In this economy, many people are in transition and looking to reinvent themselves.  Many can take heed of the lessons from author and New York real estate legend Barbara Corcoran.  Corcoran offers 10 rules for a career reinvention she discovered the hard way and by knowing herself:

1. There’s no such thing as part time: “If I was going to succeed I knew I had to work 40-60 hours a week with that fire in the belly.”

2. You can’t change your wiring: When Corcoran’s copy machine broke down, she hired someone to fix it, instead of attempting to do it herself. She had to treat herself as a business leader and not get bogged down in tasks she hated. So she spent money hiring someone, and spending money is something she loves to do and is good at.

3. Good things come out of insecurities: Corcoran’s “D-student” past only fuels her to work harder.

4. Girlie traits that once worked for you when you were younger can’t be relied on anymore: The charm she counted on when she was younger, especially when working with men, changed. She couldn’t play naive anymore — she wasn’t. “The intuitive stuff got in the way,” she said. So she presented herself as a realist, someone who takes their passion seriously.

5. The greater the success in a previous career the bigger the insult when you’re not taken seriously: Producers only called her back to get real estate advice.

6. Reinvent yourself in stages: “You have to reinvent yourself in chunks, little chunks, even if you like a nice neat picture.”

7. Contacts in your old field are totally useless: “Once you leave your business you’re old news.” Yes you have to start all over in making contacts — don’t forget the “thank you” follow-up e-mails.

8. In building new contacts, focus on young people: They’re the ones who are moving up, becoming the bosses.

9. Have a sense of belonging in online social networking: She missed her community at work the most but found a source of encouragement online. “Tweeting gives you a quick sense of belonging — an opportunity to build a community with people…It’s not a substitute but it’s nice,” Corcoran says of watching her Twitter followers grow and respond positively to her attempts to “make it” again.

10. Talents in your old business are useless in the new one: It’s a whole new jungle.

If you are a seasoned professional looking to reinvent yourself, consider joining the industry’s premier network of consulting professionals by visiting https://consultants.msquared.com/cfdocs/msquared/consultantlogin.cfm

A brilliant essay in the Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) this week entitled “How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo” by Richard Greenwald wisely points out that while anybody can become a consultant, not everyone does it well.  He continues to prescribe what’s needed to thrive as a consultant in today’s business environment.

Some key findings from his research:

Think Long Term

Too many freelancers see their condition as only temporary—one that will go away as soon as economic conditions improve. It’s just a stage between jobs, they figure.

Some of them may be right. But the odds are that most are wrong. They’re going to be on their own for a long time. So freelancers need to think in terms of the long haul, preparing for a marathon, not a sprint.

Understand: This isn’t easy. Many of these people have known only 9-to-5 jobs, and it can be scary to think of freelancing as all there will be.  Scary, but necessary. Because if a freelancer views the condition as temporary, it’s almost a guarantee that however long it lasts, it won’t go well. Unless you think about it as a job itself—requiring time, investment, thought—you won’t get much of a return. Waiting for business to find you is not something successful consultants do. Clients know a halfhearted attempt when they see one.

Join a Network

The image many of us have of the lonely consultant toiling on his or her own is touching. And dated.

Most successful consultants are in a network or community of consultants. These networks are important sources of new clients; most consultants, in fact, say they get as many clients from these networks as they do from client referrals. What’s more, an increasing number of consultants share work, taking on bigger projects that require more hands. In this way, teams of consultants can function like a small boutique firm.

Have Your Own Space

We have long been told that one of the joys of working on your own is being able to putter around in your pajamas and bunny slippers. And such flexibility is, no doubt, an attraction of consulting.

But there’s a limit, and successful consultants say that having a work space separate from your living space is crucial. Clients do not want to have an important phone conference interrupted by a nagging two-year-old, a TV in the background or the sounds of street traffic. Most freelancers I spoke to have a space in their home that is solely for work—a bunker, as it were.

Others have started using shared spaces that provide a quiet space and a cubicle or desk to call your own. These spaces, called co-offices, often have other incentives. They give freelancers a place to go, which helps them keep schedules. They usually also provide a receptionist service, so someone always answers calls. And they provide a sense of workplace that is something many consultants complain about missing.

Think Like an Entrepreneur

Here’s probably the most important ingredient that distinguishes the most successful consultants: They think like entrepreneurs.

