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Viable PracticeA Viable Output(c) Application
Citation preview
Viable PracticeA Viable Output© Application
by
John Gardner, CMC
Viable PracticeA Viable Practice© Application
Published by J.V.G. Consulting Inc. April 2012All Rights Reserved.Copyright © 2012 by John Gardner, CMC
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction.....................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Current Situation........................................................................................................................3 1.2 What is Viable Output©.............................................................................................................4 1.3 What is a Viable Practice?..........................................................................................................5
2.0 Becoming a Viable Practice............................................................................................................7 3.0 Bootstrap Your Practice..................................................................................................................8
3.1 Diagnosis..............................................................................................................................10 3.2 Goal Map..............................................................................................................................11 3.3 Problem Map............................................................................................................................12 3.4 Solution Map............................................................................................................................13 3.5 Intervention Plan......................................................................................................................14 3.6 Next Steps.................................................................................................................................15 3.7 Alternative Modeling Techniques............................................................................................16
4.0 Higher Margins and Fees..............................................................................................................17 4.1 Background......................................................................................................................17 4.2 Practice Map.....................................................................................................................17 4.3 Diagnosis..........................................................................................................................17 4.4 Client Map........................................................................................................................19 4.5 Solution Map....................................................................................................................21 4.6 Interventions - The Road to Higher Fees and Margins....................................................21 4.7 Revised Practice Map.......................................................................................................22
5.0 Branding and Market Presence.....................................................................................................24 5.1 Background......................................................................................................................24 5.2 Diagnosis..........................................................................................................................24 5.3 Market Map......................................................................................................................25
6.0 Increased Leverage........................................................................................................................28 6.1 Background......................................................................................................................28 6.2 Diagnosis..........................................................................................................................29 6.3 Market Map......................................................................................................................29
7.0 Necessary and Sufficient IT..........................................................................................................30 7.1 Background......................................................................................................................30 7.2 Diagnosis and IT Map......................................................................................................30
8.0 Final Thoughts..............................................................................................................................32 Appendix.............................................................................................................................................34
Author Profile.............................................................................................................................34 JVG Consulting Profile..............................................................................................................34
1.0 Introduction The goal of this program is to help the independent consultant build a
profitable and sustainable consulting practice. To achieve this result,
you will be given the tools and techniques that have helped other
consultants improve profitability and growth. However, to succeed you
must be committed to change what you are doing, and the way you do it,
so you can achieve the results and reap the value from this change.
This book tackles the challenge of creating a profitable practice
through the application of the Viable Output© method to the management
functions of a consulting practice. The focus is upon restructuring your
consulting practice to change it into a high performance, ever
flourishing engine of growth.
1.1 Current Situation Today's economic conditions are volatile, to say the least, and to run a
business in today's marketplace requires focus, adaptability and
perseverance. For consultants the situation is even more tenuous. As
consultants we are selling advise and implementation assistance in a
market that views many consultants as providing little value or nothing
more than glorified contract labour. The challenge for consultants is to
develop and maintain a profitable, thriving practice while delivering
real value to clients.
There is also much confusion about the difference between a consultant
and a contractor. True consulting is about changing an organization for
the better,through advise and implementation assistance, as a management
consultant. Contracting is about providing services as an operational
consultant to perform a task. Many clients and consultants confuse the
two roles. A true consultant is a management consultant, whose focus is
upon changing a client's condition to an improved state.
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
You can make a living as an operational consultant. However, the
marketplace tends to view operational consultants (contractors or
freelancers) as a commodity resource. Hence, there is often a continuous
downward pressure upon rates, especially in depressed markets, and with
the availability of cheap overseas labour. The exception is within a
value-based engagement, where an operational consultant can achieve
higher revenue. Ultimately, however, you will make more money as a true
management consultant. But, you may need the core revenue of
contracting, while you develop the additional revenue of a management
consultant. Through the application of the Viable Output© method you
will achieve a Viable Practice.
1.2 What is Viable Output© Viable Output© is both a method and an end state that is achieved.
Viable Output© is a lean, pragmatic method that allows practitioners to
achieve a state of Viable Output©. To be in a state of Viable Output©
means that you have achieved maximum throughput with minimum waste and
minimal cost and you have established a process of ongoing improvement
within your business.
