IMCI-Delhi-25th-ABCeMag-160410.161214511

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
April 1-15,
2010
Dr. Udai Pareek
(1925 - 2010)
The Father of HRD in
India, a dedicated
researcher and a great
contributor to our
knowledge of OB,
passed away on
Sunday, March 21st,
2010. Modest to the core
and forever in the
learning mode, his
influence on what we
understand of OB, HR
and OD in India would
be everlasting.
Greetings!
In this eMag, we present both the
dimensions of need for a
consultant as well as persuasive
selling by a consultant.
The Client, of course, remains
the ultimate winner.
The tips from IMC USA are
getting popular. They are
considered equally valuable in
India too.
We are extending you the
invitation to share your articles
with us. Just keep the size to a
maximum of 2 pages. Even your
previously printed relevant article
is welcomed! Good things can be
served repeatedly.
Cheers,
Rajiv Khurana
CMC, FIMC
How To Know That Your
Company Doesn't Need
Consultants
Sell-Yourself Tips
for Consultants
in this issue…
3-4
5
Certified Management Consultant TM
T h e i n t ernational credentials of a
professional management consultant,
reciprocally recognised by global members
of the International Council Of Management
C o n s u l t i n g I n s t i t u t e s [ I C M C I ]
Tips for Consultants
LIFT quotes
About IMCI & Code of Ethics
Misc.
6-7
8
9
10

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
April 1-15,
2010
2/10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
April 1-15,
2010
3/10
How To
Know That
Your
Company
Doesn't
Need
Consultants
Walter Kiechel III,
Just see if you
can agree with
these seven
statements.
You may have many reasons not to want to hire
strategy consultants. For starters, they're expensive.
Bringing in a team from the Boston Consulting Group,
Bain & Company or McKinsey will cost you upward of
$150,000 a week. It will probably scare the bejeezus
out of many people in your organization. Middle
managers and below tend to hate and fear
consultants. (Only after they become executives do
they begin hiring them to assist with their biggest
corporate problems.) Plus, in some benighted
quarters there still may be a whiff of failure attached --
"Can't you figure this out on your own?" -- even
though well over three-quarters of the largest U.S.
companies routinely employ one or more of the
strategy firms.
To buck you up in your resolve not to seek outsiders'
help, let me offer a quick gut-check guide. If you're
fine on all these fronts, you have absolutely no need
to call in the boffins. Just see if you can agree with all
these statements:
(1) You and your operating managers have an
unassailable record in reducing costs systematically,
year after year, and at a predictable rate that
everyone understands and agrees on. The fact that
costs can and should be managed downward through
good times and bad has been one of the key lessons
of the strategy revolution. You must keep it up even
as you innovate and grow. Helping you find ways to
become more efficient isn't the only thing strategy
consultants do, but they're awfully good at it --
especially if you're really not efficient enough already.
(2) Every year or so you shed your least competitive
businesses. Your portfolio now is much different from
five years ago, and it's much more focused, too. As
Bruce Henderson, the founder of Boston Consulting
Group, observed decades ago, most companies are
in more businesses than they should be in.
Repeatedly winnow down to the ones where you have
a true competitive advantage.
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
April 1-15,
2010
4/10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
(3) If you're thinking of moving into a new market, you already have
detailed profiles of all your existing competitors there and their principal
customers, strengths, weaknesses and market share. You already know
that any strategy worth the name is built on a deep, data-driven
understanding of the three C's: costs, customers and competitors.
(4) Your division managers routinely get together and present business
and product ideas that capitalize on the strength of your company overall
and happily share credit for them. Modern strategy has presented top
management with a set of weapons they can use to fight the
balkanization of their companies, every silo for itself. Having each unit's
performance gauged with the same metrics as everyone else's is the first
step toward begetting more cooperation.
(5) If your chief executive officer were to ask for a report on the
profitability of each of your products--the true profitability, not the
numbers ginned up for your reported earnings -- down to the SKU (stockkeeping
unit) level and sorted by product category, region, customer
buying, whatever, she could have that on her desk tomorrow morning.
Before the strategy revolution, many companies didn't know their actual
costs, and hence profitability, by product, so unhelpful was conventional
accounting.
(6) Your pipeline of innovations that promise to be profitable is happily
full and flowing along nicely, with both established businesses and Skunk
Works-type "insider outsiders" contributing to the mix. Since the 1980s
innovation has steadily become more central to strategy. That's partly
because any competitive advantage you manage to achieve will likely be
competed away faster. Hence the heightened imperative to come up with
the next new thing.