Too often, freelancers drift from project to project. That’s a mistake. They need to have a business plan or mission statement. If all they do is take everything that passes over the transom, they will be viewed as a nonspecialist in a world of specialists.

Consultants are known for the work that they do, and this often means the work they don’t do. With a mission statement and business plan, they can decide if a certain job is worth it. Sometimes the short-term gain in income becomes a long-term loss in reputation.

This doesn’t mean you should starve: Sometimes, any work is good. But too many consultants say yes to anything that comes along, so when the perfect project arises, they might be too busy to take it. What’s more, in this competitive world, prospective clients want to know what projects you’re working on. If they aren’t impressed, they may not hire you. So being able to say no to certain work, referring it to someone else, is a sure measure of a certain level of success.

To learn more about joining M Squared’s elite network of consultants, visit http://www.msquared.com/consultants/introduction.html

Cloud computing is changing the business IT landscape through its ability to provide scalable computing resources without the traditional technology overhead. Now, the same characteristics powering this charge—virtualization, integration, and value-added management—are poised to alter the face of business consulting.  A new cloud consulting white paper highlights the parallels between cloud computing and cloud consulting, as pioneered by M Squared Consulting, and explains how the new model is an effective alternative to the expensive, cumbersome, and outdated traditional consulting model.

In a groundbreaking article released this week, M Squared Consulting launched the innovative concept of cloud consulting™, which could transform how organizations meet their consulting needs.  “Similar to how cloud computing has forever changed the face of IT, cloud consulting will soon become the norm for skills-based delivery,” said Marion McGovern, the white paper’s author and founder & CEO of M Squared Consulting.

So what defines the “cloud” in this new model? The definitions may be as varied as the clouds they describe but the key elements remain very consistent. A cloud is built on virtual resources that are integrated, managed, and available on demand. In general, a cloud provides:

• On-demand access to a full range of resources
• No overhead infrastructure costs
• Use-driven pricing
• Reliability
• Scalability
• Flexibility
• Geographic Independence

In addition to these elements, the cloud has a unique ability to accommodate shifting business demands. By its very nature, the cloud is changeable, adapting to meet the needs of the business. By staying in step with business changes, the cloud provides greater agility and a competitive edge.

The Cloud—Remaking the Face of Consulting

Cloud consulting, as pioneered by M Squared Consulting, applies these core cloud concepts to professional services by integrating and managing virtual human capital to deliver an on-demand, cost-effective, reliable, and scalable resource system. By reflecting how human capital and intelligence resources are really employed, the consulting cloud is able to support business processes and resource demands at a cost that more closely reflects their true utilization.

It is important to note that how resources are linked and delivered defines the cloud more so than the resources themselves. For instance, in cloud computing, the resources are more commodity-like. But in cloud consulting, the resources are more specialized. In each case, it is the virtualization, integration, and management of the resources that makes the cloud a “cloud.”

Clouds on the Horizon

Today’s economic climate has forced companies to find ways to operate more cost-effectively. With fiscal pressures showing no signs of retreat, these cost concerns will continue to grow in all areas of business. And, because of its cost efficiency, so will the cloud concept.

By applying the cloud principles of virtualization, integration, and managed oversight, cloud consulting can help companies make their human capital and consulting budgets work harder and more productively.

To view or download the new Cloud Consulting whitepaper, please visit http://www.msquared.com/home/m2/Whitepapers/cloudconsulting.pdf

This week’s guest post is contributed by Terry Healey, an M Squared consultant.  He can be reached at terry@ridgeviewconsulting.com

Building a complete and differentiated go-to-market plan is something all marketing professionals strive to achieve. We typically follow a methodology to ensure that the target customer is at the center of the plan and that we have a clear and compelling value to generate a positive response.

Many of us learned about Neil H. Borden’s “The Concept of the Marketing Mix”, circa 1964.  The ingredients of Borden’s Marketing Mix centered on the four P’s – product, pricing, placement (or distribution), and promotion. But those four P’s require that the marketing professional develop the optimal mix, including market insights, developing integrated marketing/sales programs, and ensuring the necessary measurement tools and metrics are in place. Unfortunately, those actions too often become afterthoughts of building that differentiated go-to-market plan.

Assuring Success with the 4 M’s
The key to a successful plan based on the 4 P’s means starting with a framework from the outset that includes what I like to call “the four M’s”; Market Intelligence, Modeling, Mix, and Measurement. The four M’s are the marketing activities which act as the glue that binds marketing and sales together. Ensuring that sales and marketing have skin in the game motivates both teams to achieve marketing objectives with focus ultimately on revenue.

