IMCI-Delhi-34th-ABCeMag-310810.161213434

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
Jiyo
Utho
Badho
Jeeto
Dear Readers
Time to live, get ready, move
and win.
The Commonwealth Games
2010 theme song says it all.
Time for cynics to get aside.
Time for achievers to get on,
move on…
Time for Academia, Business
and Consulting professionals to
draw some lessons too.
While you are giving your time
and attention to CWG, do find
time to join IMCI Delhi on
facebook too. After all, the
more ways we stay in touch the
merrier it will be.
Cheers,
Rajiv Khurana
Editor
in this issue…
August 16-31,
2010
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 ]
Join ‘IMCI DELHI’ on
Report on 7 th Round Table
Book Review
INTERNAL CUSTOMER :
THE BRAND AMBASSADOR
FOR ORGANISATIONS TODAY
Tips for Consultants
LIFT quotes
About IMCI & Code of Ethics
Misc.
2-7
8
9-14
15
16
17
18

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
CDC – IMCI Delhi’s
7 th Round Table:
Consulting
Practice: Lessons
to Un-learn
August 25, 2010
August 16-31,
2010
2/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Dialogue Initiator:
Rajiv Khurana
Chairperson:
Dr. Sunil Abrol
Report by: Sumit Chaudhuri
Pictures by: Vijay Nagrani

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
Report on IMCI Delhi Seventh Round Table
The seventh Round Table on the theme “CONSULTING
PRACTICE: LESSONS TO UNLEARN” was held at
Consultancy Development Centre, India Habitat Centre, New
Delhi on August 25,2010.
The discussion was led by Mr. Rajiv Khurana and the
proceedings were chaired by Dr. Sunil Abrol. The session
was attended by about twenty senior professionals
representing users of consulting services, consultants as also
the academia.
Dr. Abrol in his initial comments stated that consultants do
not seem to find clients and clients do not seem to find
consultants. Our programme “Professionals’ Round Table’
may help in bringing them together.
Mr. Rajiv Khurana started in his unique inimitable style by
saying that it was difficult for him to be serious and that he
would be provocative to generate a vibrant discussion. He
went on to say that he is a follower of an old saying, “Very
few people learn from other peoples’ mistakes. Most of the
people are other people.” He admitted, “I have committed
many blunders and also have seen people making them. I
am going to highlight some of the critical lessons we need to
un-learn in the consulting practice.” He then went on to
expand on his concept of “Dirty Dozen” mistakes and
blunders to learn from and elaborated on the following
lessons for unlearning:
August 16-31,
2010
3/18
1. Looking for stability and assurance – When I was starting 25 years ago,
many friends also said they shall start sooner- they are still in jobs. Do
not leave your jobs if you are looking for stability. Corporate salaries
are very high now-a-days and you are not going to make that kind of
money in consulting.
2. Moonlighting does not work – Part-time consulting along with job does
not help build credibility. It is against the ethics too.
3. Seeking permanency or continuity in assignment should be avoided –
Do not nose around for added work while on an assignment. Do your
job, move out and be reluctant to rejoin. This will enhance credibility.
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
4/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
4. Love for internal politics of the client organization must be
avoided – It may help in the shorter run to align with
someone but you should avoid it and remain non-aligned.
Do not become a power centre. A consultant should be
like James Bond. It is not your job to get medals. Do not
try to hog the limelight. Finish it and let the client enjoy the
benfits of your facilitation.
5. Consultants’ anxiety to sell – Do not offer your visiting
card and do not give elevator speech at the very first
opportunity. Visiting card is a dialogue opener. At
conferences, avoid going over-board in terms of telling
everyone what you do. Play to be invited.
6. Unlearning the ego of the past – Saying things like I was
such and such and I used to do this and that. Old filters
will not work. Hang your titles, designations and laurels.
The ball game is different now.
7. Technology abuse like love for CCP- cut, copy, paste will
not do. You cannot fool different people all the time. Bring
originality. Avoid suggesting old solutions in changed
formats.
8. Hold back the temptations to showcase associates etc. It
is very short sighted to highlight partners / associates to
work with unless you can confidently put across the work
that you have done.
9. Biting more than what you can chew. Be sure and stick to
your core.
10. Love for jargons, especially from American and European
authors. Try to express instead of trying to impress with
heavy lingo that the client may not be able to understand.
