Research by PwC into the Venture Capitalist (VC) funding environment for the UK technology industry has found, among other things, three out five respondents agreed that negative attitudes to failure discourage entrepreneurship in the UK. In contrast, readiness to embrace failure was regarded as being especially strong in Silicon Valley. As well, 60% of entrepreneurs believed that US investors are more ready and willing to embrace risk than their UK counterparts.

Brian Henderson, director in PwC’s technology team comments :

“Despite the potentially negative attitudes towards failure, most entrepreneurs took the view that technological talent within the UK is as strong as anywhere in the world, but it is the UK’s potential lack of ability to successfully commercialise its technological breakthroughs that results in the market lagging behind that in other territories such as the US.”

Only half of respondents agreed that being based in London improves the chances that a technology business will be successful. Many said what really mattered was being within a ‘cluster’ of companies, which can yield benefits around talent recruitment, growth and funding and such clusters are prevalent elsewhere in the UK.

A Memorial Day weekend excursion this year is on more Americans plans; however, they are conscientious about travel expenses, according to a new Deloitte survey. There are some grievances and these include survey respondents citing crowded/cramped conditions in economy class and increases in airline fees among their top leisure travel grievances. To circumvent the latter, almost half (43 percent) use carry-on luggage more often and 40 percent make more of an effort to book flights with airlines that do not charge checked-baggage fees.

Air travel is not the only area where consumers are seeking value, as leisure travelers admit they are looking to cut costs throughout their trips. About a third (31 percent) of respondents admit to not tipping hotel staff on a frequent basis because they are no longer using services such as a bellman, a direct result of fliers using carry-on sized bags. However, hotel businesses overall can likely expect an increase in business revenues this summer, with only about one in four (21 percent) of respondents who expect to travel between June 1 and Labor Day willing to spend less on lodging to cut overall travel costs, down from 35 percent  last year.

Fuel costs will likely be less of a roadblock for consumers hitting the roads over Memorial Day weekend, with more than half of respondents (54 percent) saying rising gas prices will not affect their travel plans, compared to the 41 percent who indicated the same in 2011. However, rising fuel costs may significantly influence travel plans for lower income households

Adam Weissenberg, vice chairman, Deloitte LLP and global leader of Deloitte’s travel, hospitality and leisure sector spoke about the new consumer confidence.

“As consumers appear to feel more confident about the economy and the job market, we could see a steady uptick year-over-year in leisure travel during the summer months,” he said. “This highlights the continued growth and vitality of the travel industry as a whole. However, travelers also understand the value of the dollar in this economy and may expect more from travel and hospitality companies.”

According to Ernst & Young’s Global technology M&A update: January-March 2012 report, aggregate deal value of global technology mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fell 12% year-on-year (YOY) to US$25.1b in the first quarter of 2012. The total volume of announced 1Q12 deals was 756 (counting both disclosed- and non-disclosedvalue deals), up just 1% from 748 in 1Q11. Quarterly deal volume appears to have reached a plateau after two years of strong growth in 2009 and 2010 – for the last five quarters the number of deals has ranged from a low of 722 to a high of 756.

Five long-term “megatrends” that are generating disruptive innovation in technology and leading to technology-enabled innovation in other industries. They are smart mobility, cloud computing, social networking, “big data” analytics and a growing sense of “blur” and convergence, as technology sectors come together and the technology industry enters other industries as enabling innovation.

Though the 1Q12 technology report details many influential deal-driving factors, the biggest increases in transaction volume came from deals targeting online video technology and SaaS companies. These also generated the largest deals of 1Q12 by dollar value. These were a US$5b transaction targeting technology that can relay video to mobile devices and a US$2b deal targeting a provider of workforce management SaaS. In China, meanwhile, the country’s largest video website announced a US$1.1b agreement to acquire its chief rival.

” Even though technology M&A activity is down YOY, it’s doing a lot better than M&A in other industries. During the first quarter of 2012, the same disruptive megatrends that have been fueling global technology M&A since 2009 are now sustaining technology M&A against the continuing macroeconomic pressures that are holding back other industries,” Joe Steger, Global Technology Industry Transaction Advisory Services Leader at Ernst & Young says.  And the long-term outlook for technology M&A remains positive because those megatrends represent the driving force of disruptive innovation that is revitalizing and reshaping the technology industry.”

A new report by KPMG, ‘Shale Gas – A Global Perspective,’ details how shale gas could become a game-changer. However,  the report details the five key global risks that could impact the future viability of shale gas production: price uncertainty; impacted investment in renewable energy sources; managing costs and financing risks; ability to control reputational risk; and, geopolitical factors.