1. Market Intelligence and Analysis

Just as anyone raising money to fund a start up needs a great idea, they also need a large and growing market that they believe they’ll be able to address. In the same way, regardless of the maturity of your company, you need to develop a business case for what part of the market you intend to address, why it makes sense, and how you are going to do it. The process of researching the total addressable market for your proposed product or service is only a small piece of the analysis necessary. Identifying the viable market segments that your solution can address, along with understanding the customer profile and primary business drivers are the baseline for any plan. Whether you have a solution that requires prospecting for new customers, or perhaps you have the benefit of an installed customer base that you can cross-sell and up-sell into - the same rules apply. Do your research - analyze the data to determine what slice of the market you intend to address, what challenge you will solve, and what benefits your solution offers that are differentiating from the competition. But, once again, before you assume you have all the answers, be sure to make part of your primary research talking to your sales teams about their knowledge of the market and their customer base.

2. Modeling

·     With a lot of great data that’s been sliced and diced, you can now justify moving the plan to the next stage. Nomenclature aside, your next step is to model a “program”, a holistic set of resources, tools, and activities that enable both your sales force to be effective, and your customers to engage with your organization. The key to this is to ensure you provide sales with prescriptive instructions on how to use the resources and when to use them. And don’t think of sales enablement separately from demand generation. The two should be tightly linked. Sales enablement tools and resources you provide your sales people should be integrated with customer engagement demand generating tactics (telemarketing scripts, emailers) so that sales is part of the marketing engine and marketing is helping to drive sales funnel.

·  So that sales understands how marketing intends to create an ongoing customer experience, providing details on how the entire program or campaign will work helps everyone take ownership in the outcome. Building the marketing funnel means that marketing must invest in awareness activities (email, advertising, tradeshows, and PR), consideration activities (web/seminars, whitepapers, case studies), and preference activities (demos, ROI Tools). When sales has a window into the logic behind the marketing program, they can effectively leverage each prospect interaction and the offers that have initiated a response.

·  Close the loop with review teams that provide continual feedback on the approach, validating or invalidating the tactics themselves. The job of Program Modeling is about accelerating sales cycles, and helping sales to move customers more quickly from the prospect stage to the  propose stage.

               3. Marketing Mix

Marketing mix is not just about ensuring that you are reaching customers, analysts, and the press in a myriad of ways, but utilizing step one (Market Intelligence and Analysis) to serve as the guide to how you should focus your efforts, and with how much emphasis. If your company or product is immature, awareness is critical. If you are marketing to your installed base, your emphasis may reside more in the consideration and preference stages. After all, you are marketing to existing customers who are familiar with your brand, but may not understand why they should upgrade or build upon the solution they already have. Targeted demand generation with case study offers, whitepapers, ROI tools, or financing may prove to generate high response rates.

               4. Measure

·  You might be thinking “I cannot get the funding for a robust system to measure my marketing activities.” That may indeed be the case, but today there are great hosted solutions that enable you to have an integrated marketing and measurement system up and running in just a few days. At the end of the day, you have to justify your marketing spend, and measure your return on marketing investment.

·  As importantly, you need to measure response rates, leads, and appointments set so that you can refine, improve, and optimize your campaigns based on what prospects are responding to, what they are registering for, and what content they are downloading. And without all those measurements, good luck getting budget for next years’ marketing campaign.

Adding the four M’s is not designed to make things more complicated. The four M’s methodology ensures that the fundamental aspects of your plan and strategy are sound and can be executed and measured. As we all know, a great marketing strategy does not always translate into an effectively executed plan. And if you cannot measure your execution, you better be a great sales person, because you will be selling a new marketing approach to your leadership team every year. But don’t worry - there won’t be all that many years that you will have to sell that plan if you don’t know how to measure it.

For more information on how to better plan and execute your marketing programs, contact M Squared Consulting at 415-391-1038.

As the holidays approach and companies finalize their FY 2010 plans, more than ever the topic of the contingent workforce surfaces in human resources discussions. While utilizing external consulting expertise such as the type M Squared provides is now standard operating procedure for many companies, other organizations have yet to realize the benefits of flexible employment solutions.