11. Avoid burning yourself from both sides. Consultants must
nurture hobbies, etc. Wajid ali Shah “My candle is burning
at both ends, it gives a beautiful light, But O my friends
and O my foes, it will not last the night.”
12. Very strong temptation to adapt to malpractices in the
profession. Do you want to be run and win the 100 meters
race or win the marathon. I follow code of ethics of IMCI,
CDC and follow the dictum of “quality is yours, price is
mine.” This will help in building respect and personal
brand.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
Dr. Abrol then invited the participants to share their views.
Mr. Sumit Chaudhuri strongly supported Mr. Khurana on the issue of
ethics and narrated an experience when a client actually came back to his
organization after rejecting an earlier offer of an assignment after realizing
that the other company to whom they had given the assignment had not
delivered as promised.
Mr. S.A.Khader felt that using the leverage of one client, we may get more
from others by word of mouth publicity.
Dr Abrol also cautioned that you should try to do your job rather than
trying to get another assignment.
Mr. Jitender Chaudhary felt that one should not oversell but based on
one’s capability, one can get more. Refrain from suggesting more work on
your own.
Mr. J. Chaudhary suggested getting similar thinking people involved and
maintaining a fine balance and not banking on just one or two clients.
Mr. V.T.Jacob felt that at times clients are not aware of their own
consulting needs. The consultants need to bring that to their notice.
Mr. Khurana differentiated between project and process consulting.
Process is for a specific duration. Consultants may facilitate to define
need but let clients have a choice to take someone else.
Ms. R. Vijaya Kumari talked about moral values. Work on strong points of
the clients and make them at ease and comfort by solving problem rather
than make them feel more uncomfortable on something else.
August 16-31,
2010
5/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Mr. Jacob sought to get the opinion of Dr. Abrol as to what are the real
problems.
Dr. Abrol responded by saying that clients do not know where to go.
Newspapers give tender notices for engagement of consultants. When
twenty people send proposals, only two may have the competence to do it.
How does the client decide who is good for that work? Clients get
confused because for the same assignment, different consultants may
quote from one lakh to twenty lakhs to one crore. Such quotations happen
only in consulting. We should not offer to work areas for which we do not
have the expertise. CDC tried certification of consultants but most
consultants were up in arms. IMCI offers CMC certification but consultants
get business on their own merit rather than certifications.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
Mr. Khader opined that the person who gives the business and the
people one interfaces during the assignment may be quite different.
Ideas have to be put through them so that implementation is easier.
Dr. Abrol stressed on the intent of the consultant.
Mr. J. Chaudhary felt that initiation of change management
capability is why clients need consultants and political skills are
required.
Mr. Khurana agreed that political skills are surely needed but not for
playing politics but understanding of the situation.
Mr.J. Chaudhary talked about the tendency to drag on the first
project or increase the scope of work.
Mr. S. Chaudhuri mentioned that sometimes the client CEOs
themselves check with the consultants whether they will be able to
handle politics.
Mr. Khurana felt that ultimately business comes through reference
only.
Mr. J. Chaudhary mentioned that when one is entering the
profession, giving visiting cards may work. Consultants need to
understand the level of the client’s business. Freshers need to use
push rather than pull strategy.
August 16-31,
2010
6/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Dr. Mohnot made the interesting observation that he was learning
and not unlearning. We have concentrated on how consultants can
work and what is good for consulting business. We need to
examine one distinct perspective - What have you learnt from your
client’s working ? Unlearn the bad experiences that you had. We
need to remember that (1) Consulting is a relationship of intellectual
partnership, One partnering experience with client, particularly for
management consulting is different from engineering or technical
consulting and it is not a commercial relationship only, (2) There is
never only one client to a job. You have to deal with several people
and so politics comes in, (3) Plan for the contracted time-frame.
Clients behave in very many ways, which is not fair. Develop
collective process, (4) Deliverables from the client can drag on but
consultant has to submit within the time-frame, (5) Consulting is a
competitive market but it is not competitive because it is
monopsonic or has only one buyer, (6) When clients negotiate, they
will tell you that this is the first job and you will get another but
actually you have no other job later.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
Mr. S. Chaudhuri shared an experience wherein
a client got the price heavily reduced being the
first job and even when the condition was that if
invited again, the assignment will be at full
professional fee, the client wanted the
subsequent work also done at the lower rate as
the accounts department raised an objection
saying, “How can a person charge so much
extra only after two months after charging much
lower?”
Mr. Devesh was of the view that large firms do
not follow any of these rules. They give the
report in a way that the future assignment will
also come to them.
