Consultant's Comeuppance (Commentary for HBR Case Study)

For ten years, Jeff Patterson's firm, Flynn Fuller Consulting, has worked on projects for financial services giant GloBank. Now Jeff's contact, Bill Holland, says another project is imminent--good news for the recession-battered consultancy--but there's just one problem: GloBank has an enigmatic new CEO, H. Frank Maloney III. Brought in to restore profitability, Maloney has been examining GloBank's bottom line, looking for places to cut. The new CEO wants to slash GloBank's extensive use of consultants, which means that division presidents like Bill must justify major consulting projects. Worse, firms like Flynn Fuller must sell themselves again to GloBank. Jeff will have just one hour to try to sway Maloney, or his client will disappear. How can Jeff persuade Maloney that outside consultants are worth the cost? Jeff's presentation isn't a progress report or a pitch to a new client; rather, it's a defense of Flynn Fuller's continuing added value. Jeff pulls together a team to make the case, but he hears as many approaches as there are people in the room. In R0303A and R0303Z, commentators P. William Bane, a recently retired vice-president and director at Mercer Management Consulting; Tom Van Berkel, the president and CEO of insurance firm Main Street America Group; Peter Klein, the senior vice-president of strategy and business development for Gillette; and Tricia Stone, a founding partner of Stone Communications, offer advice on this fictional case study.

• Presentation skills
• Marketing management
• Marketing strategy