Steve Shu on Management, Consulting, and Leadership

Candid Interview With Will Weider On Consulting (From A Customer Point Of View)

This past week, I had the opportunity to speak with Will Weider, CIO of Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System, about using consultants. His perspectives are interesting because they are from a customer’s vantage point – not from a consultant’s viewpoint. Will Weider is author of the one of the earliest CIO blogs on the Internet, the famed “Candid CIO” blog.

Steve: Will, thanks for talking with me. As a management consultant myself, I’ve approached you for a “candid” view on using consultants. I am interested in constantly improving the practice of consulting and management. Hopefully this interview will shed light for both consultants to improve their practices and peer organizations of yours to improve their selection and use of consultants. To that end, when do you look to consultants, and what do you look for in consultants?

Will: There has to be a specific reason for using a consultant, and my philosophy is to use consultants as little as possible. A couple of thoughts immediately come to mind. The first is that consultant costs can give me heartburn (e.g., when comparing loaded hourly rates of internal staff against the consultant). Now as context, it is infrequent that my organization does not have the skillset to either get a project done or solve a particular problem.  A second perspective is that I have had some disappointing consulting engagements where the results have fallen short of my expectations. Part of the blame may fall on the consulting firm which may oversell themselves in order to get a deal done. Some of the missed expectations may be in part that the buyer has elevated expectations when using a consultant.

Steve: Do you have any thoughts on aligning an organization and its expectations when using consultants?

Will: I’ve found that the worst time to use consultants is when my organization is saturated. A client organization needs capacity to bring the consultant on board, ramp them up, manage them, provide feedback, etc. As an example, if I have estimated a project at requiring 100 hours to do internally, then I may need to allocate 125 hours when accounting for budget and overhead of managing the consultant. As far as aligning expectations, I have mostly seen consultants provide incremental value as opposed to exponential value and miraculous benefits as marketed. Consultants can get oversold on their value proposition too easily. I also wanted to note that some consultant agreements have unacceptable terms, rivaling those of my software vendors.  These include such terms as up-front payment, termination clauses and advance notice requirements, etc. Where these terms go in the new environment we are in is still to be determined, but they have to be more client-favorable.

Steve: What kind of advice can you provide on using consultants?

Will: For me, the best time to use a consultant is when you need a 3^rd party advisor. For example, suppose there is a big, multimillion dollar project going off course. A consultant with the right background can provide an independent project audit. Our needs are aligned when using the consultant in this manner. We need a specific skillset (perhaps not a scarce resource), we don’t have time (e.g., because we have 60-70 projects going on), we need a fresh look, and we need an independent view. This is the perfect type of situation for a consultant because the scope is well-defined, the scope is narrow and the timetable is short.

Steve: Great insights, thank you. Changing gears bit, I think readers may be interested in your views on the federal stimulus package and its impacts on consultants.

Will: The package has clear intent, but everyone is still waiting for the clinical IT requirements to be defined on both the medical group and hospital/ambulatory side. Less than 2% of hospitals have real Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE), so once the requirements are defined, there may be a flood of work for implementation consultants with CPOE and specific Hospital Information Systems (HIS) expertise. I’ve estimated tens of millions of dollars of eligibility for our provider organizations (medical groups and hospitals). We are working with a number of vendors and suppliers to plan for various scenarios so we qualify for these funds and deliver on the President’s vision for a more efficient and effective health care system. It’s all a new process – I’m not sure that anyone has an “inside track” as to how to get these funds.

Steve: Terrific info. Let’s change gears again and cover social media. How have things changed since 2005 when we first met via the blogging world?

Will: These days I use both Twitter and blogging, although there has been some shift towards using Twitter. I will say that consultants that I use have connected with me via social media. Some of these consultants demonstrate their expertise to me for free before I use them. These consultants may be those that are helping me with technology, preparing for swine flu impacts on my organization, or other dynamic areas. Consultants that are confident in their abilities to provide value are not afraid to pursue either risk-free or non-traditional models for engaging me.

Steve: Will, this has been a great dialogue, and I appreciate your candor for the benefit of the business community. Thanks for your time.

Will: Steve, thanks for the opportunity to be interviewed.