Dr. Mohnot stated that consultants must come
up with some innovative ideas even though
clients may not be following innovative methods
and may not even want innovative methods
also. They like to stick to the status quo. He
gave the example of an assignment where even
though the standard followed was proved to be
wrong, the client was not willing to change. He
stressed on internalization and focus on
implementable ideas and production of results,
even though clients may not be ready for it.
August 16-31,
2010
The round table ended with Mr. Chaudhuri
thanking Dr. Abrol, Mr Khurana, Dr. Mohnot and
all the participants as also CDC for hosting the
event.
If the participation in the discussion in terms of
the quality and quantity of points that came up is
any indication of success of the Round Table,
the event was indeed a resounding success.
7/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
8/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
HOW TO
LEARN
MANAGEMENT
FROM YOUR
WIFE
by Sharu
Rangnekar
Illustrations by
R K Laxman
and Vivek
Mehetre
SHROFF
PUBLISHERS &
DISTRIBUTORS
PVT. LTD.
Sharu has done it once again !!! …….. No surprises there
though for people who have known Sharu over the years.
When it comes to delivering a key management
message with a generous dose of humour to make
maximum impact, he is the acknowledged master. This
celebrated author of “IN THE WONDERLAND OF INDIAN
MANAGERS” and “IN THE WORLD OF CORPORATE
MANAGERS” has in his new book, “HOW TO LEARN
MANAGEMENT FROM YOUR WIFE”, brought before us
many home truths that are essentially learnt from our better
halves ( Wife is the better half and husband is probably the
bitter half, lest you have some other ideas ) that can go a
long way in effective management of our business
enterprises.
It is quite evident that he has beautifully brought out his long
years of management experience and woven a wonderful
chain of learnings one can easily observe if one cares to
study how a housewife is able to manage the multitude of
complexities that managing a family at home entails. That
these learnings can be easily used to handle problems at the
workplace is lucidly driven home by him. A comment like
“Well I have a feeling that most of them (wives) understand
management better than most of the executives” almost at
the beginning of his book to his parting shot at the very end
“We men have a problem. If I am talking, you have to stop. If
you are talking, I have to stop. The women have no such
problem – and I found out why : Because the man is like a
simple small computer – single channel : input or output or
processing. But the female is a super-computer : several
inputs, several outputs, several processings simultaneously !
Now this is a very big difference and consequently you
cannot be as good a manager as your wife. But subject to
this handicap, I am sure you can learn a lot from your wife –
and I hope you do” is absolutely convincing.
I am tempted to share some other enthralling dimensions of
this “eighty page one and half hour read” masterpiece but will
desist from the same so that I do not deprive you of the
delight you shall derive when you read through from cover to
cover. I can bet on it you shall do it in one go once you start
since you will not be able to stop in-between. I say this from
my personal experience.
What are you waiting for ? Lay your hands on the book and
……. read through !
In case you find it difficult to get, you can log on to the
website www.sharurangnekar.com or email to
rangnekar@vsnl.com – Sumit Chaudhuri

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
9/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
INTERNAL
CUSTOMER :
THE BRAND
AMBASSADOR FOR
ORGANISATIONS
TODAY
Paper Presented at
NINTH
INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE
ON
“HUMAN
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
AND
DEVELOPMENT -
2010”
August 04 - 08,
2010
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sumit Chaudhuri
HR Specialist,
consulting, training and
teaching for major
international and
domestic private, public,
government and nongovernment
organisations.
Perspective
The transformation of the role of managing people
in organisations has been gigantic in the last few
decades. From a purely passive and side function
getting a step-motherly treatment in comparison to
the supposedly more important and glamorous
siblings like marketing, finance and operations,
human resource management today occupies a
pride of place in organisational management across
the spectrum from private, public and non-profit
sector to even hard core government functioning.
The obvious question arises as to why has this
happened ? This has happened because of the
realisation that potentially, all employees are brand
ambassadors (typically a person, male or female,
attractive in physical appearance, hired to drive
consumer demand for a product, service, brand or
concept by directly interacting with potential
consumers) for one’s business. If they say good
things about the products and services rendered by
the organisation to their network of friends and
f a mily, i t can bring new customers with
consummate ease; and that too without using the
other much more expensive methods of attracting
attention of prospective customers or even
retaining existing customers. The key motivation of
a brand a mbassador has t o be passion
(notwithstanding the motivating factor of money of
course, which truthfully is probably the only factor
that a select group of celebrity brand ambassadors
are likely to have as different from your own
employees in whom this very or even more genuine
passion can be ignited at much lesser cost) and if
you are able to ignite that passion in your
employees (your internal customers, usually
described as a unit, division, or individual employee
who is the recipient of materials, products,
information or services from another unit in the
same organisation), they are the best people to
s h o w c a s e y o u r b u s i n e s s p a s s i o n a t e l y .
