“Mountains of Triumph”
By Roy Iglesias
PNOC–EDC, 2001
You drive up north toward Subic and you see, from afar, mountains colored brown and gold. Nothing sentimental there, because that shows the mountains are rid of forest cover and are, to put it plainly, bald.
Your plane hovers over Mindanao, and as you look through the window, you note land blocks of brown, gold and yellow on mountains and you conclude – these two are bald. But, then your eye catches patches of green – a refreshing sight with a refreshing thought: Some parts of the mountain are going through reforestation!
What’s going on inside those forests? When a multitude of trees grow, whose hands nurture them? When they are cut down or burned, what form do these malevolent forces take – kaingineros, illegal loggers … and their murderous ilk?
What does it mean to see evil face to face when you want to save the trees while armed insurgents are ready to shoot you. Despite well-rehearsed possible reaction when death or bloodletting comes, what do you really do when the passenger beside you suddenly slumps, after receiving a hail of bullets from the underbrush?
When day breaks, you wake up to see a multitude of community folks breaking the good news that they now also “own” the idea of taking care of the forest – said with the brightest toothy smiles you have ever seen in your life. Are you emotionally prepared for such a magical moment?
The book “Mountains of Triumph” – to paraphrase a familiar saying – brings you closer to the trees you usually miss because all you have seen are forests. Actually, the book brings the reader where the action is and where dreams begin – right in the midst of community folk working hand in hand with well-meaning organizations to save and nurture their sole salvation: the perpetuation of forests.
One could simply summarize this book as a story book on the social forestry project of both the PNOC Energy Development Corporation and the New Zealand Government – with a forestry manual thrown in – and would rest in the thought that he/she has captured the spirit of the book. Not so. That’s oversimplifying it as a one-dimensional coffee table book that has postcard perfect pictures and elegant prose fit for an award winning brochure. Actually, it is a coffee table book -- and much much more.
What we have here is a gripping account of warm-blooded people, leaving the comforts of plush offices in the concrete junge, and penetrating deep into many forests all over the country to experience first hand what it means to share your dreams and your fears and strategies with the simple folk about how to secure a shared future and how to restore a vanishing forest.
And yet, the accounts are not the usual stuff you find in annual reports, rid of the real stuff and drama life is made of. Listen to this:
“The rifle was aimed at a bend of the empty, twisting road. An inocuous target, it seemed, until moments later when a pickup truck came into view. Then the sniper knew his vigil was finally going to pay off. In the truck, Emmie Ybanez was seated in front, between the driver and her officemate Mon Arong who, like her, was also an extension worker of PNOC EDC’s Environmental Management Department …
“Suddenly, a loud burst of gunfire by the crashing sound of broken glass from the windshield jolted Emmie out of her thoughts.” Read on through the breathless prose when you get hold of this book.
The book also connects the life of executives who shuttle from concrete to real jungles: “Agnes de Jesus is on her way to a conference in another building when she sees the earthworm twisting and twirling on the carpet of her office, moving toward the door. The little creature has ventured beyond its world, crawling out of the pot of tropical plant by the desk, crossing the unfamiliar terrain of the carpeted floor … to search for a fresh patch of earth to till.”
This books open a fresh new possibility in reporting the dream and drama, conflict and concord, the tremulous truce and the lasting peace inside our many forests. The book is shorn of slogan, and has steered clear of anemic prose that usually marked reports on the great work done by foresters and the community folk to protect every tree in the mountain.
When you read the book, you do not only sense the triumph of the human spirit, not only the victory of good storytelling over trite reportage – but you sense the soul of the community. And before you know it, you feel you are part of the same community, feel the sunlight in your soul, and acquire the communal hearthrob of the forest dwellers.
Sunday, January 20, 2002
Sunday, January 06, 2002
The epic of six brand leaders in magical, truth-full storytelling
“Brand New”
By Nancy F. Koehn
Harvard Business School Press, 2001
Read this book for a change. It’s titled “Brand New,” just the right phrase for a brand new year (if we have to make a connection somehow).
But, there’s something more about this book being a refreshing change from a surfeit of books speaking of brand equity, brand loyalty, brand awareness and brand-what-have-you.
