ALL CHAPTERS
Chapter Five
Presentations, Meetings, and Moments Not to Be Forgotten
“Any presentation is a final exam.”
- Robert Arnold
From cold calls to sales presentations, progress reports, and final recommendations, consultants are geared to the big show, the moment when they step on stage and show everyone what they can do. It is one of the highs of the business. Accordingly, this chapter explores the critical place presentations place in the consultant’s repertoire.
In this chapter, our contributors share some of what they’ve learned about the myriad, often unexpected challenges that can arise in the course of presentations and meetings. Of course, in consulting there is a lot of the unexpected.
We learn how consultants use presentations to motivate their clients, to simplify complicated issues or bring information together in new ways. We learn about the more “streetwise” people skills that often enter into play, as consultants negotiate their way through thickets of internal politics, personalities, and situations where survival means thinking on your feet. It’s all about the art of communication.
If you work as a consultant long enough, you’re also going to have your share of unforgettable moments, experiences with clients etched for better or for worse in memory. Everything from being told your work is the best the client has ever seen, to the more infamous miscalculations, mistakes, and mishaps perhaps inevitable even over the course of the most successful careers. We learn, for example, what it is like to be young and so full of ideas that you spend a half hour talking over the heads of a group of police executives; or to meet with a utility executive and former admiral schooled in the methods of deep intimidation. Our contributors share what they’ve learned from such encounters.
In this chapter, we also discuss the challenges involved when consultants are used as bearers of bad news, scapegoats for cost cutting agendas, for example, or other tough situations. We learn about how critical it is to have the right team in place during a major presentation, to answer the questions you can’t anticipate. As well, we learn about the allure of making the sale, what it was like the first time. And how the best sales personalities represent a dynamic combination of ego and empathy, bringing strong self-confidence to their work, but also sensitivity to who the client is as an individual or leader.
As one veteran contributor concludes, “I learned early on to get the facts right, get them documented, and feed them back to the client very quickly.” It’s called earning credibility. In this chapter, we learn a few things about that.
The Pressure and the Thrills
“Any… Presentation…Is a Final Exam”
I had an experience early in my career with a client that was just awful. At the time it was really devastating. We felt fortunate that they even paid the bills. In fact, during the final presentation they nearly threw us out because they didn’t agree with some of the numbers we showed them. They challenged the source.
Well, the source happened to be some industry-wide data. Unfortunately, I was the guy on the spot and I hadn’t anticipated they would challenge it, so I couldn’t quote exact sources. And the whole thing just blew up at that point. I learned a big lesson. That is: when you go into any sort of presentation, whether it is minor or major, consider it a final exam. You have to anticipate every single question, every challenge you can think of. Early in my career I used to resent partners challenging me before going into a presentation. But after that experience, I came to look forward to it. I realized if I could get my presentation past a partner, I’m just that much better off. But what a painful lesson that was. I thought my career was over.
“A Huge Rush”
There are always crises to diffuse. You have to try to keep the lid on emotion and make sure people are going down the same track. I think that's the role of the senior person during a meeting or presentation, to really be alert. Of course, you want to appear to be somewhat casual and give everybody a long leash. But you also want to stay right on top of whether or not the meeting is moving toward its goals. You can let people wander for a while, but then you have to pull them back.
There's no question there is a huge rush to having a great meeting, to get your point of view across and be received well by the other side. That's great! There’s a real sense of fulfillment in seeing a company have great results based on your recommendations. No question. Isn't that what keeps us doing this?
“The Kick of the Business”
Presentations were always kind of the kick of this business. There’s nothing quite like sitting in front of a group of top executives trying to sell an idea. And that is what you’re doing. I mean, you’re not there selling farm machinery or something. You’re selling concepts and ideas, and usually these are very, very bright and demanding people, and you’re on the hot seat. To me, that was just an incredibly exciting situation to be in. You have to be mentally adept enough to deal with their challenges.
The crowds can be tough, too. You’re out pitching some proposal, a new sale opportunity or an idea or recommendation to a client that might cost them $100 million to implement, naturally, that can be pretty tough. There were some meetings that you look back on and think, that wasn’t a lot of fun.
Clients also have unique cultures. Say you get into the investment banking world or the trading area of financial institutions. They have a relatively low tolerance for things that they don’t see as having an immediate impact. They are out there making trades that can produce $100 million worth of revenue and $20 million worth of profit. Sometimes they’re dealing with longer-term horizons than that.
Speaking of a tough, unique crowd, our firm gets involved with community organizations and the like. It’s part of making a contribution outside of business. On one occasion a number of years ago, we were working with a local group in a poor urban community. The organization was doing just wonderful things to help people develop job skills and get educated and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.
Well, I had been invited to attend a board meeting to meet with this organization. But what nobody told me at the time was that most of the members of the board were leaders of the major gangs in this community. So I showed up for a board meeting and, let me tell you, that was an uncomfortable couple of hours. These were folks that normally you would not want to fool around with. In a sense, they were part of the leadership infrastructure of that community, and ostensibly they were there to help the community. So that’s the way it was. But that was probably the toughest group that I ever had to present to. You had to wonder if you were going to get out of there alive.