KPMG’s National Oil and Gas Leader, Brent Steedman notes some of the hurdles saying that shale gas drilling costs are significantly more expensive in Australia than in the United States due to the lack of infrastructure, tight skilled labour market and contractor availability. There are also concerns over fracking which are being raised in the context of coal seam gas. Another complexity is that shale gas may struggle to compete with coal seam gas because coal seam gas is located close to large east cost population centres while the shale deposits will require longer transportation.

“With price uncertainty, managing costs and financing risks are top priorities for the industry. We would also need to monitor how shale gas development will impact investment in renewable energy sources and how much environmental regulation shale gas-related activities will attract,” he says.  “The level of future shale gas development will hinge on the industry’s ability to control reputational risk and manage public opinion by minimising environmental and community impact. As shale gas transforms supply and demand of the world’s energy mix, geopolitical factors will continue to create risk and in Australia that could mean delays in investment.”

Drive Process Optimization

 A common approach is to seek the optimization of processes such that quality improves and cycle time is reduced. The simple steps of mapping the current state Operational and IT processes, breaking each process down into three levels of delivery will identify opportunities for improvement. Key items to look for include: repeatable actions or processes, actions that results in defects, and actions that result in mis-information.

For example, take a look at your current processes for Level 0 to Level 3 IT support. What are the handoff’s and processes that occur once the call is taken initially or the issue becomes known? Mapping each process, each handoff, who is involved, the amount of time, the amount of effort, the number of manual and automated tracking systems will identify the opportunities. The team should be looking for waste (e.g.: steps that can be removed from the process, areas to apply standardization for repeatability of process, removal of bottlenecks to achieve more productivity in the same time period). The objective is to make the changes without compromising the quality of the product or service delivered.

Conduct a Lean Operations and IT Walkthrough

 There are four common areas of focus when conducting a Lean Operations and IT walkthrough, namely; operating practices, management systems, organization and capabilities, and mindset and behavior. Conducting a Lean Operations and IT walkthrough of these four areas will provide some unique opportunities and items to consider.

By Kalen Smith, Big 4 Blogger

Digital technology has become a crucial element to many businesses. However, many firms do not understand how to implement it into their business model. Deloitte has just launched a new global service line that is dedicated to helping businesses integrate digital technology into their operations.

According to John Kerr, Deloitte’s Managing Director of Global Consulting, many of the firm’s clients have been asking for assistance in initiating a digital strategy. Their requests have inspired Deloitte to launch Deloitte Digital. This new service line will give Deloitte clients everything they need to bring digital technology to the forefront of their business. They will have access to strategic consulting, engineering and advice on the best practices for improving user experience.

Deloitte Digital’s services will be implemented across a variety of platforms. Clients will be able to implement social networking solutions and reach their customers through mobile applications.

As more consumer-to-business and business-to-business interactions take place online, companies are expected to continue looking for new ways to leverage solutions from the digital medium. Kerr said that Deloitte intends to be available to all of its global customers to serve that need.

The new service will be led by Bill Briggs, Deloitte’s global leader of Digital Communication. Briggs said that the new service will focus on cloud, social, mobile, analytics and cyber security. Briggs feels that these five forces are the most crucial aspects of digital strategy for any company.

Clients have asked me which of my website articles and tools get the most interest.   Below are the 15 most visited articles and tools, in descending order of interest, on my website.

• Useful Performance Measures and Metrics – How To Measure Efficiency and Effectiveness.  http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=1071 

• Organization Assessment and Improvement Tool. http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?page_id=1106 

• Getting a Good Start as a New Manager – First 90 Days.http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=1518.

• Defining Your Organization’s Values and Core Competencies Will Have Positive Results Throughout the Organization.http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=468 

• Implementing an Organization Realignment – Useful Guidelines.http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=1638 

• Integrate Continuous Improvement Into Your Organization’s Culture and Daily Activities.  http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=1576 

• Designing an Effective and Flexible Organization Structure – It’s More Than The Organization Itself.  http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=1397 

• Organization Strategy Is All Inclusive – Comprises Your Entire Organization and External Environment.  http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=1531 

• Key Elements For Successful Project Planning and Implementation. http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=915 

• Too Many People Reporting To You / Too Many Interruptions? How To Manage More Efficiently.  http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=272 

• Human Resources Improvement Assessment Tool. http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?page_id=1244 

• Match Manager Responsibilities With Equivalent Decision Making Authority. http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=201 

• Management Practices Assessment and Improvement Tool. http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?page_id=1403 

• Chief of Staff – Do You Need One? http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=959 

• Organization Silos Are Always a Challenge, But Do Not Have to be a Problem.  http://www.advancingyourorganization.com/?p=1694

Michael VanBruaene was a KPMG Director and blogs at www.AdvancingYourOrganization.com.  Practical Tools To Improve Organization Performance

A new Capgemini study of over 1,000 Senior Business and IT decision makers  including CEOs and CIOs worldwide reveals that in the current economic climate, business process management is increasingly viewed as a C-level concern, as companies look internally to improve their margins, efficiency and productivity.