Will Weider is CIO of Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System, and his blog is at the Candid CIO at http://candidcio.com.

Steve Shu is a management consultant focusing on organizations that use technology, and his blog is at http://steveshu.typepad.com.

Corporations Are Learning About Social Media Faster

A lot of people in Twitter circles characterize that twittering feels like the days of early majority blogging, for me circa 2004ish with an even less mature toolset (I am being generous). With respect to business use, it seems like everyone needed more help back then, as not everyone came out of the gate running. Here Dave Sify summarized the state of the corporate blogosphere in 2004. How few the companies were. Later at the beginning of 2006 and indicative of a forthcoming early majority, Robert Scoble and Shel Israel were motivated to publish their book, "Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing The Way Businesses Talk With Customers. Well, it's 2009 now, and we're in a large recession. But it seems like businesses are smarter this time around in the use of social media like Twitter. I recently ran across an article on Corporate Twitter Accounts worth following. Seems like we skipped the whole convincing phase this time around. Much less of the skeptical talk time this time around.

Kudos to those companies that are able to build brand, improve customer service, and potentially lower costs (latter less widely known) using Twitter. How often is it that companies are able to get marketing and customer service to sync up, let alone talk? It seems that we are making progress, even if it means we'll all have to learn the best practices of communicating in 140 characters or less.

Update (3/20/09): Not business-centric, but here's an article that indicate social networks more popular than email (see CNET article regarding Nielsen Online study)? Not sure how this was measured, but I don't think it is intuitively true for me, even though I consider myself a moderate blogger.

Update (3/23/09): Steve Rubel has a good post entitled, "Customer Service is the New PR". I like his post because it ties together some of the concrete stuff going on in the social media space (along with references to some of the more esoteric, forward-looking items).

Thoughts on Living in a Company Filing for Chapter 11 Creditor Protection

Disclosure: In early March, members of my team and I will most likely be casualties of the economic downturn and inferred strategic changes by our employer, Nortel. This post reflects my perspectives only and not necessarily those of my employer and colleagues.

As background, the past few weeks have been quite tumultuous at Nortel. After many years of work in trying to turnaround and restructure the company, Nortel filed for creditor protection on January 14, 2009 (under the Chapter 11 code for the U.S. region). For those folks that will continue with the company, turnaround work is not yet done. Although I've worked in a number of environments, prior to this experience I have never lived *within* a company that has filed under the Chapter 11 code. I write this post simply to share some thoughts on both social media situations and management styles I've seen in this environment. In no particular order:

1. Companies need to be aware of blog posts by directly involved parties. Here is a blog posting that chronicles communication of the ex-Nortel employees with the CEO, Board, officers, and the Monitor. The content of the posting is written professionally, and it seems to both chronicle a sequence of events and communications that indicate a number of "disconnects" in the communication process between employees and CEO (primary target it seems). Given the electronic environment that is a regular part of our lives, managers and workers need to know that histories can be traced more than ever before. I, for one, never saw this thing kind of thing ten years ago.
2. Third party blog sites should also be monitored. For example, blogs such as All About Nortel cover the happenings in the industry with specific focus on Nortel. Whether one loves the AAN site or not, I have found that employees to look to these sites both for information and as an outlet. People discover things that they did not know (of course many things need to be verified). For example, in one of the comments sections of a recent All About Nortel post, I saw a disturbing comment by a potential distributor and customer of Nortel. I forwarded that information to a regional manager I knew - soon the blog post had circulated to a VP level for escalation and verification.
3. Managers should treat their employees like adults where possible. Sounds like a basic one, but as an example, my manager gave me (and my team) straight talk and opinions during the process (outcomes which are still unfolding). Even when things weren't set in stone and when potential results were ugly, he managed to be up-front. On the other hand, in another situation at Nortel I did have a manager in the chain who (from my vantage point) chose to gather information to make himself look good while "rolling people under the bus" without having an adult conversation with the affected parties first. Little did this manager know that people were willing to be rolled under the bus for the cause but instead felt betrayed when the adult conversation never occurred and they were simply rolled over.

Although I didn't really address anything about the issues related to creditors, suppliers, and partners, from the above, my largest takeaways would be that fairness, transparency, and communications are critical things to balance in a company under duress. 