The Viable Output© method is an integration of techniques from multiple
disciplines, such as Theory of Constraints, Lean/Six Sigma, Object
Oriented Analysis, Functional Size Measurement, and the CMC Body of
Knowledge. The Viable Output© method has numerous applications, such as
Strategy and Governance, Projects, Operations, Outsourcing, M&A,
Valuation (IT Assets), Non-Profits, Small Business and Consulting.
Viable Output© is strategic: the focus is upon achievement of the
goals,delivery of the necessary conditions to enable those goals, and
overcoming constraints that are obstacles towards accomplishment of
those goals. Both the current situation and target state are analyzed
and specific interventions are developed to overcome constraints.
Viable Output© is outcome-driven: the focus is upon completion of
outputs, rather than activities. With the focus upon outputs, Viable
Output© becomes a controlled process, with the outputs sized, and key
metrics measured, tracked and analyzed. Key metrics such as Demand,
Capacity, Work-in-Process,Defects-in-Process, Capability and
Risk-in-Process are managed and provide the basis for a framework of
controls.
Viable Output© continuously improves: the framework of controls and the
method, which includes Goldratt's Process of On-Going Improvement and
Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), provide the basis for continuous
improvement. This is achieved through: a mechanism for continuous
real-time feedback of true performance; and a method for ensuring that
the necessary conditions are changed to improve performance.
1.3 What is a Viable Practice? A Viable Practice is a consulting practice that has achieved Viable
Output©. A Viable Practice has achieved maximum throughput (consulting
revenue), with minimum waste (rework, lost contracts, slow delivery) and
minimal cost (over-head, resources, material costs). A Viable Practice
has achieved maximum profitability and sustainability, for its system.
What is the system of a consulting practice? It is the business model
and processes that define and deliver the services and products of the
consulting practice. From strategy and marketing, to practice management
and accounting, all of the management functions that make up a
consulting practice are its system.
The goal of the (consulting practice) system is to maximize throughput
(revenue), while keeping operating expenditures (direct costs) and
inventory (non-billable time) to a minimum. From Throughput Accounting
we can express this relationship using the following formula: ROI = T -
OE / I. Hence, the ROI for a Viable Practice is calculated as ROI =
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
Revenue - Direct Costs / Non-Billable Cost.
For a consulting practice that has total billable time as 1600 hours per
year, non-billable time of 200 hours, direct costs of $160K, and revenue
of $200K,then the ROI for the consulting practice is 2%.
Generally speaking, if your revenue is declining, your sales funnel is
diminishing and your ROI is 5% or less your consulting practice is not
viable. But then, if you see this happening, then you already know this.
However, you may not know what to do about it. This book will help you
change your practice so you have maximum throughput, minimum waste,
minimal cost and maximum profitability. You will learn how to change
your firm into a Viable Practice.
2.0 Becoming a Viable Practice The Viable Practice Workshops presented here are condensed versions of
the live workshops that JVG Consulting holds for its clients.
The Viable Practice Workshops will show you how to become a profitable,
sustainable consulting practice. There are six workshops in total, each
of which address a specific subject area of practice. They are:
Bootstrap Your Practice
Higher Margins and Fees
Branding and Market Presence
Increased Leverage
Necessary and Sufficient IT
These condensed Viable Practice Workshops are being provided to
Certified Management Consultants (CMC) on LinkedIn as part of their
professional development; a contribution by JVG Consulting and the
author.
This Viable Practice Workshop material is published in collaboration
with the Independent Consultant Community of Practice (CoP) subgroup in
the Canadian Association of Management Consultants LinkedIn group.
Membership is open to all CMC's in good standing.
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
3.0 Bootstrap Your Practice
This session of the Viable Practice Workshop series, called Bootstrap
Your Practice, will show you how to create a profitable consulting
practice, doing work that you like, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle
as a result.
How is this possible? We will apply some of the tools in the Viable
Output(c) method to rebuild your consulting practice. We will look at
your current constraints, your goals and interventions required to make
you profitable.
To deliver maximum benefit to you in this session, we will perform a
structured walk-through of the Viable Output(c) method, so you can apply
it to your individual practice. So, let's get started.