Executives believe that Business Process Management(BPM) can help deliver the cost-savings rucial to maintaining healthy margins. In fact, over 60 per cent of participants from the study believe BPM should be managed directly by the executive board.

“Increasingly Inside-Out pressures for enterprises such as cost and efficiency are being counterbalanced by Outside-In pressures to be more flexible, compliant and customer centric,” said Bob Scott, Head of Capgemini’s Business Process Management Global Service Line. ” BPM is fast becoming a crucial part of the Business Applications landscape across all sectors.”

However,while many organizations are realizing the importance of process management, improvements still need to be made. One concern is the lack of understanding as to who should hold the reins over budget for BPM. The survey reveals financial management of BPM is split between IT (16 per cent), senior business management (18 per cent), operations (13 per cent), business units (13 per cent) and dedicated process management units (12 per cent), which could ultimately undermine its effectiveness.

According to new Accenture (NYSE: ACN) research, mobility, enterprise computing and consumer electronics companies in the high-tech industry are being heavily impacted by a new business model called “superstacks.”

A superstack is defined  as a more extensive and cohesive integration of operating systems, semi­conductor chips, devices, applications and end-user services than the industry has traditionally achieved.

The research findings, based on interviews with high-tech executives globally and interactions with clients, are summarized in a new report, Competing in a High-Tech Industry “Superstack.” The research examined whether industry executives were aware of the superstack trend and its impact on their businesses, such as smartphones and tablets (mobility), data centers and the cloud (enterprise computing), and the digital home (consumer electronics).

When asked to speculate on a superstack strategy for the next few years, more than three-fourths (77 percent) of survey respondents said they would anticipate an increase in merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Participants were asked to give their top three reasons for pursuing such M&A transactions as part of their superstack strategies during the next two to three years. Half cited acquisition of intellectual proper­ty; the same percentage pointed to R&D to accelerate product deliveries.

Mitch Cline, managing director of Accenture’s Electronics & High-Tech business commented:

“Competing in the superstack arena is a matter of survival as the high-tech industry moves full-throttle in this direction,” he said. “Some high-tech sectors are already there, such as mobile handsets, digital media services and connected TVs. Other sectors may take longer to adapt because they’re not as far along in this superstack evolution.”

Adopting public cloud services could help Australian businesses across many industries reap substantial benefits through reduced capital and labour costs. This from a new report from by KPMG, Modelling the Economic Impact of Cloud Computing, which was commissioned by the Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and launched by Senator the Hon. Stephen Conroy.

It estimates that adoption of Cloud services across 75 percent of ICT spending would result in an increase in long-run GDP after 10 years of $3.32 billion per annum. At 50 percent adoption levels, the GDP gain is $2.16 billion per annum.

Between August 2011 and March 2012, KPMG interviewed 29 organisations covering sectors accounting for 80 percent of GDP and ranging in size from 20 employees up to many thousands. Of those interviewed, KPMG found that the financial services, property and business services, education services, and media information and telecommunications sectors had the most robust results.

While there is a strong economic case for the adoption of cloud services, there are nevertheless several constraints and natural barriers which need to be overcome. These include the compatibility of an organisation’s internal processes with cloud offerings, connection speeds, location of data and related security issues, business continuity/disaster recovery and integration, and limited knowledge of product offerings including businesses’ lack of familiarity with opportunities.

SC Magazine has awarded KPMG Europe LLP’s Information Protection and Business Resilience practice the Information Security Consultancy of the Year accolade.

Malcolm Marshall, KPMG’s UK and global head of Information Protection and Business Resilience was pleased saying that with over 650 security consultants across Europe and 1,700 globally, KPMG was the first choice for security consultancy for many of the world’s leading companies.  He also noted that faced with a rapidly changing set of threats from increasingly sophisticated and determined adversaries, many companies were choosing KPMG for their track record in delivering rapid improvements in security.

KPMG were judged to be successful by a team of judges from the information security industry, and were also highly commended for the Information Security Project of the Year category for I-4 (https://i4online.com), which is the leading information security forum for large global businesses.

“I am absolutely delighted that KPMG’s rapidly growing Information Protection and Business Resilience business has been recognised by SC Magazine and its judges, both for our work as a Consultancy and with I-4 which helps many of the world’s leading organisations to improve their protection against increasing cyber security threats,” Marshall said.

The latest analysis by The China Greentech Initiative (CGTI) – The China Greentech Report 2012 finds that China has maintained its position as the world’s greentech leader despite continuing global economic volatility and slowing domestic growth.

The country’s domestic conventional gas production is described as “stretched to the limit”, but vast unconventional domestic gas reserves, including shale gas and coal-bed methane, could ease China’s gas shortfall, which is expected to grow nine-fold by 2015. The industry would however need to overcome major pricing, regulatory, distribution and water challenges.