It’s an epic, not about “branding” as a concept (since that cannot qualify as a great story), but about brand leaders rising above their times and historical milieu — responding to epic movements but, much more so, creating institutions and movements themselves that have deeply changed — and continue to change — people’s lives, lifestyles and the way we all look at life, work and play — and the way we look, the way we are scented, and the way we dine.
Who says business promises only humdrum existence?
This book’s jacket says: “Until Josiah Wedgwood, Britons ate from wood and pewter plates. Until Henry Heinz, women toiled over pickled foods. Until Michael Dell, few people owned a personal computer, let alone dreamed of buying one ‘built to order’.” And, if I may add, until Estee Lauder, cosmetics were promoted the all-too-traditional way. And until Starbucks, coffee drinking had no romance.
What is Nancy F. Koehn, Ph.D. (corporate historian of Harvard Business School), talking about? She is talking about six companies with powerful brands: Starbucks, Estee Lauder, Dell Computers, Wedgwood china, Heinz ketchup, Marshall Field giant stores.
What’s so special about the six — since there are many more entrepreneurs that also built powerful brands — like Ford, IBM, Coke, Sony, BMW, etc.? Actually, I have no answer to this question, except to say, that herein lies the problem with inclusions: there are also exclusions. And, of course, I am just reviewing a book (a very good slow read throughout 469 pages) — and not arguing for the author.
But, the author somehow dishes out an explanation why she chose the six: “All of the brands I discuss were developed during periods when demand-side shifts were altering consumers’ priorities. This kind of thing happens in all historical epochs, of course, but in each of the six cases, social and economic changes were racing forward more rapidly than usual.”
Four of the entrepreneurs made things: Wedgwood’s earthenware, Heinz’s bottled pickles, Lauder’s cosmetics, and Dell’s personal computers. Ms. Koehn says the other two “created encounters” that proved appealing to customers — Fields’ department store environment and Schultz’s café experience.
How these entrepreneurs created a powerful brand goes beyond marketing. It was total involvement for the entrepreneur with the product he/she wholly believed in, investing money and time to perfect it, using a keen eye for any consumer shift, developing an “image” — not only at the marketing front, but more important, from the laboratory, plantation farm, production floor, distribution network, excellent showroom, and a workforce that perfectly reflect the image and vision of the entrepreneur.
The book’s sections are masterfully divided. First, there are two major divisions: “The Past” (for Wedgwood, Heinz and Field that spanned the 18th to early 20th century) and “The Present” (for Lauder, Schultz and Dell). The book says much about the author’s unflagging will to capture the dust, drift and direction of industries these entrepreneurs created.
She has woven together personages and has placed them on “the world’s stage” — providing local color, unfolding historic drama, increasingly interesting plots with every initial resistance and with every emergence of competition, and peppering her storytelling with revealing tales about royalty, the severely rich and the merely famous.
Josiah Wedgwood began the practice of sending gifts to royalty — and then quickly announced that the King or Queen had his china in their dining room. His message to members of the middle class who are palace watchers: “You can have the same china that the Queen has in her stately palace.” That brought prestige to Wedgwood products, drew non-royals to his stores — proving once again that the impulse of “keeping with the Joneses” has antedated us all. By the way, Wedgwood is the grandpa of Charles Darwin — one of the side stories that make this book really an interesting read.
H. J. Heinz, noting women’s shifting roles from the kitchen and into factories and offices, concluded that these women should be free from the cumbersome task of preparing pickles each time. Thus Heinz introduced preserved pickles. It meant more freedom for women — and to Heinz profits that last till now. Today, the Heinz empire has remained one of the world’s leading food processors. In 2000, the author notes, the flagship Heinz brand accounted for about one third of the company’s US$9 billion sales.
Marshall Field introduced a merchandizing strategy that made shopping elegant and enjoyable. As early as the 19th century, Field already decided that “female shoppers wanted an elegant atmosphere, the latest fashions and courteous service — preferably from other women.” That was way way back — before Rustans was born if we talk local.
And what about Estee Lauder, born Josephine Esther Mentzer in 1908? Her story is preceded by the sweet-scented story of cosmetics and perfumery dating back to the time when society frowned upon women painting their faces and sporting head-turning scents that make others crazy. This determined woman, as told by our master storyteller, tried new ways to promote her product — including “a gift for every purchase”.
