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Tuesday, October 7, 2008
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volume 1
issue 2
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“I have been an independent full-time for only eight months, although I have been in consulting in one form or another for 20 years. If my experience remains as good as this one, being an a-connect IP could be the cornerstone of my career going forward.” —M.E.B., IP since 2005
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Welcome to the a-connect IP Newsletter
by Perry Fagan
Welcome to the September 2006 issue of the a-connect IP newsletter! Now that the soccer world championship has been digested and the world has returned to business as usual, we at a-connect return to a pursuit at the core of our mission: helping global corporations implement their strategies. We dedicate this issue to the difficult challenge of enacting strategy: just what does it take to translate a declared strategy into concrete actions that increase shareholder value? a-connect, as a trusted implementation partner to large corporations worldwide, is on the forefront of helping corporations "walk the talk" of their strategies.
First up is an article by a-connect Talent Partner Sascha Schmidt, developer of the "Resourcer" analysis tool and strategy dashboard. In his editorial Sascha lays out his motivation behind developing this innovative tool, and shows how it can be used by managers to keep their strategy implementation on track.
This month's getAbstract business book abstract, "Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change," by Lawrence Hrebiniak, takes a deeper look at the reasons strategy implementation often fails, and steps managers can take to ensure success.
For a client's perspective on the strategy setting process we present an interview with Jeff Trandahl, Executive Director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). An a-connect team has been working with NFWF to develop a new mission statement and strategy for the past six months, and Talent Partner Rene Limacher, who led the engagement, caught up with the busy executive to discuss his experience with a-connect.
Meanwhile, we are proud to present an interview with IP Ian Mombru; to celebrate the publishing of IP David Maude's textbook "Global Private Banking and Wealth Management: The New Realities"; to announce the opening of our new talent hub in Germany; and to report on other exciting developments at a-connect around the world.
Once again, welcome. Enjoy!
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Walk the Talk
New tool helps companies keep strategy implementation on track
by Sascha Schmidt
Schoolbook knowledge suggests that companies develop a corporate strategy to guide the firm’s future course of action. After the aspirations and ambitions are articulated and announced to capital markets and other constituents, the implementation process starts. Research shows, however, that 70% of business strategies fail to get fully implemented. Making strategy work is obviously more difficult than making strategy.
Keeping the high failure rate in mind, capital markets track whether companies in fact “walk their talk”, i.e., deliver against the initially announced corporate strategy. While publicly listed firms rely on stories telling how and why the company will assert itself successfully in the markets of the future, we all know that a company achieves long-term success not with its story, but with its actions. The reasons for inconsistencies between announced and implemented strategies are multifaceted. On the one hand the management might not be willing or able to steer the resource allocation processes according to the intended strategy. On the other hand a delta between announced and realized strategy could be caused by unforeseen external developments that emerge during the implementation process and call for a revision of the initial plan. In any case, executives will have many good excuses why the announced strategy has not or has only partly been realized.
In an effort aimed to measure whether companies walk their strategy talk and how their behavior affects capital market performance, in cooperation with the Universities of St. Gallen and Dortmund and the European Business School we developed a software tool called Resourcer that is able to track whether publicly communicated resource allocations decisions such as investments, divestments, and cooperations in fact match the initially announced strategy of a company. Read on to learn more!
> full story
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Independent Voice
10 Questions for IP Ian Mombru
by Bernhard Stadler
 Ian is one of our media and entertainment industry experts and joined the a-connect pool almost exactly one year ago. Spanish by citizenship, he started his career at McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles in 1991. After taking a two-year break for his MBA at INSEAD and an assignment for an international firm of advisors to financial institutions, he returned to McKinsey and stayed as a practice expert in the global media & entertainment practice until 2002, when he took the decision to start up his own consultancy in the UK.
Ian is currently working on his first a-connect project, which brought him to a media client based in Switzerland. But travel between his home base London and Switzerland doesn’t seem to be enough “air time” for Ian – who also commutes between London and Shanghai, where his wife and two children live. Who knows, maybe his next a-connect project will bring him to South America?
a-connect Talent Partner Bernhard Stadler recently spoke with Ian about his experiences. Click the link to read the interview!