Private equity and venture capital investments in China’s private water sector increased from $US 50 million in 2010 to US$ 400 million in just the first four months of 2011 is another finding from the report. As well, wind and solar farms costs have fallen dramatically: onshore wind farms in China can now be completed for around RMB 7000/kW and photovoltaic (PV) system costs have decreased from RMB 74,000/kW in 2007 to less than RMB 13,000/kW in late 2011 with costs continuing to drop.

“Even with significant growth over the past five years, the China greentech marketing is still only in its initial phase, and uncertainties remain,” says Allan Zhang, director, PwC. “Ambitious targets were set in the 12th Five Year Plan for greentech development with billions of government investment earmarked. Foreign companies will need to develop sound partnering strategies with major Chinese players and to be flexible enough to cope with changes in policy or economics.”

PwC has been accused of negligence or misconduct in connection with assets worth $900 million that have gone missing from Kabul Bank.

PwC’s Pakistani branch may be sued by the government of Afghanistan after Hazrat Omar Zahkiwal, the Afghan Finance Minister, accused the firm of failing in its audits of the bank. Zahkiwal pointed to an investigation performed by forensic acocuntants at Kroll Associates, which concluded that PwC’s Pakistani practice was guilty of “at a minimum level serious negligence” in its audits of Kabul Bank.

PwC operates in Pakisan under the auspices of its member firm, A. F. Ferguson & Co. Ferguson opened a Kabul branch in 2006 and was the main external auditor of Kabul Bank when $900 million disappeared, leading political and economic observers to focus on the supposed endemic corruption under Hamid Karzai’s government in the nation.

Zahkiwal acknowledged the failure of his nation’s central bank in assessing Kabul Bank’s records, but he wants to see legal pressure put on the foreign operations managed by PwC, on the basis that the Big4 firm is more responsible for the scandal. “It is true that our central bank has a supervision branch which failed in this case, but PwC gave Kabul Bank a clean bill of health year after year and this misled the central bank.” Zahkiwal went on to admit that the scandal “certainly does not look good on the government. But even if we could have suspected our own supervisory system, we did not expect such a respectable international accountants like PwC’s inability to do the job.”

The United States Agency for International Development (USAid) has stated that PwC failed to identify any fraud in the bank, which “may have acted to delay understanding of the gravity of Kabul Bank’s condition both among the examination staff and the international community.”

PwC and A. F. Ferguson & Co. have not commented on the investigation.

Deloitte Digital, a global practice of over 800 employees that provides clients with a full suite of digital services has been launched. The new branch pulls together existing skills and expertise across  member firms to provide clients with services covering strategy, user experience, content, creative, engineering and implementation across mobile, web, social and digital content solutions.

Deloitte in the UK has been providing strategy, mobile, e-commerce, social, web and content management services to large clients like John Lewis, Transport for London and one of the new emerging banking forces for a number of years. Deloitte Digital brings together all this experience, talent and ideas into one business to offer a distinctive tailored service.

The strength of Deloitte’s global network of digital studios, including the recently acquired mobile agency Übermind, moves the firm into a strong position in the digital industry.  Deloitte Digital serves clients across Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific via 11 studios spread across the US, UK, Australia, and India, with plans to expand aggressively over the next 12 months. The UK studio will be based in London and serve clients across Europe.

According to a survey conducted by KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, forty percent of respondents said their companies are already contemplating actions such as price increases and cost reductions — headcount, manufacturing processes, or other means — to stay competitive in the face of a new excise tax.

In the KPMG survey, almost two-thirds (61 percent) of the 190 financial executives from the medical device manufacturing industry said the tax will be negative, and 60 percent believe it will increase their company’s tax compliance costs.  Fifty-five percent of respondents also expect that it will be difficult for their company to comply with the excise tax, citing confusion over which products will be taxable and challenges in implementing systems for compliance (both 16 percent) as key issues.

As part of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, health care providers who manufacture or import medical devices or equipment for sale in the United States may be subject to a 2.3 percent excise tax.  The Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued proposed regulations pertaining to the tax in February.

Frank Mattei, national tax leader of KPMG’s Pharmaceutical and Medical Device practice commented:

“Manufacturers and importers of medical devices have a great deal of work to do in order to prepare to begin reporting the tax, which is effective for sales on and after the January 1, 2013 effective date and applies to their sales of taxable medical devices in the United States,” he said.  “Companies will need to become familiar with the excise tax rules, identify their affected entities and products, and develop the appropriate compliance processes.  A ‘gap’ analysis should be conducted as soon as possible to identify areas that need to be addressed.”

Ernst & Young’s Mining Eye index shows Aim’s junior miners had a subdued start to the year, with strengthening metals prices contributing to only a 5% gain. However this lacklustre performance was offset by an increase in listings with five new mining companies joining the market, three of which were IPOs.

