In preparation for the keynote at the 2010 Confab meeting of professional management consultants, we asked about a thousand global business leaders to respond to an online survey about their use of and experience with management consultants. When over a hundred executives responded within a few hours, I knew I had hit a nerve.

83 respondents out of 107 replied that they hire management consultants. They represent a broad range of industries from healthcare/pharma and financial services to manufacturing, retail and agriculture. Here are some of their comments, minus specific identifiers. They range in size from start-ups to about USD $120 Billion

Ninety three percent said (more…)

Over the last few years, cutbacks have significantly reduced the level of expertise in many areas. Most companies are using more and more temporary resources for their business needs in all areas of their business. This is more cost effective and provides a company the ability to strategically acquire special resources when needed. But, how do you effectively manage that process? You need to find a consulting company that has the ability to become your service provider across multiple disciplines and be with you through the entire project. All companies have outside CPA/audit firms, legal firms, insurance firms, etc. who have broad expertise in their functional disciplines.

In manufacturing, operations and distribution, your company should also have (more…)