Certainties & Serendipities

I, as an independent consultant, face two perennial problems: generating enough leads and sustaining cash flow. I wish I could do what Dr Alan Weiss has done. He generates million dollars in independent consultancy.

I bought his books to learn what he did. I wish to implement all his ideas so I too can generate million dollars.

If not Dr Alan, I wish to be like Sephi Bergerson. Since 2002, he has made India his home and photographed many aspects of Indian life, specifically Indian weddings. He has also published a book on Street Foods of India. I wish I could travel as much like him and click snaps as beautifully as him.

I wish, I wish, I wish…

If you thought these are rambles of an insignificant individual, think again. Those occupying the executive chairs are no different.

Recently (On 16th Feb, 2011), Prime Minister of India held a press conference and what did he say? I wish our party had a majority mandate, I wish I had ‘clean’ colleagues, I wish we had a better opposition party. He was full of wishes.

It is true that wishes are bridges to the future. But translating wishes to reality requires action – action of deciding a course and staying the course to the completion. Action differentiates the accomplishers from dreamers.

Great problem solvers act. They act despite having partial information; despite the risk of being burnt; despite being looking stupid. They are willing to adjust their implementation as they go along.

It is easy to wish for our situations to be transformed magically. It is easy because every one does so. But only those who step out of their wishing zone create magic. Are you wishing for a magic or are you creating a magic?

This post is part of ‘Be a Problem Solver‘ series.

Every week I post a digest of very fine links and tweets. Here are the best links I found in the past week:

• Social Entrepreneurship in India–The Complete Guide to Funding, Profitable Sectors [and more] : There is profit at the bottom of the pyramid. This post lists all the various business models employed by social entrepreneurs in India along with the available venture funds for social entrepreneurs.
• How to Walk the Line : Consultants have to walk on a ‘balanced’ line all the time. Here are some of those ‘lines’ from the Million Dollar Consultant, Alan Weiss.
• With Innovation, You Don’t Get Points for Difficulty : The goal of business is to find the quickest, cheapest path to profits. If that involves imitation, then so be it.
• Mind Your OWN Business : We manage ourselves differently when we’re self-employed versus working for a company. What if an employee considers his job as a business rather than just a job? You’ll find yourself energized and with power you didn’t even know you had. It feels much better to be the driver of your career rather than a passenger.
• WebFilings streamlines SEC reporting using Google App Engine : WebFilings is a SaaS solution that dramatically improves the process of developing and filing financial reports with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). In this post the founder details the architecture of WebFilings. XBRL will be introduced in India soon and there is a business opportunity in India on this line.

Here are the best tweets of past week:

• Orrin_Woodward: 10% of the people do 90% of the work, but 90% of the people think they are part of the 10%.
• Orrin_Woodward: Will you choose the comfort of mediocrity or the quest for excellence?
• gitomer: The best employee is someone who wants to learn as much as they want to earn. gitomer
• MarkFritz: EARNING THE RIGHTS: The weak want the “rights” before earning it, while the strong would never accept them unless earned.
• MarkFritz: DISCUSS ASSUMPTIONS FIRST: Many problems we face in our key business relationships have roots in different assumptions.

Every week I post a digest of very fine links and tweets. Here are the best links I found in past week:

• Bill Gates: In Five Years The Best Education Will Come From The Web : “Five years from now on the web for free you’ll be able to find the best lectures in the world. It will be better than any single university.”
• Introducing ‘Nokia Listings’ beta: Connecting buyers and sellers in India : A local marketplace on mobile where users can discover and transact with other users using a simple mobile client interface.
• Stock Shastra #14: To enjoy the fruits of stock investing, be like a fruit orchard owner : Once the fruit owner has planted the tree, he waits patiently for the tree to bear fruit. He depends on the health of the tree to grow and bear fruit. He knows that once the tree bears fruit, it will continue to do so for a long time and hence, he can reap the benefits for many years to come. It may happen that in one season the tree doesn’t bear fruit, but as long as the health of the tree is good, he is confident that it will bear fruit in the next season.
• Why Online2Offline Commerce Is A Trillion Dollar Opportunity : O2O finds consumers online and brings them into real-world stores. Its a new model of offline commerce being driven by an online storefront and transaction engine.

