Most good consulting companies marry a balance of people, process and technology to create a practice that meets and sometimes exceeds a client need. This is a lovely motherhood statement. But it forgets that the word consult means the bare use of people to listen, discuss and then guide clients. In the beginning of that statement is people.
So this does come back to people and how they work together. So if our people are always working with clients all over the place, how do they end up coming back and focusing on being a part of a larger whole. It is easy to go native and really be tighter with the client than your organization. This is where we need to find ways to create the glue that reminds and builds the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
I was reading a great series by Bill Ives that I found very provoking and was in part trying to deal with this issue. It is a six part blog that overviews Booz-Allen's embracing Enterprise 2.0.
Everyone who works for or owns a consulting should read the series as it has some great insight and a couple of great lessons at the expense of Booz-Allen.
Over the next couple of weeks I will add some of my thoughts in parallel to the ideas that Bill shares in this series. Thanks Bill for pulling this together.
