With the economic recovery well underway in many regions, clients are confronted with abundant challenges, including the impact of disruptive technologies such as cloud and analytics, the imperative to transform business models to re-focus on revenue growth and profitability, and overcoming the complexity of new and ever-changing consumer behaviors and engagement models. Join Erick Burchfield, Managing Director of Research, Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory (KCRA), along with other KCRA analysts, for this interactive session as they assess the implications of pressing market factors shaping current demand for consulting services. Top-line perspectives on major consulting services include: Strategy and Operations, Human Resources, Financial Consulting & Advisory, and IT Strategy and Planning. Kennedy analysts also identify key market developments driving new client buying behavior during this must-attend session that offers attendees the exclusive opportunity to learn from Kennedy’s top subject-matter experts.

Mobile technology has moved from being disruptive to transformational. The incorporation of smartphones and tablets in consulting is commonplace for collaboration, but how about for driving revenue and streamlining project delivery? Solstice Consulting, an IT firm in Chicago and one of Consulting magazine’s Seven Small Jewels in 2010, was an early adopter of new technologies, including social media and mobile. In addition, the firm has been Inc 500|5000 Fastest Growing Company for the past three years. J. Schwan, Founder and President of Solstice, and Kelly Manthey, Mobile Delivery Manager and Vice President of Consulting Services, outline how mobile has redefined, and will continue to redefine, the consulting profession. In this interactive and forward-looking session, Schwan and Manthey also show firm leaders how to move past the mobile technologies of yesterday into the mobile world of tomorrow, demonstrating how consulting firms of all sizes can use mobile technologies to drive brand awareness, enhance the sales process, increase employee knowledge exchange, improve project delivery, and ultimately, impact the bottom line.

To more clearly determine how companies use cloud today, and how they plan to use it in the future, IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV), in conjunction with the Economist Intelligent Unit, surveyed nearly 600 business and technology executives around the globe. Research suggests that while cloud is widely recognized as an important technology, relatively few organizations today actively embrace it to drive business model innovation. In the session, Stephen Hasselmann, Managing Partner of Strategy and Transformation for IBM Global Services, lays out how cloud has the power to fundamentally shift competitive landscapes by providing a new platform for creating and delivering business value—and determining how to best employ cloud-enabled business models that promote a sustainable competitive advantage. During the session, Hasselmann goes inside the numbers to identify six cloud attributes that power business model innovation; three different organizational archetypes that characterize the impact of an organization’s cloud-enabled business strategy; and, the three key actions companies need to take today to help reap the rewards of cloud-enabled business models.

If only there was a way consultancies could tackle some of the biggest challenges of running a firm, such as improving collaboration, work-life balance, retention and ultimately client satisfaction. The Boston Consulting Group may have cracked the code through an innovative program it calls PTO, which stands for Predictability, Teaming and Open Communication. The program was piloted in the firm’s Boston office seven years ago. Since then, it has been rolled out, with incredible results, throughout most of North America and Europe. Joe Davis, a Senior Partner, Head of the East Coast region and Americas leader of The Boston Consulting Group’s Public Sector practice, discusses how BCG improved collaboration and work-life balance among its consultants, encouraging them to “turn off and speak up.” BCG’s experience with the program is detailed in a new book: Sleeping with Your Smartphone, by Harvard Business School Professor Leslie Perlow, who studied its implementation over four years. In this interactive session, attendees learn how to get case teams to work together more effectively and efficiently. Davis also shows how BCG helped enhance work-life balance, increase job satisfaction, improve retention, and increase client satisfaction.

One of the historical downsides of the consulting industry is the need to continually build a new pipeline of clients and opportunities each year, as revenues are typically not reoccurring and are notoriously difficult to forecast. Increasingly, consulting firms—especially niche firms—are finding ways to create reoccurring revenues through subscription-based services or by leveraging syndicated data sources. In this interactive session, hear how Carrie Shea, President of AMG Strategic Advisors, is doing just that by leveraging unique data sources that are provided by clients, and offering those clients the opportunity to systematically benchmark themselves or share best practices in either top line acceleration or cost reduction. Shea also shares interesting examples within the consumer products and retail industry—actionable insights that can easily be applied to other sectors.

Business development is more important today than ever before. Much like a good mystery, every prospect or customer gives consultants the clues to find the answers they are looking for. Uncover what resonates most with them and what will help them immediately see the value in what you have offer. Discover your customer’s thinking preferences and adapt your approach to appeal to their true innate drivers. No Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe required. In this enlightening session, Warren Shiver, Managing Partner of Symmetrics Group, guides attendees through four communication styles, as determined by the HBDI assessment. Using this toolset, attendees can create a profile and strategic approach that will help drive greater value in any selling situation, and align this approach with more structured selling tools and methodologies.

Is your firm as profitable as it could be? Is your work bringing all the revenue it should? Turn the lens on your own firm in this interactive panel discussion to see how better use of people and tighter financial control can bring more profitable results. Join Deltek to review the results of a recent IDC study of operations and key performance measurements compiled from nearly 200 firms across the US and Europe. Hear from experts at IDC, and compare your own performance to their findings. Listen to the experiences of other management consulting firms, and learn the steps they’ve taken to improve utilization, accelerate cash flow, and drive higher profits.

Jim Champy and Mike Hammer published their groundbreaking book, Reengineering the Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution, twenty years ago. It went on to sell more than 3 million copies and spent more than a year on The New York Times Best Seller list. The ideas in that book fueled the growth of many advisory firms, and indeed the entire consulting profession. Two decades later, Champy says those ideas may be more important today than ever before. The reason? At a time when companies must now be more agile and responsive to market demands, many companies, in all sectors, find themselves frozen in the complexity of their technology and process... once again. And Champy, as he has been time and time again, will be a key catalyst to cracking the code on this age-old problem. In this provocative and timely session, Champy lays out the roadmap for executives to re-engineer their corporations, as well as how forward-thinking consulting firms will lead the way. Undoubtedly, those ahead-of-the-curve firms will reap the benefits. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear one of the business world’s most in-demand speakers share his innovative, and often inspiring, insights.