When contemplating where IMC USA has been and where it might go, these fundamental issues must be addressed:

• the change in IMC USA’s core membership and its leadership
• the chapterization of IMC USA
• the management of the Institute

These lessons come from the hundreds of years of IMC involvement that the authors of this history represent. Specific recommendations are presented for consideration by future IMC leaders; they are indented from the general discussion in each category.

VII.1. The Change in IMC USA’s Core Membership 

Probably the single most important lesson, and one which affects and perhaps governs all others, is that IMC USA in 2004 is comprised of vastly different consultants than when it was initiated 36 years ago. For an organization conceived to serve its members this means that products and services and their delivery must differ as well.

Today’s IMC USA consultant may or may not be certified; does not belong to a large firm, and may never have done so; and is Internet savvy, albeit not an IT professional. S/he runs his or her own firm, and uses subcontractor or teaming arrangements rather than employees. S/he tends to be more highly specialized in areas that wax and then wane, often ‘closing up shop’ when the specialty is no longer in vogue. Today’s consultant must be a true entrepreneur and be capable of managing all aspects of his or her practice. S/he has little time for activities which are not revenue producing or marketing oriented. Professional existence as an entrepreneurial consultant is more precarious than working within a consulting firm.

Contrast this with the original IMC members, who worked for large firms, had ancillary staff to assist in professional association volunteer activities, and deep pockets to defray membership and travel expenses and billable hours lost due to conferences and Board meetings. Benefits to the larger firms included the industry familiarity achieved at these conferences, the CMC after their employees’ names, and the opportunity to find others at IMC meetings who could assist when additional resources were  needed to recruit or subcontract to fulfill a client obligation.

Few indeed are the current IMC USA members who have the financial backing and motivation to volunteer and heavily commit time and money to IMC USA, locally and nationally. As entrepreneurs, their practices take precedence. Often this has resulted in local chapters with a preponderance of Board members and committee chair persons who are new to IMC, and, without the necessary background and prior demonstration that they can make a difference, often do not make a difference and resign or withdraw quickly, often disillusioned and without someone to take his or her place in a necessary chapter function.

A solution has been to expand the number of chapter Board members, which results in more time spent in communication and gaining consensus. In this way, the failure of any one task is less disastrous because there are additional Board members to compensate. Often the planning, necessary both to educate the new leaders and determine the tactics for the next year, is all that is accomplished before a new set of leaders comes in, and faces the same problems, with the same solutions. Less time is spent in execution than planning, with relatively little carrying over from previous sessions, rendering us planners, rather than doers.

This is even more true at the national level, where a commitment of travel to national Board meetings is made by all, and the devotion of the president’s time is equivalent to a full-time client commitment, little of which can be delegated. When Michael Shays was in his first term as president, not only did he lead the Institute, but he also took the time and effort to develop a film on the Institute, Commitment to Professionalism. Today, merely leading the Institute consumes the entrepreneurial individual’s available resources. Presidents retire too tired to maintain involvement, committing their time to restarting their practices which suffered from their IMC USA work.

IMC USA leadership must offer implementations, not merely plans, to reach the entrepreneurial consultants it represents. The annual Confab, with its larger attendance and programs focused on entrepreneurial consultants, appears to be adequate for the current membership. The annual IMC USA business meeting could be combined with Confab, and the national meeting eliminated. This could result in better attendance at the single conference, and less staff and volunteer expense in putting on two conferences. The Confab location can vary to serve IMC USA’s national membership, but the content and programs should be more Confab-like. In a post 9/11 world, IMC USA will need to revisit the concept of its national and regional conferences, if it is to succeed.

The IMC USA leadership needs to focus on what it is to accomplish, and to choose a smaller number of achievable goals. A vision is needed, to be sure, but setting only a few goals for one’s term in office may result in their actually being achieved. This may obviate the seeming inability of IMC USA to carry out any new plan that extends beyond several months.

The IMC USA leadership sets the pace for the organization: its visible commitment - by attending conferences, making statements via e-mail newsletters, and attending Board meetings - serves as the role model necessary for lifting the level of newer members.

Management of IMC by a portion of the Board (e.g. an Executive Committee) is not a practical way to manage. An Executive Committee should be empowered to make certain routine operating decisions between regular Board meetings, but should not be empowered to be a surrogate for the Board, in accordance with the By Laws. In the past, some Board members who were not on the Executive Committee felt inert and not an active part of the Board.

The value of IMC USA to its members surely has changed, as its membership composition has changed. The camaraderie, so important in earlier times at the national level, may well be better available at the regional or local level, with programs tiered and geared to delivering value based upon varying local needs.

The virtual team potential within IMC USA may provide more value than the benefit programs (many of which are readily available from college alumni associations and other venues at more accommodating cost).

The homogeneity of association membership in the American Management Association (AMA), American Bar Association (ABA), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and other professional organizations, is not an attribute of IMC USA, nor could one anticipate it in the foreseeable future. (If IMC USA became all Information Technology (IT) professionals, it would represent a good merger target for other long-established IT associations such as ACM, the Institute for Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), and the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP, formerly the Data Processing Management Association)). IMC USA’s heterogeneous membership makes it difficult to produce costeffective and effective public relations campaigns in each of its many member market segments.