There was also good news for equity financing, which increased in both volume and value. According to Ernst & Young’s Mining Eye Index, equity financing in the first quarter of the year reached £251m, up 63% from the previous three months and the largest quarterly amount since Q2 2011. Over 75% of the proceeds were raised by just six companies.

“Global economic and geopolitical volatility have taken their toll on the shares of Aim’s junior miners,” said David Russell, a Director in Ernst & Young’s mining and metals team. “Although an uplift in metals prices kept the Mining Eye index in positive figures, it was left trailing the oil and gas, retail and automotive sectors which all made significant gains.”

Russell also said that despite the relatively flat performance of the index in the quarter, volatility and risk aversion are likely to be the dominant themes for Aim’s miners in the months ahead.

“Companies need to be prepared and able to react quickly and decisively as windows of funding opportunities open and close,” he said in conclusion.

Only 63% of Canadian CEOs expect to make changes over the next 12 months with respect to their Research and Development (R&D) and innovation capacity, compared to 72% of their global counterparts.

Tracey Riley, PwC’s National Consulting & Deals Leader spoke about the PwC report “Growth through adaptation” that found Canadian leaders were lower than the global average in terms of their plans for investment across all forms of innovation— from new products and services to finding cost reductions in existing practices.

“There appears to be a general perception that because of our focus and reliance on the natural resources sector, Canada has lagged behind other countries in terms of its investment and support to R&D. We are often seen as a “fast follower” to other countries because that has traditionally been ‘okay’ in our market,” she said.

Dr. David Jacobson, Director of Emerging Technologies at PwC offered some solutions to the dilemma suggesting that Canadian CEOs should:

• Reduce the distance between themselves and good ideas — become hands-on and really participate.
• Help enable innovation by providing a framework and encouragement; providing the right atmosphere and incentives — and finally rewarding the successes.
• Resist the temptation to establish a data warehouse of innovative ideas. This and related bureaucratic approaches will dissuade creative people from participating.

Presently, Canadian leaders are placing their focus on sustainable long-term change and cost reduction.

According to a new study by KPMG, investment in renewable energy has remained strong despite economic slowdowns in Asia and Europe.

The firm’s new survey of 500 senior executives, entitled Green Power: 2012, suggests that mergers and acquisitions in the reneweable energy sectory will increase over the next year and a half  as investors continue to find value in renewable energy projects.

Private equity and venture fund investment in green energy has reamined strong in 2011. KPMG reported that 591 deals worth $51.2 billion transpired last year, an over twofold increase on 2010′s 431 transactions, worth only $24.2 billion.

“Renewables are seen as safe and stable,” according to Andy Cox, Head of Power and Utilities at KPMG. Cox also believes that investors treat renewable energy as any other energy asset class. “What our research has found is that green energy is becoming viewed by investors in much the same way as conventional infrastructure asset classes, like water companies and electricity grids.”

However, Cox also suggests that renewable energy is still subject to major shakes in the global economy. “The investment climate remains fragile,” Cox said. “While it is exciting to see so many respondents expecting to invest in green energy in the near future, this could all turn on a dime if struggling governments continue to retrospectively cut tariffs and damage confidence.”

In the first quarter of 2012, a total of 150 mergers and acquisitions worth $9 billion transpired, up from the same period last year. KPMG’s partners believe this may point to continued growth in the renewable energy sector in 2012.

By Kalen Smith, Big4 Blogger

Mutual Benefits Group, one of Pennsylvania’s leading carriers for business and personal property insurance, has made the development of a new set of insurance claims processing software one of its biggest priorities. Mutual Benefits Group has selected Accenture to oversee this research and development of this new project.

Mark Russell, Mutual Benefits Groups Vice-President of Claims, said that effective claims management processes are vital to customer satisfaction. In order to optimize the process, Mutual Benefits Group will need a software system that will allow adjusters to have more flexibility over the businesses processes and customer demographic information. In addition, Mutual Benefits Group has hired Accenture to develop a new billing system so that it’s analytics team can exploit the claims and account payment data it acquires to deliver superior service to the firm’s customers.

Russell said that Accenture’s team is best equipped to handle this responsibility, partially due to its preexisting relationship with Mutual Benefits Group. Russell said that Mutual Benefits Group will be able to create a more flexible claims management process which will allow the firm to process claims faster and with fewer errors. The software will be flexible enough that insurance carriers of all sizes can tailor it to their specific needs. Accenture’s software will be available to other insurance carriers in the coming months.

Do you ever find that you are slogging through meeting after meeting with a prospect, month after month, without reaching a sale? You have lots of conversations, but there is no forward progress. In today’s economy, there are in fact lots of sales conversations that go on and on without ever arriving anywhere. You can avoid this by asking a series of incisive questions that help you verify if the preconditions for a sale are present.