The summary of the steps we will take today are:
Diagnosis
Goal Map
Problem Map
Solution Map
Intervention Plan
This process scales to support any size consultancy, any size scope, and
any crisis. However, our focus today is the independent consultant.
Before we begin, here are some rules to guide the process:
Rule 1: Make all statements direct, active tense and single purpose
(no compound sentences).
Rule 2: 3 x 3 x 3. Not more than 3 goals, 3 sub-goals, 3 levels of
constraints or conditions.
Rule 3: Not more than 12 constraints, 6 strengths, 6 weaknesses and
3 interventions.
Rule 4: Apply to 80/20 rule, focus on the significant.
Rule 5: Apply the Proofs when modeling.
During the course of this session, we will be creating at least 3 maps
which are a combination of a concept map and a logic tree. When we
finish a Map we need to validate our thinking and the content of the
Map. Here are the basic proofs to help us test and verify the logic of
our analysis:
Proof 1: Clarity: are statements succinct, unambiguous and
understandable.
Proof 2: Root-Cause-Effect: are there additional effects
(negative/positive) created by the condition?
Proof 3: Sufficient: are there additional conditions needed to
create the effect?
Proof 4: Necessary: is the condition necessary to create the effect
(negative/positive)?
You will need at least 10 sheets of blank paper and a pen, pencil or
marker. Whatever you are comfortable with when you are drawing a model.
Clear off your desk, or table, clear your mind and let's begin.
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
3.1 Diagnosis To understand not only the problems that you are facing, but also
your original goals for your consulting practice, we need to perform
a self-diagnosis. We'll also take a look at your strengths and
weaknesses and then we'll develop interventions to bootstrap your
practice.
To begin, take 5 sheets of paper and think about your goals,
constraints that stop you from achieving your goals, your strengths,
your weaknesses or areas of improvement, and some ideas about how to
overcome your constraints. Perform the following steps:
a) Identify your goals and sub-goals on the first page.
b) Identify your constraints, or obstacles in reaching your
goals on a second page.
c) Identify your strengths: both what you think and what other
people think on a third page.
d) Identify your "weaknesses": the focus is upon your skills and
assets. Do this on a fourth page.
e) Identify interventions/solutions to weaknesses and
constraints on a fifth page.
You now have 5 pages that list: goals, constraints, strengths
(skills and assets), weaknesses (skills and assets), and
interventions (solutions, new goals, new skills, or new assets).
3.2 Goal Map To create a Goal Map, you will be taking your first page that lists
goals and sub-goals and draw/model a Goal Map. This is like a
concept map organized like a hierarchical logic tree. Apply the 5
Rules when creating your Goal Map. To begin, perform the following
steps:
a) Review all 5 pages, make minor revisions (1 or 2 things) as
needed.
b) Organize your goals. Create a key goal. Start with
"Profitable Practice".
c) Take a blank sheet of paper and write "Profitable Practice"
at the top, center of the page.
d) Write your goals and sub-goals as causal chains that lead to
"Profitable Practice". Leave space for 2 or 3 items.
e) Draw lines between your goals and sub-goals to show their
causal relationship.
f) Take your strengths and relate them to the goals and
sub-goals. If they don't relate, don't write them down.
You now have your first draft of your own Goal Map. Apply the 4 Proofs to validate your Goal Map.
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
3.3 Problem Map To create a Problem Map, you will be taking your second page that lists your
constraints and draw/model a Problem Map. This is like a concept map
organized like a hierarchical logic tree. Apply the 5 Rules when creating
your Problem Map. To begin, perform the following steps:
a) Review all 5 pages and your Goal Map.
b) On a blank sheet of paper, write a single sub-goal from your Goal
Map.
c) Organize your constraints and weaknesses.
d) Identify what constraints and weaknesses are related to the sub-goal.
e) Create a causal chain of constraints and weaknesses connected to the
sub-goal.
f) Repeat this for the other 2 sub-goals from your Goal Map.
You now have your first draft of your own Problem Map, that links
constraints and weaknesses to specific sub-goals. Apply the 4 Proofs to
validate your Problem Map.