For those companies on the fence, one element of hesitation can be knowledge transfer. That is, how to ensure the institutionalization of knowledge once a project is concluded and the expert has gone on to a new engagement. In the groundbreaking book, “A New Brand of Expertise: How Independent Consultants, Free Agents, and Interim Managers are Transforming the World of Work” (Butterworth-Heinemann), M Squared CEO Marion McGovern and co-author Dennis Russell address this issue head-on, and what they penned in 2001 is as relevant as ever today.

The following passages succinctly describe best practices in knowledge transfer:

“The best way to enable (knowledge) retention is to make it part of the contract with the consultant. He or she must be able to turn over the baton to an employee; the consultant must train someone in the organization on his or her approach, constructs, and activities. Someone in the organization must be left aware of potential issues remaining from the course of the project of that could arise in the future. This should be a formal requirement; for example, a product-costing project would not be considered complete until a manager is trained on the model and all associated documentation is provided.

Beyond these types of training requirements, managers must become sensitive to expertise networks. As success in an organization becomes more dependent on project management performance, those who are best able to rapidly deploy expertise will be those most recognized and rewarded. Managers must be able to rapidly identify individuals with expertise in disciplines that may be useful in the future. They must actively and deliberately develop formal and informal expertise networks, so that when the time arises they know where the knowledge may be found. This can be as simple as creating a list of individual consultants and intermediaries to call on when the need arises, or as complicated as cataloguing in a specialized database the skills of consultants used and/or considered for projects.”

In short, within every organization are people who know and people who need to know, and the lasting value of a successful consulting project is not only performing the task at hand, but making certain that knowledge transfer is built into the process.

The book, A New Brand of Expertise: How Independent Consultants, Free Agents, and Interim Managers are Transforming the World of Work” by Marion McGovern and Dennis Russell (Butterworth-Heinemann) is available at www.amazon.com

Last Fall, as the economic reality of the financial crisis was just beginning to reach critical mass, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Sequoia Capital sent its now infamous “R.I.P Good Times” presentation to all of its portfolio company CEO’s.

Many media outlets glommed onto this doom and gloom viewpoint because, as they often tend to do, that was the direction the rest of the herd was taking. Ironically, the overwhelming negativity of the message could well have exacerbated or prolonged the very downturn the venture capitalists were warning their companies to defend themselves against - creating a vicious, downward, self-fulfilling prophecy.

As business leaders we now find ourselves at an interesting inflection point. We seem to be at the crossroads of continuing down the cautionary path that the Great Recession has brought us (and that the VC’s at Sequoia encouraged us to take) or, as rising business and consumer sentiment might indicate, we could be witnessing the beginning of a recovery.

As with most trends in the United States (and around the globe for that matter) California seems to be at the epicenter. Just as the Silicon Valley led us into the last great economic downturn, the same region is now poised to lead us out of this one.

There is just one problem…hardly anyone is moving.

Silicon Valley business leaders were once renowned for their willingness and ability to bet big. This self confidence was infectious and was greatly enabled by the venture capital community. While the innovation and collaboration are still there, it seems as if all but a few progressive leaders are still waiting for an obvious clue, or signal from some higher being, before they “pull the trigger” on investing or launching new initiatives.

What to do?

Has this living, evolving, business organism been sufficiently pruned of its excess? Is it ready to grow again?

Right on cue, all the news outlets are starting to bubble with cautious, tentative, but sustained enthusiasm about the positive direction of the economy. A Wall Street Journal poll of economists recently reported that 57% now believe the recession is already over, while another 23% believe that the economy will turn in the next month or two.

So, while we can’t quite breathe easily, perhaps we can take a collective sigh of relief, and focus on the opportunities at hand.

While it used to be the case that American industry needed just a glimmer of hope to change the world, now it seems that we need more substantial proof to get going. I think the proof must come from the very businesses that are on the sidelines. They must make the decision to jump in.

One thing is certain: markets are cruel, unforgiving beings. If we don’t move, someone else surely will.

What are we waiting for?

Let’s pull the trigger and get going.

Are you ready?

No matter what business opportunities or challenges you’re facing, M Squared Consulting can help you keep critical initiatives on track. Across industries and corporate functional areas we deploy top-level experts who are completely focused on delivering bottom-line results to your organization. Organizations that are ready to get going again realize great value from our talent-on-demand business model.

Recent surveys are creating optimism and indicating that the worst of the “Great Recession” may finally be behind us.