The first precondition for a sale is that there must be a significant perceived problem or opportunity. If there isn’t, why would anyone hire you?

To ascertain whether a truly significant problem or opportunity exists, you should ask questions like: “What is this costing you right now?”; “If you don’t fix this problem, what will the consequences be?”; “What do you think this opportunity is worth to your organization?”; “What other issues is this causing for you?”; “Would you say this is one of your top two or three priorities?” And so on.

A second precondition is that you must be speaking to someone who owns the problem and is empowered by their organization to fix it. In big companies, there are always lots of problems—and plenty of people willing to talk about them. But unless you are talking to the owner of the issue, that’s all you’ll do—talk. Questions you can use here might include: “Who owns this problem?”; “Are you responsible for fixing this?”; “Who would authorize an expenditure to address this?”;  “Who needs to be involved in the solution?”; and “Who would lead the implementation of a solution?”

A third precondition is that the buyer must have a healthy dissatisfaction with the current rate of change or improvement. The client may have a problem, and it may be significant—but they will not bring on a new service provider or supplier unless they are unhappy with progress or current solutions. Questions that can help to ascertain this would include: “Would you say this is a minor irritant, at one end of the scale, or something you’re truly fed up with, at the other end?”; “Why do you feel that now is the time to put extra resources against this?”; “What solutions have been tried already?”; and  “How effective have your own efforts been to address this? Why or why not?” (Remember–if there have been no internal efforts launched to address the issue, how important can it really be?).

A fourth precondition is that the client must trust you are the best resource for the job—better than your competitors and better than internal efforts. How do you determine this? This is harder than the other preconditions, because it’s difficult to ask someone point-blank if they trust you! More likely, you’ll sense a hesitation or reluctance. Nonetheless, you can questions such as “What other solutions are you looking at?”; “How do you view our capabilities in this area?”; “How do you see your alternatives right now?”; and, “What concerns do you have about us or our approach?”

Lastly: A sale will get stalled if all the right stakeholders have not been aligned. The first four conditions may have been met, but if there are key influencers or important constituencies who are not on board with hiring you, your client won’t become a buyer. To ascertain this, you need to ask questions about the decision-making process. For example: “Who needs to be involved in making this decision?” “What key stakeholders in your organization need to sign off on this?” and “With other clients, I’ve found that an important initiative like this rarely gets off the ground without the support of multiple constituencies. In your organization who would these be?”

The prospect you are talking to may have had ten other meetings on the same day. If you want to be memorable, be bold about asking incisive, thought-provoking questions that demonstrate you’re a peer and help you ascertain if the client is truly ready to buy.

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Andrew Sobel helps companies and individuals build their clients for life. Andrew was a Senior Vice President and Country Chief Executive for Gemini Consulting (15 years). He is the co-author of the newly-released Power Questions as well as the author of the business bestsellers Clients for Life, Making Rain, and All for One. He can be reached at www.andrewsobel.com, where you can download a free set of Power Tools to help you get better at asking Power Questions.

Diversity MBA Magazine serves the needs of multicultural professionals in corporate America, business students and entrepreneurs.  This is the seventh year it has published this ranking and Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has claimed the top spot on  the 50 Out Front for Diversity Leadership: Best Places for Diverse Managers to Work.” This marks the company’s fourth consecutive year on the list.

The 2012 ranking was based on an evaluation of companies with inclusion and diversity strategies based on accountability, succession planning, representation, workplace inclusion, recruitment and board diversity.

Diversity MBA Magazine provides companies with a single source for all of their diversity solutions. In addition to covering the diverse leadership niche, Diversity MBA Magazine provides continuous research on the demographics of the workforce, ‘the top’ industries, companies and leaders that are important to career talent seekers. Published quarterly, Diversity MBA Magazine reaches more than 100,000 subscribers.

Nellie Borrero, managing director of Inclusion & Diversity at Accenture commented:

“We take the widest possible view of diversity and are committed to creating and providing an inclusive, open and equitable environment for individuals with different backgrounds, lifestyles, needs and interests,”  she said. “Our company, our people and our clients all benefit from diverse global teams with different backgrounds and experiences.”

According to a new PwC publication Automotive M&A Insights: Driving Value, 594 automotive deals were completed with a disclosed value of $45 billion in 2011, reflecting an increase compared to 2010, which had 520 completed deals totaling a disclosed value of $25 billion.

Following a boom of economic growth in 2008 and 2009, China and India were faced with escalating inflation rates in 2011.  To combat this, both countries adopted measures to drain liquidity from their markets and increase interest rates.  As a result, economic growth and automotive sales in these two large markets slowed considerably.

Auto sales also tapered off in the second half of the year following Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand.

