The official blog of Ignition Consulting Group
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-Business Innovation-
Grow or die. It's embedded in the capitalist psyche. But is there such a thing as "bad" growth? Or more to the point, "bad" profit? The answer is yes, and many companies -- including professional service firms -- are engaged in a short-sighted harvesting strategy that yields revenues in the current year but fails to plant the seed corn to produce profit pools in the years to come …
Imagine a work environment in which you are judged solely by your effectiveness. Not by how many emails you answered, how many online meetings you attended, or how many hours you logged on a timesheet. In a world where only effectiveness matters, you’re have all the incentives you need to focus on the most important emails, participate in the most critical meetings, and execute the most essential tasks. Trivial pursuits are much less of a temptation, because distractions seriously erode your ability to produce results …
By definition, “average” means the center of the bell curve — the place where most people and companies live. Average isn’t always a bad thing, such as average life expectancy. But in the realm of business strategy, average can be lethal. The interesting work in any field isn't happening in the middle, but at the edges …
While advertising agencies are famous for innovating on behalf of their clients, only rarely are they recognized for applying original thinking to their own business model. At the root of this enigma is the belief among agency executives that they are in the service business. True, agencies provide specific services in response to specific client needs. The problem is the mindset; the “client service” mentality that centers on responding to client requests instead of proactively solving client problems …
Dutifully filling scopes of work for clients is "thin value." You're doing what's asked, meeting your deadlines, and staying within budget. “Thick value” is created when we help our clients explore and answer the question "What is possible?" Instead of just helping them meet their needs today, we're helping them define and develop what they should be doing tomorrow …
If and when it feels you’re competing in a buyer’s market, it’s only because you’ve chosen to be there, if not by design then by default. It’s true that many professional buyers view their job as running apples-to-apples comparisons. But you, the seller, have a job as well — to be an orange …
Why do formerly successful agencies experience stall-out? It’s almost always because they are busy solving yesterday's problems instead of exploring today’s opportunities. In today’s agency environment, clients submit the equivalent of a work order and agencies dutifully respond. This cadence of activity generates income in the present, but it doesn’t lay the foundation future for revenue streams …
Like food on grocery store shelves, the services offered by professional service firms have a “sell by” date. There’s no law compelling you to disclose outdated offerings, but if there were, the menu of competencies in many firms might be significantly reduced. In an era of exponential change, capabilities can abruptly outlive their usefulness …
Given the pervasiveness of time tracking in professional services, it’s understandable that even those managers who have become convinced that recording time is an ineffective way of measuring success feel at a loss when looking for a metric to replace it. This article recommends 22 of them …
The decline in the perceived value of advertising agencies can be closely correlated with their increasing propensity to dutifully fulfill “scopes of work” rather than proactively solve client problems. An unfortunate number of firms have forgotten that the role of the professional is to probe, question, and diagnose, not simply to provide services …
Do you feel locked in a zero-sum game with the professional buyers of your services (procurement)? Most firms do. A zero-sum game is one in which gains for one party result in losses for the other party. In effect, each party is fighting for a bigger slice of the same pie ...
The next time a client requests a set of “deliverables,” remember that this is not the real reason your firm was hired in the first place. You were hired to deliver business and marketing outcomes. The deliverables are just a means to that end …
The way to win more business is not to offer the best price, but rather the best pricing approach. Many firms will argue that their clients are “price shoppers,” and it’s true there are undiscriminating buyers in every market. But most smart clients understand you get what you pay for. The reason even some of them seem prone to “buy on price” is much more about how we sell than how they buy …
Would you like to earn money while you sleep? Most of your clients do. While most product and service companies have diverse ways of generating revenues, professional services firms generally don’t make money unless they’re recording hours on a timesheet. But an emerging crop of innovative firms across the globe are successfully cultivating new revenue streams, diversifying their sources of income, and yes, even making money while they sleep. How do they do it? Here are seven ways you can accomplish this in your own business …
While most firms are busy trying to be better than last year, truly outstanding firms are also investing in being different. Doing good work, by itself, is usually not enough to make your firm stand out. Uniqueness is discretionary …
