.S. MBA programs for Management Consulting

Management Consulted

Going to a top notch business school to get an MBA is high on the list for many aspiring consultants, especially those based in or desiring to work in the U.S. But which U.S. MBA programs should you apply to if you want the best inroads to consulting? We’ve all seen top 10 business school lists, and they’re helpful, but we wanted to go one step further to help our readers who specifically want to go into consulting.

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Required Consulting Skills

Tom Spencer

(Source: Flickr ). The consulting industry provides many services and covers many industry sectors, and so the domain knowledge and expertise that a consultant needs will vary depending on the industry focus and services that the consultant actually provides. That being said, there are some generic skills that every consultant will need to have. As a starting point, every consultant will need to be intelligent and energetic to cope with client expectations, a relentless travel schedule and deman

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Less Stress, More Success: Accounting Best Practices & Processes for 2025

Speaker: Duke Heninger, Partner and Fractional CFO at Ampleo & Creator of CFO System

Are you ready to elevate your accounting processes for 2025? 🚀 Join us for an exclusive webinar led by Duke Heninger, a seasoned fractional CFO and CPA passionate about transforming back-office operations for finance teams. This session will cover critical best practices and process improvements tailored specifically for accounting professionals.

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When Is It OK to Implement an Offensive Crisis Management Strategy?

Melissa Agnes

What is the goal of crisis management? The goal of crisis management is to salvage your organization’s reputation and bottom line when presented with a bad or threatening situation – or so says the majority of people. But you and I, we’re not the majority of people, are we? We therefore know that the truth is that exceptional crisis management – the kind your organization should always strive to achieve – has a much stronger goal.

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Reluctant Prospect? How (and When) to Win the Consulting Project

David A Fields

You provoke native desire during the discovery process by tapping into the emotional drivers behind the project. If they exist. You can’t manufacture these; you can only brush the ashes off the ember of desire then fan it into flame. The key is to leave your prospect with an incomplete vision of the future. If you paint the entire future, their interest will fade when you leave.

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Urgent vs. Important – How to Sort Through the Noise

Women in Consulting

By: Kim Wasson. As consultants we often face an overwhelming volume of data, to-do items, and just general communication. In our brave new world of email, instant messaging, social media, twitter plus the occasional phone call it can be hard to sort through the list of possible tasks and decide what to do next. One exceptionally useful tool is the Urgent vs.

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Consulting Case Anatomy – A Simple Breakdown

Management Consulted

As a prospective consultant, one of the things that can seem the most mysterious in the case study prep process is wondering what the interviewer is going to ask you next. We have good news for you! Many of you have heard about interviewer-led and interviewee-led case interviews and are wondering how to approach each one appropriately. The good news is, as far as anatomy goes, they’re actually very similar.

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3 Ways to Distinguish Yourself

Tom Spencer

We live in an increasingly digital and technology enabled world, which is increasing the level of competition between organisations. Why is this the case? There are three key reasons. Firstly, technology is helping to lower barriers to entry. It has never been easier to create new goods and services, and get them noticed by your target audience. Whether it be a website, a blog or an iPhone app, the initial startup costs for launching a new project have never been lower.

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PowerPoint Best Practices for Creating Stellar Presentations

Mastering data visualization in PowerPoint will help accelerate your career because it positions you as someone who can present data that drives business decisions forward. think-cell's PowerPoint Best Practices eBook was created specifically for professionals aiming to master the art and science of data-driven storytelling. What’s inside: Practical Insights: Uncover valuable tips for crafting engaging and persuasive presentations.

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Information Silos are Hurting your Crisis Preparedness

Melissa Agnes

Information silos can trigger issues and handicap your crisis management. True crisis preparedness requires more than a plan, it requires the right corporate culture. Part of ensuring the right corporate culture means adapting the right mindset. Something that I see many organizations suffer from – especially large organizations that have been around for decades – is an information silo’d mindset, and thus culture.

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Four Best Practices for Strategic Planning

BCG

Focus Thursday, April 14, 2016. Strategic planning is one of the least-loved organizational processes. Executives at most companies criticize it as overly bureaucratic, insufficiently insightful, and ill suited for today’s rapidly changing markets. Some even argue that strategic planning is a relic that should be relegated to the past and that organizations seeking to prosper in turbulent times should instead invest in market intelligence and agility.

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The One, Simple “Must Do” to Double (or Triple) Your Consulting Business (It’s Not What You Think)

David A Fields

I was talking about you yesterday evening. During a delightful (if salty) Greek dinner with another successful consultant, we were talking about your consulting business and what’s holding you back. During the fish course, I said: You know what the number one challenge is that prevents independent consultants from achieving more success? It’s… …the inability to let go.

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Bringing Tech Insight to Corporate Boards

Strategy+Business

Today's rapidly changing technology environment often has boards scrambling to keep up. The best way to do so lies in recruiting more digital expertise while improving the quality of conversations.

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How to Stay Competitive in the Evolving State of Martech

Marketing technology is essential for B2B marketers to stay competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape — and with 53% of marketers experiencing legacy technology issues and limitations, they’re researching innovations to expand and refine their technology stacks. To help practitioners keep up with the rapidly evolving martech landscape, this special report will discuss: How practitioners are integrating technologies and systems to encourage information-sharing between departments and pr

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The Brattle Group Interviews and Culture

Management Consulted

THE BRATTLE GROUP. Today we take a look at a boutique consulting firm you may not have heard of, The Brattle Group. Founded in 1990, The Brattle Group offers answers to economic, regulatory and financial questions posed by corporations, law firms and governments around the globe. For 2 years straight, The Brattle Group has been recognized as one Vault’s Top 50 U.S.