Despite challenges in 2011, share of disclosed deal values for European and U.S. targets increased from 55 percent in 2010 to 72 percent in 2011.  European targets led the trend with the largest share at 39 percent of disclosed deal value compared with 24 percent in 2010.  Deal volume focused on targets in the European Union with a 43 percent share in 2011.

Paul Elie, U.S. automotive transaction services leader commented:

“Since the second half of 2011, dealmakers have approached the market with increased conservatism given the looming economic challenges in the EU and uncertainty in the regulatory environment.  As soon as the macroeconomic environment improves, we will likely see a wave of pent-up demand resulting in increased deal activity.”

KPMG recently announced it will leverage Apptio’s enterprise Software as a Service (SaaS) platform as well as its applications in IT strategy and CIO advisory engagements to help clients better understand how costs are flowing through their IT infrastructures.

S. Singh Mecker, KPMG’s head of strategic alliances and go-to-market partnerships commented:

“Alliances help us deliver differentiated solutions, technology specialization and complementary services that our clients expect from KPMG,” he said.

KPMG has built an Apptio consulting network to deliver configuration services and IT optimization services for joint clients. The network is staffed by practitioners who have undergone extensive Apptio training and certification. Additionally, a broader team of KPMG IT strategy and performance client partners and consultants have been trained on the Apptio solution to help their clients drive IT transformation initiatives.

Sunny Gupta, president and chief executive officer at Apptio, said many Fortune 1000 companies have selected Apptio to achieve greater transparency into the cost of their IT products and services, and to drive significant optimization, process and organizational change.

According to the results of the latest Ernst & Young Capital Confidence Barometer, nearly half of respondents expect the valuation of M&A assets to increase and senior executives of private equity (PE) firms are maintaining a cautious but optimistic outlook on the state of the economy, both locally and globally.

However, the general sentiment is that the quality of deal opportunities has fallen slightly since mid-2011. While 47% of PE respondents in the previous survey described their confidence in the quality of deal opportunities as “positive” or “very positive,” that number has fallen to 37.5%, with an increase in respondents holding a negative outlook (from 11% to 13%). This demonstrates that the deal market remains choppy as there appears to be a lack of consistency in the volume of acquisition candidates.

PE firms based in the Asia-Pacific region and in North America were more optimistic about their local economies, while respondents based in Western Europe were less optimistic and viewed the economy as “modestly declining.”

“Corporate M&A activity is an important component of a healthy PE environment. The increase in divestitures on the part of corporates is a welcome sign for PE buyers and is an indication that asset pricing has stabilized,” says Jeff Bunder, Global Private Equity Leader at Ernst & Young. “The increase in divestitures on the part of corporates is a welcome sign for PE buyers and is an indication that asset pricing has stabilized. Additionally, there is growing confidence in the availability of credit, a key component to PE deal-making.”

ROLE PURPOSE:

A leadership role on the NBC Sports Group accounting team, reporting to the Vice President, Accounting & Controller, with oversight of accounting for NBC Sports Group’s Headquarters, NBC Sports, and NBC Sports Network. This role plays an integral part in supporting the executive leadership team.

Please see full job description

There is a lack of “critical” talent in the oil and gas sectors in the Middle East, according to a new report by Deloitte.

The study, entitled Talent Edge 2020: Redrafting Talent Strategies for the Uneven Recovery, sets out to identify the major personnel challenges in the current decade. The study concluded that the oil and gas sectors may face a shortage of staff with particular skills, especially operations.

Deloitte surveyed 376 executives in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa about challenges in recruiting and retianing staff. A total of 81 per cent of executives said that they were facing a shortage of talent in oil and gas operation, while 62 per cent felt there was insufficient talent for risk and regulatory management, and 61 per cent saw a lack of information technology staff. Research and development was also a sector facing a staff shortage, with 60 per cent of executives reporting a lack of talent with this skill set.

Partly due to the staff shortage, executives worried that they will not be able to retain high-quality staff. Only 28 per cent of respondents said they were “very confident” that their strategies would help them retain talented staff, and 39 per cent said they had a “very high level of concern” about retaining critical talent for the coming year alone.

While executives worry about finding strong candidates, they also felt that employee mobility may be an antidote. Of the surveyed executives, 32 per cent said that they deploying critical talent globally will be even more crucial in the next three years.

By Kalen Smith, Big4 Blogger

The Chinese government has issued an order requiring the Big 4 auditing firms to hire more local citizens in their Chinese branches. Financial professionals warn that this controversial ruling could undermine the credibility of the Big 4 auditing firms.

Over the past few months, many Chinese companies have been investigated for controversial financial practices. According to many reports, Chinese regulators have failed to implement the necessary policies to mitigate these concerns. This has raised concerns that the government is not seriously considering conforming to international accounting practices.

Chinese companies maintain the same ambitions as their western counterparts. They are goal-driven and highly competitive. However, many experts question the transparency of their operations and their willingness to enforce accountability programs.