As a sidelight, read about an interesting tale about Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden deliberately “obscuring their humble beginnings” to project an aristocratic heritage.
How Howard Schultz got inspiration about “specialty coffee” in Milan is an account to inspire entrepreneurs with the truth that you can actually re-invent an old product. Today Starbucks is everywhere. How Michael Dell defied tradition by going into direct marketing to sell his computers is another epic, especially that he took on IBM the giant.
Author Jack Beatty summarizes the book’s accomplishment thus: “Brand New felicitously blends biography, business history and conceptual analysis in a book that gives the vogue word branding a rich and surprising past.” At the beginning of the year, be enriched and be astonished. Begin then with this book.
By Nancy F. Koehn
Harvard Business School Press, 2001
Read this book for a change. It’s titled “Brand New,” just the right phrase for a brand new year (if we have to make a connection somehow).
But, there’s something more about this book being a refreshing change from a surfeit of books speaking of brand equity, brand loyalty, brand awareness and brand-what-have-you.
It’s an epic, not about “branding” as a concept (since that cannot qualify as a great story), but about brand leaders rising above their times and historical milieu — responding to epic movements but, much more so, creating institutions and movements themselves that have deeply changed — and continue to change — people’s lives, lifestyles and the way we all look at life, work and play — and the way we look, the way we are scented, and the way we dine.
Who says business promises only humdrum existence?
This book’s jacket says: “Until Josiah Wedgwood, Britons ate from wood and pewter plates. Until Henry Heinz, women toiled over pickled foods. Until Michael Dell, few people owned a personal computer, let alone dreamed of buying one ‘built to order’.” And, if I may add, until Estee Lauder, cosmetics were promoted the all-too-traditional way. And until Starbucks, coffee drinking had no romance.
What is Nancy F. Koehn, Ph.D. (corporate historian of Harvard Business School), talking about? She is talking about six companies with powerful brands: Starbucks, Estee Lauder, Dell Computers, Wedgwood china, Heinz ketchup, Marshall Field giant stores.
What’s so special about the six — since there are many more entrepreneurs that also built powerful brands — like Ford, IBM, Coke, Sony, BMW, etc.? Actually, I have no answer to this question, except to say, that herein lies the problem with inclusions: there are also exclusions. And, of course, I am just reviewing a book (a very good slow read throughout 469 pages) — and not arguing for the author.
But, the author somehow dishes out an explanation why she chose the six: “All of the brands I discuss were developed during periods when demand-side shifts were altering consumers’ priorities. This kind of thing happens in all historical epochs, of course, but in each of the six cases, social and economic changes were racing forward more rapidly than usual.”
Four of the entrepreneurs made things: Wedgwood’s earthenware, Heinz’s bottled pickles, Lauder’s cosmetics, and Dell’s personal computers. Ms. Koehn says the other two “created encounters” that proved appealing to customers — Fields’ department store environment and Schultz’s café experience.
How these entrepreneurs created a powerful brand goes beyond marketing. It was total involvement for the entrepreneur with the product he/she wholly believed in, investing money and time to perfect it, using a keen eye for any consumer shift, developing an “image” — not only at the marketing front, but more important, from the laboratory, plantation farm, production floor, distribution network, excellent showroom, and a workforce that perfectly reflect the image and vision of the entrepreneur.
The book’s sections are masterfully divided. First, there are two major divisions: “The Past” (for Wedgwood, Heinz and Field that spanned the 18th to early 20th century) and “The Present” (for Lauder, Schultz and Dell). The book says much about the author’s unflagging will to capture the dust, drift and direction of industries these entrepreneurs created.
She has woven together personages and has placed them on “the world’s stage” — providing local color, unfolding historic drama, increasingly interesting plots with every initial resistance and with every emergence of competition, and peppering her storytelling with revealing tales about royalty, the severely rich and the merely famous.
Josiah Wedgwood began the practice of sending gifts to royalty — and then quickly announced that the King or Queen had his china in their dining room. His message to members of the middle class who are palace watchers: “You can have the same china that the Queen has in her stately palace.” That brought prestige to Wedgwood products, drew non-royals to his stores — proving once again that the impulse of “keeping with the Joneses” has antedated us all. By the way, Wedgwood is the grandpa of Charles Darwin — one of the side stories that make this book really an interesting read.
