[转帖]WHEN CONSULTANTS AND CLIENTS CLASH

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WHEN CONSULTANTS AND CLIENTS CLASH fficeffice" />

Both sides found the assignment simple and straightforward. So why is everyone unhappy?

"How did I ever get myself into this situation?" Susan Barlow said, sighing in frustration. Less than 12 hours remained until an ffice:smarttags" />8 A.M. status meeting with the most misguided and cantankerous client she'd ever worked for, and Barlow was sitting in her office, drumming her fingers on her well-organized desk. Neat piles of policy documents and transcribed interviews obscured the project management flowchart she had drawn for the Kellogg-Champion project, and she pulled it free to inspect it for what seemed like the hundredth time. Where was Jim with the take-out menus? Once they had eaten, they could get down to business. Between the two of them, they should be able to figure out a defensible course of action fairly quickly. After all, the Kellogg-Champion Securities engagement had seemed like such a straightforward job- at first. Indeed, when the Kellogg-Champion opportunity had dropped into her lap, Barlow, a senior consultant with the Statler Group, thought it a lucky break. She was happy when she got the call from her director of human resources. The conversation had been brief and to the point: Kellogg & Meyer had merged with Champion Securities. The new CEO of Kellogg-Champion, Royce Kellogg, had engaged the Statler Group for a fairly simple job: to reconcile the policies and practices of the two former firms now that they had become Kellogg-Champion: Another senior consultant assigned to the case had suddenly resigned for personal reasons, and Barlow's background in the securities industry made her the ideal replacement. The Statler Group and Kellogg had already agreed on fees and a schedule, but the project had not yet begun. Could Barlow fill in? Barlow had been particularly enthusiastic because the consulting firm had recently decided to target the securities industry as a new source of growth. And although she had never dealt with a merger before, six years of successful consulting experience told her that the task would consist mostly of comparing two sets of policies in detail and then touching base with the relevant managers. She had thought she would be able to crack the case quickly if she pushed through the grunt work fast enough-and the project's profitability depended on speed. Jim Roussos, a junior consultant with two years' tenure at Statler, would be working with her, she had learned in that initial phone conversation. Roussos had been assigned to the project from the start. Thinking back now, Barlow sighed again. She wished she could say that Roussos or any other single factor was responsible for the mess they were in, but she couldn't. From day one, Roussos had shown himself to be a hard worker. Finding the flowchart useless, Barlow tossed it aside. Every deadline had slipped. How could such a simple project go awry? What had she done wrong? And where were those dratted menus? She was starving.

Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time

Barlow thought back to the kickoff meeting that had taken place almost immediately after she accepted the assignment-a mere two weeks earlier. Although Royce Kellogg had struck Barlow as overconfident and patronizing in that first meeting, she remembered shrugging off his behavior as typical of an entrepreneurturned-CEO. "Maybe I should have taken some of his grandstanding more seriously," she thought with a twinge of regret. "Maybe he really meant some of the stuff that I wrote off as corporate platitudes." She tried to remember Kellogg's exact words-something like, "Although my firm acquired Champion Securities and I am its chairman and CEO, the integration of our two firms is a merger of equals. Each of the firms contributes important strengths to the combination, and all our employees know that." Barlow remembered smiling in encouragement at the banalities. After all, he was the client. Barlow also recalled Kellogg's explanation of why the postmerger integration had gone so smoothly. It all had sounded like a well-worn lecture to her: "The secret is careful planning before the two come together, and good communication from start to finish." Then he added, "Because the big integration-related issues have been resolved, the only thing that remains to be done is finalizing common operating policies and procedures in ways that are good business and fair to all involved." Clearly, Kellogg had believed that the job of merging policies and procedures would be simple. And he had also made it clear that because both sets of policies were the same in many respects, he didn't see the need to create any new policies. "I have already notified key employees that you will be calling, and I've asked them to give you their full cooperation," he had added. "Be sure to touch base with folks from both sides so that nobody feels left out." When Barlow had received the list of people to contact, she began to wonder whether everything really was as simple as it appeared. Were all these people truly in agreement? She read the newspapers-since when had a merger ever gone so smoothly? But Barlow also knew that Kellogg had built his original firm from nothing into a huge success, and he seemed like the kind of forceful leader who could plow through anything and make it work. So voicing none of her doubts, Barlow had agreed to the schedule with outward enthusiasm: a status meeting to discuss any problems in two weeks and a final report in a month.

