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Consultancy Or Interim Management – Which?
By JHadley
Consultancy or Interim – Which?
Delivering change is the staple diet of the “Big Four” consultancies, but large corporate clients, the traditional back yard market for the big firms, are being disappointed time and time again by an increasing disconnect between the big ticket prices they pay and the relative lack of experience of their “consultants”.
We’ve all seen it at some stage, haven’t we? An excellent presentation from the Partner. You’re paying big money, and for that you’re getting the reassurance that no-one ever got fired for buying whichever global consulting brand you’ve selected. Good for you. Then the team turn up a few days later…
Outstanding people? Yes.
Understand the methodology? Of course.
Great analytical and presentation skills? Unquestionably.
Substantial “hands on” / “been there done that” experience? Well… not exactly…
Have you asked yourself the question:
“What will my organisation miss out on, because instead of using specialists who know all there is to know about the subject, I’m using young “twenty something” generalists who may have only down-loaded the methodology from the consulting firm’s knowledge servers for the first time over the weekend?”
Surely that's exaggerating just a bit isn't it?
Well, buy some consultants a few beers one evening, and see what they say.
Don’t be surprised to hear how they hadn’t met each other until half an hour
Our articles continue...
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Move Add Change, Disconnect (MACD) service order activity creates a moving target that enterprises must reconcile with their billing. Billing is complex with elements that can be time-sensitive (peak vs. off peak), and volume sensitive. In addition, telecom providers have different billing platforms for their varied offerings. Each platform requires a degree of customization to read and interpret the billing data.Towards a Conceptual Framework For Strategic Cost ManagementAccounting information plays a vital role in determining the most appropriate strategic direction for the organization. It guides managerial actions, motivates behaviors, and supports and creates the cultural values necessary to achieve an organization's strategic objectives. In particular, cost management information (both financial and non-financial information) is a critical type of information to the success of the company. Cost management systems are important, but equally important is knowing how and when to apply them to achieve long-term success. Cost management systems help managers understand cost structure and behavior. The main objective of this paper is to suggest a comprehensive conceptual framework for strategic cost management.Industry Consolidation And Price-Cost MarginsThe U.S. pulp and paper industry has experienced an increasing degree of consolidation through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Based upon a structure conduct-performance model and using panel data for the pulp, paper, and paperboard sectors from 1970 to 1997, this paper investigates the effect of industry structure on price-cost margins. Unlike previous studies, which rely on an interpolated concentration measure calculated from output values, this study uses a measure of concentration based upon annual productive capacity, which significantly reduces measurement errors and endogeneity concerns. Results from the analysis indicate that one percent increase in market concentration increases price-cost margins by 0.5 to 0.6 percentage points. The effect, however, fluctuates with business cycle and displays a pro-cyclical pattern.A Computational Model For Inventory Management And PlanningThe objective of the study presented in this paper is to determine the factors of the optimal level of merchandizing inventory. This study is based on a mathematical model. The results revealed some interesting findings. The most important conclusion is that the 'Usage of Material' or the Sales Volume is not the real determinate of the inventory volume. It is concluded in the model that the volume of inventories depends on the difference between the return on investment in the inventories and the rate of interest on short-term deposits. The traditional methods in cost accounting - Buffer Stock and Economic Order Quantity - have been reconciled with the profit maximization hypothesis.FPGA ArchitectureAltera FPGA architecture is unmatched in the industry and is at least one generation ahead of the competition in terms of logic architecture and two generations ahead in terms of routing architecture. The Adaptive Logic Module (ALM) ability to divide the combinational logic portion and the availability of eight inputs allow it to implement, in addition to a full 6-input look-up table (LUT), a variety of smaller functions. The Stratix series of families with a 3-sided routing architecture and wires that can connect to any Logic Array Blocks (LAB) along their length provides the most connectivity in terms of the amount of logic that can be reached in least number of hops. This paper describes the leading-edge architectural innovations in Altera FPGAs and their advantages.Intrusion Prevention Case Study: Mainova AG - EnergyThis case study examines Frankfurt, Germany energy supplier Mainova AG's reliance on McAfee for its network security.Measuring the Performance of the Information Technology FunctionMany executives look at IT as a commodity, so it's important that IT teams differentiate themselves through cost-cutting measures and improved value to the organization.<BR><BR>APQC has developed 87 standard measures that organizations can use to benchmark their IT performance. These measures include every major process IT departments perform including:<ul><li>comparative budgets,</li><li>costs,</li><li>cycle times,</li><li>FTE distributions, and</li><li>productivity measures within each process.