H. J. Heinz, noting women’s shifting roles from the kitchen and into factories and offices, concluded that these women should be free from the cumbersome task of preparing pickles each time. Thus Heinz introduced preserved pickles. It meant more freedom for women — and to Heinz profits that last till now. Today, the Heinz empire has remained one of the world’s leading food processors. In 2000, the author notes, the flagship Heinz brand accounted for about one third of the company’s US$9 billion sales.
Marshall Field introduced a merchandizing strategy that made shopping elegant and enjoyable. As early as the 19th century, Field already decided that “female shoppers wanted an elegant atmosphere, the latest fashions and courteous service — preferably from other women.” That was way way back — before Rustans was born if we talk local.
And what about Estee Lauder, born Josephine Esther Mentzer in 1908? Her story is preceded by the sweet-scented story of cosmetics and perfumery dating back to the time when society frowned upon women painting their faces and sporting head-turning scents that make others crazy. This determined woman, as told by our master storyteller, tried new ways to promote her product — including “a gift for every purchase”.
As a sidelight, read about an interesting tale about Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden deliberately “obscuring their humble beginnings” to project an aristocratic heritage.
How Howard Schultz got inspiration about “specialty coffee” in Milan is an account to inspire entrepreneurs with the truth that you can actually re-invent an old product. Today Starbucks is everywhere. How Michael Dell defied tradition by going into direct marketing to sell his computers is another epic, especially that he took on IBM the giant.
Author Jack Beatty summarizes the book’s accomplishment thus: “Brand New felicitously blends biography, business history and conceptual analysis in a book that gives the vogue word branding a rich and surprising past.” At the beginning of the year, be enriched and be astonished. Begin then with this book.
Sunday, December 23, 2001
Mavericks (or ‘poor fits’) in firms trigger change
“Tempered Radicals”
By Debra E. Meyerson
Harvard Business School Press, 2001
We know some of them – occupying positions of responsibility among the top 1,000 corporations or wielding influence in the corridors of power. They are the “activists” in an organizational community, seeming “poor fits” that cannot somehow be assimilated in the dominant culture.
He could be an environmental activist in a power generation company. On one hand, management could not make heads or tails about him, but, on the other, management seeks his insight into the phenomenon of a protest group which has raised an issue that couldn’t seem to go away.
She could be a feminist advocate in an engineering firm whose culture is defined by “male chauvinists.” Would she be co-opted into the dominant behavior and thus give up her commitment to a larger cause, or would she be a necessary gadfly pricking the conscience and pride of self-satisfied males?
How many of these mavericks survive? And how many give up the fight and melt into the solvent of the majority, losing identity, swallowing their pride and being untrue to themselves?
This is doubtless a riveting subject. And this is the subject of “Tempered Radicals,” sub-titled “How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work.”
It deals with “poor fits” in the organization, whose values and interests are at odds with the dominant culture.
Are they useful at all to organizations, which must run like a well-oiled machine? Author Debra E. Meyerson, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, points out: “By asserting the non-conforming aspects of oneself, the tempered radical can pave the way for learning and change by questioning current practice and expectations and providing an alternative.”
That is because this activist person brings an entirely new perspective, asks disturbing questions – and therefore paves the way for new ideas.
Remember the child who declared the truth that the “the emperor had no clothes on”? Everyone in the kingdom knew that the ruler did not have anything on, but there was one boy who had the courage to tell the truth.
This is typical in the corporate world. Conformists would rather play safe, especially when the boss is espousing a “great” idea. It takes a non-conformist to contest such an idea. It is always a risky proposition. But, it could also be rewarding.
Based on 15 years of research and observation, the book reveals that adaptive, diverse, family-friendly, and socially responsible workplaces are built not by revolutionaries but by those the author calls “tempered radicals” – “people who successfully walk the tightrope between conformity and rebellion.”
The individuals have varying styles at introducing change within their organizations. At times, when change is difficult, if not impossible, these peope – to be “true to themselves” – take on responsibilities outside their work that give them self-fulfillment.
The book speaks about a a lawyer who volunteered his servies in a legal rights center to follow his commitment to fight injustice. The book calls this “designing behind the scenes actions” in order to make a difference.