3.4 Solution Map To create a Solution Map, you will be taking your third page, which
lists your strengths and your fifth page, which lists your interventions
and solutions and draw/model a Solution Map. This is like a concept map
organized like a hierarchical logic tree. Apply the 5 Rules when
creating your Solution Map. To begin, perform the following the steps:
a) Review all 5 pages, your Goal Map and your Problem Map.
b) On a blank sheet of paper, write down 3 Core Problems.
c) Review your Strengths and see if any apply.
d) Pick 1 Core Problem and identify a cause or condition that
creates it.
e) Identify one or more solutions that would remove the Core
Problem.
f) Identify one or more conditions that must exist to remove the
Core Problem.
g) Repeat this for the other 2 Core Problems.
You now have your first draft of your own Solution Map, that links
strengths and interventions/solutions to constraints and problems, which
in turn are linked to goals and sub-goals. Apply the 4 Proofs to
validate your Solution Map.
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
3.5 Intervention Plan At this point, you now have a Goal Map, Problem Map, and Solution Map,
along with your list of goals/sub-goals, strengths, weaknesses and
interventions/solutions. You will now create an Intervention Plan by
performing the following steps:
a) Review your solutions, conditions, and interventions that will
remove Core Problems.
b) On a blank sheet of paper write each intervention as a category.
c) Identify supporting actions or features that must happen to
implement each intervention.
d) Determine the time-line to complete these actions/features.
e) Determine if this intervention if feasible.
You now have your first draft of your Intervention Plan, that identifies
the interventions, enabling actions and time-line or schedule to
complete each intervention.
3.6 Next Steps Now that you have an Intervention Plan to bootstrap your consulting
practice into profitability, here are some suggestions that might be
useful:
a) Repeat the process to fine-tune your goals, constraints,
strengths, weaknesses and interventions.
b) Depending upon your interventions, re-brand your practice to
support your goals.
c) Give your Intervention Plan a chance. Follow it for at least 20
days, before revising it.
You have now completed the entire process to Bootstrap Your Practice.
The effectiveness of the Intervention Plan is based upon the
completeness of the analysis and the degree of self-effacing honesty you
applied during the analysis. At this point, however, you still have 3
separate Maps. To improve your skills in this technique, try to
integrate the 3 separate Maps into a single Practice Map. You can do
this by following these steps:
a) Redraw the Goal Map and position the "Profitable Practice" goal
at the top of the Map.
b) Add your Strengths as they relate to each sub-goal.
c) Add your Constraints or Weaknesses as they relate to each
sub-goal or contributing condition to a Strength.
d) Add your Interventions to each specific Constraint or Weakness.
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
e) Apply the 5 Rules while you are modeling your Practice Map.
f) Validate your Practice Map with the 4 Proofs.
You now have a real Practice Map. You can modify it as time goes on. Try
to keep focused upon the significant goals, strengths and
constraints/weaknesses, when you are updating and reviewing your
Practice Map. The Practice Map is essentially a model of your business.
Keep it fresh by reviewing it every 20 days or so, depending upon your
results.
3.7 Alternative Modeling Techniques
During this session, we used pen and paper as our tools. There are other
tools that you can use. I personally use a notebook, or journal and
revert to blank sheets of paper when I'm trying to get a fresh
perspective. In creating the Practice Map, you have actually created a
"Single Page Logic Tree". Other modeling methods you can use are:
a) Single Page Logic Tree
b) Sticky Notes on the Wall
c) Sticky Notes on large Bristol Board
d) Index Cards on the Wall
e) Modeling Software - Visio, Concept Mapping, Semantic Map, etc.
4.0 Higher Margins and Fees
4.1 Background To further develop a Viable Practice, we must have services and
products that provide true value to our clients. There are two
ways to accomplish this:
Develop products and services that resolve one or more
persistent problems and their root causes.
Develop methods to deliver products and solutions that a
faster, cheaper and/or provide more functionality.
In the previous section, Bootstrap Your Practice, we performed a
diagnosis and developed a number of concept maps (Goal, Problem,
Solution) and an Intervention Plan. Before we begin this section
you need to develop your Practice Map. This will provide a
foundation for the development of a Viable Practice.
4.2 Practice Map If you haven't already, perform the steps outlined in the Next
Steps sub-section of the Bootstrap Your Practice section.
If you have created a Practice Map, then review your Diagnostic
Sheets you created and revise your Practice Map accordingly. For
example, you may have identified new strengths, weaknesses or
goals for your professional Practice.