</li></ul>Organizations can use these measures to benchmark performance and identify improvement opportunities.Medical Inflation in Brazil and Successful Cost Containment StrategiesHealth care costs have been increasing at a faster rate than general inflation in many Latin American countries, including Brazil. Of the nearly 170 million Brazilian citizens, 32 million are covered by private health plans, which contributes to increased costs for Brazilian employers. Of these 32 million, nearly 70 percent are covered under employer-sponsored group plans. Companies taking a firm approach in managing health care costs have reduced the impact of medical inflation. Some of the tools successfully implemented in Brazil include new plan designs, new eligibility standards, elimination of (the liability of) retiree medical, and health promotion.Workers' Compensation: Creating Opportunities From TrendsDespite the challenges in the executive risk arena associated with property and casualty market dynamics, compliance with corporate governance initiatives, etc., concerns and frustrations over workers' compensation remains a forefront issue for many organizations. Workers' compensation and related costs typically represent a significant component of a corporation's total cost of risk and, when inadequately managed, these costs rapidly escalate to a level that impairs acceptable financial performance.Innovating the Workers Compensation MarketplaceGiven unabated increases in health care costs, the workers compensation industry finds itself increasingly challenged to develop and execute innovative cost management strategies for medical networks and other forms of health care. For many employers, workers compensation costs typically represent a significant portion of an organization's total cost of risk. When inadequately managed, these costs rapidly escalate, impairing financial performance. This paper explores a sampling of cost reduction strategies and summarizes a strategic framework for optimizing financial performance for workers compensation organizations and employers committed to confronting these emerging health care challenges.A Strategy for Cost Management and Long-Term Business ValueSiemens Business Services, Inc. (SBS) has developed this white paper to describe the approach for delivering managed services solutions and expertise. Goal with the SieQuence solutions is to help clients meet the most pressing needs affecting their IT environment, including cost containment, reliability, user satisfaction, and the flexibility to address evolving business requirements. As one of the world's premier providers of IT services, SBS has extensive experience helping the clients use information technology to address challenges and boost profitability. One SieQuence solutions are built on a proven approach to drive out costs, improve process efficiencies, and help one to achieve greater value from their IT investments in a time-efficient manner.Long-Term Liabilities, Financial Assurance and Potential OpportunitiesMany mining districts have long histories of operating mines. When looking at these operations it is often difficult to conceive of the mining activities ever ending and the community having to rely on a different economic base. This situation can be found all over the world and is not applicable to only developing or developed countries. This paper presents the issues associated with mine closure liabilities and financial assurance, and also explores some of the potential opportunities explored and implemented by mining companies to reduce long-term liabilities. An underlying assumption in all these matters is that the mining activity is economically viable and that there is a stable governance and regulatory regime.How to Cut Costs Without Cutting Off Future Growth: Lessons From the Restructurings of the Early 1990sMany firms are struggling in the economic downturn to maintain profitability in the face of declining demand for their products. Some have resorted to workforce reductions to cut costs and preserve corporate profits. While that may work in the short run, the long-term result is often a demoralized surviving workforce, declining productivity and lower shareholder returns. The paper talks about "Successful" restructurers, that firm whose restructuring meet their goals and has a positive impact on the firm, significantly outperform their industry peers in the long run. It also focuses on how some companies manage to escape the common pitfalls of restructuring and achieve long-term growth.Corporate Governance Development in UK and Continental EuropeThe potential onset of 'Corporate Governance Fatigue' is a risk for all publicly-quoted companies, which needs to be resisted strongly. The commitment of corporate Boards to fairness, transparency and accountability has an appreciable effect on whether the greatest practicable enhancement is achieved over the period of their shareholders investment. The corporate governance is important because without investor confidence markets will not thrive. This is the case whether instances of poor governance have arisen from corporate failure, the bad running of companies, unjustified remuneration or, simply, lack of transparency and disclosure.
before they met you, or how on a previous assignment Tarquin was charged out as a Managing Consultant at least six months before his promotion to that grade was finally approved; or how Celine, was sold as an “expert” on a subject that she hadn’t got any experience in, just because no-one else was available. But not only that; how many big consultancy firms still won’t take full responsibility for implementing their recommendations? How do they put it:...“Of course we’ll support you throughout the implementation process, but ultimately it’s vital that your people own the solution”? Fair point you might say, but after rounds and rounds of corporate downsizing, there are some of us who, after all the analysis has been done, just need a few extra pair of hands to bring the benefits home, without the fuss. Why can’t they “Just do it” as the saying goes? Well if those scenarios don’t sound entirely unfamiliar, have you considered interim as an alternative? It’s a change approach which relies on bringing in senior executive interim managers who are “sensibly over-qualified” for doing exactly what you want done. They don't need to rely on the reputation of a big consulting brand, only the credibility of their own track-record; quite simply because they’ve actually “been there” and “done that” before. And that's the trick: finding a good service provider (they don't like to be called agencies) who knows the specialist interim manager you want. When you've found them, they love nothing more than to implement the solution and hand you the savings. And with those few extra grey hairs comes just a little bit more tact and diplomacy than you might expect from a “twenty something” consultant from one of the big firms. Not surprisingly because of the successes that interim managers are consistently delivering, more and more corporates are looking long and hard at the consulting budgets that they would have spent with the big firms. Teams of interim managers are even beating the big firms to large scale change programmes. Rightly so. Interim is not only a high expertise / low risk way to deliver results, it's typically only half as expensive as consultancy. Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com J Hadley writes on behalf of Executive Interims - Supply Chain Practice. See: www.executive-interims.co.uk
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