The most likely scenario for IMC USA’s future is one that preserves its diversity along functional and industry lines, although it will be skewed at various times towards a particular specialty or specialties. There is a definite faddishness to management  consulting: right now the fad is IT, but earlier it was industrial engineering, executive recruitment, outplacement, and organizational development. The fad is then absorbed into the mainstream of management theory and practice, reducing the need for the large numbers of specialists in the faddish area.

Public Relations for such a diverse group will continue to be difficult to effectively and efficiently execute, but IMC USA needs to do something right away to get the word out and its presence known. By focusing on the ethics IMC USA espouses, the certification it provides, and its connectedness with like institutes worldwide IMC USA can positively distinguish its members. Focus can be on the value IMC USA provides members in building their competencies and their personal (and client) success. IMC USA does have PR specialists – why not pay them, perhaps at a reduced rate, to ‘get the word out’?

IMC USA’s recent focus has been internal rather than external, as it made its way back from recent disaster. However, internal focus does not bring perceived value to members, as the spate of new Internet-based consulting organizations and their popularity have shown. In the instant-communication, sound-bite world, delays seem longer, and the IMC USA Internet presence is the primary communication tool of the new millennium. The Internet will play a vital, if not central, role in delivering value in the future. However, having said that, the local gatherings at the chapters and at conferences will continue to have value since the High Tech will require High Touch because we are social animals.

It’s not about how ‘pretty’ the IMC USA website design is, but the currency of the information on that site, the outreach to potential readers (clients and members alike), and its prominence with search engines, that will count. (Note: The 2004 National Conference in Nashville was the best in recent times in program and facilities – and the worst in attendance. This was due to late brochures and inaccurate information in them – but more so to the lack of information posted on the IMC USA  website. How can potential attendees plan accordingly when they don’t know when things will be scheduled?)

Ignoring problem issues does not make them go away – it exacerbates them. The leadership must listen for, and to, the concerns of membership, and act upon them.

The quality of the communication from IMC USA’s leaders is a major determinant of member satisfaction. Good and frequent newsletters are critical.

An annual exercise at both the chapter and national Board meetings has been trying to get the large consulting firms back into IMC USA. Those resources could better be spent recruiting individual members, with mentoring, seminars, and other outreach efforts appealing to the entrepreneurial consultants. If the large firms ever perceive a need for IMC USA membership, it will only be once IMC USA, itself, has discovered what it is, and what value it can and will provide.

Again, efforts and resources should be placed carefully and with focus.Sometimes this effort has appeared, instead, to be part of a shotgun approach.

At the time of IMC USA’s recent crisis, one of its largest creditors was a company that had been retained to build membership. While their efforts had been largely ineffective, they did produce many short-term tire-kickers. In the ensuing years, this growth in membership failed to renew and membership reduced significantly. IMC USA was hoisted on its own petard, and was guilty of paying a consulting company for short-term benefits, as we had warned our own clients (see Chapter II.1).

IMC USA should be more focused on the value we offer to members and seek members who can benefit from the programs offered rather than simply warm bodies for discounted dues. More to the point, IMC USA should help members grow personally, professionally, and in their business.

IMC USA should focus on values rather than benefits: benefits are the tangibles, such as vendor discounts, which directly translate into dollars, while value is less tangible, described not initially by dollars, but by personal satisfaction, good feelings, new ideas, etc. Other groups provide tangible benefits; IMC USA is well poised to focus on the intangibles that allow consultants to grow and prosper.

The length of service to, and membership in, IMC USA before assuming local and national offices has been reduced, as the type of IMC USA member has changed. This has resulted in a failure to transmit procedures, policies, and the reasons therefore, to successive generations of leaders. The new leaders are then compelled to re-invent processes anew, rather than access the history. IMC USA seems to ignore its history passively (being unaware of the failures and successes of the past) and actively, by disdaining its institutional memory. Boards strike out to correct perceived ills, only to quickly find themselves immersed in the same problems that have plagued their predecessors.

It is hoped that this document will serve to rectify that problem, thus enabling more time to be spent on implementation and action.

The IMC USA history, once available, can be used as part of a leadership development program, advantageous to both IMC USA and to the individual member. While such a program will help develop the next crop of leaders, developing the interest in being a leader is even more important. IMC USA needs to make sure there is a strong value in being a visible contributor at the leadership level to entice consultants to serve, counterbalancing the tremendous drain on a few volunteers’ practices and time. While internal motivation to contribute to the profession is helpful, it needs to be supplemented with press releases from national (or local chapters), acknowledgements of contributions made (certificates of appreciation), and reprintable articles about the IMC USA leadership. Given Internet methods available, this could be achieved at relatively low distribution cost.

IMC USA must be more proactive in recognizing its leaders in order to stimulate new leadership. At each major function all Board members, chapter presidents, past national chairs and fellows should be recognized, even if merely by groups. Major accomplishments should be publicly recognized. Departing Board members should be acknowledged.

IMC USA should consider paying members, perhaps at reduced rates, for critical services needed to improve the value of the organization (such as public relations contacts, articles, etc.). This appears to be a win-win situation for all concerned: consultants get paid something for efforts exerted, and IMC USA gets professional services from its members (who are supposed to be experts in their fields) at better rates than otherwise available. This reduces the cost of staff performing those services or contracting for the services to others who don’t have an interest in IMC USA’s long-term existence and continuity.

Additional sections of this chapter can be read in the complete pdf file:

VII.2. The Chapterization of IMC USA
VII.3. The Management of IMC USA
VII.4. Miscellaneous Items
VIII. Conclusion

© 2004. The Institute of Management Consultants USA