RTM Consulting

Heroic Delivery: The Hallmark (and Death March) of most PS Organizations

A Guide to Building a Scalable PS Organization and Avoiding Burnout of Your Best People

Mark E. Sloan Chief Operating Officer

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2007 - 2011 RTM Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

HEROIC DELIVERY: THE HALLMARK (AND DEATH MARCH) OF MOST PS ORGANIZATIONS

This document is a guide to building a scalable PS Organization.

BACKGROUND
Through our work with clients, RTM Consulting has been able to analyze the utilization data of a variety of Consulting and Professional Service Organizations (PSOs) both large and small. In virtually every situation, we have seen that 10-20% of the population is 90% or more utilized. In a number of cases, 510% of the population was over 100% utilized. We all know that overtime and going the distance is part of the job, but in these cases, people were 100%+ utilized for a full year. What makes matters worse, anywhere from 20-40% of the population was less than 60% utilized. How does this happen? Do these statements sound familiar? I have to have <fill in the name> on my project. No one else! No, those resources are not experts. It has to be <fill in the name>! <Fill in the name> can come shadow the project, but Im not paying for the time. <Fill in the name> can you work on both of these projects at the same time? Many PSOs start as small organizations. In small organizations, PS executives hire experts or employees develop into experts by necessity as there is no one else around to do the job. As the PSO grows, either organically or through acquisition, the same initial experts are still doing a majority of the work. The organization is systematically either unable or unwilling to mint a new generation of experts. This document will provide a guide to building a scalable PS organization.

WHY IS THIS A PROBLEM?

Amazingly, many PSOs do not fully recognize the extent of this problem. First of all, the problem is often masked at the executive level because: 1. Somehow the work keeps getting accomplished; and 2. Overall utilization is at or near the target for the organization. The beauty of the typical pool of experts in PSOs is that they just keep on going. They thrive on being in demand and at the center of the action of the organization. Additionally, when the PSO executive looks at the data, the 10-20% of the PS employees with extremely high utilization helps to balance out

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the 20-40% with low utilization. The result is an organization that has net utilization in the high 60% range. When viewed in aggregate, executives see this utilization as ok and move on to other issues. The issue is that one of two things will happen: 1. The experts will eventually burn-out and leave the organization; or 2. The organization will not be able to scale to meet expanding needs (which only serves to accelerate the first point).

BREAKING THE SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT SHORTAGE CYCLE

The problem of a Subject Matter Expert (SME) shortage is often seen as a classic chicken and egg problem: an expert needs experience, but a resource cannot get experience without being an expert. That is, Account Teams do not want to invest the funds required to staff a junior resource on the project, but the junior resource will not become an expert without real world field experience. I contend that the decision does not need to be seen as an either, or problem. Rather, by shifting their thinking to developing SMEs, PSO executives can break the SME shortage cycle. There are three key steps that PSO executives can take: Deploy a Career Coaching Model; Launch Comprehensive Development Programs; and Employ Strategic Staffing Assignments.

Strategic Staffing Comprehensive Development

Career Coaching

Career Coaching Model Many of the PSOs we have seen operate in the traditional command and control, top down organization structure. Put more simply, each person on the organization chart works for the person that gives them their daily / weekly / monthly work tasks. However, in this model, the employees supervisor is not always the expert in the topic area of the employee. The supervisor is a supervisor.

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To be successful in grooming new SMEs, new members to the PS team need to have a mentor, a coach, a person they can call to get their questions answered. They also need someone looking out for their future assignments, helping chart out a course of assignments that help them build the necessary skills. Career Coaching is the foundation that provides the employee with a safe place to address their needs. Comprehensive Development Programs Training, Development, Knowledge Transfer. Call it what you want, we all know it needs to be done. However, we all rarely spend enough time, energy or money in this area. Yet, it is so critical. In our work doing Resource Management Diagnostics, a common refrain from most client organizations is that We need more <product; consulting; methodology> training. These programs do not need to be expensive programs. Rather, it can be: Self paced training that is taken after normal work hours; Access to a well organized knowledge base that is accessible electronically; or A message board that is governed by other experts in the organization.

The resources you have hired are smart, intelligent people. Otherwise you would not have hired them. You simply need to give them the access to tools, knowledge base, reference guides that will help them along the way. Strategic Staffing Of the three recommendations, this is likely the cheapest to implement and most productive in developing future experts. As mentioned early in this paper, we often hear the refrain, We need more experts. I am willing to let some new employees shadow a project but Im not going to pay for them. The problem is, someone needs to pay, but few PSOs allocate the budget for idle resources. To address this need, we have seen successful PSOs leverage the staffing assignment process to build new experts. As project needs are defined, they look at how to pair up more and less experienced resources. This could involve: Pairing up two new developers with a more seasoned developer; Staffing a new / junior project manager on a team of seasoned architects and analysts; or Assigning an expert architect to three projects and giving the expert the leverage of three to four junior architects across those projects.