The book’s research reveals that those who were successful in being true to their own values did not go for big wins, or earthshaking steps that would revolutionize their organizations. That could have been a surefire formula for being fired. What they did was to “leverage small wins” over time.
A chapter is devoted to how these tempered radicals organize for collective action, a process that requires the “essential skills of leadership,” the author says.
The tension remains when you are a maverick in your own organization. It is “difficult to navigate between competing pulls and sustains selves at odds with one another.” The sad thing is some peope finally give up one side of their selves or the other.
The book offers a way to “to resist lures to conform.” She advises that tempered radicals can make ongoing deliberate efforts to maintain affiliations, to make explicit the connection between their local efforts and their broader significance.
Possibly the most fundamental thing to remember about successful tempered radicals is that they know who they are and what is important to their sense of self. It’s a decision one has to make, the book says. Above all, tempered radicals reserve the choice to be an agent rather than a victim of their circumstances, and with this stance comes a tremendous sense of freedom and power.
Tempered radicals inspire change. Yet their leadership resides equally in their capacity to inspire people. They do inspire by having the courage to tell the truth even when it’s difficult to do so.
If you somehow fit into this category, or you are awed by the success or survival of tempered radicals in your firm, this book gives you a deeper insight into these mavericks who ask disturbing questions but who, in the final analysis, have tremendous value to the long-term existence of your organization.
By Debra E. Meyerson
Harvard Business School Press, 2001
We know some of them – occupying positions of responsibility among the top 1,000 corporations or wielding influence in the corridors of power. They are the “activists” in an organizational community, seeming “poor fits” that cannot somehow be assimilated in the dominant culture.
He could be an environmental activist in a power generation company. On one hand, management could not make heads or tails about him, but, on the other, management seeks his insight into the phenomenon of a protest group which has raised an issue that couldn’t seem to go away.
She could be a feminist advocate in an engineering firm whose culture is defined by “male chauvinists.” Would she be co-opted into the dominant behavior and thus give up her commitment to a larger cause, or would she be a necessary gadfly pricking the conscience and pride of self-satisfied males?
How many of these mavericks survive? And how many give up the fight and melt into the solvent of the majority, losing identity, swallowing their pride and being untrue to themselves?
This is doubtless a riveting subject. And this is the subject of “Tempered Radicals,” sub-titled “How People Use Difference to Inspire Change at Work.”
It deals with “poor fits” in the organization, whose values and interests are at odds with the dominant culture.
Are they useful at all to organizations, which must run like a well-oiled machine? Author Debra E. Meyerson, professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, points out: “By asserting the non-conforming aspects of oneself, the tempered radical can pave the way for learning and change by questioning current practice and expectations and providing an alternative.”
That is because this activist person brings an entirely new perspective, asks disturbing questions – and therefore paves the way for new ideas.
Remember the child who declared the truth that the “the emperor had no clothes on”? Everyone in the kingdom knew that the ruler did not have anything on, but there was one boy who had the courage to tell the truth.
This is typical in the corporate world. Conformists would rather play safe, especially when the boss is espousing a “great” idea. It takes a non-conformist to contest such an idea. It is always a risky proposition. But, it could also be rewarding.
Based on 15 years of research and observation, the book reveals that adaptive, diverse, family-friendly, and socially responsible workplaces are built not by revolutionaries but by those the author calls “tempered radicals” – “people who successfully walk the tightrope between conformity and rebellion.”
The individuals have varying styles at introducing change within their organizations. At times, when change is difficult, if not impossible, these peope – to be “true to themselves” – take on responsibilities outside their work that give them self-fulfillment.
The book speaks about a a lawyer who volunteered his servies in a legal rights center to follow his commitment to fight injustice. The book calls this “designing behind the scenes actions” in order to make a difference.
The book’s research reveals that those who were successful in being true to their own values did not go for big wins, or earthshaking steps that would revolutionize their organizations. That could have been a surefire formula for being fired. What they did was to “leverage small wins” over time.
A chapter is devoted to how these tempered radicals organize for collective action, a process that requires the “essential skills of leadership,” the author says.
The tension remains when you are a maverick in your own organization. It is “difficult to navigate between competing pulls and sustains selves at odds with one another.” The sad thing is some peope finally give up one side of their selves or the other.