“You Have To Think On the Fly”
In almost all client situations you have to think on the fly. At our firm we deal with CEOs and they're always asking questions you don't anticipate. There is just no way you can anticipate all the questions. The key is to have in place the right team with the right experience. Of course, you can anticipate the questions from the junior people. Sometimes you can just blow them off, too. But when you get to the senior levels they’re going to ask you questions and you have to answer them. You have to have strong people with good experience and you have to trust that you're going to be able to come up with answers. And if you can't, then you've got to say you can't.
There's always an edge when you're in the middle of being grilled. There are times when you have great confidence in your team and your own knowledge. And then there are times when you don’t. The worst feeling is to be in a meeting with senior people when you don't have confidence in the people around you. That can be horrifying. You just sit and worry. You try not to do that very often, if it is going to happen now and then. I know when we started our reach often exceeded our grasp. We took some chances on pitching work, and we didn't always have the horse’s right. We also didn’t know each other particularly well. So we would live a bit in fear. I think all of that has changed now. I'm very comfortable now.
“They Really Love Me”
Making a presentation or a proposal is like being in the feeling of the hunt. It’s that great desire to go in there and compete and persuade. It’s like Sally Fields at the Oscars proclaiming, “They love me, they really love me!” You want that feeling of approval. You want the client to really embrace your ideas and want to work with you. Someone I know once described a good salesperson as a person with a huge ego who is also a very sensitive person with a lot of empathy. In your work, you rely on that empathetic ability to get inside a person’s shoes, to see what they're going to respond to. And then you conduct yourself accordingly.
If you think about it, that's what it takes to be a good salesperson. It is also what you're doing in consulting, selling your ideas. Selling business. Of course, I’m sure you've met plenty of people who have a big ego and are just abrasive as hell. You wouldn't want to work with them in a million years, even if they could help you. You do have to have a big ego but you also have to be empathetic.
If you need as well to be energized by the fact that you're doing what you do because it’s the right course. You want to make your clients the heroes, as opposed to just having yourself standing up declaring, "Hey, if it wasn't for me you guys wouldn't be doing this." Start doing that and your half-life is going to be rather limited.
“What The ______ Are you Doing Here?”
Not many people remember that the Davis-Besse Nuclear Station outside Toledo, Ohio had a very serious incident years ago. TMI gets all of the notoriety but Davis-Besse was perilously close behind.
Typically, in those days, when a nuclear station got into trouble, the utility had to go through a work out program with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They would bring in a retired admiral from the navy, loads of engineers and operations people, and spend tremendous amounts of money to get it fixed. There seemed to be a direct correlation between how much money was spent and how well the NRC viewed the station and its management team.
In the aftermath of this spending orgy, the utility would have to file a rate case with the state public utility commission to recover these dollars with cost of service adjustments. Our firm built up a substantial practice serving the utilities as regulatory strategists and witnesses. We would help build the case for complete recovery of costs and work with the lawyers and regulatory staff to put on the case before the state regulators.
Admiral Hyman Rickover created the nuclear navy. He was a brilliant man, of course. But his main claim to fame was the tremendous intimidation to which he would subject all his officers. All officer candidates for the nuclear navy would have to go meet the admiral before they were chosen and most went back a number of times as they rose through the ranks. He even had the front legs of the chairs in front of his desk cut off so that whoever was going through the drill would have a tendency to slip off onto the floor. This practice of intimidation carried over to all of those who worked with him over the years including the admiral brought in to clean up Davis-Besse.
Our firm and team were picked by Toledo Edison management and their outside attorneys to work with them during the rate case. But, before final selection, we had to go meet with the admiral ala Rickover. I was the partner in charge so I got the call.
I showed up for the meeting fifteen minutes early and was told to cool my heels for at least 30 or 45 minutes. I was then escorted into his office whereupon he continued working of his desk for at least fifteen more minutes. He never looked up or acknowledged my presence. Finally, he raised his eyes and stared at me for at least another minute or two. Just looked. And then at the top of his lungs, he yelled, “What the _____ are you doing here?’
Fortunately, I had worked with other admirals in the past and had been warned about this admiral in particularly. I stared back for 15 to 30 seconds and replied, “I head a team of regulatory experts and we’re here to save your sorry ____.”
The admiral glared another minute or two (it seemed longer) and finally said, “Good, when do we start?”
I replied, “I started billing you the minute I walked into your office.”
Finally he grinned and we got along just fine for the duration of the project. But if I had even so much as blinked, I would have been sent packing.
“Nobody Else In the Room”
I once signed a contract to develop a strategy for an outsourcing consultant. It was just an unbelievable negotiation process. Really drilling down into what we were going to do. The first step was to go in and interview ten of their senior managers. These guys ran huge data centers servicing a number of different clients. They were obviously very busy.
Well, I’m all prepared for my first meeting, with all my charts and questions; all kinds of good stuff. I’m ready to kick it off. The first guy walks in and tells me he wants to make one thing clear before we begin. First, he doesn’t think they need me, they can do this stuff themselves. But since I’m here, he just wants me to know that if I’m going to waste his time, he’s out of here. So that’s how we began.
The line or comeback I used on him was just to thank him for being so frank. I told him I really appreciated his openness. I told him I had put together a set of questions and some tools that I thought were useful, and hoped he would find them useful, too. With that, I said, if you’re ready, we can get started. Basically, I just tried to diffuse the situation. And it worked. The guy just sat down and said, okay I’m ready, let’s go.