Twenty-Twenty Hindsight

Barlow now wished that she and Roussos had accomplished more during the first week. She had spent the first two days after the kickoff meeting extricating herself from another project while Roussos collected and organized the myriad documents that formed the policies and procedures of Kellogg & Meyer and its rival, Champion Securities. In what remained of the week, they had identified policies that were the same and developed a detailed list of differences. The list of differences outweighed the list of similarities by a fairly large margin. Barlow winced when she remembered how surprised she and Roussos had been by the number of discrepancies. Why hadn't warning bells gone off then? And why hadn't she and Roussos been more concerned about how hard it was to schedule interviews with the major players? Two of those employees had called Kellogg's ofrice to find out if it was okay to talk to "these outsiders." When Roussos had joked, "Kellogg's brilliant communication about the merger may have stopped at the outer door of headquarters' inner sanctum," Barlow had laughed grimly and vowed to work harder. She remembered that she had decided to focus first on the sensitive area of compensation policy: better to identify the biggest problems and deal with them as soon as possible.

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From Bad to Worse fficeffice" />

The first conversation-the one that set the unhappy tone for the Others had been with Carol Ludwig, the polite but brisk director of human resources from Kellogg & Meyer. When Barlow had asked Ludwig her opinion about the merged firm's compensation policy, Ludwig answered coolly that she could save everybody a lot of time by simply referring them to Kellogg, & Meyer's policy manual. "We revised our compensation system just before the merger to make it truly state-ofthe-art," she had explained. "Champion's outmoded compensation system no longer meets the organization's needs." According to Ludwig, Champion's brokers were "thrilled to pieces" at the prospect of switching to Kellogg & Meyer's compensation system. But Barlow and Roussos hadn't had a chance to question her more closely about that assertion. Ludwig's secretary had interrupted them after only 20 minutes to announce the director's next appointment. And as Ludwig hurried the consultants out of her office, Barlow got the feeling that her distracted promise to answer any other questions at a more convenient time was just a way to get rid of them. Next Barlow and Roussos had interviewed Tom Flynn. The former director of human resources for Champion Securities, Flynn hadn't had the faintest idea why the consultants wanted to talk to him. He said that Kellogg had not told him about the consultants, adding, "But that's not unusual, since I've been out of the communication loop ever since the merger. Perhaps you could let me in on Kellogg's plans?" Barlow remembered her embarrassment when she had told Flynn that the merged firm planned to adopt Kellogg & Meyer's compensation system. His response had been angry-and loud: "You got that from Carol Ludwig, didn't you? She knows we agreed to use Champion Securities' compensation policy. Champion's brokers are the best in the business, and there's no way they would stand for any changes in compensation. Before the merger, Royce Kellogg promised not to change anything. Carol and I have been over this a hundred times, and the only thing we agreed to use from Kellogg & Meyer was the computer program that keeps track of compensation. Wait till Champion's brokers hear about this. We'll have mass resignations on our hands!" Remembering that scene, Barlow realized uncomfortably that she had probably missed a chance to get inside the reality of the merger. "All I did was try to calm him down," she thought, sighing. "I just tried to pass it off as my misunderstanding. I knew very well that Ludwig clearly saw herself in the driver's seat. Why didn't I consider the implications for Flynn and for everyone else from Champion?" Interviewing the former marketing directors of the two firms had proved equally awkward. John Tucker, senior vice president in charge of marketing for Kellogg & Meyer, had sketched out an organization chart that showed Greg Masters, executive vice president of marketing for Champion, reporting to him. The chart that Masters drew for Barlow and Roussos revealed a different understanding: Masters clearly believed that he and Tucker were on the same level and that both marketing directors reported directly to Kellogg. After the ruckus with Flynn, Barlow had decided not to mention the contradiction to either marketing man. "Am I a coward or a politician?" she wondered ruefully in retrospect. "Maybe both." Barlow then thought back to the consultants' visits to two branch managers-one from each of the former firms. She and Roussos had hoped to find greater agreement at the operational level. "How could I have been so naive?" she thought. The two consultants had split the interviews between them because the branches were in different cities and time was of the essence. Barlow had interviewed Russell Sanders, the manager of one of Champion's most profitable offices. After Sanders had ushered her into his ofrice, he closed the door, lowered his voice, and begged her to keep the conversation in the strictest confidence. "I'm sure they've told you that all the merger issues have been settled and we're all one big, happy family, but don't you believe it," he had said. "Everyone operates under their old policies, and virtually no communication exists between the management personnel of the two predecessor firms. Kellogg pats himself on the back for having done such a great job of bringing the firms together, and nobody has the intestinal fortitude to tell him that the merger has been a colossal failure." Roussos, meanwhile, had spoken with Brian Matsuo, an office manager from Kellogg & Meyer. Matsuo had told Roussos that he was much too busy to bother with office politics and that the merger was going very well, as far as he could tell. His office followed the policies and procedures that had been in effect before the merger, and he saw no need to change anything. When Roussos had probed about specific operating policies, Matsuo referred him to the Kellogg & Meyer policy manual. "Matsuo had no intention of saying anything that deviated in the slightest from the party line," Roussos had told Barlow later that day, over the phone. Barlow had wondered privately whether she could have gotten more out of Matsuo than Roussos did. Maybe she shouldn't have sent the young consultant out alone on such a tough interview.