(7) If each of the top 10 executives at your company were interviewed
individually and asked to state the corporate strategy, plus the greatest
opportunities for and threats to the business, their answers would line up
almost word for word. Similarly, if even a low-level employee were
awakened at 2 a.m. with a flashlight in the face to be quizzed on the
corporate strategy, he or she could quickly respond with a good one- or
two-minute summary. Too many companies still confuse strategy and
planning -- as the consultants, who aren't much interested in planning,
will explain. A marching, fighting strategy, one that includes both what
you will be doing and what you won't, is usually reducible to a three-byfive
card suitable for lamination and carrying in every employee's pocket.
Walter Kiechel III is the author ofThe Lords of Strategy: The Secret
Intellectual History of the New Corporate World(Harvard Business
Press). He is a former editorial director of Harvard Business Review and
former managing editor of Fortune. He did more than 100 interviews and
several years of research to write this new book.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
Sell-Yourself Tips
for Consultants
by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
As a consultant, you are continually
selling yourself to a committee or Board
of Directors. Present the best product
you can.
April 1-15,
2010
5/10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Rehearse your opening. You have only
thirty seconds to grab the interest of your
audience. Don't waste it.
Wrong: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank
you for the opportunity..."
Right: "In the next ten minutes I am
going to convince you that the best
decision you can make is to invest in my
services."
Focus on the bottom line. Stress the
results you will get for them.
Don't offer backup information unless or
until you are asked for it. It can interfere
with the "big picture."
Be "up." Low energy and monotony will
kill any presentation. Show genuine
enthusiasm.
Be visual. People remember what they
"see" in their imaginations. Paint a vivid
picture in story form of how things will be
when you have the job.
"...six months from now, when your
business has increased 15%, your
market share is 5% higher, and your
sales teams are in harmony for the first
time...".
Have a strong closing. For example,
"Your next decision is not whether to hire
me, but whether can you afford not to!“
PFripp@Fripp.com

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
April 1-15,
2010
6/10
I used to work for a large consulting firm and was on
the road a lot. Now that I have my own firm and would
rather spend time with my family, how do I build a solid
base of local business?
Building a local base takes experimentation. Try some of
these strategies, including a new approach to any of these
strategies that "didn't work before."
Join the local chapter of a professional or trade group in the
industry in which you'd like to work. There are probably new
groups that didn't exist when you last looked.
Join the service clubs, chambers, and community
associations in which your clients are members. Make sure
you are an active and visible contributor to the community,
and not think being a member on the list is enough.
Get to know the local press, i.e., business, community, etc.
and offer to write commentary on business trends or in
response to local news. This is in addition to your social
media activities (people still read local print media).
Hold an event either in your home or in a club, restaurant or
hotel. Do these with no expectations but bringing people
together. Those who need your services will come to you.
Send a clipping or printout of a relevant article regularly to
your prospect list to keep you top of mind. Keep the focus
local (e.g., it could be an industry-wide topic, but make your
comments about how it might be relevant to a local
company).
Teach for the most prestigious local university or at a midto
large-size corporate university.
Offer to do a regular column for the appropriate local
newspaper or magazine. You may want to team up with a
partner for this, one who is already well-known in the local
market.
Publish a brief newsletter (hard copy or online) targeted to
an industry or a local business sector.
Tip: There are lots of ways to increase your visibility but put
yourself in front of your prospects in the most favorable,
persistent way you can imagine. We just need to readjust
our span of view from national to local. Considering that you
probably only worked with a few clients at a time when you
were national - remember that there are hundreds of
prospects in your own backyard.
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
The client is the one who pays the bill and I am
being asked to solve the problem they see, not
the ones I see. However, I have to say that a fair
number of times I really believe the client is
dead wrong on facts or conclusions. Is it my
job to tell them they are wrong?
Our responsibility as management consultants is to
provide independent and objective advice based on
our expertise and experience. To withhold
information or our best professional judgment is to
fail in our professional responsibilities.
Are there times during which it is inappropriate to
tell a client all you know? Of course, such as when
a group is working through an issue and the
experience of getting to the answer and developing
skills to do so is part of your charge.
However, we are sometimes faced with a strongwilled
client who may be sure of "facts" or opinions
and doesn't suffer fools gladly. It is important to
inform your client that you are obliged to give him or
her the facts as you know them (back them up) and
perspective as an independent professional
advisor. If your client is unwilling to hear
April 1-15,
2010
Tip: You don't have to disagree in public or be
disrespectful, but you do need to provide your
independent and objective expertise and tell what
you know. The customer is usually, but not always
right.
7/10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
April 1-15,
2010
8/10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
This is pre-eminently the
leadership quality--the ability
to organize all the forces there
are in an enterprise and make
them serve a common
purpose. Men with this ability
create a group power rather
than express a personal
power.
- Mary Parker Follett
The final test of a
leader is that he
leaves behind him in
other men the
conviction and the will
to carry on. . . The
genius of a good
leader is to leave
behind him a situation
which common sense,
without the grace of
genius, can deal with
successfully.