Here are the best tweets of past week:

• vijayanands: dont give yourself the satisfaction of accomplishment with the birth of an idea, follow through with it .
• vwadhwa: Immigrants cause economy to grow/pie to get bigger. Make US more innovative/competitive.
• MarkFritz: PROCESS OR ACHIEVEMENT: Some confuse following a new process as an achievement. It’s just an enabler for AN achievement.
• BentleyGTCSpeed: Market and deliver concurrently. They are not “either/or” decisions.
• MarkFritz: WHERE & WHY: Too many people are rushing to the how & when before they have determined the where & why.

I entered consulting with a technical – to be precise software – background. I was surprised to learn that technical competence alone does not guarantee success in consulting assignments. I quickly learnt to augment technical skills with soft-skills and witnessed increased success rate.

Here are the soft-skills that I learnt over the years:

• Being comfortable with uncertainty : Certainty isn’t certain in consulting. A cloud of uncertainty is ever present in all stages – from sealing contracts, obtaining data, implementing requisite change and so on. Many-a-times, I have heard other consultants complain about chaos in client’s organization. Truth to be told, if client’s are certain then there is no need for consultants! So I say, get on with it.

• Perception is Reality : As a consultant, you are dealing with the perception of the stakeholders. The stakeholders perceived employees are missing an essential skills and signed you to train them; or he perceives that the new system will bring the much needed efficiency and you are the change agent or whatever else might be the perception for reaching out to you. You are there to match reality with the perception.

Its not only about the state of affairs. The perception is about you too. He is either happy that he got a competent consultant or regret getting an incompetent idiot. Its up to you to manage that perception. In any case, know that perception eclipses reality.

• Be a self-starter : Assignment, motivation and  monitoring are for employees; measurement of outcomes are for consultants. So you should be proactive in getting to the outcome as quickly as possible. If you are not proactive, you won’t last long in consulting business.

• Relationship Building : As the Million Dollar Consultant, Alan Weiss, says you are not in consulting business; you are in relationship business. Many consultants are happy with building relationship with gate-keepers and middle-men. My efforts are always concentrated with economic decision-makers. Because if the economic decision maker perceives you as an incompetent idiot, no other help can force him to sign the cheque.

• Learning on the fly : Consulting profession demands broad range of skills – interviewing, negotiation, decision making, information technology and so on. So you need to constantly update yourself. If you are not updated, you are outdated. And in consulting, being outdated means you are on the way out. You should view every challenge as an opportunity to learn something new. To quote Alan Weiss again, “I’m constantly surprised how stupid I was two weeks ago.”

Consulting is the only profession where you are paid to learn on the job. It is exciting as well as frightening. But if you got a right mind-set, there is no other profession like consulting.

Every week I post a digest of very fine links and tweets I find around the web world. Here are the links & tweets from the past week:

1. The Globalization Map – 12 tips from the Million Dollar Consultant, Alan Weiss, to take your consulting business global.
2. 13 Ways to Better Monetize Your Blog Posts : ‘Marketing is queen and the queen runs the household’ and other tips to better monetize your blog.
3. Sad State of Job Portals in India [Startup Opportunity] – Pathetic state of job portals in India and that may not be a bad thing.
4. Books/Blogs for Startups « Steve Blank – Essential reading list for startups by a Serial Entrepreneur.
5. How to Conduct A/B Tests for WordPress Blogs – Test your WordPress blog to increase response rate or other desired outcome.

and tweets:

1. MarkFritz: THE EXPERIENCE THEY REMEMBER: Customer services is just as much about the feelings as the facts. It’s the experience.
2. portnik: A person who can speak many languages is not necessarily more valuable than a person who can listen in one
3. portnik: Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction.
4. MarkFritz: AVOIDING THE ISLAND SOLUTIONS: Strong leaders drive processes to avoid island solutions spread across the company.
5. youarefiredboss: There is no shortage of money, just a shortage of people who think they are worthy of earning piles of it.