The list of permutations and combinations could go on. The point is, by strategically staffing your teams you can create the opportunity to develop new experts. You may be throwing new people into an uncomfortable environment, but you are also surrounding them with the additional support that they need to get the job done and learn from the experience.

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CLOSING
We have all seen heroic delivery. Through the course of our progression up the PSO career ladder, we have likely exhibited some of these traits: going above and beyond; working 70+ hour work weeks; making it happen. These are all great traits in an individual but difficult to scale in an organization. Losing a hero can have a tremendous impact on a PSO. PSO executives need to make their experts expendable by developing more experts. Developing people is a process and will take time; but, its better than the alternative of doing nothing and finding yourself without the right people.

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ABOUT RTM CONSULTING AND THE AUTHOR

Cincinnati-based RTM Consulting provides strategic and operational advice to assist technology companies with increasing revenues and margins by leveraging professional, consulting and shared services more effectively. Specializing in Resource Management and Services Business Optimization, RTM Consulting helps IT hardware and software companies, consulting businesses and shared services organizations get better at what they do. With its unique Just-in-Time Resourcing solution and Business Acceleration Services, RTM Consulting helps large, medium and small firms move beyond theory to practical application of industry best practices and achievement of exceptional results in the shortest possible period of time. Mark E. Sloan is the COO of RTM Consulting. Mark is an industry pioneer with respect to defining and deploying Global Resource Management processes for Consulting and Professional Service Operators. Mark is a frequent speaker at industry events and has served as an Advisory Board Member for the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA). Prior to his current role as COO and Senior Founding Partner of RTM Consulting, Mark held a number of executive consulting and entrepreneurial roles with Accenture and Convergys.
2007 - 2011 RTM Consulting, LLC. All rights reserved.

RTM Consulting, LLC 855-786-2555 info@rtmconsulting.net www.rtmconsulting.net

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The Challenge
Technology service providers and other human capital intensive service organizations including hardware, software and consulting companies, internal shared service organizations and outsourcing entities all know that efficient management of human capital, project processes, and other service delivery and go-to-market related processes are key to market success. Todays challenging business environment makes running a services business highly dependent upon having lean and proven business and operational processes designed for peak performance.

Company Capabilities Overview

Our mission is to help consulting, professional, and shared services organizations get better at what they do Who We Are
RTM Consulting provides strategic and operational advisory services to technology companies and other industries to assist them in increasing revenues and growing margins by leveraging consulting, professional and shared services more effectively.

What We Do
Strategic Planning Services - We use our extensive leadership experience to help services organizations build the right strategy and operational model to make value creation a reality. Resource Management - We help you focus on Getting the Right Person in the Right Place at the Right Time with our Just-in-Time Resourcing (JITR) solution. Project and Portfolio Management Our unique PMO/PM frameworks will help your organization efficiently run projects on-time, on-budget, with consistently excellent quality. PS Business Optimization - Our skilled practitioners help you identify and implement best practices necessary to transform your services business into the most efficient and effective operation possible. Skills Development/Training - We enhance the soft skills of your consulting and professional services personnel to complement your product, business and technical knowledge. We also offer training in project management, resource management and other services based disciplines. PSA/PPM Consulting - We provide an objective third party assessment and assistance in choosing the right automation solution for your needs and assist you with implementation to achieve the benefits of your investment. Outsourcing Advisory Services - We assist both providers and consumers of outsourcing services with Strategic Sourcing Consulting, Resource Management Strategies, Business Optimization, Skills Development and Training, and Resource Management/Project Management Automation. Value Realization Services - Our unique Value Realization Framework enables you to help your clients close the technology consumption gap by accelerating adoption of your products full range of features and functions.

The Solution
Our unique combination of decades of services and outsourcing operational experience coupled with solutions targeted to the services organization allow us to work with large, medium and small firms to move beyond theory to practical application of industry best practices and achievement of exceptional results in the shortest possible period of time. Contact Us: www.RTMConsulting.net 855.786.2555 info@RTMConsulting.net

How We Do It
Our highly disciplined management consulting and operational services include:
Rapid Diagnostics to identify opportunities to improve business performance. Implementation Services to make solution implementation fast and effective. Business Planning Services to turn your vision into a realistic operating plan. Business Acceleration Services to accelerate your time to value with RTMC solutions.

Copyright 2007 2011 RTM Consulting, LLC. All Rights Reserved.