The Conference Board, which issues some of the most watched economic indicators in the U.S., reported that consumer confidence jumped 14 percent between July and August. The Index, which hit a low of 26.9 in March, has more than doubled since then and now stands at 54.1. It’s still slightly below the 54.8 posted in May, but the rise was considerably greater than the 47.9 economists had expected.

Employers mirrored that confidence in a CareerBuilder / Robert Half survey that said 53 percent of businesses polled plan to hire full-time workers in 2010. The Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations Report prepared by the two companies found 40 percent of employers planning to hire temporary or contract workers and 39 percent expecting to hire part-time workers.

The report, which has been issued annually for the last five years, found that the positions first to be filled will be in technology, customer service, and sales. Also on the list are positions in marketing/creative, business development, human resources, and accounting/finance.

Most the hires will be either entry-level (say 28 percent of the hiring managers surveyed) or staff-level professionals (32 percent). The traits most valued in a new hire? - Employers cited multitasking, initiative, and creative problem-solving.

Companies are identifying the key skill sets they will need in new hires to take advantage of the opportunities presented by improving economic conditions. Firms that cut staffing levels too deeply may need to do significant rebuilding once the recovery takes hold.

Another positive sign which indicates recovery is that many employers are throttling back on layoffs, says outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

“We see more and more signs that the economy is beginning to turn around. While it is too soon to expect a massive hiring binge that will move some of the nearly 20 million jobless Americans back onto payrolls, the pace of job cuts is likely to continue its downward trend,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

In January 241,749 job cuts were announced, the highest since January 2002, according to the firm, which has tracked planned layoff announcements daily since 1993. But the announced job cuts have been declining since.

The August numbers are still being counted, but the firm said it expects the four-month total from May through August to be significantly lower than the 711,100 it counted from January through April.

“Year-end job cuts are likely to increase from the levels recorded during the summer months, which typically see fewer job cuts, but we will probably not return to the levels reached between January and April,” says Challenger. “Job cuts are expected to continue the overall downward trend in 2010, when we might actually begin to see some small improvements in hiring.”

The Wall Street Journal reported this month in its Economic Forecasting Survey that economists expect, on average, the economy to lose just under 27,000 jobs a month next year. While not exactly a recovery, it’s a huge change from the 70,000 monthly job loss they predicted in July.

Is it too soon to say that the US economy is in full recovery? Yes, but that doesn’t mean these encouraging signs can be ignored either.

It would also be foolish to sit idly by and wait for irrefutable proof of the recovery, because history proves that will come well after the fact. One lesson that we can take from past downturns is that major business innovation is born in market turbulence.

The M Squared Consulting “talent-on-demand” business model has proven to be an enabler for those companies wanting to harness the expertise and power of seasoned professionals to deliver results. This recession will pass and business will pick up again without warning. Strategic organizations - those that have weathered the storm and embraced the resulting changes - will be ready to capitalize on the opportunities before them.

Are you ready? We’re here to help.

Alexander Green is a well known investment writer who recently wrote this remarkable article published in Spiritual Wealth:

Dear Reader,

Whether you realize it or not, one indispensable quality affects every relationship in your life. It holds together all your associations. It determines whether you realize your dreams, both personal and professional.

And it virtually defines you to others. Without it, true success is impossible.

Stephen M.R. Covey is even more emphatic. He writes “There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world - one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.

On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time.

That one thing is trust.

Simply put, trust is confidence in an individual or organization. It is other people feeling good about relying on you. And its value can hardly be overstated. Trustworthiness is the universally accepted test of good character.

When you trust someone, you have confidence in his or her honesty and abilities. You can delegate things easily and effectively. You can relax. You have peace of mind. But when you doubt someone’s integrity, question his accomplishments, or worry about his agenda, confidence is replaced by suspicion and anxiety.

Take a moment and picture someone you trust implicitly. It could be a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend, or a business associate. How does this relationship make you feel? How easily do you communicate? How quickly do things get done?

Now imagine someone you distrust. How does this relationship feel? How easily do you communicate? Do you enjoy this relationship… or is it complicated, cumbersome and draining? The difference between a high-trust and low-trust relationship is night and day. In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing and your listener still understands you. In a low-trust relationship, you can choose your words carefully, be very precise, and you may still be misunderstood.