> full story
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IP Book Review
David Maude: “Global Private Banking and Wealth Management: The New Realities”, Wiley Finance, September 2006
by Marcel Kucher
 Wealth management is currently one of the hottest areas in financial services and is therefore a core focus for a-connect. However, the market is changing fast and having a good overview of recent developments becomes ever more important, yet tricky. We are proud that one of our IPs, David Maude, recently published a book which provides an up-to-date, detailed, practical understanding of this exciting area of financial services. Packed with best-practice examples and perspectives on the opportunities ahead, highlights include: wealth management challenges, new and old; the changing client profile; new products, pricing and channels; competitor and business-model landscapes; external challenges and opportunities; future perspective; and wealth market analyses for 25 countries.
Early feedback has been very positive; here’s what one of Amazon’s customers had to say:
“Fantastic book. Genuinely global perspective and bang up-to-date. Includes difficult-to-get data on industry economics and benchmarks, a fascinating future perspective on industry growth, and incisive analysis of a vast range of surveys and reports that I (a financial services strategy veteran) never knew existed. Very clear and well written. Invaluable for helping our organization develop a wealth management strategy.”
a-connect Talent Partner Marcel Kucher spoke with David and first asked him what was the most eye opening element while writing this book...
> full story
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Interview with a-connect Client Jeff Trandahl, Executive Director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
by Rene Limacher
 a-connect recently finalized a six-month engagement with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), assisting them in developing a new mission statement and strategy. The team included two independent professionals (IPs): Sherry Manetta (previously a partner with Ernst & Young, with significant experience in managing non-profit strategic planning exercises), and Ben Matteo (previously a McKinsey consultant, who has done a lot of work in the areas of renewable energy and clean-tech), together with Rene Limacher (one of a-connect’s talent partners) and Matt Huttner (a-connect’s summer intern in the Boston office).
The a-connect team worked closely with both the internal management group and with NFWF’s board, developing and fleshing out various strategic options in a series of workshops and discussions. A detailed analysis of past grant history provided the basis for defining three “lines of business” with distinct objectives, approaches and organizational implications. The resulting strategy strongly emphasizes the need to focus on results and impact, and thus clearly puts NFWF at the forefront of a trend in the non-profit world to be accountable for funds invested in conservation and make sure they achieve the desired results.
a-connect Talent Partner Rene Limacher recently reviewed the project experience with Jeff Trandahl, NFWF’s Executive Director. Follow the link below to the full interview!
> full story
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Speed Read: This Issue's Complimentary Business Book Abstract
"Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change," by Lawrence Hrebiniak
 In keeping with the theme of this issue in conjunction with getAbstract we’re offering free access to the abstract of “Making Strategy Work: Leading Effective Execution and Change”, by Lawrence Hrebiniak, Wharton School Publishing, 2005.
The author finds most managers believe that failure to manage change is the primary reason strategic initiatives fail. He contends that the first step toward great execution is to take time at the beginning of an initiative to make managers more aware of the pitfalls ahead. Read on to learn how to bridge the execution gap!
> full story
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a-connect Opens Talent Hub in Germany
Düsseldorf office positions a-connect to serve IPs and clients alike in the heart of Europe's largest consulting market
by Igor Skender
Driven by a very strong talent presence and a promising consulting market, a-connect is further expanding with the opening of a German talent hub in Düsseldorf in October 2006
 Why Germany? For more than a year we have been actively involved in client projects in Germany. So far we were able to successfully deliver more than a dozen engagements for half a dozen different clients. Having over 40 IPs in our pool residing in Germany (and another 20 German citizens living abroad) we already had a taste of what Germany has to offer on the independent professional side.
Why Düsseldorf? In ensuring easy access to many current and potential clients, Düsseldorf was unbeatable. Besides having easy access to the entire upper Rhein region (Ruhrgebiet), one can quickly reach Frankfurt and Hamburg as well. For the office location we choose the ‘Stadttor’, a prestigious building in the heart of Düsseldorf’s vibrant new business center “Medienhafen”. One can conveniently reach the airport in 15 minutes and the train station in 10 minutes.
