Poetry Versus Prose

Graham Boundy and Harvey Gellman would often say that this book would have made a good article.  Recently I read a peice that suggested expressing your ideas in a poem was much more efficient.  So maybe often a book should have been a poem. I have not completely digested t

Give The Client or Customer 10% More

Do you have a delighted customer or client?  I bet you are in demand.  Harvey Gellman, my mentor and business partner, had a saying "Give the client ten percent more than they expect."   Don't just meet their expectations but exceed them. That is really

Harvey Saying # 17 – Be Passionate and Steve Job

Recently I read an old blog by Tom Peters about Job's management style and it really struck a cord about what being passionate meant.   Green is Green. NOT! Harvey had an interesting view on moving forward on an innovative idea.  "Be Passionate." 

7 Consulting Lessons Learned

These lessons have been learned in school of hard knocks in consulting.  Would like to see my scars?  Readiness – People only do what they are ready and willing to do. Hidden factors – Many important factors are hidden. The clients are always right – Even

Why Are You Reluctant To Write

Through out my consulting career of thirty five years I wrote very little because I did not think I could write well enough to meet Harvey's standards.  Harvey, my business partner, was very particular about the quality of written documents.   However Stephen and Graha

Are You Developing Professionally

My business partner, Harvey Gellman, would often ask people who came for his help, "What have you learned lately?"   A item from the HBR Take Responsibility for Your Professional Development gave some simple advice on this topic.   Meet two former cow

Burry Foss Remembers Harvey

I asked one of my Gellman Hayward partners, Burry Foss, how he remembers Harvey Gellman.  He was such a big influence on us all. Burry Foss Remembers  I first met Harvey in the spring of 1965, when he interviewed me for a consulting position in DCF systems while I was comp

My new iPad

I picked up a newspaper for the first time in months today. I’ve been getting my news from the Canadian Press, Globe and Mail, and New York Times iPhone apps. Well in today’s Globe, Sondra Gotlieb doesn’t get the purpose of a Blackberry & Facebook. And all I can

Readiness

I mentioned previously how important high quality documents were for us at Gellman, Hayward.  However to our great frustration, we would produce a high quality report for a client and receive high praise but nothing would change.  In the mid 70's  Harvey discover

Everybody Deserves Respect

One of the things that was special about Harvey was his respect for everybody no matter what their role or station.  He believed that everybody had a special role.  He felt very passionately about this and my first experience with this was with the support staff.  He