Sadly, trust is at an ebb in our society. A Harris poll reveals that only 27% of Americans trust the government, only 22% trust the media, only 12% trust big companies, and only 8% trust political parties.

Personal trust is waning, too. Many people nowadays look back on contracts or commitments as something to negotiate. Half of all marriages end in divorce. Many (perhaps most) of them founder on a lack of trust.

Each of us naturally gravitates away from individuals we can’t believe or rely on and towards those we can. Low trust is the very definition of a bad relationship. And once you forfeit someone’s confidence, it’s awfully hard to win it back.

This is particularly true in business.

We all survive by selling a product, service or skill. Yet every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.

If trust is lacking, forget the other four. You’re done. The moment someone suspects your motives, everything you do becomes tainted.

That’s why successful companies make a priority of building and maintaining confidence. John Whitney, a Professor Emeritus of Management at Columbia Business School, estimates that mistrust doubles the cost of doing business.

You may have the best product, great service, competitive pricing, mountains of supporting facts and figures and testimonials galore. But if you don’t command and deserve trust, you will not enjoy long-term success.

It is never enough to simply invite trust. It must be earned.

In personal relationships, that means handling responsibility, proving your credibility, allowing yourself to be relied upon again and again. It’s not just about integrity. It’s about looking out for the other person’s interests as well as your own.

Employers build trust with employees by assigning them important responsibilities, giving them the freedom to make mistakes, and setting an example. Real leadership is about getting results in ways that inspire confidence.

In a world that changes as quickly as ours, trust is a critical factor. It is the vital currency. Business consultant Tom Peters calls trust “the issue of the decade.” Trust makes work easier and more productive. It makes relationships stable and predictable. It creates a sense of community. That’s why it’s crucial that we not violate it. Trust can take years to build but only a moment to destroy. And you may not even get an opportunity to try to restore it.

For each of us - and for every organization - trust is something to be built up, protected, valued, cherished, and carefully preserved.

It is the one thing that changes everything.

Carpe Diem,

-Alexander Green

This article is very powerful, and I also believe it is a great illustration of why M Squared Consulting has enjoyed 21 years of success in the market. Our clients trust us to help them with their business challenges. They are seeking honest answers to their problems; solutions that are not biased nor hindered by proprietary frameworks or methodologies. Our objective is always to deliver the best solution for each unique client situation. By providing our unique blend of talent-on-demand we deliver results, quickly and cost-effectively. This is why clients view us as trusted business advisors, who always have their best interests in mind. Through their success, we realize our own.

While we are in the midst of a recession it might seem inappropriate to bring up the war for talent. But the market reality is this: even with overall unemployment rising, employers are still challenged to find the talent they need.

As many companies are discovering, while this labor market might be flooded with job seekers, that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the needed talent. In particular, companies can’t always find people with the exact skills and experience they need, when and where they need them. Today, it’s also not uncommon to hear executives express frustration about under-skilled, inexperienced, unproductive, and even unreliable employees who will quickly jump ship for another opportunity.

As you might expect from the generation that has had such a significant impact on our society throughout their lives, the Baby Boomers will also dominate this talent market discussion for the next decade.

How can this be? Aren’t the Boomers supposed to be retiring?

Well, let’s start with the fact that they are the single largest component of the U.S. workforce, so their effect is huge. Then, layer in the fact that with the economic downturn many leading-edge Boomers who under normal circumstances might now be retired (or nearing so) must continue working in order to replenish their battered retirement savings. Finally, we must recognize that the next generation (Gen X) is half the size of the Boomers and quite simply has not had enough time in the workforce to build up the same level of knowledge and experience.

The New War for Talent

Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, which means that today they are somewhere between the ages of 44 and 63. Many worked their way up the corporate ladder - they are happy to continue working in their area of expertise, where their wisdom and experience are valued. Others are choosing to embark on second, or “boomerang” careers.

The fact is, with their decimated retirement accounts many boomers can’t afford to retire. Others recognize that in addition to the monetary rewards they receive there are many psychic rewards from their careers, so they have no plans to ever retire.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that by 2010, more than 51% of the workforce is expected to be 40 or older, a 33% increase since 1980. The number of workers aged 55 and older will grow from 13% of the labor force in 2000 to 20% in 2020.

All of this is good news for employers because most companies are operating much leaner than ever before, and they need to cost-effectively find the most experienced, skilled people they can in order to achieve their objectives.

