October 1, 2005

Dear friends and colleagues,

It seems as though just yesterday I hung out my shingle as a management consultant, yet here we are, thirteen years later, and I can now look back with appreciation at the big part IMC USA has played in my professional success.

We all had to start somewhere. When I began thinking about giving up a salaried position to become a consultant, the people I met networking recommended IMC as the best resource for consultants.

There’s an ancient saying that tells us, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” My teacher appeared in the form of many consultants at my first IMC chapter meeting who were eager and willing to share and offer advice.

I had the same experience at my local Area Breakfast for Consultants (ABC). In those early days, I would put together a list of questions and Cox Ferrall would always reserve some time at the end for me to ask my “beginner’s” questions. The advice and guidance were complete and specific – and given willingly.

In fact, I can pinpoint several projects I won because of advice from IMC members. One assignment was for a municipal agency. A group of consultants — all of us still relatively “new” — formed a virtual team to write the proposal and work together if selected. The problem was, we didn’t have a clue as to how to price the bid, and the agency was silent with regards to their budget.

Luckily for us, Bob Hilton, who at the time was president of the NorCal chapter, happened to have government consulting experience. I ran our dilemma by him, and to cut a long story short, our virtual team won the project over bigger, more experienced firms who were also in the running. How? Bob knew how to price it ¾ our bid came in at 1/10^th of theirs because he advised us to propose the work in phases.

As soon as I had the required years of consulting experience, I decided to become an IMC Certified Management Consultant. I wanted the credibility it would give me as a consultant. There was another big benefit: in the San Francisco Bay Area, where there were so many layoffs in banking at the time, the CMC showed that I wasn’t just another banker looking for an interim project until I could find my next salaried job.

While going through the CMC certification process, I reaped a huge benefit. IMC puts a big emphasis on ethical behavior and practices, and I had no idea what that really meant until I reviewed the ethics portion of the program. Shortly after reviewing it, a client situation came up that I would have handled completely differently — without realizing the ethical ramifications — had I not had the knowledge and awareness of what an ethical situation looks like, or how to deal with it.

Back to the early days: I can honestly say that my membership in IMC lopped off at least one year in the time it took to ramp up my business.

Since then, I’ve honed my skills and built my practice using the various professional development opportunities IMC offers its members. And as I mentioned earlier, the resources that other member consultants bring to the table have been a priceless resource for me.

Even after 13 years of membership, IMC still gives me opportunities to fine-tune my consulting skills and to stay current. I feel we can never know so much that we can’t continue to learn and improve. Best of all, I love knowing that if I encounter a major challenge with an engagement, I can pick up the phone and call a member, or go to my local ABC and get ideas from colleagues.

I hope I’ve given you plenty of reasons to renew your IMC membership. Won’t you join me in renewing now?

Best regards,

Deborah Hornberger CMC