A different way of thinking about gurus

Sex and consulting aren’t natural bedfellows, if that’s the right term to use, but a discussion over dinner with several senior marketing people in the industry suggests that might be about to change.

I’m not for a second suggesting that anyone is planning to take diversification to a new level or that we have a new thought leadership topic in the offing. The conversation came out of a debate over whether corporate and individual brands are mutually exclusive (a point I’ve touched on in a previous post). This is clearly an issue exercising many consulting firms, especially the larger ones who are in something of a cul de sac so far as differentiation is concerned. They look with envy at business schools which succeed in using the personal brands of their key gurus to promote the name of their school, and vice versa. Most firms now accept that they need to reverse the approach of recent years and identify, nurture and publicise their up-and-coming stars.

Fine on paper, but challenging in practice. Consulting firms are a heterogeneous lot, so how do you decide who your ‘best’ gurus are, when they may well be working in different, hard-to-compare areas? Perhaps even more importantly, how do you prevent a mass walk-out by the people you don’t pick? Consulting firms, many of which remain partnerships, cherish the concept of equality: the idea that some are more equal than others is divisive.

In the interests of moving the debate along, the consensus at dinner was that we might need a radically different criterion for identifying the best: sex appeal. I will spare the blushes of those nominated for our new award, the sexiest person in consulting, other than to say that suggestions were distinctly thin on the ground. Even when we enlarged the criteria to include charisma and (heaven help us) sartorial excellence, we couldn’t come up with a lot of names.

Leaving aside our immediate disappointment, that poses a serious question for the consulting industry. Consultants frequently opine on the nature and importance of leadership: it’s time we found a leader of our own.