That nagging feeling
I had the opportunity to introduce Möbius and myself to a potential client. After the business-card gavotte, I noticed a discerning glance at the tag-line at the bottom of my card: “Business consulting. Profoundly different.” “Hmmm...” he said, “So, how are you profoundly different?” It’s a question we get a lot, and I was off course ready to answer. “We work on projects in partnership. We do what is right for our client’s customer. We work to achieve sustainable results. We make things small, and take small steps with great results. We dare to speak our mind. We...”
He got the message. The project was sold. And yet there was still that nagging feeling... It’s precisely that nagging feeling during and after projects that really makes us profoundly different! A nagging feeling that keeps us asking: “How could we do it even better? How could we have tackled the project differently? Where could we have given even more directions? Where could we have been more involved? How might we have communicated better? How could we have increased the impact of the training? Was the training what was actually needed? Was this project exactly what the client needed?”
No place for arrogance
“We give the client not what they ask for, but what they need” is what I once heard a friendly competitor say. How arrogant can you get? Consultancy organisations that operate by adopting a “We-know-best model” and a "copy-paste solution model”... who benefits from such an approach?
Some time ago I read in a newspaper: “Consulting Organisation X recruits only the students with the best academic results.” This is clearly a “We-know-best” organisation. Such a copy-paste consultant will obviously come to your rescue. It reminded me of farmers who poison their crops with pesticides.
Möbius farmers, on the other hand, adopt organic sustainable methods. Möbius farmers seek relationships, take the time, empathise, appreciate the history of your organisation, and work on co-creation: farming together, sometimes with bumper crops.
Stop to work hard and play hard
And then there's the corporate culture factor. “Work hard, play hard”. I’ve heard this buzz phrase quite a lot at Möbius. It’s a lamentable buzz-phrase, which coincidentally matches the phrase circulating at other consultancies as well. I’d almost have packed my bags, were it not for the fact that I sense every day what we mean by it at Möbius.
Hard work is not what matters. It’s intelligent work, and getting results, that’s key. Excessive, overblown self-satisfied periods of relaxation do not make us better people, better parents, better partners, better friends or better consultants. Striking a balance and an authentic life is paramount.
“Work smart, live smart!”
In brief
We’re profoundly different:
- because we’re driven by that nagging feeling that sets the bar at ever-more-interesting heights
- thanks to our understanding of what our clients are about, we believe firmly in co-creation, farming, nurturing and reaping the rewards together
- because our employees building their authentic lives carry out intelligent work. Business consulting. Profoundly different. Too damn right!