I should add that I didn’t have backup on that engagement, either. I was the lead consultant. There was an engagement manager from the client side. We usually insisted on having an engagement manager at our firm, as well as on the client’s side. But in this case there was nobody else in the room except the two of us: me, and the man I was interviewing.
As it turned out, we ended up taking the allotted time. He even insisted on setting up a follow-up meeting. So, despite how it began, it worked out very well. When I walked into this assignment, however, I thought, what did I get myself into here! And the rest of the guys were just as cantankerous. It was a very demanding situation.
“I Haven’t Tanked a Company Yet”
I have done a certain amount of work for companies in serious trouble, where they believed that if they could just move away from all this, so to speak, their problems would evaporate. It's like the married couple having troubles that decides, well, if we just move to Denver, all our problems will go away and we can start over. Of course, they go to Denver and find they’ve brought all their problems with them.
There's a corporate version of that, which says, if we could just move away from all this crap and refocus on the things that are important to business, we'll succeed. One of the companies that came to us years ago was American Motors, the fourth-largest automobile manufacturer in the United States. The fourth horse in a three-horse race, actually. Back then the U.S. auto market was just being eaten alive by the Japanese, so whenever any newspaper article had to be written on how badly the industry was going, they would cite American Motors, and show pictures of an American Motors plant. The company was an easy target. Renault owned half of the company and they were backing off because it was a disaster for them. They’d put in a new board, which included their own people and an American CEO who’d come out of the company’s marketing arm. He was very bright and capable, but extremely volatile.
He believed part of the problem was they were being too identified with the American automobile industry, when they were really producing French cars in America. Thus, if they could only be seen as a French company, so he reasoned, an import company, they would do better. So, what better way to do that than to move away from Detroit. He had the idea of going to Louisville.
It was in this context that we were brought in by one of the top people there, to kind of bell the cat, and point out to this CEO that his plan was basically nuts. Nobody had said that, but it was apparent. So we went ahead and did our analysis, and we were to come in and give our presentation. But something had transpired between the time we were told of the meeting and when it actually happened, because everybody was there. About 30 or 40 people. A lot of people we hadn’t seen before.
I stood up in my opening comments and said, “We've been hired to help you decide whether it’s wise to move American Motors from Detroit or not. Of course, to move this company, one of three things has to happen for it to make sense: 1) You have to be able to sell more cars; 2) you have to be able to sell cars for more money; or 3) you have to be able to manufacture cars for less.” At which point this guy who I'd never seen before stood up in the room, looked at me and said, very sharply, “What is this, a joke?” He then turned on his heels and walked out.
I didn't know who this guy was or what he was talking about. I found out later he was a former controller. Actually, we did show that the theories of the CEO were probably correct. They could feasibly sell more cars if they moved. But the risks involved in moving were very high. The risk of not being able to put new cars into production – which their future depended on – or at least at a lower cost, were very high. It was such a threat that moving was not a wise thing to do. We had to deftly show the CEO that his argument was right, but that there were also other considerations.
When we finished our presentation, he said, “Well, we need to look more at the implications of moving before we make this decision.” He was able to back down gracefully and then let the issue die. It was one of those cases where you're proud because you’ve done something very difficult. In this case going toe-to-toe against the CEO in public, and then giving him a way out. It was a big success. Especially considering the bizarre comment early on from someone who looked fairly senior.
These are the types of situations you encounter. But I guess I’ve done okay. I haven’t tanked a company yet.
Stories of Great Presentations
“At A Loss For Words”
Eddie Carlson, the President and CEO of United Airlines, was as beloved by his people as any CEO I’ve ever worked with. He had a capability of making everybody love him and to want to do their absolute best for him. Our consulting team felt the same way.
He was elected President shortly after the Airline Deregulation Act of 1974. Prior to that, airlines functioned as a cost of service business, allowed to earn a return of their capital subject to regulatory rules and regulations. Because they were allowed to charge for all expenses and because they were assured a return on their investments, the airlines really didn’t know or care who their customers were or where their revenues came from. Conditions obviously changed radically after the industry was deregulated.
Just getting to the presentation was an ordeal. We worked all weekend to get ready for the Monday morning presentation. We experienced all the normal problems—partners disagreeing, copying machines breaking down, etc. So finally we finished early Monday morning and ran out the door to catch a taxi from downtown Chicago out to United’s headquarters is Elk Grove. We were beating on this poor driver to speed it up, cut through lanes, and lay on the horn. We even promised an extra $10. Well, we made it but the only reason we were on time was that the clocks changed on Saturday night and we gained an hour.
Our project was to analyze their markets, customers, travel agents, sources of revenues, etc. The basic approach was to use a flow chart that tracked all entities and volumes from start to finish. This intrigued everybody at United including Eddie Carlson. We spent far more time than the 60 minutes that he would normally devote to any subject. He was at the front of the room looking at the projected slide on the screen and asking questions of everybody in the room. From a consultant’s point of view, it was one those very rare situations where you and the client were totally involved and in synch. It was just wonderful.
Finally, after many hours, Eddie turned around to my partner in charge, Nick Radell, and said, “I’ve worked with a lot of consultants over the years but this is the best piece of work I’ve ever seen.”
I stood there dumfounded for the longest time, and finally replied, “Mr. Carlson, I came prepared for everything but a compliment.”
Laughing, everybody in the room agreed that it was the first time that they had ever seen me at a loss for words.