4.3 Diagnosis We are now going to perform another Diagnostic on our Practice
to determine what problems and root causes exist in our client
base and service industry. At the same time we will evaluate our
own services to determine how we improve their efficiency and
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
cost of operation.
For this step to be effective, you need to focus upon the key
service you provide to a specific industry or client. If you
provide more than one service or practice in more than one
industry, then pick the most significant. You can repeat the
process for the other industries and services.
Take 4 sheets of paper and label them with the name of your client
or industry. Then add the labels "Strengths", "Weaknesses" and
"Goals".
More than likely, as an expert in your field, you probably know
the weaknesses of your client, or industry, very well. So, let's
start there with a list of the most significant weaknesses.
Limit this list to 5 weaknesses.
In developing your list, take an outlining approach. For
example:
Enterprise Architecture (all clients)
Weaknesses
Multiple methods and notations
Architecture silos
No reuse of artifacts by projects
No common repository and tool
Heavyweight, bureaucratic process
When you have finished your "Client Weaknesses" list, then
repeat the process for "Strengths". For example:
Enterprise Architecture (all clients)
Strengths
All projects develop EA Artifacts
All projects comply with EA Governance
Standard set of EA Artifacts
Now take a breath and reflect upon what your client expected to
achieve. In other words, what were their "Goals". Again, take an
outlining approach on the third sheet of paper and limit
yourself to the five most significant goals. For example:
Enterprise Architecture (all clients)
Goals
Reuse of Artifacts
Lower project delivery costs (30%)
Improved due date performance
Lower cost of operation
Normally, we would also create a sheet/list of "Constraints" and
"Interventions", but I've found that it is better to do this
analysis while creating a "Client Map". So, without further
delay, it's time to switch to building our "Client Map".
4.4 Client Map The purpose of the "Client Map" is to model the goals,
strengths and weaknesses of your client, or industry. Once this
is done, we will model the constraints and interventions
directly onto the "Client Map". To accomplish this we apply the
following steps:
a) Create an hierarchical concept map of our client or
industry, starting with their name and adding their goals.
b) We then take our list of "Strengths" and map them to each
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
of the goals as appropriate. The strengths are analogous to
sub-goals, and they will map to one or more of the client's
goals.
c) We then take our list of "Weaknesses" and map them to
each of the goals or sub-goals as appropriate. These
weaknesses are analogous to constraints.
d) During the creation of this hierarchical concept map,
apply Root-Cause-Effect analysis. For example, does one of
the "Weaknesses" lead, or cause, another effect? Are there
other sub-causes that contribute to this "Weakness"?
e) Apply the Rules and Proofs presented in the "Bootstrap
Your Practice" section, when creating your "Client Map".
f) Iterate through the Client/Industry goals, strengths and
weaknesses to identify new relationships, new causes and new
effects.
g) Focus and limit your analysis to the most significant
elements. Your causal chains should be limited 7 or less
entities.
Now stop and take a look at the entire Client Map. Does it make
sense? Have you identified all of the most significant goals,
strengths, weaknesses? Have you identified all of the most
significant causes and effects?
Now do a further analysis and try to determine a common root
cause or core problem. In most cases you should be able to
determine between 1 and 3 core problems, or causes. These are
your service targets. We are now ready to move on to
Interventions.
4.5 Solution Map Once we have identified between 1 and 3 core problems or causes
for our client's weaknesses and constraints, we can now develop
Interventions that will form the basis of a new or revised
service.
4.6 Interventions - The Road to Higher Fees and Margins Now that we have a set of Interventions that directly resolves
our client's weaknesses and constraints, we can build a new set
of services around them.
However, we aren't done yet. As mentioned in the Background
section, the second way we can achieve higher margins and fees
is to develop more efficient methods of service delivery. So, we
must do that when we design our new services, based upon our
previous analysis.
Some techniques to apply to ensure greater efficiency, and hence
lower cost for our services are:
a) Think 80/20 every second during the engagement and apply
it in the following ways:
a.1) Client does 80% of low value work (e.g.
administration, data collection, preliminary analysis,
document retrieval, etc). If the client can't or won't
do this, then bring in a sub-contractor to perform these
duties and charge straight time and materials.
a.2) Unless required by your service offering, limit
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your face-time with the client to 20% of the total
duration of the project.
a.3) Spend 80% of your face-time with key buyers,
stakeholders and decision makers.
a.4.1) Charge the going rate for the total duration of the
engagement. Divide that amount by 20% of the time (your
face-time). This is your daily/hourly billing rate.
