The Trusted Firm: How Consulting Firms Build Successful Client Relationships

The Trusted Firm looks at how leading consulting firms across the world create an environment for successful consulting - who they recruit and what kind of recruitment processes work best, how they keep their finger on the pulse of the market, how they ensure they’re matching the right people to the right jobs, and what kind of values they need.

Table of contents :
Preface
Acknowledgements
About The Author

Part I Introduction
· The changing client-consultant relationship
· Promises, promises: excellent relationships from a client perspective
· The invisible firm
· The trouble with the status quo
· The client-consultant-consulting firm relationship
Part II People
· Personal chemistry and relationship skills
· Recruitment, retention and remuneration
Part III Process (1): Marketing And Selling
· Brand versus specialization: the race to the top?
· Handling the sales process
· Thought leadership: as much culture as intellect
Part IV Process (2): Delivery
· Managing consulting projects
· Three types of teamwork
· When is a methodology not a methodology?
· Innovation - beyond the borrowed watch?
· The two-way mirror: listening and talking to clients
· Partners and parents
Part V Values
· Values
· Living the values, valuing the lives
· Conclusions
Index


Market Description :
· Managing consultants, partners and managers of consulting firms who are looking to grow their business ad revenue more effectively.

· Senior Managers in professional services firms and of client organizations.

About Author :
Fiona Czerniawska is the Founder and Managing Director of Arkimeda, a company that specializes in researching and consulting on strategic issues in the consulting industry. She is also Director of the Management Consultancies Association’s Think Tank and Consulting Editor for its journal, Spectra. She is a Visiting Fellow at Durham Business School, a Program Director for the Centre of Management Development at London Business School, and an internationally renowned expert and media commentator who writes and speaks extensively on the consulting industry and related issues.

Fiona was formerly Head of Strategic Planning at Ernst & Young, Director of Management Consultancy Services for Coopers & Lybrand, and Director of Druid Systems. She is the author or co-author of six successful books, including Business Consulting: A Guide to How It Works and How to Make It Work and the forthcoming Management Consulting in Practice.