“The Hunt is Better Than the Kill”
To sum up, I think the hunt is much better than the kill. I mean, the selling part is just really fun.
One time we were making a presentation for a proposal to a city council. The whole job had really come out of nowhere, and our guy gave a crappy proposal. But we still got the job.
The city council grilled us on all kinds of questions, like where are you staying and how much does it cost a night. And then at the end, we were awarded $1.2 million. And we said, we need $2 million. So then the city manager asked us in a private meeting, well, how much do you really need. We said, well, we really need $2.2 million. He says, okay, we can work that out. So he just gave us another million dollars in what was basically a 30-second conversation. That was great
I suppose if we had asked for $3 million, we probably would have gotten it.
“Like a Wedding Reception”
Once I was trying to sell some work to a large equipment defense supplier, which was seeking to relocate to reduce costs, particularly labor costs. They were under contract with Local Five of the UAW, and we had been trying to do business with them for some time. Locals are numbered from the date of origin, so this was the fifth oldest UAW local in the nation.
I'd been there several times meeting with different levels of management. But every time I thought it was sold, I would have to meet with someone else, all of which was prior to a final meeting with the CEO.
Apparently, they were afraid to put anyone in front of the CEO. He had them all terrorized. Finally, I was told to come in for one last presentation at which he would be present. It was a circumstance where my flight had arrived late the night before, and I didn’t get to sleep until three in the morning. I then had a three-hour drive to their facility the next morning, which meant I had to leave at the crack of dawn. On top of that, I was down with the flu.
When I arrived for the meeting, the CEO was sitting at the table with all his underlings on either side of him, all lined up. They’re all watching him like hawks. It was obvious their only concern was his reaction to things. Well, I got about a third of the way into my presentation when the CEO suddenly looked up and said, “I don't know why we're wasting our time with this. Why don't we just buy the XYZ building (which was about 50 miles down the road) and be done with all this?”
Now, this was an insane idea. If their cost strategy was to succeed, they had to get away from the union. And there was just no way they could do that with such a move. Now I was on the spot. Finally, I said to myself, screw it. I'm tired, I'm sick, I've been through six meetings to get to this guy and now it’s all going down the tank. I had to respond. In a very calm voice, I said, “Frankly, I think it would be very naive to think you could do what you need to do at that location.” Well, there was dead silence in the room. Everybody just looked up at the ceiling or down at their papers.
The CEO just stared at me. He didn't say anything. So, I just went on with my presentation. Another five minutes went by. Suddenly, he just stood up and announced that he thought we should get started on this project right away. Then he walked out of the room. The meeting was over. Well, everybody starting coming up to me then, shaking my hand, saying what a great presentation. It was like a wedding reception!
Of course, none of this had anything to do with the presentation. It had to do with that question. The question was a test. The CEO was testing my backbone. He wanted to see whether I would stand up to him and give him honest advice. If I had waffled for a second, we would have been dead.
This is something you see in this profession. The client will find a way to put you to the test. You know, when you buy a car, you can go out and test drive it. When you buy a computer you can go down to the store, tinker with it, check it out. But when you buy a consulting service, you don't really know what it's going to be like until after you've bought it. So the individual consultants become a kind of proxy for the service, a way to test the firm’s mettle, so to speak. The test always comes as kind of a surprise and it might involve any number of things, except it is always about you. It is not about your firm or your methodology or anything. It is about you personally.
“Can You Start Tomorrow?”
We had one client for whom we had done some analysis, and we had been called back. It was a privately owned company. We had the three owners sitting there and we made our pitch. As it turned out, it was obviously a bigger project than they had anticipated. They said they had to talk about it and asked us to wait in the conference room. When the client is hesitating like this, the ploy I have used a few times is to say something like how we can usually plan and begin a project in about as much time as it will take them just to make the decision that they want to do it. Try to reassure them. So we waited and they talked. Finally, they came back. The three of them looked at each other, then one of them spoke, “Okay, we want to do it. Can you start tomorrow? This was I believe a Thursday. Now I was really sweating! I said, “Well, actually, would Monday be all right?” We had gone from hesitation to jumping into the fire, just like that.
“His Mind Was Faster Then Ours”
When the client is the problem – that’s the toughest job in consulting. I’ve faced that a couple of times in my career and it’s very difficult. At times you can Arabesque around the client to get to a more senior level. Or you can convince the client to take personal counseling. At times it’s just an unsolvable problem. There are times when if that person is so entrenched in both their ideas and position, you can’t change it.
I vividly remember a piece of work we did for a large homebuilder. We were brought in because data processing was out of control. The company was run by a fellow who had started out as a carpenter and had built the business up over the years. A brilliant, self-made man. But what we discovered was that the problem was actually him. He was continually undermining the data processing people. He would come in and pull the paperwork in the middle of a print run, pull it right out of the printer, and just leave things in a mess. There was no way they could run an efficient shop.
We also learned there was a high turnover because the owner showed little respect for his employees. We struggled with this and after about three weeks finally met with the audit partner. This fellow was a cigar smoker and he nearly swallowed his cigar when we told him the problem was the company president. He said, “I called you in for four weeks to help on data processing, and you’re telling me to fire the president of my biggest client.”