Alternatively, use value-based fees or premium fees
(e.g. Going Rate X 200%).
a.4.2) Charge a total fee using either Value-Based fees
or premium fees (e.g. Going Rate X 200%).
a.5) Bill only for your face-time and subcontractor
time.
In developing your new services, try to quantify the ROI on your
fees. If this is not possible, then create a set of qualifying
statements around the value of your services. Be specific in
describing the outcomes that can be achieved (e.g. Improved Due
Date performance, Lower Cost of Operation).
When providing a quote, or proposal, follow Allan Weiss's
suggestion and break the work into a series of options. When the
client wants to lower price, you remove a block of value. This
prevents the knee-jerk reaction of discount pricing.
4.7 Revised Practice Map To complete this section, it's now time to update your Practice
Map to include the name of your Interventions/Services. Include
the service industry name or client category on your Practice
Map as well. As always, apply the Rules and Proofs to make sure
that your Practice Map makes sense.
We are now in the position to develop Branding and Market
Presence.
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5.0 Branding and Market Presence
5.1 Background As an independent consultant, it is hard to compete with large
consulting companies with big marketing budgets and/or who ride
on the coattails of their audit and accounting practices. This
section will show you how to develop a Brand and Market Presence
quickly and efficiently.
5.2 Diagnosis Review your Practice Map, especially the client weaknesses and
your planned interventions.
Evaluate what Interventions provide the most value to your
clients in the quickest time. Is this something you could build
your practice upon?
For example, JVG Consulting is building its practice around the
Genuine Enterprise Architect(c) method. It remedies current,
persistent weaknesses in Enterprise Architecture that destroys
its value proposition, while providing tools that improve Due
Date performance and lower Total Cost of Operation by 30% or
more.
Once you have identified a potential product or service that
addresses one or more specific weaknesses in your client's
industry or company, think about a name for this product or
service.
In identify a name for your product/service, you want to ensure
that it is unique, memorable and, if necessary, be trademarked
or copyrighted. This name can be the basis for your brand.
The next step is to think of three (3) significant nouns that
capture the value of your product/service. These three (3) words
will become your Tagline below your Brand.
Remember, follow the Rule of 3: Never have more than 3 words or
3 lines in your Brand Name and Tagline. Most people don't
recognize or comprehend more than three (3) things in the first
10 seconds. This is your only window of opportunity to get
noticed.
Once you have thought of a name for your product/service, review
your Practice Map and revise it to reflect your new focus.
Your now ready for the Market Map.
5.3 Market Map Now that you have your Brand Name and revised your Practice Map,
we need to build your Market Map. The analysis is the same as
before, but focused upon your market. So let's begin.
Take a sheet of paper and put your Brand Name at the top. Review
your work sheets from the previous section. Determine if you
need to further package your product/service into component
parts or service offerings.
Starting with your Brand Name, connect 3 - 5 industries or
markets that your service can provide maximum value. For each
market, or niche, do the following:
a) Connect the specific weaknesses for each market or niche
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b) For each weakness, connect the product/service package or
component that addresses that weakness
c) Connect your specific strength that enables you to
deliver each product/service package or component
d) If there are any gaps, identify Interventions that can
fix those gaps (e.g. partnership, sub-contracting),
otherwise drop the product/service.
Now that you have your markets and/or niches identified, the
client/industry weaknesses identified, and the product/service
offerings to provide value, let's determine how to build market
presence.
Take one or more sheets of paper and put the names of each
market or niche at the top. Now list all of the key magazines,
conferences, LinkedIn groups and associations for each market
and niche. For each of these marketing channels you will need to
create a series of articles and presentations.
Articles and presentations should be tightly aligned. All of
your articles should be short (1 - 2 pages) and topical; based
upon a specific market/client weakness and what to do to fix the
situation - but not how. Your presentation should be a highlight
of your article or a combination of article highlights (topics).
At the end of each article or presentation is the offer to
contact yourself to discuss how you can help them.