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9 M’s Resource Audit Checklist

Tom Spencer

An organisation’s approach to strategy will always depend on the circumstances. Who are the organisation’s competitors? There will be existing competitors, and outsiders who might threaten to compete in future. And who are the organisation’s customers? There will be existing customers, and larger groups that the organisation wants to target.

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TCIP #056 – Terrorist Attack Crisis Management with Daniel Linskey

Melissa Agnes

Welcome to episode #056 of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast, with Melissa Agnes and Daniel Linskey. I recently had the honor of sitting down with Daniel Linksey, former Superintendent in Chief of the Boston Police Department, to record an episode of the Crisis Intelligence Podcast. Dan was the incident commander during the Boston Marathon Bombing. Within this podcast, Dan shares his first-hand experience of what it was like to manage the Boston Marathon Bombing crisis.

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A New Approach to Organization Design

BCG

Focus Tuesday, April 05, 2016. In a time of economic turbulence, disruptive technology, globalization, and unprecedentedly fierce competition, the priority concern for many business leaders is to adapt to the changing conditions in order to boost their company’s performance. For that purpose, they frequently turn to organization design for help. By driving a thorough organizational review and redesign, company leaders can change the trajectory of their business.

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Savings Consultants Are Needed in Today's Market More Than Ever

Savings Consultants are needed in today’s market more than ever. With an increase in expenses, businesses are looking for opportunities to save. Often unknown to businesses are savings in expense reduction, specialized tax savings, specialized savings including medical underpayments, health benefits cost reduction, zero cost processing, and more. Blue Coast Savings, with over 20 years in business, assists Savings Consultants in helping these companies move toward more profitable businesses.

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How Much IP to Give Away & How Much Is Too Much

David A Fields

Let’s say Ann Oying, CEO of Cheapo Enterprises asks you for consulting help because she and her team are mired in misery and they don’t know the path out. But you do. You develop a comprehensive proposal for Ann, outlining the route to Nirvana. During the follow-up call, Ann informs you that, having reviewed your proposal, her team now feels they can reach Nirvana on their own.

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Meeting the Fintech Challenge

Strategy+Business

In such fields as online lending, money transfer, and credit ratings, fintech companies are breaking the dominance of financial services' largest players in novel ways. To maintain their competitive edge, incumbents can reorient their firm as the dynamic center of a fintech ecosystem.

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IRS Audits – What DO You Do?

Women in Consulting

By: Renee Daggett. If you receive an audit notice from the IRS, do not panic. First, read the letter completely to see what they are auditing. If you can handle the audit yourself – without getting emotional or defensive (or rambling) – then do so. If you don’t have the time, hire a professional to deal with the audit. Then, get organized!

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Is Consulting For You?

Tom Spencer

(Source: Flickr ). Management consulting is a nice perch, but it is not for everyone. Many people go into consulting with a plan to gain a few years of experience and then apply for B-school or pivot into industry or entrepreneurship. This is a legitimate strategy, but it can also be a cop out with many people leaving their career direction too much to chance.

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TOOLS and METHODOLOGIES for developing DECISION SUPPORT PACKAGES

This White Paper targets opportunities for Management to develop proficiency in the Decision Framing and Analyses element of input to Decision, & Risk Analyses for Major Project Funding Decisions.

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Tips for Helping Law Enforcement Position Itself as the Source of Trust and Credibility in a Crisis

Melissa Agnes

Within the first 30 minutes from the time the bombs went off in the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings, there were reported to be over 500,000 tweets with the hashtag #bostonmarathon alone. That’s half a million tweets containing this one hashtag. This doesn’t account for any other tweets using different hashtags, tweets that didn’t use any hashtags, Facebook posts, news articles, blog posts, Instagram posts – or anything else that was published and shared online in the hours

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The Introverted Corporation

BCG

Perspective Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The more you engage with customers, the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing. — John Russell, former managing director, Harley-Davidson Europe. Eyes wide shut? Most business leaders stress the importance of understanding customers to stay relevant in today’s fast-changing competitive environment.

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Beware: You Might Be Getting Bad Advice

Chad Barr

This week’s reflection point: Have you ever taken advice from someone—only to realize later that it actually hurt your success, instead of helped you? If so, you’re not alone. Bad advice is everywhere. And it’s crucial that you avoid taking it. Not long ago, I overheard a speaker give the following advice to his audience: Forget about marketing, and just publish.

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Rewarded vs. Unrewarded Complexity in Organizations

Kates Kesler

Complex organizations are a result of complex business strategies. But not all complexity is equal. Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips, makes a case for distinguishing between what he calls rewarded and unrewarded complexity. Rewarded complexity drives a multifaceted growth strategy through a network of value-adding contact points across diverse teams, functions, and business units around the world.

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Why You Need to Use Case Studies in Sales and Marketing (and How to Start Now)

Case studies are proof of successful client relations and a verifiable product or service. They persuade buyers by highlighting your customers' experiences with your company and its solution. In sales, case studies are crucial pieces of content that can be tailored to prospects' pain points and used throughout the buyer's journey. In marketing, case studies are versatile assets for generating business, providing reusable elements for ad and social media content, website material, and marketing c