After a lot of convincing, we finally scheduled a breakfast meeting at the president’s house. His wife served us breakfast and we sat out on his porch. Then he asked us, “Okay, what’s wrong with data processing?” I had to look at him and say, well, actually, it’s you. That was tough. But he listened, and we ended up talking the whole day. Finally, that same day, he came to me and said, “You know, you’re right. The problem isn’t just data processing. I may be a great homebuilder, but I’m a lousy manager. I want to think about this and then I’m going to act on what I’ve learned.”
Two weeks later he resigned as president of the company. He made himself chairman and got involved in starting a new division in multi-housing, which didn’t involve managing a lot of people. And he went out and became one of the largest builders of multi-family housing around. A bigger company ultimately acquired the firm.
But thank God he had the courage to face the situation and act on it. I had anticipated we’d have to work through the problem with him, but his mind was faster than ours. He was truly brilliant, a man who had built a company with his own hands. Another client might have thrown us out.
We actually never came to the point of recommending that he resign. I don’t know what we really recommended. But he beat us to it. Ideally, recommendations should be no surprise. For that reason, I think it’s important to stay in frequent contact with your client. The happiest presentation is one in which the client already knows the answer and it’s really a stage act where everybody is playing out roles but the answer has been well established.
“That First Sale”
A high point would be when I moved from just being a consultant assigned to a project to the person who sold the assignment. To get to that point where I could finally say, I’ve brought home some work. You get a real rush the first time you do that. I recall on this occasion that we had done quite a bit of analysis for our proposal. And our presentation was done before a large group, maybe about 12 to 15 people from the client organization.
When we finished the presentation, which took about an hour, they asked us if we wouldn’t mind stepping out of the room while they talked it over. I think everybody on our team thought, okay, they’re going to let us down easy. I remember I had been looking around the room during the presentation, trying to read what was happening, trying to read the body language, the facial expressions. But it was all just a wash. Half the people looked like they agreed, half looked like they didn’t. You just couldn’t tell.
I felt almost like you do when you’re waiting for your first child to be born; actually, worse than having your first child. At least in that situation somebody else is doing most of the work.
Well, when they brought us back in, they all had smiles on their faces. Only then did I really know we had done it. They’d been so poker faced about it. They said we’re going to go ahead with your project now. I recall the first thing I wanted to do was get to a telephone and call my wife. What a great moment!
In those early days, making a presentation like that, you’ve got the giddies, anticipating and hoping everything goes right. You’re saying to yourself, is there anything else that I might have done? Could I have prepared better somehow? Did I address or focus on the right person in the room? Over time I think I’ve learned to be more interactive, to back up a bit if I have to. You know, if I see someone who looks they’re not sure they agree with what I’m saying, I’ll stop right there and clear up whatever’s on their mind.
But that first sale was a gut-wrencher.
Stories of Not-So-Great Presentations
“It Was Just a Bloodbath”
There was another situation with a manufacturing client who was very proud of the fact that they had the lowest IT expenditures to revenue of almost anyone in the industry. But they wanted to tighten that down even more. They thought they were getting better value than any of their competitors, but actually they were not. What they were doing was driving IT into the ground. And it was our challenge to demonstrate that to them.
When we met with the senior management team, all these grisly, old manufacturing guys, their attitude was you’d better demonstrate. You better have the data. In our presentation, the question we posed up front was: Are you getting better value than your competitors out of your IT investment? I asked the question and then I put a big NO on the screen.
From there we got into the data, demonstrating that it was a pipe dream. If they wanted to get their organization into a manageable position, they had better start to invest more in IT. Of course, we knew by then what their record was in the user community. We knew the failures they had in trying to implement IT and why. We were armed. And that is what you have to be. You have to know exactly why you’re making a recommendation. It’s just too easy to walk into a situation, make a quick assessment, and come back with a recommendation. There’s a tendency for some people to go in and do that. They listen to one individual and then say, all right, here’s what you should do.
We had one engagement where we got smacked across the forehead because we made our recommendations before we fully understood the data. The problem was our client had been a former consultant. He called us in because he just didn’t have the time to uncover and analyze all the data and come to some decent conclusion. So he called us in because he knew us. But we were kind of shooting from the hip. By the time I got involved in it, it was just a blood bath. I mean, the guy just wanted to kill our consultant. I went into the situation trying to figure out a way to recover.
“He……..Began Crying”
I can share one story on scripting and role-playing that comes to mind. Years ago the chairman and I were working with the executive committee of the board of directors of a closely-held company. That is, it was a third generation company with lots of family members. Years before, they had hired a professional manager as chairman who, by this time, was in his late seventies. He’d suffered a debilitating stroke several years before and it was just time for him to go. The problem was the executive committee didn’t have the guts to fire him.
So basically they hired us to get rid of the chairman. That was the hidden agenda. We had it all wrapped up with the gloss of a strategic plan, an organizational study and other things. But the core recommendation was that it was time for this fellow to go. Part of the challenge was, how are we going to play this out? We knew this man was extremely emotional, and we really had to plan our response. You know, which way were we going to dive if he pulled out a pistol and started shooting.
Honestly, we were very concerned about his response. Well, do you know what he did? He cried. He just teared up and began crying. That was almost more difficult to deal with than had he pulled out a gun. Or if he’d just gotten angry, which we had fully expected.
Well, we didn’t apologize for the recommendation. We just tried to offer some remarks to soften the blow. You know, how difficult we knew this to be. How in all of our careers and in all of our lives there comes a time when changes must take place. I knew I was in charge of the situation but I also knew I had to be compassionate. But for this to come from a 28-year old to a person in their 70s was probably a bitter pill. Ultimately, in a situation like that, there’s only so much softening you can do.
