The Chair Update July 2020

 

Dear Colleagues,

It has been a crazy time since my last update in May. In fact, 2020 has been a crazy time!

I know all Institutes have been working very hard to support their members as your economies go through turmoil. All of us in the consulting profession are striving to support our clients in uncertain times. And at the same time figuring out what the implications are for us and for our firms.

In this Update I will give you a quick summary of our June Board meeting (you can check out the public minutes HERE). This will be followed by some insights into our main initiatives to support you.

I have also done a video overview of this update, which you can check out HERE  if you prefer.

Overview
It is so unfortunate that I have not been able to travel to IMCs this year as we had planned. I love the interaction with you and your members, learning about your activities, and using that to help us at ICMCI do the best we can for you. 

On the other hand, because of the wonders of virtual technology, I think I have been in contact with more management consulting members than ever. Either through virtual IMC events, recordings made for an Institute and played at their events, or through our online seminars. 

I consider it part of my mandate to be in touch with you. I would be very happy to virtually attend a suitable event hosted by you in order to address our strategy or any specific programs of interest to your Institute. Please keep this in mind as you plan your events.

Online Seminar Series
The weekly online panels and seminars we have been hosting since April have been exceptionally well attended. Thanks for all of the great feedback! We are on a bit of a pause in July to catch our breath, but you can be sure that the series will resume, likely bi-weekly, beginning in August.

The series has been a welcome way for CMCs and members from around the world to come together to share best practices and to learn from each other. This is exactly what our global movement is all about.

And even better, all of the content is available on our YouTube channel: ICMCI Official Videos HERE.  This is an excellent resource for all of us.

Update on 2020 Onwards
In May I announced the launch of a task force: ICMCI 2020 Onwards. I called it then a membership strategy Task Force, meaning management consultant members of Institutes. This caused confusion with the role of our ICMCI Membership Committee. Sorry about that! The new name I think better represents what we are trying to do.

Growth is foundational to our success as a global profession. And yet new entrants into the profession have more choices than ever before to network and to obtain knowledge. Most of our Institutes are examining their value proposition to ensure they can attract as many new members as possible. But the growth we aspire to is not materializing.

In the coming weeks members of the Task Force will meet with representatives of as many IMCs as possible to understand their situation, brainstorm with them, and gather information about what is working and what is not. At the end we will have a summary and some recommendations from the Task Force that can help us to improve. Let’s collaborate to solve the problem once instead of 50 times.

ISO 17011 - 17024
Our QAC Chair and Executive Director have spent a great deal of effort in the past few months to obtain compliance with ISO 17011. This has put us in a position to be able to now qualify Institutes to the ISO 17024 standard. The first two Institutes to achieve this status from ICMCI will be Austria and Kosovo. 

The 17024 standard has to do with the standards of an organizations for certifying individuals. This could be applied for the CMC, but the real power is the potential ability of an Institute to conduct other certification schemes. Stay tuned for more information.

Auditors
At our annual meeting in Nassau the Annual Meeting of Delegates approved our Auditors for the fiscal year 2019-2020. Since then, the approved firm raised their fee very significantly. As the Board has authority to act between sessions of the Annual Meeting, the situation was reviewed, and a search was undertaken by our Executive Director and Treasurer to find an alternative.

I am pleased to announce that by motion of your Board of Directors, Grant Thornton – Jordan has been appointed as our Auditors for the fiscal year 2019-2020.

ICMCI Book on Consultancy Skills
You may recall the recent email from all IMCs from Simon Haslam, Chair of the ICMCI Academic Fellows. This is an exciting new project for the ICMCI that will be globally relevant, and practical for consultants. It will be abased on the practical experiences of people in the ICMCI community. 

Simon would love to have your best piece of advice, between 50 and 200 words, about delivering successful consulting projects.  Email directly to simon@researching.co.uk

This is a great initiative, and we look forward to seeing the results.

Chartered Management Consultant
Many of you have read or heard that the Member Institute in the UK has received approval to implement a Chartered Management Consultant (ChMC) designation. This was piloted early in this calendar year, and the program will be launched in the UK during 2020. 

Reema and I have been in close contact with our colleagues in the UK. They have given us assurances that they have no intentions and no desire to market the ChMC outside of the UK. However, we all know that in to-days world individuals will hear about the designation, and some will reach out. So, the questions become a matter of how they will respond, and how they will involve the Institute in whose territory that person lives.

We are in ongoing discussions, and I am confident we will find a model that will be good for the UK, good for Institutes, and good for the profession. I will keep you posted.

Let’s Stay in Touch
Please feel free to be in touch with me at any time. My email is dwight.mihalicz@cmc-global.org. By leveraging our global network, consultants can work together to contribute to a better future for the industry globally, and better results for clients and society.

Collaboration is key… please keep in touch.