Getting Started in Consulting, Third Edition

Leveraging Technology: How to get Started at the Speed of Light

We tend to view the Internet and the global Web as a specialized phenomenon. As technological guru and Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Mossberg says, "If we don't talk about 'plugging into the electrical grid' when we turn the lights on, why are we constantly talking about 'going onto the Web'?"

Good question.

If you want to accelerate your start in consulting, consider the following:

• Every day you are using combinations of cell phones, cable TV, satellite TV, desktop computers, laptop computers, PDAs, digital cameras, and the variations thereof (for example, both phone calls and paging.)

• We are constantly recombining technology, sending blog entries by cell phone and photos from computers to cell phones, printing out emails, and scanning in hard copy letters.

• Social media, from YouTube to Facebook, from LinkedIn to Twitter, are changing the way people communicate (for better or for worse). For the first time, consumers are talking directly to each other without going through the company providing them with products and services. (Hence, you can find many sites such as rossde.com/UPS_sucks/.)

• Speed—getting there "firstest with the mostest," to quote (probably inaccurately) Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, is often the decisive factor in securing an engagement.

Thus, we'll take this mid-book digression or interlude to consolidate some of the essence of the leverage factor of technology.

The Importance of Being ...