“Escort Me Out of Town”
Quite early in my consulting career, the partner who was in charge of my group called me in with what he portrayed as an excellent opportunity. A local school district, perhaps 100 miles from Chicago, wanted to hire an outside consultant to do a study of their buildings and grounds. It was described to me as a chance to show the firm that I was ready to be more independent and that I could close a sale on my own. The other partners were all “too busy” to help out.
So off I went, and I sold the project. It was my very first sale on my own. I was rather proud of myself. But it turned out that it really was a janitorial and lawn maintenance study. The new school superintendent, hired from outside of the town, thought the school was dirty and poorly maintained, and he was correct. One of the main problems was that the staff worked only on the day shift when all the classrooms were occupied. By the time they emptied out, the staff was out of the building as well. The only way to get the cleaning needed was to pay overtime and hold the janitors over. That of course was killing the school’s budget. The changes that were needed were obvious. But the local union was dead set against any changes. People’s lives would be disrupted if they had to work the afternoon shift.
We eventually came to the big presentation to the school board. I think everybody in town was there including the local newspaper and radio station. The meeting was contentious. Fists were being shaken, curses were being thrown, all mostly at me. And I’m thinking to myself, this is another fine fix to be in. No kidding, I was scared. And after the meeting I would have to go out to the parking lot, get in my car, and drive home.
The superintendent then tells me that he will call the police, and they will escort me safely out of town. I meet the officer at the door and he tells me that he will get me to the city limits after which I’m on my own. He also tells me that his sister is married to one of the janitors and she is definitely not happy with her husband working afternoons.
I ask him to get me as far as the down ramp onto the expressway, and I’ll make it from there. I have never driven a car as fast as that night, either before or since, 100 miles per hour back toward Chicago. And no, I definitely did not go back for follow on business.
“Say What?”
After I was in the business for maybe four to six months I really thought I was hot stuff. So I did a presentation for a team of police executives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. My speech today is probably toned down compared to the speed it was back then. But I was 22 years old at the time and just loaded with data and I wanted to get it all out. It was my first real opportunity to be in the limelight, and I wanted to give all of my perspectives. So I went on for about a half hour. I also never really looked at my audience. They teach you to look at your audience and adapt to them, but I didn’t. I just had to get my presentation out. I had slides and all sorts of stuff.
At the end of the half hour, I went through my concluding comments and then asked if there were any questions. The police chief looked up, speaking for the group, and the first words out of his mouth were, “Say what?”
I had gone on and on and these guys had heard nothing and understood nothing. That was a good lesson for me. You have to learn to adapt, to play to your audience, and understand their culture. Fortunately, I learned it early in my career.
“He Had To Catch a Plane”
One of my very first client meetings was actually quite memorable. The president of the client company had made a presentation describing how the company was doing. The partner in charge of the consulting project then stood up and lambasted this client, saying how stupid they were, and listing all the mistakes they were making. He really put this guy down.
After this broadside, the partner then announced he had to run off to catch his plane. So he just left us there to clean up the damage. He set up this horrible dynamic and then dumped it in our laps. He was a brilliant guy but he came from academia and I think lacked a certain common sense.
I think how you say what you have to say is as important as what you have to say. I learned a lot of important lessons from that experience. Our work is always a partnership. It can never be a us versus them situation, or about how much smarter we are than you. If you don’t get to a true relationship of trust with your client, then you’re not going to be very helpful or successful. You have to work with your client.
“The Vice President Was Fired”
I remember one situation with a client on Wall Street in which we were doing an operations review. As part of the review we did an analysis of expenses and found some inappropriate expenditures. They were actually way out of line. This was a securities business so we knew there was going to be a lot of sensitivity about the issue, in terms of stocks.
We met with the CEO and the vice president of operations at the CEO’s request. It was at the end of the day on a Friday at their headquarters. The vice president was basically responsible for all of these expenditures. And, the vice president was fired at this meeting, right in front of our eyes! The CEO had security escort this guy to his office, clean it out, and then he was escorted right out of the building.
I got a little nervous because it was rumored that this guy was connected to the mob. You know, we didn't want to start our cars for a while. We joked about it but it was actually quite serious. After all, we were the reason this guy was fired, so there was reason for concern.
Of course, the CEO didn’t have to have us sitting there at that meeting. But we were his proof in the pudding and he wanted us there. All of us on that project were very nervous for a while. But, as you can see, I’m still here. So I guess it turned out for the best.
“We Never Got the Work”
When I think back, I wonder sometimes how I survived some of the experiences. I remember giving a sales presentation to a non-profit hospital system here in Chicago. I was standing up there going through the proposal, detailing our objectives and the scope and approach we would take. Well, one of the people in the back of the room asked how long all this would take. But the question wasn’t clear and I thought he asked how much this will take, meaning in terms of price.
I started into a discussion about how we had worked all this out, the plan of approach and the timetable. I think we were making a good impression. But because I had misunderstood the question, I then went on and told him what the price would be. Well, the client didn’t want everyone in the room to know that. We never got the work.
Unfortunately, there are as many of those famous moments in consulting as there are good ones.