Sascha Schmidt, an experienced talent partner from our Zurich office has taken the lead on this new challenge. He will be supported by Igor Skender, talent partner in Zurich, and others in building our new team and presence. We are, however, actively looking for new talent partners to augment our German team.
We will be having a house warming party on November 9th for IPs and a client event in spring of next year, and we look forward to welcoming you!
> full story
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a-connect Sponsors the 2006 Stanley Dragon Boat Championship
 a-connect co-sponsored the two Swiss teams entering this year’s Dragon Boat Championship at Stanley on May 31st. The Stanley race is one of the biggest events in this popular sport in Hong Kong. A total of 180 teams, that is, about 3,500 active participants, compete for trophies in four categories: local fishermen, expatriate men’s teams, mixed teams and all female teams.
Read on to find out more!
> full story
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a-connect Partners with the European Business School on Innovative Research Study
Study is analyzing new value creation models in consulting
by Sascha Schmidt
Earlier this year a-connect began a joint research project with Professor Dr. Ansgar Richter, PhD, chair of Management and Consulting at the European Business School (ebs) in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany. The study’s objective is to analyze new value creation models between clients and consultants. The development of the market for consulting services is tackled from two perspectives: client’s demand and consultant’s offerings. From a client perspective the project investigates how client demands and expectations vis-a-vis their consultants change over time, what clients consider an innovative, value-added consulting service to be and from which consulting provider they procure these services. From a consultant’s perspective the project explores how consulting services can be provided in ways that differ from traditional integrated consulting firms and which conditions are necessary for doing so successfully.
In the first part of the study the project team is investigating the influencing factors that drive the involvement of external service providers, e.g., traditional consulting firms, indepedent professionals, consulting networks and interim managers. The first round of explorative interviews has been completed. Based on the findings of these interviews and a detailed literature search the team will conduct a multi-industry client questionnaire to generate empirical evidence for this topic. The first quantitative results are expected in spring 2007.
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Recent Projects
Read about two exciting projects our independent professionals are executing around the world
From developing a worldwide HR strategy for a leading U.S.-based private equity company to international business building for a global wealth managment business, a-connect IPs are having an impact!
> full story
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a-connect Team Update
We are proud to welcome Daniela Stadler to our Zurich team!
 Start date: Monday, September 18, 2006
Nationality: Swiss
Educational background: Previously, I worked for GGZ (Gemeinnützige Gesellschaft Zug) Jugendprojekte in Zug where I was in charge of organizing a summer activity program for children (2003-2005). I completed a professional practical training there (Berufsmatura, BM; 2003-2004). During my professional practical training I wrote a paper on project management based on a summer activity program for children. Before my work experience I went to a commercial school in Zug for three years.
Role at a-connect: Team Assistant, Team ZRH
What you do when not at work: When I’m not working, I love to dance and be with my friends. During the winter I’m a snowboard fanatic! I also love to go for walks in the nature to replenish my energy. |
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IP Pool Statistics as of September 2006
We are proud that our pool of exceptional independent talents is growing rapidly. Here are selected statistics for the pool as of September 2006:
| New applications received during January-September |
1,137 |
| IPs interviewed |
206 |
| Interview rate |
18% |
| IPs accepted into the pool |
120 |
| Acceptance rate |
11% |
| Total IPs |
360* |
Regional breakdown:
Europe
Americas
Asia |
193
88
79 |
*This number includes reductions made from our pool as part of our annual review undertaken to maintain a high utilization rate of our IPs.
Moreover, during the first eight months of the year we have continued building strength across functions, situations, and industries. Click on the links to see an overview of a-connect's expertise!
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Copyright © 2006 a-connect (group) ag. All rights reserved.
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a-connect (schweiz) ag
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CH-8008 Zürich
Phone: +41 43 266 77 77
Fax: +41 43 266 77 27
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a-connect (US) Inc.
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Boston, MA, 02110
Phone: +1 617 946 33 33
Fax: +1 617 956 07 01
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a-connect (China) Ltd.
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Finance Centre
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Central, Hong Kong
Phone: +852 2526 6766
Fax: +852 3006 2766 |
a-connect (deutschland) gmbh
Stadttor 1
D-40219 Düsseldorf
Phone: +49 211 955 999 88
Fax: +49 211 955 999 80
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