CMC Today March 2017 Issue

The issue theme of February offers me an excellent opportunity to reflect recent work of CMC-Global (ICMCI) in improving its processes, increasing its performance and achieving its goals.

ISO 20700 Management Consultancy Standards – Toolkit Update 
In Toronto 2016 at the ICMCI meeting the idea of the “ISO tool box” was developed. This “ISO tool box” should contain “tools” for helping IMCs implement the ISO 20700 standard on management consulting services locally.

Business Process Re-Engineering – Several excellent resources from Hammer & Champy, the guys that really pioneered & continuously improved this concept.

10 Best Productivity Books – Review of top productivity improvement books out there.

Best 2016 books on Innovation & Creativity – Inc’s Review of 2016’s “diamonds in the rough”.

7 Top-Notch Books on Innovation – Over 70,000 Innovation Books on Amazon – what to choose?

Managing Change Internally – How to Organise Consultant Managers

© 2017 CMC Today & Professor Andrew Sturdy, CMC-Global Academic Fellow, University of Bristol, UK;  Dr Nick Wylie, Coventry University, UK

Management consultancy should no longer be seen simply as something done by influential outsiders, but as part of the toolkit of any manager responsible for delivering change. 

Management is changing. It is becoming less explicitly hierarchical and more ‘market and change’ oriented. This has been happening through flattening organisational hierarchies, using new technologies and the rise of management education. Organisations are speeding the process up by internalising a model of management based on external management consultancy. New ‘consultant managers’ include specialist internal staff who provide change advice, facilitation and management, typically on a project/programme basis. 

Improving Consultant, Client & Executive Decision Making Processes

© 2017, CMC Today & Doug Macnamara, CMC
“Many leaders risk possible big losses to avoid the certainty  of modest loss in personal prestige or respect”- Daniel Ellsberg

Over the years, Decision Making has become one of the most often requested topics for information, insight and/or development solutions from BEL. This started me wondering! Why have the processes for decision making captured so much interest, and what lies behind these requests for assistance? 

What does this mean for consultants, our clients and senior executives in general?

Dear Members,
This month, we would like to introduce our Executive Secretary (ES), Khuzaima Alzaghlawan.

The Conference Committee of the 2017 International CMC Conference is hard at work pulling together all the elements to create the best CMC Conference yet!

While all the details are still being finalized; here’s a “sneak peek” at some of the evolving conference concepts…

1. Consulting Readiness Index Survey. As part of its efforts to develop the Global Management Consulting Profession and in its capacity as The Authority for advocating for Management Consulting Worldwide, The International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) intends to design and deploy a periodical review of the maturity level of the Management Consulting Profession in various countries/markets. 

Towards that end, ICMCI is reaching out to all its member institutes to collect the below information.  ICMCI would highly appreciate your support in filling up the information for your respective country.

2. Who from your IMC will attend the Kazakhstan CMC-Global AGM and 5th International CMC Conference in September? Given its early date of September 4-7, 2017 (so attendees can also experience the World’s Fair EXPO 2017 – same place & time), IMC’s are encouraged to start the conversation now about who will join us in Astana!

3. CMC-Canada’s Management Consulting in Canada 2016 Report (As featured at the 2016 Global CMC Conference). To order your copy click here.  

4. APCO (IMC Italy) provides an update on the work it is doing on Sustainability, Innovation, Competitiveness and Employment.

Quality Assurance Committee Programs, Processes and Developments 

The standards, by which the CMC mark of excellence is granted to Consultants worldwide by member institutes, have not fundamentally changed over time.  However, our own internal processes and assessments have been continuously refined towards the much more sophisticated, well-documented system that currently operates.  

Business Process practices at your firm

This issue’s Quiz addresses Business Process practices at your firm or at clients, and relates to the content of our Feature Articles.

Q1 – In implementing major changes in your organization, who do you rely on most to lead changes in internal processes? How effective has this approach proven to be?

(a) Internal Departmental Managers.
(b) Internal “Specialty Teams” of advisors, facilitators, consultants.
(c) External Consultants and process-design specialists. 

Q2 – In implementing major changes in your organization, which if any problems do you routinely experience?

(a) Lack of good and timely project management of process changes.
(b) Incomplete or uneven adoption of changes across different business units.
(c) Differing levels of competence or expertise in the implementation of various process changes across specialty processes such as HR, IT, business services, customer services, financial reporting.
(d) Inability to detach main business operational management from change management implementation.

CMCs – A Higher Level of Management Consulting –
New promotional video from CMC-Canada.

Now some other videos related to this month’s newsletter theme:

Business Process Re-engineering
By Michael Hammer; the guy who wrote the book on it!.

Smart Failure for a Fast-Changing World
Eddie Obeng TEDx.

Our Approach to Innovation is Dead Wrong
Diana Kander TEDx talk.

Better & Faster
Chaos & Innovation with Jeremy Gutsche – top innovation video.