The Value Effect

Who Killed the Consultant?

Who killed consultant Michael Fallon? The deed was done during the Lodestar executive team’s annual two-day retreat at an old estate turned into a business conference center. As usual, the agenda was dedicated to reviewing the current next big thing. In previous years, the Lodestar leadership had examined total quality, reengineering, empowerment, customer focus and other next big things (or NBTs). This year they gathered to decide whether to continue their creating-value-connections (CVC) program for another year, since it had dramatically improved productivity, efficiency, market share and profits.

Fallon was prepared to start the meeting, but he talked to Carpenter, the head of his consulting firm, and changed his plan. Instead of discussing his agenda topic - CVC: The Bigger Picture - he gave opening remarks and said he would discuss it the next morning. Then, executives who had been involved in the CVC program gave their presentations.

One executive talked about how eight teams of three people each had engaged customers in a series of face-to-face "value conversations." These teams included people from different functions and hierarchical...