Update 2/11/09: As sample exhibits, I also wanted to point out some user-generated video on the Internet. Here is a YouTube video (apparently posted post-Chapter 11 filing) covering a pep rally as part of the "I Believe" grassroots campaign within Nortel. To contrast this is a more cynical YouTube parody as related to the blogpost/letter I cited above in point #1.

Update 2/15/09: CEO provides a YouTube update to the "public".

Update (6/21/09): The end of Nortel is near (post).

Update (8/10/09): CEO of Nortel (Mike Zafirovski) to step down. Another era has ended. Note the slideshow provides an historical view of a great Canadian company (more than 100 years old) that has come to an end.

Financial Times ComMetrics Global 500 Blog Index

For what it's worth (FWIW) - I just ran across this Blog Index (Alpha). Not sure when this was introduced (perhaps vintage 2008?). I don't fully understand the scope and rankings yet, but I find the discovery interesting given my time away from actively being involved in the corporate blogging space. Notes to self: one consulting firm (Accenture) on the list at #18 of 48, heavy tech in top 10, and mixed industries in top 30.

Update (2/7/09): Dr. Urs (CTO associated with the technology) contacted me to inform me that the tool is still in Alpha phase. More info on how the tool works can be found here. Registration and accounts can be obtained here. The is also a Twitter stream covering tool improvements, etc.

Personal Account of 1 Year of Blog Atrophy

It's been over a year since my last post. At the beginning of 2008, I basically burned out on blogging. My hands hurt, I developed other interests, there were too many blogs out there, and I needed to spend more time with my family. None of that has changed for me, but outside of those areas there are some things that have changed that are making me reconsider blogging again on a more regular basis:

• Need to stay up-to-date with the times on a professional basis: In 2005, I noted that blogging as a corporate skillset was in its infancy. In 2009, I got feedback that I should have included my blog address on my CV/resume. In 2009, I also ran into a marketing and sales situation where expertise with social networking tools was a key differentiating need.

• Need to feed my support structure and network on a passive basis: By suspending my blog, I lost some touch with my larger family, relatives, and friends. Now as context, I don't just keep in touch with these people via computer technologies. That said, content on my blog helped to keep my network passively in touch. It also helped to serve as a conversation piece when we got to talk live.

• Need to stay up-to-date with technology on an active basis: When I was blogging, I was much more in the know about social networking tools and their real implications (social and economic). Now, my knowledge has become a little stale on things like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. I'm sure that refreshing my knowledge will be like riding a bike, in that it all comes back to you, but having been away for one year, I have been feeling more disconnected with the power and pulse of the Internet community.

Each year I have reconsidered my motivations for blogging and the angle that I would take. Do others have observations about their own experiences in the past year?

Bonus link: For readers interested in consulting, there's a new management consulting blog by ex-McKinseyite Kevin Gao at http://managementconsulted.com. Looks like a very unique stopping point on the web in the consulting space.

For My Blog Diary: Whirlwind Notes On Blogs In 2007

For a snapshot of what I am sensing in 2007:

• Growth in blogs slowing, growth in blog posts slowing (and mainstream media more in balance and cognizant of blogs)
• Corporate blogs growing, but many companies still on the fence with no plans to use blogs (and even if they did would they be effective?)
• Companies seem much more aware of monitoring blog frenzies (e.g., iPhone, Sprint)
• Newer web constructs like Squidoo growing (but does the average person have a clue about this?)
• Personal attention crash looming (if not already here)

Compare this to what we saw in 2003-2004 and the rise of the blog in 2004.

McKinsey Says Companies Are Wary Of Web 2.0

See the article over at BusinessWeek. Hat tip to Steve Rubel who comments, "The enterprise is afraid of letting go of the command and control structure."

Those interested in what another leading strategy consulting firm (Bain) is saying about blogs and use by companies may want to refer to my prior post on corporate blogs being added to Bain's 2007 list of management tools.

Related link: Update On Management Consulting Blogs

Accenture Starts Corporate Blog

Although I had mentioned in the past that Accenture Netherland's had started a blog podium for its employees, I recently discovered that Accenture now has a global corporate blog (apparently started January 23, 2007 after my updated post on management consulting blogs).