Management thinking

Japanese clients are a hard bunch to win over. Consulting has never taken off in that market nearly to the extent it has in other major economies, and consultants we spoke with estimate that only about half of the businesses they’d expect to be buying consulting actually are. It’s a culture that doesn’t think much of investing in intangibles like advice, and while interest is definitely picking up, this is a market that has a long way to go if consulting is ever to become the norm.

What on Earth were they thinking?

If you haven’t already seen it, you might want to read Steve Denning’s article in Forbes about the rise and fall of Monitor.  How, the author asks, could a firm renowned for helping its clients exploit their competitive advantage fail so dramatically to exploit its own?  He lays the blame for Monitor’s demise firmly at the door of Michael Porter’s Five Forces strategy, probably one of the most famous conceptual models and certainly one o