How to Leverage the Boomers

Now is the perfect time for organizations to assess their workforce. Strategic business owners and executives should evaluate their workforce demographics and the key positions within their organizations in order to identify current and projected talent gaps. It’s also time to develop programs that will strengthen knowledge retention and sharing throughout the company in preparation for the inevitable “brain-drain” that will occur when the Boomers exit the workforce.

How can employers retain the key knowledge and information that is resident in their workforce?

First, they must recognize who has the knowledge. If they want to hold onto Boomers they must adapt to their needs. Many forward thinking organizations are developing policies and programs geared towards recruiting, retaining, and training older workers. Key options that will help attract and retain these mature workers include flexible work arrangements (such as adjustable schedules and job sharing) and should also part-time or contingent employment options. Fortunately these types of work arrangements require lots of self-discipline and maturity, which the Boomers have in abundance!

Next, companies should institute mentoring programs to help train the next generation of knowledge workers and business leaders. Companies concerned about retaining institutional knowledge can’t afford to have their older employees walk out the door with a career worth of expertise and experience.

Finally, employers must have an honest dialogue with their seasoned team members to help them plan for the next phase of their careers. Companies that demonstrate loyalty towards their older employees by offering flexible employment options, will be rewarded with loyalty in return.

Conclusion - Experience Counts

Because of their proven talent, Baby Boomers will be in high demand for the balance of this decade and beyond. They add value not only to employers’ bottom lines but also to the long-term health of our workforce and our economy.

It is a phenomenon we see every day at M Squared Consulting. When clients want experienced business professionals, those seasoned experts who have translated their knowledge and insight into consulting expertise, they call us. Our talent-on-demand business model is an enabler for companies who need seasoned experts, focused on delivering results. We also enable seasoned experts, who no longer want a full-time role, to bring their expertise to market as consultants.

In the final analysis this whole discussion can be distilled down to two words: Experience counts!

I recently read an interesting excerpt of the book Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto, by Adam Werback.

In the book the author shares research from the emerging fields of biomechanics and biomimicry. In these disciplines scientists are decoding the rules of nature to help form businesses as strong and durable. The foundation of this research is the observation that nature is far harsher environment than any business market: If you are not sustainable, you die. There are generally no second chances in nature, and certainly no government bailouts!

Businesses that are capable of managing through the challenges dealt by a complex and ever-changing world are in a better position to respond strategically and assume leadership roles.

Here are the 10 rules identified in the book, along with my quick thoughts on how they apply to the business environment:

1. Diversify across generations. This is a similar concept to diversifying across clients and markets. There is strength in having a diversity of revenue streams.
2. Adapt to the changing environment - and specialize. There is a multiplying force that comes into play when an organization focuses its efforts. By identifying and constantly strengthening its competitive advantage a company grows stronger and becomes more sustainable.
3. Celebrate transparency. Every species knows which other species will eat it and which will not. Do you know your competition?
4. Plan and execute systematically, not compartmentally. Every part of a plant contributes to its growth. Can you say the same for your organization?
5. Form groups, and protect the young. Most animals travel in groups, which offer strength and efficacy. To succeed in business you must build a team and harness the power of your people. Communicate, collaborate, innovate!
6. Integrate metrics. Nature brings the right information to the right place at the right time. When a tree needs water, the leaves curl; when there is rain, the curled leaves move more water to the root system. What are the vital metrics for your business? How do you monitor and react to them?
7. Improve with each cycle. Evolution is the strategy for long-term survival. How will your business evolve?
8. Right-size regularly, rather than downsize occasionally. If an organism grows too big to support itself, it collapses. Business leaders must constantly ask if their organization is appropriately resourced.
9. Foster longevity, not immediate gratification. Nature does not buy on credit and uses its resources only to the level that they can be renewed. Are you building and growing your organization for the long run?
10. Waste nothing, recycle everything. Some of the greatest business opportunities in the 21^st century will be turning waste (including inefficiency and underutilization) into profit.

Businesses can realize great value from bringing in subject-matter experts to explore strategic and tactical opportunities. Sometimes these ideas are borne from new research like that presented above. Within the M Squared Consulting network we have experts with knowledge and experience across all the major business disciplines and industry segments. The average M Squared consultant has over fifteen years of professional experience and has been consulting for more than five. These seasoned business professionals are as adept at asking the tough questions as they are at determining the best answers for your organization - those solutions which will deliver bottom-line results.