He ran into her recently at a professional association meeting. As it turns out, her employer had reduced their staff, and she had gotten a pink slip. Michael suggested that in addition to traditional avenues for finding her next position (executive recruiters, employment websites, and networking), that she use LinkedIn as part of her job search.

She found a position that had only been listed on Linked In. Why? The employer used LinkedIn as a real-life test of whether their candidates were networked using modern-day technology and tools.

Finding a job on LinkedIn is yet another way to combine the power of today’s technology and your personal and professional networks.    2007

Mergers are taking place, with the most recent big deal being Delta’s takeover of Northwest. Many overlapping routes will be eliminated and the number of flights between cities will more than likely decrease—as will many Northwest jobs along with them. After all, airline mergers are supposed to be effective because of cost reductions—meaning a reduction in flight routes, equipment and people.

All of these changes undoubtedly will result in reduced competition and higher ticket prices. These events also can be expected to flow over into air freight. If the airlines raise their prices, it will give room to other transportation segments to do the same.

We recommend keeping a sharp eye on these developments and how the higher costs will affect your business.

Although hardware companies have always relied on thought leadership to support sales (think white papers and presentations), the addition of consulting offerings requires a new level of sophistication. They are no longer just touting the benefits to the customer of a product. Now, the hardware manufacturers are agreeing to make the benefit happen. Selling that idea requires an even greater perception of expertise…that you will get from pursuing a thought leadership strategy.

This survey is being administered by Sterling Research Group, an independent research firm. All answers are confidential and no individual responses will be revealed. In appreciation for your generous contribution of about ten to fifteen minutes, you will receive a copy of the survey results and, if you choose, two additional free reports on how to best use consultants.

When you have received the results of the survey, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss them with you. Please contact us if you have questions about the survey.

For some reason, on one of the flights, I actually listened to the flight attendant as he welcomed us on board. He told us how he wanted to make our flight as pleasant as possible. This was my fourth flight in less than 24 hours. So it didn’t ring very true to me. I looked around to see if anyone saw the irony in his comments. Most people probably tuned him out from the beginning.

Depending on how old you are, you may remember that in coach you used to get cloth napkins and real silverware with your meal—yes, I said meal. Then we went disposable. Then we went to “light” meals. Now we are down to soft drinks. No peanuts (too many people with allergies) and no pretzels. It’s like being on a bread and water diet without the bread.

The message from the airlines is that we all have to pay because no one has figured out how to make a profit at this business. As a customer, I’m not impressed.

If the consultant has experience; that’s fine. And a good case probably can be made as to the applicability of that experience to the prospect’s needs—the most obvious and biggest advantage being the shorter learning curve regarding standard industry practices, terminology, and industry players.

However, a strong case also can be made for bringing a fresh set of eyes to a problem. A professional who does not have specific industry expertise can argue that lessons learned from working with companies in other industries can be the generator of new and better ways of doing things. In this way, best practices can be created for your client, drawn on best practices from those outside the industry.

We have seen this play out lately in a number of situations in our own business and in those of our clients. Sometimes prior knowledge brings valuable perspective to a challenging situation, and sometimes it puts blinders on the consultant preventing them from seeing beyond the “common wisdom” of the industry.

Next time you look for industry expertise, think very specifically about what kind of expertise you really need.

In a prior corporate life, I had a boss that held a weekly call with our geographically dispersed team. He was trying to generate better performance against goals that no one, not even he, believed in. Our mandate as a group had been changed, and no one in the field believed in the reasons for, or the potential for success of, this new approach to our business. People went through the motions of doing what was asked of them but not much more. Frustrations ran high and our weekly meetings became shouting matches. Sadly, management had a great information base for learning but was not open to it. In retrospect, it is amazing how long those meetings went on before people started quitting.

Contrast this with a recent example where we helped the CEO at one of our clients, a quickly growing company, get control of myriad challenges using a disciplined meeting every ten days. We would start the meetings by looking at the sales pipeline. This was a good way to look at the market, competition, product delivery, and whether there was repeat or referral business. With this information to give us perspective, we attacked marketing issues—focusing on their unique differentiators and what the right marketing vehicles were (trade shows and face-to-face meetings, as it turned out). We then shifted our focus to address staffing issues to accommodate the growth. This discipline has helped the company sail past their break-even point and, and they are now headed toward strong profitability with good levels of customer satisfaction and retention. The discipline of regular meetings has been a key element of this success.

Paralysis by over-analysis meant that years of planning and investors’ money went down the drain because the partners who had control did not execute to make it all happen. Nike had a famous slogan a few years back: “Just Do It.” Ultimately, action is the only path to results.

• At Procter & Gamble, CEO A.G. Lafley has changed strategic reviews from being endless PowerPoint sessions to intense conversations. Presenters can only have three slides. Debate is organized around the discussion of “where to play” and “how to win.” Read more on this approach in, “Best-Kept Secrets of the World’s Best Companies” from Business 2.0.

• Ferrari sponsors a Creativity Club that offers classes by artists ranging from painters, sculptors, jazz musicians, writers, radio DJs, photographers, chefs, actors, even an orchestra conductor, in order to learn new ways to generate ideas and solutions. Read more in this article entitled, “Sparking Creativity at Ferrari” in the Harvard Business Review.

• Corning invites outside experts to address groups prior to brainstorming sessions. A deep dive into specific content such as nanotech or renewable energy is used as a catalyst for conversations about opportunities. Read more in “Best-Kept Secrets of the World’s Best Companies” from Business 2.0.

How can you craft a more productive conversation at your next meeting?

This approach contrasts significantly to Kaplan and Norton’s in that it advocates building strategic capacity deep into the organization. How can this be done? You need to arm your people with tools for gathering high-quality information, tools for analyzing and synthesizing that information, and tools to link strategy with action and measurement.

Innovation is a sorely needed fuel for growth in our economy, and it is rarely legislated from the top successfully. Why not equip your people with the tools to help carry your company into the future? It may be your only option.

Click here for more information on our approach to teaching this critical skill throughout your organization.