What to Do?

A knock at the door brought Barlow back to her most pressing need: dinner. Roussos came into the office waving three dog-eared menus. "Sorry it took so long to get back to you," he apologized with a sheepish grin. "I was trying to reconcile the various menus of each type-Chinese, Italian, ribs - to come up with an optimal list of offerings for our team." Barlow laughed. "Let's get some moo shu and figure out what we're going to say to dear Mr. Kellogg in the morning."

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THE CLIENT'S SIDE OF THE STORY fficeffice" />

Royce Kellogg, CEO of KelloggChampion Securities, stared out the window of his twelfth-floor office. It was getting late, and there wasn't much activity on the streets of downtown ffice:smarttags" />Dallas. Slowly, he swiveled his chair around to face the glass walls of the bull pen. Desks and equipment filled the large, open area, and the computer screens glowed eerily. It was strange to see the room so empty. Kellogg thought about the 8 A.M. appointment the next day with the consultants from the Statler Group, and he grimaced. "I hired those people for a simple, straightforward assignment: to help blend policies and programs during the final stages of merging this firm with Champion Securities," he thought. "But those blasted consultants have caused more problems than they've solved." As Kellogg reflected on what his organization had been through, he pounded his fist on the broad arm of his chair. "The people in this firm and I have worked too damn hard to see a couple of inexperienced consultants throw a hand grenade in the middle of everything," he thought. "If Mort were here, he'd have them for breakfast."

Unlikely Bedfellows

Kellogg thought back to the day 34 years earlier when he and his friend and partner, Mort Meyer, had opened the doors to the brokerage house of Kellogg & Meyer. Although both men were expert in securities, Kellogg had made most of the business decisions, while Meyer had excelled at building an organization staffed with long-term, dedicated professionals. Together they had survived some lean times and a couple of nasty recessions, and the firm had earned the respect of the brokerage community from the start. After years of steady growth, Kellogg & Meyer's business and reputation had soared in the 1980s. "When the other firms hit the skids in 1987, we knew how to handle it," Kellogg recalled proudly. Thanks largely to Kellogg's canny reading of the market, the firm's client newsletter had recommended investing 80% in cash and 20% in securities only three weeks before the thud-and many clients had gotten out of the market in the nick of time. After the crash, Kellogg & Meyer had advised its clients to load up on newly undervalued stocks-with very profitable results. Those two tips alone did more for the firm's reputation than its previous quarter century of solid performance. Kellogg & Meyer saw its accounts balloon in the five years following the crash, as it attracted larger and wealthier clients. Under Meyer's guidance, the firm managed its growth brilliantly, and its sprawling network of local branches grew even larger. The success soon tasted bittersweet, however. Kellogg still felt keenly the loss of Meyer to a sudden heart attack three years before. "I wish Mort were here now," Kellogg thought in frustration. "He was always better at dealing with this people stuff. He was so good at 'keeping the firm together, making sure that folks stayed happy. I wish that Stan Carpenter had anything close to Mort's people touch." In fact, Meyer's death had prompted the merger of Kellogg & Meyer and Champion. When Meyer's family sold its interest in the firm, Kellogg had become the largest shareholder. Soon after Meyer's death, Stan Carpenter, CEO of Champion Securities, had invited Kellogg to join him in his box at a Cowboys game, and at halftime, Carpenter had asked Kellogg the question: "What do you say we stop beating up on each other and join forces? Why don't we stop dividing up this pie and make it bigger instead?" Kellogg remembered his fleeting hesitation: he had always run his own show with a man who'd been like a brother to him. What would Kellogg & Meyer be like with Carpenter and Champion attached to it? But Kellogg had decided to take Carpenter seriously. After all, the two firms were about equal in market share, and although Kellogg didn't like to admit it, he had known for a while that Champion was poised for faster growth than his firm was: Champion's brokers concentrated mostly on young, upwardly mobile professionals while Kellogg & Meyer's business depended on older investors. By the end of the football game, the two men had identified enough opportunities for synergy to convince Kellogg that a merger made good sense. "You may be onto something here, Stan," Kellogg remembered saying. "Costs should come down, revenues should go up, and we'd leave everyone else in the dust." Kellogg and Carpenter had met several times in the three weeks following the game. One week later, each CEO had promised the other that he would speak to his board. Kellogg & Meyer's board had supported its CEO wholeheartedly, as they did on most issues he brought to them. Kellogg had been somewhat surprised by the challenges Carpenter's board raisedafter a11, was Carpenter CEO of Champion or not?-but ultimately their questions had been answered and they had approved the merger. "I guess it made sense that they'd balk at the Kellogg name coming first and at my being CEO while Stan is president," he recalled saying to his wife. "They're worried that we'll have enough board members and won't need them anymore. They have nothing to worry about-I want everyone's expertise."

