My Last post of 2007

2007 was an unforgettable year for me. Maybe, when I am an old man, playing with my grandchildren, I'll tell them about this year. I did say, maybe.

It was the year when the actual meaning of being an independent consultant actually hit me, and my own shortcomings were exposed. Cash was running out and I was staring closely at bankruptcy. It was then that I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and decided to join a firm. In June a large technology and management consulting firm made me an offer to be part of their Leadership Development group, but it would have meant uprooting the family and moving cities, and while the offer was interesting I was forced to say no to it.

Then finally in October I decided to join Tvarita Consulting, and the best part of being here is that it combines the best things of both life as an independent person as well as being part of a larger organization. For me the most fulfilling thing is the ability to convert business leads due to the capability of a larger and experienced team. The ability to join a co-worker for a coffee and brainstorm over ideas is something that an independent consultant often misses.

On the blog front, it has been a great year. I've had more traffic in this year than all previous years combined. And yes, my AdSense earnings went up considerably too ;-)

The highlight of the year was that thanks to the blog, a lot of media folks discovered me and I got a fair share of exposure in the news. Thanks folks, you know who you are :)

One of the most interesting things about blogging is meeting folks you follow virtually, in person. This year I met Rashmi Bansal and Jim Stroud in person during their visits to Hyderabad :-) It's amazing how known a person feels when you have been following their blog posts over a period of time. Unfortunately missed meeting Dina Mehta during her visit. And one jobsite CEO actually took to blogging after our conversation when we met in Hyderabad. Sanjeev, I hope you get back to blogging more regularly :)

Some other friends started to blog too. Prasad Kurian, my senior from XLRI, for example, has some of the most insightful takes on OD and HR. His take on issues in organizations is a must read for HR and non-HR folks. Ishita Bardhan, a junior from XLRI, on the other hand posted only four times and this post by her got quoted verbatim in Paulo Coelho's newsletter.

I also started Facebooking and Twittering this year and thanks to them know a lot more about my friends, like how Australian blogger Michael Specht was watching Australia whallop India at the MCG test match today (ouch!). I also added my blogger rss feed to feedburner and got a good idea of my total subscribers now :) Also created a community on MyBlogLog and you can join if you want to connect with other readers of the blog. My daily links through del.icio.us are available on my personal blog. You can also follow the blog posts I find interesting through my Google Reader shared items page.

It never ceases to amaze me how blogging can help one connect with people whom you might have never met. I mean, how else can one describe my connecting with Ford Harding, the professional services rainmaking guru?

As the year ends, I received some good news. HRWorld thinks this blog is amongst the top 25 HR blogs worldwide.

Thanks for giving me your attention through the whole of 2007 and I hope I keep coming up with stuff to deserve your attention in 2008 too.

Wish you a very prosperous and hope-fulfilling new year !

Associating with a Consulting firm t Hyderabad

For people who follow my career, here's an update...

After more than a year of an independent consulting venture, I've bowed to the fact that maybe I can't do it all alone.

Hence, I've decided to join forces with some people who are doing some great and innovative work in HR consulting and outsourcing . Remember the new take on HR outsourcing I talked about? Well, it offers that service.

My role would be two fold. I would be working with them to look after HR service delivery for some ongoing projects and also look at building and delivering new business in HR consulting areas.

Then there's the question of Blogging and Social Media Consulting that Imagence was offering. While the services do not tie into its service offerings, we would evaluate any request for blogging related services by a client and then evaluate if we could deliver it.

In hindsight, working independently is a great learning experience and I loved the flexibility that I got through it. The downside was that if a couple of inquiries for work came in I could not build a longer pipeline of work unless clients had responded to earlier proposals.

My blogging brochure

A large Indian firm contacted me and started preliminary discussions how I can help them with their business blogging initiatives.

So I made a list of what I have done which would mark me as a "business blogging" expert and I came up with this document. Do let me know if you think this needs improvement. I am sure it can be improved a lot !

And those who haven't seen it, here's one of my first presentations that I made to a client on business blogging.

Careful, it's a 2 MB presentation so downloading on a dial-up connection might not be a great idea.

However a better idea would be to see it here

Blogs as a marketing tool

Well I've thought of blogs as a tool for self-expression, and a community tool, also as a learning tool, but I never really thought of them as marketing tools.

However, ever since we started the Imagence Partners in September I have been getting inquiries for consulting assignments because of the blog.

That's because of the high ranking blogs get in organic search results.

For example take a look at the results of a Google search results for "organizational consultant india":

The 4 results have three from this blog.

Whereas a search for "employment branding India" gives the top two results from this blog, and the third result is my article written on Recruiting.com

So, my advice to any startup businesses, or those who cannot afford a lot of cash for traditional advertising and PR - start blogging. Of course, it needs a little bit of time and effort, but if you are really passionate about your work, that shouldn't be too much of an issue- right?

Well if you do have some money, you can always ask me for either a training or consulting assignment on how to integrate social media for your organization :-)

Checkout UK finance jobs on Accountant Careers.