It is hardly surprising then that organisations are
going out of their way to ensure that they are able
to attract, inspire and retain the best people to
e n s u r e s u s t a i n e d b u s i n e s s s u c c e s s .

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
10/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Introduction
Having spent more than three decades in the human resource
management profession after passing out from the hallowed
portals of the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi,
considered even today as one of the best cradles that you can
rely upon to convert an ordinary mortal like me into a decent
management professional, I have been privileged to witness this
transformation to my heart’s content. I fondly recall the confused
look on the faces of people I met after choosing to take up human
resource management as my specialisation and serious career
calling as if to say to me, “Why are you spoiling the immaculate
reputation of your alma matar ?” since they quite obviously and
with certainty felt that no one can achieve anything worthwhile
pursuing this field and literally and that too voluntarily choosing to
be a “doormat” for all and sundry in any organisation of any kind,
when I could have chosen any of the more “glamorous”
management functions. I must also make a mention of the fact
that human resource management in those days was known as
personnel management and essentially meant industrial relations
as its core with a microscopic place for the more “cosmetic”
functions that we know today as human resource development. I
distinctly recall the General Manager – Personnel at Escorts
(where I worked for five years in the personnal management
function), Late Sushil Khurana ( an excellent professional )
advising me during my final interview of the selection process that
I shall never be able to become the numero uno of the function in
the company unless I actively pursue industrial relations. I
remember politely responding to him by saying that if selected, I
shall still stick to the developmental areas as my primary interest
though I had nothing against industrial relations and was fairly
equipped for that role also as I was armed with a law degree as
well as a specialised diploma in labour law plus experience in the
field with my earlier employer, DCM. I can state with hundred
percent confidence that I was right then and if I have to choose
my career option all over again and again and again, I will
unhesitatingly re-choose what I chose then, never mind the
reservations even the so called “well informed” people harbour
even today.
I look at the entire spectrum of human resource management
essentially as AIR, which translated into Attracting, Inspiring and
Retaining people. All that we do as part of our responsibilities in
human resource management essentially is to achieve one of
these, two of these or all of these objectives.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
11/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
I would now try to discuss these three objectives, highlighting how
these contribute to the fulfillment of not only the organisational and
employee aspirations but of society in general. How society is a key
stake holder has been painfully demonstrated by the Bhopal gas
tragedy, where all of the dead and affected people had nothing at all
to do with the organisation in question. Needless to say, if we do a
good job of these three objectives, we will automatically convert all of
an organisation’s internal customers (employees) into vibrant brand
ambassadors for our external customers and consumers (the ultimate
users of our products and services).
Attracting Human Resource
Every employee that an organisation hires should not only be a
contributing employee in terms of her / his direct performance /
responsibility areas but has to be a brand ambassador as has been
discussed earlier. In this context, Jim Collins in his much celebrated
book “Good to Great” has stated that if you come across raw talent,
just hire. Then think about what work you shall assign to her / him.
This talented person can open a whole new range of opportunities for
your organisation. Of course, you do need other talented people who
just seamlessly fit into the roles that already exist in any organisation.
However, this is obviously just one side of the equation. We must ask
ourselves the question, “Why should any person with talent want to
work with us, especially given the inexhaustible need for the same
and that too in a globalised talent market ?” There should be no
doubt in anybody’s mind that the human resource department has to
put its hand up to prove at least equal to if not better than the
challenge. Therein lies the challenge of being able to attract human
resource of the right quality and required quantity.
The truth, however, is that only some organisations and their human
resource departments have proved to be somewhat capable of
accepting and overcoming this huge challenge. Organisations have
tried out a whole lot of things like “best in class” compensation and
reward packages, astronomical joining bonuses, five-star work
environment and a whole host of other perquisites. They have also
stretched themselves to cater to a lot more, sometimes pro-actively
and sometimes re-actively. This northward trend just seems to get
bigger and bigger, never mind that some of these very “blue blood”
employees were declared to be the prime culprits for the
unprecedented “economic crisis” that we witnessed in the recent past
the world over.