Stories That Are Unusual
“Served With a Subpoena”
We all have won projects that we shouldn’t have and we all have lost projects that we shouldn’t have. But over the years it all adds up. If you’re good at what you do, you get more than your fair share. But here’s a story about a very unusual way to lose a sale. I guarantee you that this has never happened to anyone else.
We had developed a field and customer services program, the key part of which was a new and sophisticated mapping system. We could overlay a client’s service territory and facilities, the local transportation and road system, and most important of all the customers and their required service levels. I conceived of this product when I saw the mapping system company give a demonstration for a totally different application. I assigned our engineers and software folks to execute the program and it was a huge sales success. We would turn it on and show the potential client what we could do. All of the utilities engineers loved it.
We had set up a demonstration for this one particular client. All of the top management team attended from the CEO down several layers. In a word, the presentation was “fantastic.” They were completely involved. Questions flew nonstop. They suggested new uses that hadn’t occurred to us. It was great. And we were moving to the closing of the sale stage. Words like who would be on the team, where we would set up the project office, and how much this would cost. Old hands at the consulting business can generally smell the sale, and this was in the bag. I was counting the dollars.
Then the CEO’s secretary came into the conference room and gave the boss a folded over message. He opened it and his face turned white. He packed up his papers and left the room without even saying goodbye. Well, of course, the meeting dragged from there. Nobody was going to make a decision without the CEO being there and blessing it. We left muttering to ourselves and asking what the hell happened.
As it happened, we stayed overnight in the town. The next morning we went down for breakfast and when we opened the local newspaper, there was the CEO’s picture on the front page. The story was that he had been served a subpoena by the local courts for alleged sexual harassment of his former personal assistant. If the law had been 20 minutes later in showing up we would have closed the sale.
“That Bomb Scare Was the Best Thing”
I remember one time we went out for a mid-project review of what we were doing for a telecom group. The client contact was the chief operating officer. He thought it was a final report because his assistant didn't have the nerve to tell him that it was just a mid-point review, not the final report. So we're going through this discussion on the top floor of this 30-story building. We're sitting there and this guy is just ripping into our work, saying, this is terrible, this sucks. We’re trying to tell him that this is just the mid-point review, but this guy doesn't listen well. All of sudden, his secretary comes in and says, you ought to know that we just got a call. There’s a bomb scare and they're evacuating the building. So we ran down 30 flights of stairs and had a beer across the way and then went home. Considering how things were going that bomb scare was probably the best thing that could have happened to us.
Working With Ray—His Story
I was involved in a study of the purchasing department at the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). I was the account manager, Dick Metzler was the project leader, and there was another fellow named Len Wass. Actually, I had a lot of different jobs going on then, so Dick and Len really did the project by themselves. I just interviewed a few people. After Dick and Len did all their fact-finding analysis, the three of us put the report together. Basically, they briefed me as I was going to do the presentation to the head of purchasing, a fellow named Rex. He was a big guy and a former army officer.
On the day of the presentation, Rex called together all of his staff. It was a very large purchasing department – perhaps 100 or 120 people. A number of our recommendations right at the outset were organizational recommendations. Normally, the TVA people stood in their jobs forever. It was a quasi-governmental organization, and hence the people didn’t rotate to new jobs or new positions. Once you became a manager you stayed a manager, more or less for life.
In spite of this culture, we had recommended a lot of changes. So Rex had convened his whole staff. He sat to the side while I was up at this podium reporting on our findings. Dick and Len were sitting right next to me. While I was talking and explaining what we recommended, I was watching Rex. I could just tell that he wasn’t going to do anything. He was going to read this report, put it on the shelf, and not really do anything we recommended, especially the organizational changes. I knew he just felt he was obligated to do a study, but wasn’t particularly eager to make a lot of changes. He liked the way things were, I guess. He was probably just pleasing a boss of his who had asked for the study. You could say it was a typical governmental situation.
So, when I got to the end, he asked if there was anything else to say. So I said, “Well, actually, Rex, I’ll tell you one thing that all the fellows here, all the people we interviewed, told us.
“He asked, “What was that?”
I said, “They all said that you don’t have the balls to put in these recommendations.” Dick and Len were looking at one another like where the hell did I get that? The people we interviewed didn’t tell me that. Even if it were true, I hadn’t even interviewed enough people to know it. Obviously, I was lying, which I was.
But Rex jumped up. “I’ll show you guys who has the balls!” he declared. And he did what we asked. Unfortunately, that ploy is only good once a career. It’s not something you can pull too often.
Working With Ray--The Prequel
As Ray mentioned, Len Wass and I did all the work on the TVA project. As the partner, Ray just came in at key times, primarily the presentations. What Ray didn’t say was that Len and I made the same presentation the day before to the whole staff but without Rex.
For background, TVA was just embarking on their huge nuclear construction program. They were going to build eight new nuclear units in a matter of only ten years. Complicating matters, TVA’s procurement procedures were written into the Act by the U.S. Congress in the 1930’s. It required, for example, that any item valued over $25 had to be competitively bid through the mails to multiple sources. As you can imagine, the paperwork associated with this effort was tremendous. And the build up of personnel was also tremendous. We were there to find ways to simplify their procedures, to keep the staff buildup in check, and to make the system faster and more efficient. And if changes were to be made, the two Senators from Tennessee would have to sponsor legislation to the Congress
Internally, the Purchasing Department had divided into two camps. In the first camp were the “progressives” who wanted to make the changes. The second camp was made up of the “old guard” who wanted to leave things as they were. The number two man in the Purchasing Department was an old guard member. He had joined the TVA in the 1930’s when it was originally created. TVA was the only job he ever had. He viewed the TVA as an almost sacred or holy organization. Any changes would be heresy.