Small business employment branding through blogs

As part of a workshop on blogging and social media that I am doing for a client tomorrow (verry big FMCG company) I was hunting for examples of how organizations are using blogs for attracting employees.

Through Matt's blog I landed at DigitalGrit's Job Blog. It's a perfect case study of how smaller firms can target prospective employees using social media like blogs. Note that they have presence at MySpace .

One of the ways smaller organizations can ain attention of the blogosphere is also to hire a very well known blogger, like webchutney hired Saket :-) And since Saket has been a recruiter for so long using his blog to hire people for Webchutney as well as build awareness for the firm.

An OD , HR and Blogging consultant

Well, ever since I sent out an email to friends and acquaintences informing them about launching The Imagence Partners, I have recieved a couple of resumes from people who assume that I might be a recruiter too. I admit, some of my blogging buddies are recruiters, but in India these days HR Consulting is coming to be almost synonymous with Recruitment :-)

So, here's a clarification:

I am not a recruiter, headhunter or placement consultant.

My focus is helping organizations developing people and systems that they already have, to make themselves more effective.

There are three main reasons why I am not into recruitment.

1. Because my skills are mostly around asking questions that help organizations to change and develop.
2. Because there might be a conflict of interest if I offer recruitment services along with my other services.
3. We want to remain a small firm and give personal attention to our clients. With the war for talent hotting up in India, recruitment firms cannot afford to be two-people shows :-)

So, if you still send me your resume/CV here is what I will do:

• I will send it to a recruiter friend and will cc you into the mail, so that you can have the conversation directly with them
• Follow up emails to me will not be a priority item for me to answer.

Of course, I will continue to link to interesting stuff like this chat the Job Gals are having with technical jobseekers. If you are in India it might be a little late in the evening for you, but Zoe and Gretchen are very good, so it would be worth the trouble of keeping awake !

presenting The Imagence Partners

When I decided on turning freelance, I asked you for a name of my firm. I got tonnes of suggestions, and while I liked quite a few of them, I finally decided on a name today.

Before that there were some names we considered, like Zeitgiest (German for "Spirit of the Times"), but folks told us it would be too difficult for people to remember. We also considered Aspen, the name of a tree that senses the slightest breeze, but there already exists an Aspen Institute.

We also wanted a name that captures our philosophy behind the OD, HR and Blog consulting work we aspire to do: and that is that it is not possible for us as external consultants to have the answers that the clients may no know, but that as external people, we have less of their blind spots and can see more possibilities. If these are identified then they would evolve and develop into strengths for the future.

Thus emerged (an appropriate word) the words - Image/Imagine and Emergence - that coalesce to form Imagence.

Partners - because that's what we are, of each other, and that's what we aspire to be for our clients :-)

Here's the first draft of the (temp) website of The Imagence Partners. Hopefully it will emerge (!) better as the days go by. Your thoughts are welcome.

The dilemma of blog Consulting fees

Today I had my first meeting with a client who wants me to be a blogging consultant for his small service firm.

I've agreed and have taken some time to get back to him with a pricing model for my services.

That's the biggest challenge I am facing these days. How do you bill for a service that is so different, and which is a hobby for most people (me included) ? In fact Hugh nails it in this cartoon.

Current thoughts are to bill a certain amout for time spent over the next six months and to ask for a share of additional business they will get as a a result of the blog being there.

Anyone has a better idea?

Turning freelance

The word freelance has a mercenary ring to it. After all, it was derived from being a lance (spear) guy who was available to fight on your behalf. Sort of like, a "gun-for-hire"

So last week when my wife and I made one of the most momentous decisions of our lives so far, martial glory was the furthest thing from our minds.

Friends and family told us we were stupid.

• For me to leave a firm like this
• For us to say goodbye to fixed monthly salary like, er...OK, take my word for it...it was (is) good!
• To jump around from firm to firm to firm like this and then to chuck it all up and start our own firm !

So why are we doing it?

• Because this is the place we feel that our purpose, passions and gifts intersect.
• Simply because we feel that it's about time we listened to our hearts and our dreams
• What we actually want to work on, isn't available in larger organizations
• If we make excuses now, we will continue to make excuses even 10 years down the line

What do we want to do?

We believe that organizations and employees have a relationship that could be much more trusting and open and authentic. We would work with organizations who like to become such employers.

So what exactly will we be doing?

• Blogging, Social Software and related tools will be a major part of this new venture. For some hints check these posts out in the recent past.
• Focussing on helping small and medium businesses with HR systems, strategy and development of their HR function is a mission that close to both our hearts. There is a tremendous skill shortage in the mid-size organizations and HR audits, assessments, development and strategy facilitation is what we would like to bring to them.
• Related to the above point, Organizational structure, culture and services related to them would also be offered.
• Individual training programs would also be a major service offering. These would typically be focussed on internal HR skills development so would cover areas like Competency Based Interviewing, Facilitation and Coaching skills, Internal Client skills.

What are our point of views? Here are some samples

By the way, we are on the lookout for a name for our firm...got any ideas?