Given the current culture among Chinese business professionals, many people are concerned that the Chinese citizens may be reluctant to enforce the accounting practices the rest of the world lives by.

Despite the opinion of many financial professionals, the Big 4 firms will have no choice but to localize their business. However, the auditing firms do not necessarily oppose the law. Pricewatercooperhouse and Ernst & Young has stated that they support the new legislation and have already been taking new steps to localize their Chinese operations. However, the new ruling will create significant changes in the composition of the workforce in the units in China, which have been predominantly made up of European and American citizens.

According to Deloitte’s “Mid-Market Perspectives: 2012 Report on America’s Economic Engine.” mid-market executives are adapting to managing uncertainty in these economic times. Five hundred and twenty eight executives at U.S. midsize companies were polled about their expectations, experiences and plans for becoming more competitive. Respondents were senior executives at companies with annual revenues between $50 million and $1 billion. The Deloitte survey was conducted by OnResearch, a market research firm.

More companies (51 percent) plan to invest in their existing workforce through training compared to last year (34 percent). Additionally, fewer firms plan to increase the number of part-time workers (only 13 percent compared with 18 percent in 2011). At the same time, thirty-five percent of respondents are predicting higher cash balances.

The importance of technology to their business was not lost on the respondents. Business process automation remains the top investment pick to increase productivity for 46 percent (down from 52 percent last year).

Tom McGee, national managing partner, Deloitte Growth Enterprise Services, Deloitte LLP noted that slower growth was one of the drivers here.

According to Ernst & Young’s sixth, biannual, UK Capital confidence barometer, volatility across the eurozone and negative GDP growth has forced UK companies to refocus their corporate lens on cost reduction and supply chain transformation.

Only 20% of respondents said they are planning to undertake opportunistic M&A to take advantage of the opportunities presented by the eurozone crisis. This compares to nearly 70% who said they would focus on cost reduction and supply chain transformation – a strategy leaning towards managing risk.

A combination of stronger operating results, cost reduction programs and risk aversion has meant that large companies have accumulated large stockpiles of cash. Among those companies who say they have either engaged in M&A or are thinking about it, over half (51%) say that they will use cash as their primary source of funding, with 31% willing to use debt and 18% to use equity.

The overall conservative nature of the respondents’ attitudes towards M&A is reflected in their focus on creating value by organic growth, portfolio optimisation and divestment. The proportion of companies planning to sell assets over the next 12 months has risen from 21% this time last year to 38% today. This trend towards divestment has been driven by a desire to focus on core assets (56%), while shedding underperforming business units is declining as a driver at 23% compared to 50% in October of last year.

KPMG’s Major Australian Banks Half Year 2012 report shows that although the majors have posted a healthy profit for the 2011-2012 half year but lack of growth will be a focus for investors.

KPMG’s head of banking, Andrew Dickinson comments:

“The major banks’ profit clearly shows we have a strong banking system, however it must be viewed in light of the increased capital that the banks now need to hold. Return on equity (ROE) remains around 16 percent for most banks and shareholders will need to accept that this level of return is all they can expect for the foreseeable future,” he says.

The ROE for the majors is an average of 16.3 percent compared with 16.6 percent half year 2011. Asset quality improved this half year, as impaired loans as a percentage of total loans continued to decrease, reflecting improved economic conditions.

Wealth management cash profits were impacted by subdued equity markets and cautious investors, declining 3.7 percent to $1.03 billion in H1 2102 compared with $1.07 billion in the last half year.

The outlook for Australia’s major banks for the next half year will be impacted by economic uncertainty in global markets. Bank funding conditions have continued to be tough, and Australia’s banks, while some of the healthiest and best run in the world, will continue to be impacted by the cost of funding.

A principal with PwC has been chosen by Consulting magazine in its annual list of “Top 25 Consultants” in the category of “Excellence in Leadership.”

Scott Hefter is a seasoned consultant with over two decades of experience in management consulting; he played a key role in helping guide the integration of over 700 PRTM global consultants into PwC following PRTM’s acquisition by PwC in August 2011.

Prior to joining PwC, Hefter was the Global Managing Director (GMD) of PRTM, where he was responsible for driving the firm’s operational strategy and growth objectives. Prior to his election to GMD, Mr. Hefter co-founded and ran PRTM’s U.S. Government and Public Sector practice in addition to managing the Washington, D.C. office.

Dana Mcilwain, PwC Vice Chairman and U.S. Advisory Practice Leader was congratulatory in her comments:

“Scott demonstrated exemplary leadership during the PRTM acquisition, not only by helping facilitate the smooth integration of new talent into PwC, but also by encouraging immediate collaboration among our consultants to more quickly bring our combined talents and innovative ideas to bear on our clients’ most pressing business challenges.”