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How to Lose a Client in 10 Days

(A Tongue-in-Cheek View!) Note: This is an attempt at humor. This is not a serious article (one friend of mine thought it was…serious)   The advertising great David Ogilvy wrote that every ad agency should fire a major client each year. Independence and selectivity, in fact, are among the hallmarks of great client advisors. “Experts […]

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Why Would a Client Like You?

In a letter penned to her sister on Christmas Eve in 1798, the English novelist Jane Austen wrote, “I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” On the face of it, this is a rather odd statement. Austen was an extraordinarily astute […]

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Defending Your Client Base

I recently asked a friend how business was going, and he e-mailed me the following: “I think it’s gone from truly horrible to just plain bad.” Yes, things could hardly be more uncertain around us, but it’s possible to keep your head above water–if not thrive–by focusing renewed energy on building and sustaining your client […]

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The Myth of Meeting Client Expectations

 

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Strategic Options for Consulting Firms

Strategic Options for Consulting Firms in the New Economy (Originally published in Consultant’s News) Several Big-5 consulting practices announce they may go public. Cisco takes a 20% stake in KPMG. McKinsey targets law schools to bolster its associate hiring. Brand-new Internet consulting firms upstage traditional, larger powerhouses. What happened to the staid, unobtrusive, MBA-centered consulting […]

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Big-Picture Thinking (Part 3)

“We think too small,” said the Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung. “Like the frog at the bottom of the well. He thinks the sky is only as big as the top of the well. If he surfaced, he would have an entirely different view.” Professionals who act like the frog at the bottom of well often […]

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Big-Picture Thinking (Part 2)

Big picture thinking: Clients treasure it; Executives want it from their managers; and Kings, queens, and presidents have sought out generals who exemplified it. We’ve never been quite sure where it comes from, though. President Lincoln finally found in Ulysses S. Grant, for example, a strategist to counter the South’s brilliant General Robert E. Lee. […]

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Big-Picture Thinking (Part 1)

ENDING THE SUMMER This is the August edition of Client Loyalty. I thought it pointless to send it out at the end of August, when many people are on vacation, but perhaps there was a subconscious reason as well: An inability, on my part, to let go of the summer! Moving from summer to fall […]

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