It's Not Rocket Science

"I wonder if maybe we didn't hurry things a bit too much after we decided to merge," Kellogg reflected as he sank deeper into his chair. "I hope that people have had a chance to adjust." During the previous three years, several direct competitors of Kellogg & Meyer had acquired other firms, and those newly combined organizations seemed to be thriving. In the case of Kellogg & Meyer and Champion, both firms operated in the same segment of the same industry, acting as full-service agents providing a broad range of financial instruments. Even the sizes and locations of their branch offices overlapped a great deal. Kellogg knew that it was important to speed the blending of the two cultures. He had developed a statement that he used at all public occasions: "Everyone who is in the boat has to be pulling oars in the same direction. Our two firms had unique cultures before the merger, but we all are ready to place our individual differences aside. From this point on, our firm will operate as a whole unit, not as two separate entities." When questioned by an industry analyst about the magnitude of the differences between the firms and the time it would take to integrate them, Kellogg had responded, "Look, if Stan Carpenter and I can go from rivals to partners, then surely our people can find a way to work out their differences. This isn't rocket science. We're all in the same business, and only the big guys are going to survive." He returned to the present with a start, shaking his head. "I don't understand why this deal with these consultants is such a hassle," he thought, as he stared into the bull pen. "The differences between Kellogg & Meyer and Champion are purely internal. They are completely within our direct control: evaluation, control and compensation, office policies and procedures, hierarchical levels, reporting structures, and executive titles. This is annoying, time-consuming stuff-but it's not difficult. Not like figuring out derivatives !"

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Bring On the Consultants fficeffice" />

It was at the recommendation of business associates, Kellogg remembered, that he had decided to talk to the Statler Group. In the preliminary meeting, he had met Statler partner George Gray, senior consultant Amanda Roth, and junior consultant Jim Roussos. Accepting their proposal with little delay and only a few minor modifications, Kellogg had scheduled a kickoff meeting several weeks later. He also remembered the flash of irritation he felt when he realized that he wouldn't get the Statler consultants he had originally met. "What was that all about, anyway?" he muttered. "Bait and switch? Bring in the partner to sell the business, then fob the client off on some kids cutting their teeth in the business world? I should have raised a fuss in the kickoff meeting." He sighed. His kids were older than Barlow and Roussos. Because the change in consultants had disconcerted him, he had been particularly careful to make a few critical points as powerfully as he could in that meeting. He also had given Barlow and Roussos parts of his integration speech. "I can't imagine that I didn't make myself perfectly clear," he now fumed to the empty bull pen. "I said quite clearly what these consultants could and could not do. I clearly said, 'No new policies. Simply integrate existing policies and programs. Expect full cooperation from any and all employees.' And if that wasn't clear, why didn't they say something? A couple of minor questions, your basic chitchat about the weather- that was all I got. Maybe the partner in charge never even briefed them."