So the next time you are getting ready to hire someone, think about
whether she / he would be a great brand ambassador for your
products and services or she / he is simply a warm body that you can
get on-board at a cheap reward package.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
12/18
Most organisations have, thankfully, realised that just
attracting the best people will not make any organisation
great. That human productivity is a combination of ability
and willingness and that one is useless without the other
seems to have entered the collective consciousness of
the people at the helm of affairs, resulting in a paradigm
shift in how the people resource is valued and managed
in modern organisations.
Inspiring people is no easy task. Abraham Lincoln and
Mahatma Gandhi do not get born everyday and even
they could not inspire everybody as is evident from the
fact that both of them were eventually assassinated.
Colossal amounts of paper and virtually rivers of ink
have been expended to define and understand what
leadership is all about and even now, in spite of
exhaustive on-going research, we are nowhere close to
answering the question, What is the real meaning of
leadership and who is really a great leader ? We are still
very much groping in the dark on the question, “What
are the competencies of successful leaders ?”
In a world of intense competitiveness today, everyone
knows that money supply is tight and sensible people
also know that money cannot motivate or inspire beyond
a point. Hence, if organisations really want to inspire
their employees, they have to give the employees
something other then money. A passionate place to
work, providing the equipment, supervision and
individual consideration they need and allowing them to
make decisions and even pardoning mistakes, if the
intent was right may help in this regard. Organisations
also need to realise that they have no business to feel
upset when employees do not care about the company
because the management decides on a salary / benefits
cut for them simultaneously announcing that upper
management made tens of millions in bonuses for
saving the company money. If the organisation does not
treat them as important in their scheme of things, they
surely cannot be expected to act like the company is
important.
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
13/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Some examples from the corporate world might help in a better
understanding of this need. Maruti Suzuki India Limited has a
practice of inviting the parents of their new employees on their
joining day, treated with a lot of respect and invited for lunch in the
company to develop a sense of belonging in the mind of not only
the new employee but also people close to her / him. Godfrey
Phillips India Limited has a scheme of giving prizes to champion
employees which are actually suited for use by their children to
create competitiveness. This works because many of them stay in
the company township, where the children play with each other
and they discuss their parents’ achievements and even question
why their friend’s parent did not get the prize. There are many
examples of organisations where they extend support to their
employees on important assignments who cannot be spared for
taking leaves. In some organizations, the human resource
department ensures that a friend of the employee is sent on
company hired transport to receive or see off the parents of that
employee at railway or bus stations and airports so that the
employee can work free of tension on the important assignment
that she / he is on. Similarly, home maintenance responsibilities
are taken over by some organisations to give mental and physical
relief to the employees. Some of the prominent information
technology giants commit the availability of a food stall within a
hundred feet of any employees work station to keep them
motivated.
Retaining Human Resource
Attrition in many organisations has occupied the mind space of top
managements and human resource departments like no other
function has ever had. With the advent of Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) companies into India, attrition acquired a
whole new meaning. The term “absconder” was probably brought
into the vocabulary of human resource management by the BPO
industry, at least in India, may be the world.
Human resource management professionals have for long used
the concept of exit interview to find out what ails the organisation
because of which people leave. Some have come up with the
concept of stay interview, which attempts to find out employee
problems and implement their suggestions before it is too late,
thereby reducing the probability of their leaving the organisation. It
is commonly said that if you implement some of their requests,
you may not have to conduct an exit interview ever, at least for
that employee.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
14/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Bharti Airtel Limited has experimented with a bonus
pay out policy in which there is a certain amount
(percentage of basic salary) over and above the
employee’s total cost to company (TCTC) and Non-
TCTC (expenses on employee not considered part of
TCTC) which the employee gets according to the
policy. Supposing that the policy comes out in 2010
and it says that rupees one lakh will be the bonus
amount for a particular employee, then at the end of
the financial year 2010-2011, the employee will get
thirty five percent of the entitled bonus amount, at the
end of the next financial year 2011-2012, she / he will
get twenty percent out of the remaining entitlement
and so on till the entire amount gets paid, may be over
a period of upto five years. In essence, an employee
has to stay on with the company for five years after
the policy is launched to avail the full benefit. Many
organisations have introduced very liberal loan
schemes (for house purchase, car purchase, etc.) with
very little interest rate and a long repayment period to
lure employees to stay longer in the employment of
the organisation.