The book offers a way to “to resist lures to conform.” She advises that tempered radicals can make ongoing deliberate efforts to maintain affiliations, to make explicit the connection between their local efforts and their broader significance.
Possibly the most fundamental thing to remember about successful tempered radicals is that they know who they are and what is important to their sense of self. It’s a decision one has to make, the book says. Above all, tempered radicals reserve the choice to be an agent rather than a victim of their circumstances, and with this stance comes a tremendous sense of freedom and power.
Tempered radicals inspire change. Yet their leadership resides equally in their capacity to inspire people. They do inspire by having the courage to tell the truth even when it’s difficult to do so.
If you somehow fit into this category, or you are awed by the success or survival of tempered radicals in your firm, this book gives you a deeper insight into these mavericks who ask disturbing questions but who, in the final analysis, have tremendous value to the long-term existence of your organization.
Sunday, December 09, 2001
Consulting work in bite-size options
“The Consultants Tool Kit”
Edited by Mel Silberman
McGraw-Hill, 2001
Consultants abound in the business world – and are, in the main, truly of help to organizations seeking the cutting edge in their strategy, managing change to cope with a profoundly altered environment, realizing new efficiencies in operations, making inroads into new markets – and a host of other solutions.
While most consultants, no doubt, have a place in the scheme of things in business, some are favorite targets of wit and jests – especially when they prove themselves superfluous in a world where the bottom line is non-negotiable.
A humorists, Jeanne Robertson, defines consultant as “someone who borrows your watch and charges to tell you the time” -- a definition that points to consulting work that, at best, overstates the obvious or, at worst, needlessly doubles the work.
Arnold Glasow points to consultants’ fees, saying: “A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.”
Be that as it may, consultants will be around for a long time. Their importance in the corporate mainstream is such that U.S. business spends over $3 billion annually on consultants. We don’t have the figures on consultants’ compensations in Philippine business, but the proliferation of auditing firms doubling up as consultants – aside from counselors in marketing drives, IT, change management, risk handling, corporate communications, etc. – proves that our consultants are also handsomely paid.
Which should really be the case, if you ask me, if such consultants prove to be corporate turnaround artists, marketing wizards and productive experts with positive impact on rising revenues and falling costs. The message, therefore, is for consultants to continually prove their worth – and thus continually sharpen their skills, expand their scope and deepen their knowledge of the business.
There is a book that will prove useful to consultants hereabouts – “The Consultant’s Tool Kit.” Veteran players in the game need it to assure them that not a single consultancy service is missed. New entrants in the consulting business will need it, not only to start right, but to know the full range of services they can offer.
For example, Part I alone, provides the reader 13 assessment questionnaires – from finding out if the firm’s business strategy makes sense” to establishing the “client’s leadership competencies.” Consultants are in the best position to make such assessments – first, because they have the advantage of detachment and objectivity; and second, management at times would not dare “rock the boat” themselves.
From evaluating the firm’s operations in various areas, the consultant is also treated to “hot-to-guides” for solving client’s problems. There! Consutlants are supposed to have a “bag of tricks” of a “panacea” to companies’ lingering problems.
You may not cure all, but at least your methodology creates the climate of an entire company geared for solutions. Before you know it, proving once again the theory of “self-fulfilling prophecy,” the company is well on its way to stumbling into the ultimate solution.
You have a menu of from “how to lead effective meetings” (do you think it’s ever easy?) to “how to move your client from training to performance improvement.” This proceeds from the established fact that “training alone is insufficient to bridge most performance gaps.” Editor Mel Silberman, Ph.D., points out that “trainers need to develop more comprehensive interventions that include incentive systems, communications technologies, environmental redesign,” etc.
Finally, Part III, offers 17 “intervention activities to increase your client’s effectiveness.” This is a section for facilitators for various group activities that enhance their skills and deepen their insights on quality, tem-building, organization change, dealing with resistance, etc. Who says business is not fun? These exercises lead them to solve puzzles, read people’s minds and hurdle many forms of resistance – ala- “Survivor Africa.”
This book of 354 pages is full of insights, suggestions, illustrations all the way into the 354th page. The editor, featuring 45 top professionals in their fields, wasted mo space in giving the veteran or start-up consultant needs to start with a strong beginning, sustain his consulting practice, and make him or her enjoy every engagement that follows.