Stirring Up Trouble

"I should have taken the early signs of trouble more seriously," Kellogg thought, chastising himself. As soon as the consultants began conducting their interviews, he had fielded a couple of calls from employees asking what the consultants were doing and whether it was okay to talk to them. "I thought my people just wanted to know if I supported the project," he mused. "I should have taken it as a sign that something else was going on." And things had gone rapidly downhill, Kellogg recalled now. First, Carpenter had called, wanting Kellogg to know that his people were very upset. "Royce, what gives?" Carpenter had asked. "I had to calm Tom Flynn down for an hour after the consultants blew through. Then I had to smooth Greg Masters's ruffled feathers-he wanted to know why he hadn't been consulted about mythical changes in the organization chart. And then one of my best branch managers told me that those two planned to downsize the Champion side by 50%! I had a mutiny on my hands. I can't afford to lose these guys. We've got to stop this before it becomes a runaway train." Kellogg had received equally distressing calls from other parts of the new firm. Office manager Brian Matsuo had been particularly annoyed. "I don't know why these people are here," he had sputtered. "They act as if I'm hiding something when all I'm trying to do is minimize the normal stresses that come with any merger and go about my work."

Damage Control

"Damn it, I'm not getting what I paid for," Kellogg thought angrily. "Where is that Statler partner while his two junior consultants stir up trouble? Do Barlow and Roussos have the experience to operate on their own? Obviously not, if they can't handle a simple interview." He swiveled to face his desk. "Should I keep these people on or call a halt to this farce before things get worse?" he asked himself. "If I do continue with them, how can I make my point any clearer? What can I do about the damage that has already been done?" Finally, he said aloud, "Maybe firing those clowns would signal once and for all that the rumors are false." Then he settled down and wondered what Mort would have done.

										 Is the business relationship between the Statler

												 Group and Kellogg-Champion Securities a lost

													 cause? How should the consultants - and the

																	 client - handle the status meeting?

						 Two commentators advise the consultants, and two advise the

											 client, on whether the situation can be salvaged.

Here is a situation in which the client has outlined an assignment that can be executed only in a fantasy world. JOHN RAU is CEO of Chicago Title & Trust Company. He is the former dean of ffice:smarttags" />laceName>IndianalaceName> laceType>UniversitylaceType>'s laceType>SchoollaceType> of laceName>BusinesslaceName> in Bloomington and the former CEO of LaSalle National Bank and its predecessor, Exchange National Bank. As head of LaSalle and Exchange from 1983 to 1991, Rau presided over two of the largest full bank mergers in the state of Illinois. One could start with the platitude that a consultant's responsibility is to do whatever is best for the client. But here is a situation in which the client has outlined an assignment that can be executed only in a fantasy world. Royce Kellogg, the CEO, has described the situation to the consultants in a way that their field interviews reveal isn't accurate. He himself has only the vaguest inkling that his rosy view-his idea that things are in great shape except for a few miscellaneous details-may not be realistic. Even worse, Kellogg believes that the consultants have created the problems he is just now beginning to see. He doesn't seem to understand that those problems are unavoidable when there is a merger and the leadership fails to provide clear direction or tries to placate both sides. Given all that, the first thing Susan Barlow should do is pull together some general research and literature about mergers in preparation for the next day's status meeting. It's a safe bet that Kellogg has no experience and no database in this area; few people go through mergers more than once or twice in their careers. Unless Barlow replaces Kellogg's wishful thinking with some informed perspectives, there is relatively little chance that she can help him reevaluate his position and move on to a productive course of action for all the parties. By doing this research, Barlow, too, will gain some perspective. First, she'll find that mergers are a high-risk undertaking under the best of circumstances. Most studies suggest that less than 50% of mergers ever reach anywhere near the economic or strategic destination that was envisioned for them. In fact, in many cases the mergers fail because the new company's managers underestimated, ignored, or mishandled the integration tasks. In mergers such as Kellogg-Champion, the integration work is especially important. It would be different if KelloggChampion were a holding .company acquiring a new division in a distinct business, or if it were a new company formed by two organizations that complemented each other by providing links in the supply chain or by offering related goods or services. But for a firm that is formed by two organizations whose customers, products, and markets overlap heavily, the benefits of a merger can be realized only if the new firm can behave as one entity. ......

寂寥微笑

这篇文章在人大哈佛商业评论精粹上有的，那一期好象是《有效冲突化解》

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是吗？不过真的是哈佛商业评论上的。


如果还有人想看我就贴完，没有就算了。