So, back to our presentation. As you would expect, we proposed rather wide-sweeping revisions to people, organization, and processes. All through the presentation, we were peppered by questions and comments from the old guard. And the number two man’s face got redder by the minute. He was boiling. Finally, he jumped to his feet and screamed at me, “You’re a g__ d___, no good Yankee m_____ f_____!” And he stormed out of the conference room.
All of our staff agreed that it was only the second time that they ever saw me speechless.
“Was It Anything……….. I Said?”
There are always surprises. That's part of the excitement of the whole process. Knowing that the unknown or the unanticipated will likely happen. And then how well did you deal with it? You can do an awful lot of planning and thinking, and you need to do that. But there is just no way that you’ll ever identify everything that can go wrong. You can also spend way too much time thinking about everything that can go wrong, and not enough about everything that can go right. Obviously, this is not a business for someone with a high fear of failure or embarrassment.
So yes, surprises do happen. Maybe it’s just as well this one didn’t involve me. A friend of mine, Bob Jacoby, was in the middle of giving a presentation to the Nebraska Public Power District board. Most of the members of this board were local Nebraskans. Farmers, actually. The average age of the board was way up there. I mean, this was a really old group of guys. Half of them were falling asleep
Apparently, Jacoby was right in the middle of his presentation when one of them passed gas in the most obnoxious way possible, just very loud. The sound just reverberated off the walls. It stopped Jacoby right in the middle of his remarks. It was almost as if he had to say something. He looked over in the direction where the sound had come from, remarking, "Was it anything in particular that I’ve said?" That kind of won the day with the client. It also goes to show that you have to be prepared for almost anything.
Tips From the Pro’s
“Consulting Is an Art Form”
Tennis is a good metaphor for the give-and-take during a presentation. Tennis has an element of finality to it. You’ve got that plop, plop, plop, back and forth, and then it’s over. Certainly there are moments of high tension when you’re in effect saying, I hope this is on the money. But if you’ve done your homework and have confidence in your data selection and diagnosis, then you usually have faith in what you’re doing.
My greater concern is usually whether we are we delivering information the right way, as opposed to, is this the right information to be delivered? Seldom am I lacking in confidence about the rightness of the information. But, I may be less certain that I’ve read the personality of the client correctly, so that he or she is getting the information the way they prefer to get information. With some people you learn that you have to say what’s critical very gently, because they are fragile.
With others you have to stand up, pick up your chair, and whack them over the head with it because if you don’t, they just won’t get it. In between these two extremes are lots of other possibilities for what I would call the art in our work. And that’s what it is. Consulting is an art form.
“It’s Bizarre”
I think people should read body language books, books on dressing, and they should study group dynamics. They should cultivate listening skills and counseling skills. These are the skills of being a consultant. And they are all extremely important skills if you’re going to succeed in consulting.
Eighty five percent of what we communicate is in what we see. What we sense. When you're on the telephone you're only doing 15 percent. If you also take away the voice inflection, as with email, imagine what else you've taken away, right? You know, you can't put affect into a written message. Even where people sit in a room can matter. How the room is constructed; the geography; the sense of space in terms of the way people cooperate and behave. It's extremely important.
If you are in a meeting and you want to control someone, watch yourself if you’re sitting in a circle or at a conference table. You will invariably have a fight with the person who is diagonal from you. If you know that, you can control yourself so you don't end up in a fight. It's bizarre and incredible but there is a pattern to these things.
“90 Percent of the Questions Come in the First Ten Minutes”
In most cases, when you're presenting your conclusions, there are certain tactics you want to follow. One is to be aware that 90 percent of the questions come up in the first ten minutes. So you learn to present the information or issues you are most sure of first. In any analysis, there are some things where you’re on more solid ground than others. So you learn to present the issues that you have documented best first. That’s usually when the questions are going to come up, when people are going to test you.
Another point is that you always want to know who is going to be there. Ideally, they're all people that you've met before. Try to introduce yourself, if you can. It’s not unheard of to have a person or two show up who you weren't expecting. But you always want to find out who they are, what their interests are in the project. If you can spend a minute or two with them and get them to talk a little, it’s usually very beneficial. They’ll feel like they've been included more, that you're open to them. It becomes just a little more of a personal relationship.
You have to think about these things. In this business you are very often hired to deal with difficult people.
“The Ground Has Shifted”
All consultants dread those moments when you have to tell the client that what they are doing doesn’t make sense. Who wants to be told that they’re not very smart, particularly by some over-educated, smart-aleck consultant?
A technique I always used was to go into a fair amount of detail about the client’s present strategy or program. Then I would drop back in time and lay out the set of circumstances that led them to developing and implementing this strategy or program. I would tell them that what they are now doing is exactly what they should have been doing. Then I would go on to tell them how the world has shifted over the last few years, and that they were now a little bit behind, a little bit off the mark. But now with some fine tuning they can get right back on target.
It was amazing. As long as I told they had done well and needed only some adjustments, they would accept the recommendations. In reality, of course, the changes that were needed could be extensive. But the magic words were “fine tuning and adjustments.”
STORIES FROM READERS
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