Take another sheet of paper and put Articles/Presentations at
the top of it. Now list all of the relevant topics and the
component of your product/service offering that provides a
solution.
Update your Market Map with the most significant marketing
channels (magazines, conferences, associations, LinkedIn Groups)
for each market/niche. Then add the specific articles or
presentations that make the most sense for each market/niche. If
all of your markets/niches are addressed by your articles, then
connect "Articles" to each of them and then add the list of
articles.
You now have a completed Market Map that lays out a plan for
building your Brand and Market Presence. Now you just have to
execute it. Ensure that all of your articles and presentations
have your Brand Name, TagLine and contact information.
Everything you produce, even on LinkedIn, needs to be branded.
Again, the Market Map is a general plan. Pick the most
significant marketing channel (conference, association, etc) and
publish your article(s) and give your presentation.
A final note, rework your website to reflect your focus upon
your Brand, TagLine, Products/Services, Articles and
Presentations. Cross link your LinkedIn profile with your
website. I left this part to the last, because you have to
create your content (articles and presentations).
Now that your Market Map is done, you can optionally revise your
Practice Map with the information. I do this, so I can see the
grand plan for my consulting practice. As I revise my Practice
Map, every 20 days, I may drop back to the individual maps to do
some serious revisions and then bring the revisions forward to
the Practice Map.
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Now let's look at leverage.
6.0 Increased Leverage
6.1 Background As an independent consultant we are constantly challenged with
the need to increase capacity and market reach. But we also need
to be mindful of balancing revenue, profit and delivery cost.
Not all work is good work. From the perspective of a Viable
Practice, we need to look at building and sustaining revenue in
the following ways:
a) Leveraging other people to bid on larger contracts.
b) Leveraging other companies to sell through your Brand and
product/service offering.
c) Leveraging other companies to bypass capitalization and
insurance requirements when selling to government or large
organizations.
d) Creating products out of your service offerings.
The first three approaches are most likely known to you already.
Option B is a good option for building your Brand and Market
Presence, as well as revenue. Option A isn't for everyone;
especially if you prefer to be absolutely independent. Option C
is essentially sub-contracting.
Of all of the options, Option D is the most beneficial to your
Viable Practice. So, let's see what can be done.
6.2 Diagnosis Reviewing your Practice Map and your Market Map try to identify
what services, or components, could be made into standalone
products. For example, books, courses, workshops, assessments
and paid speaking engagements. Of all of them, the best option
is to focus upon workshops, courses, booklets and books.
Course material can be sold as a product, fully branded and for
a fixed price. Similarly, topic-based booklets that address
specific client/industry weaknesses are also a good revenue
generator. Workshops are variations on courses and booklets, but
require personal time. Courses, booklets and books can be sold
many times while you sleep. Simply add the Order Fulfillment
option to your website. Optionally, it may be a good idea to buy
ISBN numbers for your books and booklets.
6.3 Market Map Review your Market Map (or Practice Map) and add those companies
that you think you can sell through your branded products and
services. Where appropriate, make the connection between Company
and Market/Niche.
Review your list of Articles/Presentations and see if there are
any candidates for Booklets. Review your service offerings and
see if there are any candidates for courses, workshops and
books.
Add Products to your Market Map (or connect Products to Viable
Practice in your Practice Map). Then add the names of courses,
workshops, booklets and books that you have identified.
Update your Intervention Plan with a prioritized list of
courses, workshops, booklets and books. Schedule at least 1 hour
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
per day to create these products. Publish them in PDF format
and/or in print, using a service like Lulu.com. Update your
website to add these products.
Optionally, update your Practice Map with the revised Market
Map.
7.0 Necessary and Sufficient IT
7.1 Background As an independent consultant there is a tremendous need for
automation and tools to support our consulting practice.
Unfortunately, we can often get sidelined by too many tools,
converting contact databases from one package to another and
spending too much time on customization.
Jeffrey Fox suggests that any technology that gives you 60% of
the functionality that you need is good enough. Don't waste any
more time looking for the perfect solutions.
So, let's determine what is Necessary and Sufficient IT.
7.2 Diagnosis and IT Map Take a sheet of paper and put "IT" at the top of it. Now, think
about the types of things you do. Namely; communication,
writing, publishing and special purpose. All consultants do the
first three types of things, but niche consultants who have a
specific skill may require specific tools or services (e.g.
