Friday 10th Jun, 2011
I’m increasingly of the view that the only way to lead anything, or anyone, is by example. Oh sure, my heart still flutters involuntarily at the ‘bending the arc of human history towards a brighter future’ type of rhetoric we heard from Barack Obama in 2008, but I’ve been watching him closely ever since and – attempts to overhaul the American healthcare system and stupendous successes at not being George Bush aside – I can’t honestly say I’ve seen a huge amount of arc-bending yet.
Thursday 2nd Jun, 2011
Regular readers of this blog will know that from time to time we like to entertain ourselves by finding parallels with the consulting industry in far-flung, unexpected places. Last week’s musings on which consulting firm resembles which make of car generated considerable interest (and there’s still time to fill in our two-minute survey telling us what you think). This week it’s Harry Potter.
Thursday 19th May, 2011
Here at Source we like to entertain ourselves with finding parallels between consulting and other industries. I’ve talked before about the similarities with phrama (R&D a challenge) and the film industry (specialisation a must), but until I spoke to Torsten Oltmanns at Roland Berger, it hadn’t occurred to me that we were like the car industry.
Tuesday 12th Apr, 2011
Consulting is always being commoditised but has yet to become a commodity.
Commoditisation has always snapped at the heels of the industry, but emerging challenges and new technologies has historically allowed the industry, on balance, to stay ahead. And that’s what consultants do: they keep on running.
But just occasionally it’s worth looking back over our shoulders to understand exactly how and why consulting services become commoditised. After all, if we could slow down that process, perhaps we wouldn’t be so breathless.
Wednesday 9th Mar, 2011
Carrying out some research recently, I suddenly realised that each of the Big Four firms have now taken ‘ownership’ (in that special marketers meaning of the word) of one of the major colours. Was this deliberate? Suddenly I’ve got a picture in my mind of the Chief Marketing Officers from each firm sitting round a table, each with a large cuban in one hand and a balloon of Louis Treize in the other. They're eyeing each other nervously. Blue (KPMG) and yellow (Ernst & Young) have already been agreed; red and green remain in play.
Tuesday 16th Nov, 2010
What is it about the consulting industry? It picks up harmless, unassuming phrases and converts them into linguistic behemoths. “Working in partnership” is now so ubiquitous it’s become the equivalent of an “um” or “er” in a firm’s marketing material, filling the gap when it can’t think of anything else to say.
Friday 29th Oct, 2010
Days at the Source offices have their entertaining moments, like the morning we had an enquiry about roadside assistance.
Friday 24th Sep, 2010
There’s such a lovely, subtle distinction in the English language between “a” and “the”.
Call yourself “a leading firm” and you communicate a degree of confidence and pride, but not outright arrogance. Announce yourself – and many consulting firms do – as “the leading firm” and the impression is wholly different.
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