Next Practice – What we wil talk about in Management Consulting in the next years?
Recently, I presented Quartz+Co’s view on the future of management consulting, at the annual consulting day arranged by Virke, the Enterprise Federation of Norway. The consulting business is changing, clients are requesting tailor made solutions and more practical advice from experienced specialists. At the same time they expect management consultants to be flexible and able … Continue reading
Strengthening the brand of professional service firms – channels and measures
As in any industry, a professional services firm must win both the hearts and minds of potential clients, to develop the business. Strengthening your brand is an important part of that effort, and as I described in an earlier post, there are three main activities: Improve reputation Align reality, brand identity and client needs Enhance … Continue reading
Branding professional service firms – reputation and awareness
The brand is one of the most valuable assets of professional service firms (PSFs), and branding is fundamental to ensure growth. However, the brand remains one of the most underutilized assets. PSFs are searching for clients that are profitable, loyal and refer to other profitable and loyal clients. The relationships between clients and PSFs are … Continue reading
Strategizing from within: Values and competence are the fundamentals, language makes sense, and actions give sense.
In a knowledge intensive society, members are asking for clues on how they can make a difference. Before leaders can explain how employees can contribute, they must make sense of the strategy and the inner organizational work-life themselves. Strategizing is thus a mutual and reciprocal sense-making and sense-giving process where leaders learn to enable subsequent … Continue reading
Strategizing. Understand the inner work-life system. Engage and align competences.
Mental models are central to organizational sense-making as they represent the cognitive structures by which basic concepts developed from past events and experiences are stored in memory. However, there is more inside the human brain than simply a reproduction of the external world; people interpret and construct a model of the real world and interact … Continue reading
Strategy is Complex – Try Strategizing as Practice, Learning and Sense-Making
Strategy is complex. Strategizing is even more complex. To get a better understanding, try to treat strategy as an integrated and interactive element of everyday organizational life. Analyzing strategy as an activity, as opposed to a plan that a company has. Focusing on the what, when, how and why, demonstrating that strategies unfold over time, … Continue reading
Knowledge in Organizations 3: Solving the paradox of knowledge versus knowing
In practice, organizations do not differentiate between the theoretical concepts of knowledge versus knowing. Managers simply search for the right balance. The ability to achieve that balance will distinguish the successful companies from the less prospering firms. As knowledge evolves over time from creation through mobilization and diffusion to commoditization, knowledge is transferred from a … Continue reading
Strategy is Learning: Communication and sense-making as the essential process of strategizing
Organizational superior performance comes from the ability to continuously create temporary advantages, by quickly adapting resource configurations to changing needs. Consequently, the value of a resource depends on how it is utilized and not on its existence or the fact that it is controlled by the firm. People are both accumulators and producers of competence … Continue reading
Strategizing in Project-Based Organizations: Strategy by learning in projects from clients
To encounter the increased complexity in the business environment, more work is organized and conducted in projects. Projects ensure focus on tasks, learning goals and performance goals, and integrate diverse and specialized expertise, representing a fast and flexible mode of organizing knowledge resources. Knowledge-intensive organizations, such as law firms, engineering consultancies, management consultancies or central … Continue reading
Eirik Haslestad: Engage. And Align. 