Management Consultancy Magazine April 2000

IMC JOURNAL 43 "Flying high..."

Laura Ferreiro talks to Richard Martin CMC about the challenges of consulting within the dot.coms sector and the potential of e-commerce.

When you meet Richard Martin, director of Du Mar e-Consulting, his clean-cut, distinguished appearance gives no indication of the radical consultant that lies beneath the polished exterior.
"It's a bit like re-wiring a 747 in flight," he says of much of the consulting work he does, helping major companies such as Woolwich plc implement electronic commerce strategies from the ground up.
"E-commerce isn't only about technology, it's a whole new way of thinking about business that involves taking huge leaps of faith," Martin says. And to help his clients take those leaps, he analy­ses the behaviour that leads people to make good and bad decisions. "It's 95 percent psychology
and 5 percent technology," he says.
And he should know. Not only did he take a big leap of faith in 1997 by leaving Andersen Consulting, one of the world's largest consulting firms, to start his own business, but he also wrote a book that uses psychological studies of irrationality to identify trends and habits in management decision-making.
"I find it fascinating to discern how people can make decisions without knowing what benefits they will bring or what the market will bring," he says.
Martin will address this topic and discuss current trends in e-commerce when he speaks at IMC's forthcoming London and South East New Members' Networking event at KPMG's Salisbury Square office in London on 24 May. The event is open to all members who have joined the IMC since 1 January 1999 and their guests.
Martin became involved with the IMC about three years ago when he started up his own consulting firm. "When I left Andersen, I knew it would be very valuable to obtain IMC's CMCT"^ (Certified Management Consultant) qualification," he says. "Coming out of an environment where I was sold by the reputation of the company, I was very aware that I needed to

Richard Martin: "E-commerce is a whole new way of thinking about business"

obtain an internationally recognized qualification to practice on my own-especially in a market where people can and do call themselves consultants without any particular wherewithal to back that up. Having the CMC qualification means that I am able to say I'm a consultant and actually mean it."
Martin obtained the CMC qualification, which is the only competency-based qualification for practicing consultants, in 1998. Since then he has worked with several top clients such as Woolwich, advising them primarily on how to implement e-commerce solutions.
"When I began consulting, `e-commerce' was just a buzz word and no one really understood what it meant," he says. "Now clients know that they have to implement e-commerce in order to survive."
Martin says that his weekend hobby building a Lancair 320 composite kitplane is not only a fun and relaxing way to spend time, but has also helped him in his consulting work. It was a risky investment that has taken up a great deal of his
time, but now that it's nearly complete he has learned a lot about planning and time management.
"Consulting often combines business skills with putting things back together," he says. "It also involves determining where clients want to go and how to get there." Building his plane has combined elements of setting his sights on a goal, mapping out a plan to achieve it and putting it all together, literally and figuratively. Getting this complicated plan off the ground has translated into better insight into the projects of some of his clients.
When Martin was hired by Woolwich in 1998, he was charged with implementing an e­commerce solution in seven months, which, he says, was almost like building a parallel company from the ground up. "Woolwich was a self-­professed sleepy old building society that knew if it didn't do something radical, it would disappear."
This is a lesson that more and more companies are learning on a daily basis. In a climate where businesses are thriving by tapping into new markets via their websites, those who have not already done so are scrambling to fit into the new electronic model. And qualified management consultants like Martin are out there guiding them on to successful flight.
To find out more about the CMC qualification, IMC membership or the forthcoming New Mem­bers' Networking Evening at KPMG on 24 May, call us on our freephone number 0800 318 030, or simply fax back the form below.
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APRIL 2000

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