Conclusion
Management is and will always be a profession in
transition. From all available indications, organisations
are doing more and more to ensure that their
employees always “feel good” about the organisation
and hence continuously continue to remain brand
ambassadors for them. It is evident that with the
passage of time, organisational management will be
more and more human resource management led.
People in the human resource management function
have already been defined as change agents and
internal consultants to any organisation’s top
management. This makes perfect sense as all
changes are led and implemented by human
resources only. I have no doubt in my mind that this
philosophy will spread at a rapid pace and in the next
decade or so, all organisations in the world will adopt
the maxim, “INTERNAL CUSTOMERS : THE BRAND
AMBASSADORS FOR ORGANISATIONS TODAY”,
which is the title of this paper and even that day is not
far when “INTERNAL CUSTOMERS WILL BE THE
BEST BRAND AMBASSADORS FOR
ORGANISATIONS IN THE FUTURE”.

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
Including a little light humor in my presentations
and speeches seems like a good way to improve
how well the message is received. However, a
joke that bombs can create a disaster. What
should I do to make sure that humor is effective?
"An accountant, attorney and management consultant
are in a lifeboat . . ." is one way to start a speech, or
"Tom Feldman is the kind of HR Director that . . ." can
kick off a client presentation. They can win the
audience or start the paperwork to assure you are not
welcome back. Humor is something that needs to be
planned carefully. If you can't pull it off well, then be
cautious about giving it a key place in your opening
remarks.
A couple of thoughts:
Make sure the joke isn't offensive. You don't have to
be mean to be funny
Make sure the humor is simple to understand. The
audience should not have to work to understand it.
Don't require the audience to get obscure references
or need information that few have.
Make sure the joke is blindingly relevant to the topic
of your speech or presentation. Jokes are useful to
introduce a topic or point of view, not distract the
audience. Too oblique and people might not get or
misinterpret the reference.
Make sure humor is the best way to make the point. A
serious topic should be expressed in ways other than
humor.
Make sure the humor is timely. Most jokes have a
shelf life - be careful yours hasn't expired by the time
you deliver it.
Try it out on people like those who will be in the
audience. This makes sure they get the joke and the
point you are trying to get across.
Tip: Your talk doesn't have to incude humor. Martin
Luther King, Jr.s, "I Have a Dream" speech and
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address both did OK without an
opening joke. So can yours.
15/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
Tell the persons they are
brave and you help them
become so.
- Thomas Carlyle
The man who follows a
crowd will never be
followed by a crowd.
- R. S. Donnell
CONSULTANCY
DEVELOPMENT
CENTRE
Under the Scheme for Exposure of
Consultants and Client’s to International
Practices including Seminars and
Conferences (2010-11) INVITES
APPLICATIONS FROM
INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANTS
FOR PARTICIPATION IN
INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCES/SEMINARS
Support extended towards the following
events
(a) The FIDIC Annual Conference 2010
on the theme “Managing Innovation The
Way Forward“ is being organized at New
Delhi from 19-22 September 2010. For
details visit
http://217.197.210.21/conference/2010/
(b) ICMCI Annual Conference 2010 – on
the theme “Evolving with the World” is
being held form September 22-25, 2010
at Ma’In, Jordan. For details visit
http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Sum
mary.aspx?e=1822612d-31e6-42d3-
830e-b83f2b45f726
(c) The 16th World Productivity
Congress, 2010 on the theme
“Productivity at the crossroads : creating
a socially, economically and
environmentally responsible
world” is being held from 2-5 November,
2010 at Anatalya, Turkey. For details
visit http://www.wpc-epc2010.org.tr/en/
16/18
Alag Tewar,
Alag Flavour
Leadership Ideas For Today
Extracts from the gift book- LIFT,
pending print, by
- Rajiv Khurana, CMC, FIMC
Consultancy Development Centre (CDC)
invites proposals from Individual
Consultants
for participation in the above events.
Read details at:
www.cdc.org.in

de-limiting excellence
Institute
of
Management
Consultants
of
India,
Delhi
August 16-31,
2010
17/18
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
Visit
Join group
‘IMCI – Delhi’
on linkedin.com
and facebook
http://twitter.com/imcidelhi
Imagine
The Client sends you a
surprise gift for the work you
did for them?
What does it take?
We await your
ideas,
suggestions,
contribution,
support …
August 16-31,
2010
18/18
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
This eMag is meant for free electronic circulation amongst members & friends of IMCI - Delhi