- Walter Lippmann
Leadership Ideas For Today
Extracts from the gift book- LIFT,
pending print, by
- Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC
Concentration
After winning several archery
contests, the young and rather
boastful champion challenged a
Zen master who was renowned
for his skill as an archer. The
young man demonstrated
remarkable technical proficiency
when he hit a distant bull's eye on
his first try, and then split that
arrow with his second shot.
"There," he said to the old man,
"see if you can match that!"
Undisturbed, the master did not
draw his bow, but rather motioned
for the young archer to follow him
up the mountain. Curious about
the old fellow's intentions, the
champion followed him high into
the mountain until they reached a
deep chasm spanned by a rather
flimsy and shaky log. Calmly
stepping out onto the middle of
the unsteady and certainly
perilous bridge, the old master
picked a far away tree as a target,
drew his bow, and fired a
clean, direct hit. "Now it is your
turn," he said as he gracefully
stepped back onto the safe
ground. Staring with terror into the
seemingly bottomless and
beckoning abyss, the young man
could not force himself to step out
onto the log, no less shoot at a
target. "You have much skill with
your bow," the master said,
sensing his challenger's
predicament, "but you have little
skill with the mind that lets loose
the shot."

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
April 1-15,
2010
9/10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
ICMCI
The International Council of
Management Consulting Institutes
is the global association of national
management consulting institutes
from around the world. These
national institutes administer, in
accordance with world class
standards, the international "CMC"
certification Certified Management
Consultant earned by individual
professional management
consultants.
More details: icmci.org
IMCI
The Institute of Management Consultants
of India (IMCI) is the apex body of
management consulting professionals,
being the only registered institute of
established management consultancy
firms and practicing individuals in the
country.
Constituted in 1991, IMCI was formerly
known as the Management Consultants’
Association of India (MCAI), which was
founded in 1963.
In 1989, IMCI became the first Asian
organisation to be accepted for
membership of the International Council
of Management Consulting Institutes
(ICMCI), the global apex body of
Management Consulting Institutes. ICMCI
has 46 member countries in the world.
The Executive Secretariat of IMCI is
located in Mumbai. The Institute has
regional Chapters in Ahmedabad,
Bangalore, Calcutta, Chennai (Madras),
Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai (Bombay) and
Pune.
CMC Designation
IMCI endeavors to raise the standards of
management consulting by awarding
Certified Management Consultant (CMC)
designation to individual members who
have passed a qualifying examination
and have met the profession’s standards
of competence and ethics. The CMC
designation implies international
recognition to worldwide standards.
More details: imcindia.co.in
Code of
Professional
Conduct for
IMCI members
Minimum Guidelines
Confidentiality
A member will treat client information as
confidential and will not take personal advantage
of privileged information gathered during an
assignment, or enable others to do so.
Unrealistic Expectations
A member will refrain from encouraging unrealistic
expectations or promising clients that benefits are
certain from specific consulting services.
Commissions / Financial Interests
A member will neither accept commissions,
remuneration or other benefits from a third party
in connection with recommendations to a client
without the client’s knowledge and consent, nor
fail to disclose any financial interest in goods or
services which form part of such
recommendations.
Assignments
A member will only accept assignments for which
the member has the skill and knowledge to
perform.
Conflicting Assignments
A member will avoid acting simultaneously (in
potentially conflicting situations) without
informing all parties in advance that this is
intended.
Conferring with Clients
A member will ensure that before accepting any
engagement, a mutual understanding of the
objectives, scope, work plan and fee arrangements
is established and any personal, financial or other
interests which might influence the conduct of the
work are disclosed.
Recruiting
A member will refrain from inviting an employee of
a client to consider alternate employment without
prior discussion with the client.
Approach
A member will maintain a fully professional
approach in all dealings with clients, the general
public and fellow members.
Code of Professional Conduct
A member will ensure that other management
consultants carrying out work on the member’s
behalf are conversant with and abide by the Code
of Professional Conduct.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
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Imagine
The Client invites you to
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What does it take?
We await your
ideas,
suggestions,
contribution,
support …
April 1-15,
2010
10/10
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Patron:
Dr. M.B.Athreya
Mentors:
Dr. S.R.Mohnot
Mr. Shashi Budhiraja
Dr. Sunil Abrol
Past Chairmen:
Mr. Ashok Kumar
Mr. Ramesh Tyagi
Chairman
Rajiv Khurana
Dy. Chairman
Sumit Chaudhuri
Hon. Secretary
Vijay Nagrani
Hon. Treasurer
M S Sridhar
Executive Members
S A Khader
Anand Chhabra
Regional Rep.
S A Khader
IMCI – Delhi
imcidelhi@gmail.com
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