Did you ever think consulting work is the refuge of the retiree, the unemployed, the “corporate isolate”? Think again. If you get hold of this tool kit, you will realize consulting work is a world of vast possibilities where you can try almost anything. But, first things first:
Make a persuasive pitch for your prospective client to try your “new idea.” And then, when you get the client’s green light, give the job you best shot, decide that you will enjoy the entire exercise, truly bring your client to a new level of success or growth. You will realize that the financial rewards are simple side benefits.
Edited by Mel Silberman
McGraw-Hill, 2001
Consultants abound in the business world – and are, in the main, truly of help to organizations seeking the cutting edge in their strategy, managing change to cope with a profoundly altered environment, realizing new efficiencies in operations, making inroads into new markets – and a host of other solutions.
While most consultants, no doubt, have a place in the scheme of things in business, some are favorite targets of wit and jests – especially when they prove themselves superfluous in a world where the bottom line is non-negotiable.
A humorists, Jeanne Robertson, defines consultant as “someone who borrows your watch and charges to tell you the time” -- a definition that points to consulting work that, at best, overstates the obvious or, at worst, needlessly doubles the work.
Arnold Glasow points to consultants’ fees, saying: “A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.”
Be that as it may, consultants will be around for a long time. Their importance in the corporate mainstream is such that U.S. business spends over $3 billion annually on consultants. We don’t have the figures on consultants’ compensations in Philippine business, but the proliferation of auditing firms doubling up as consultants – aside from counselors in marketing drives, IT, change management, risk handling, corporate communications, etc. – proves that our consultants are also handsomely paid.
Which should really be the case, if you ask me, if such consultants prove to be corporate turnaround artists, marketing wizards and productive experts with positive impact on rising revenues and falling costs. The message, therefore, is for consultants to continually prove their worth – and thus continually sharpen their skills, expand their scope and deepen their knowledge of the business.
There is a book that will prove useful to consultants hereabouts – “The Consultant’s Tool Kit.” Veteran players in the game need it to assure them that not a single consultancy service is missed. New entrants in the consulting business will need it, not only to start right, but to know the full range of services they can offer.
For example, Part I alone, provides the reader 13 assessment questionnaires – from finding out if the firm’s business strategy makes sense” to establishing the “client’s leadership competencies.” Consultants are in the best position to make such assessments – first, because they have the advantage of detachment and objectivity; and second, management at times would not dare “rock the boat” themselves.
From evaluating the firm’s operations in various areas, the consultant is also treated to “hot-to-guides” for solving client’s problems. There! Consutlants are supposed to have a “bag of tricks” of a “panacea” to companies’ lingering problems.
You may not cure all, but at least your methodology creates the climate of an entire company geared for solutions. Before you know it, proving once again the theory of “self-fulfilling prophecy,” the company is well on its way to stumbling into the ultimate solution.
You have a menu of from “how to lead effective meetings” (do you think it’s ever easy?) to “how to move your client from training to performance improvement.” This proceeds from the established fact that “training alone is insufficient to bridge most performance gaps.” Editor Mel Silberman, Ph.D., points out that “trainers need to develop more comprehensive interventions that include incentive systems, communications technologies, environmental redesign,” etc.
Finally, Part III, offers 17 “intervention activities to increase your client’s effectiveness.” This is a section for facilitators for various group activities that enhance their skills and deepen their insights on quality, tem-building, organization change, dealing with resistance, etc. Who says business is not fun? These exercises lead them to solve puzzles, read people’s minds and hurdle many forms of resistance – ala- “Survivor Africa.”
This book of 354 pages is full of insights, suggestions, illustrations all the way into the 354th page. The editor, featuring 45 top professionals in their fields, wasted mo space in giving the veteran or start-up consultant needs to start with a strong beginning, sustain his consulting practice, and make him or her enjoy every engagement that follows.
Did you ever think consulting work is the refuge of the retiree, the unemployed, the “corporate isolate”? Think again. If you get hold of this tool kit, you will realize consulting work is a world of vast possibilities where you can try almost anything. But, first things first:
Make a persuasive pitch for your prospective client to try your “new idea.” And then, when you get the client’s green light, give the job you best shot, decide that you will enjoy the entire exercise, truly bring your client to a new level of success or growth. You will realize that the financial rewards are simple side benefits.
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