Yesterday, I interviewed Jon Stevens who leads consulting for Ariba. www.ariba.com  Smart guy.  Ariba provides “on-demand” procurement solutions for businesses.  In other words, they provide an online platform for companies to automate and control their spending on goods and services.  Ariba’s web-based tools allow companies to procure professional services online – sometimes in a reverse auction environment.   The Company also hosts www.aribadiscovery.com which is a buyer-seller marketplace site where suppliers can make themselves known to buyers.  From an brainpower-intensive, professional services firm perspective, it is hard to see why a Firm would want to be present on Ariba Discovery unless they are comfortable being considered commodity vendors.  Click down into the professional services or creative services supplier links and the specific professional disciplines are listed under the header of “commodities.”  Will professional services firms really be commoditized – turned into a “vendor” rather than an advisor – in the face of online reverse auctions and other automated procurement trends?  I don’t think so.  The Great Recession has definitely accelerated the trend of companies involving procurement staffers and online systems for “sourcing” professional services at the time of an identified need.  And, professional firms need to know how to play the online procurement game.  However, deep and genuine and substantive content-rich relationships between professionals and prospective clients will forever influence the choice of advisors when the engagement matters most to a company.   And, the best and smartest firms and professionals will continue to prove that there’s nothing commodity about what they do and how they do it.  But don’t take my word for it…listen to this conversation with Jon Stevens and let me know what you think.

“Stuck”
under the volcanic ash cloud in Europe, I had a lot of time to reflect on how challenging
intercultural interactions can be between an American professional and non-US
prospects and clients.  It’s a good thing
that I have a friend who is expert on such concerns.  David Lange is co-founder and Managing
Partner of Aventine Associates – an international firm which helps global organizations work
productively across different cultures with communication and inter-cultural
leadership training solutions.  David
and his colleagues are incredibly smart and insightful about inter-cultural
organization matters – especially as they relate to business development and
client relationship building.  As the
world gets smaller for professional advisors, we all need to understand what
David does. www.aventineassociates.com

Are you famous or infamous?  How about your clients?  At Creative Growth www.creativegrowthgroup.com, we often ask our clients, “What are you famous for?”  That question is a provocative way to investigate, “What makes you different and better as a professional?”  We like to follow that up by explaining that being “famous for something” as a professional doesn’t mean that you’re on the cover of the Rolling Stone or Sports Illustrated.  It’s about what you’re the go-to person for in terms of the unique benefits you deliver for clients and what makes you so good at what you do.  That’s what we usually mean…Except this episode of Professional Atlanta was different…because on this day we interviewed two professionals who play in a world where “being famous” actually DOES mean being on the cover of Entertainment Weekly or the front page of the Sports Section. 

Jini Thornton and Andrew Schutt joined us for this episode which is focused on how professional services providers attract and manage relationships with professional athletes and entertainers and the unique challenges and opportunities associated with this market.  Jini is the founder and President of Envision Business Management Group www.embginc.com which she established in 1998 to help sports and entertainment industry clients make sound decisions and achieve financial security. And we also spoke with Andrew Schutt who leads the Entertainment and Sports Practice Team for the law firm of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.  www.agg.com   Jini and Andrew provided superb insight and on-the-fly advice for questions like, “What would you advise if Tiger Woods were your client?” and “What’s the next big thing in sports and entertainment?”  In an industry where it’s hard to know who you can trust, fortunately there are smart standouts like Jini and Andrew.

If you listen closely, you can hear the rumbling bellies of Professional Services Firms that have stoically survived recession and now regained their ravenous appetite for the best talent.  The shark-like recruiting jaws of these Firms open wide and out spouts the constant refrain, “With so much great talent on the market, it’s time to upgrade.”  Too bad so many firms will make the same hiring and development mistakes they’ve always made – leaving them with the same mediocre talent levels they had before – just with new faces attached.   How can Firms ensure upgrade success?  Is there a systematic way to spot and groom the next generation of leaders for your firm?  Kelly Land and Martin Freedland of The Berke Group say so.  They develop and execute talent management systems for major corporations and professional firms.  Of course, we’re biased about The Berke Group since their assessment tool is the backbone of Creative Growth’s Rainmaker Assessment and Archetypes program.  www.berkegroup.com

Have you ever had a mentor or been a mentor to someone?  It isn’t easy to do right…either as mentor or mentee.  It seems that most of the professional services firms we encounter at Creative Growth Group www.creativegrowthgroup.com really want to be good at mentoring but they are usually shockingly bad at it.  Helene Lollis is a master of mentoring and President of Pathbuilders.  www.pathbuilders.com  Her firm works with companies to shape their futures with high-performing women by customizing and delivering external mentoring programs,   Her clients include major professional services firms like Deloitte, KPMG and Kilpatrick Stockton as well as major corporations like AT&T, Cisco and Coca-Cola Enterprises.  We asked Helene to share suggestions on what professional services firms can do to more effectively mentor and groom high-potential professional women.