Market Scan service, Architecture Modeling tool, etc).
So, create a connection between Communication, Writing,
Publishing, Special Purpose and IT.
Now think of the Necessary Conditions to enable each of the four
requirements. For example, Email, Wordprocessing, Spreadsheet,
Database, Presentation software. Perhaps you need a separate CRM
addin for Email, or a dedicated CRM package.
Do you need commercial packages, or is open source good enough
(e.g. Microsoft Office versus Open Office). Go for the minimum
you need to get the job done.
Identify any services that you may need, such as Publishing
(lulu.com), website, order fulfillment, etc.
Identify any gaps that exist and determine what solutions exist
with minimal effort and cost that gives you what you need.
Review your selections with what you know about your clients. Do
they need special file formats, modeling tools, and so on, that
you need to provide.
Is everything that you identified sufficient for your needs? Do
the tools get the job done with minimal time, customization and
cost?
If you are faced with multiple choices, apply 80/20 thinking and
see what remains.
Build your IT Map with the software and services that you have
identified below each type: communication, writing, publishing
and special-purpose.
Revise your Practice Map with the information on your IT Map.
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
8.0 Final Thoughts I'm hopeful that you have found the information presented here to be
helpful in building a Viable Practice. I suggest that you review your
Practice Map and Intervention Plan every 20 days to ensure its validity.
As well, maintain a dashboard of your revenue per month (projected and
actual) to track your growth.
Finally, now that you have gone through the process of creating a Viable
Practice and you now have your Practice Map, Intervention Plan and
support Maps; I would like to share with you the thinking pattern I used
to create this approach.
To create a Viable Practice and to maintain it, apply the following
techniques:
Diagnosis
SWOT, 80/20, PEST, 80/20, Effect-Cause-Effect
Practice Map
Goal Map
Problem Map
Solution Map
Client Map
Market Map
IT Map
This material was provided to my fellow CMC's to help them build a
Viable Practice and to provide some professional development that was
specific to the needs of the individual consultant. Hopefully, I have
met that goal.
If you questions regarding the material, please post them on the
Independent Consultant Community of Practice (CoP) subgroup in the
Canadian Association of Management Consultants LinkedIn group.
If your CMC Chapter would like to hold a Viable Practice workshop for
your members, please contact me:
John Gardner, CMC
Managing Partner
JVG Consulting Inc
905-933-1372
John.Gardner@jvgconsulting.ca
JVG Consulting Inc.Condensed Viable Practice Workshops
Appendix
Author Profile John Gardner is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) and Managing
Partner of JVG Consulting Inc. He's worked for Deloitte,
PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Fujitsu/DMR Consulting Group and is a
former CIO of a $1B insurance company.
Over the last 16 years, Mr. Gardner has performed field research and
studies on effective methods for IT operations management, project
management, portfolio management and executive management. This work
has culminated into a method called Viable Output©. The Viable
Output© method is an integration of techniques from multiple
disciplines, such as Theory of Constraints, Lean/Six Sigma, Object
Oriented Analysis, Functional Size Measurement and the CMC Body of
Knowledge.
JVG Consulting Profile JVG Consulting was founded by John Gardner, CMC in 1990 to provide
clients with ethical, professional IT consulting services. The
company is a value-based consultancy that combines the discipline
and rigour of the CMC Body of Knowledge with proven, effective IT
methods and techniques. The company assists clients with improving
their IT Strategy, Portfolio, Projects, Operations, Outsourcing and
Management Controls.
JVG Consulting is an independent management consulting firm that
specializes in Enterprise Architecture. Their lead product is
Genuine Enterprise Architecture©, a new service offering that is
adaptable, lean, rigorous and profitable for all organizations who
implement it. JVG Consulting provides three services:
Genuine Enterprise Architecture©
Enterprise Architecture - The 4 Stages of Value©
Solution Architecture
In addition, JVG Consulting provides their services through a
Remote/Off-site option. This service leverages video and telephone
conferencing for meetings, workshops and Checkpoint/Gating Reviews.
All engagements are tightly controlled through
Management-By-Deliverable, an Artifact-based project plan and
clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
For more details, visit the company profile on LinkedIn.
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