#mig vc; how about no--

[iobartach]

@d3adagain asked; "get your nerdy gonk nose out of my business."

Enticed to listen, the issued warning prompts brows to crease, a hint of annoyance surfacing momentarily on olive skinned features before being smothered by a mask of forced calmness. Now wasn't the time to be obstinate, not when a gun was being waved in his face. Any wrong move made could prove disastrous-- zeroed before his time had fallen due, with no contingencies in place.

Well, not yet anyway.

"Try lowering that iron first. Then I'll consider it." Threats had been an infrequent feature in O'Hara's life, an aspect that came part and parcel with the job since the day he went to work for Arasaka. An element of the company training he'd been given had covered how to deal with huscle, further enhanced by more than a few close encounters since then. Fortunately, it wasn't enough to serve as a deterrent, to dissuade him from his current path. The only force capable of stopping him now, short of death, was himself. And that wasn't going to happen. Not when he was so close to a breakthrough.

"I don't know how you managed to get this far undetected..." Finding the occasion to stand, shirted sleeves sweep over the desk between them, a hand picking up his drink whilst the other indicated to a datapad screen, primed to summon security at the tap of a finger press. One of the several luxuries he enjoyed, whilst living in corporate owned accommodations. "But I assure you, unless you comply, you'll have a far worse time trying to escape."

It caused him some concern to think a lone mercenary was able to circumvent his apartment's defences and get to the point of an in-person confrontation without triggering an alarm. But the thought is soon shelved, ready to be appraised at a later time. He'd rather concentrate on staying alive first, than be concerned about failings in protection investments.

"So you might as well tell me this; who hired you?"

[ichoreyed]

yinseal replied to your post: #ling entering amestris like uh oh sisters!!!!!!!!...

SIRI HOW DO I ENGAGE IN ARMED COMBAT FOR FURTHER TAG DISTRESS

i don’t think you’re gonna like my alternative answer to that post which was, to be read in ed’s vc (which is vic mig/nog/na which makes this twice as unfortunate): facts don’t care about your feelings, sakura haruno

[chuyenvienmatrixfield]

Viendongthoicuoc12 seconds ago the article remind me Vietnam war that Vietnamese Communists pilot MIG 15 MIG 17 MIG 21 could shoot down American pilots with better jet fighter F4, F105, F100 F 101 even though the difference is about 10 to 1 vc pilot got one American pilot with better jets get 10. The trick for vc pilot is smaller turn arc with smaller and weaker jet engines that American better and stronger jet engines cannot do, another trick is north Vietnamese Pilot can go lower than American pilot  cannot due to 12.7 mm, 12.8mmm. 37 mm. 57 mm anti-aircrats guns on the ground. NOTE I am not sure about f101 because it is supposed to be for air reconessant not as fighter pilots some Vietnamese, North vietnamese pilots are exceptional they have shot down some American pilots in record  up to 7 and gain American pilots the respect that Vietnamese , North Vietnamese pilots deserved South Vietnamese pilots are even more incredible than North Vietnamese pilots, American should ask American soldiers who fought in Vietnam from many bloody battle fields khe sanh, dong ha, ashau, a luoi, dakto, tet, charlie, quang tri , hue, an loc, binh long,  bien hoa, ha lao, luoi cau , cua viet, duc co , dong xoai , binh gia, pleime, pleiku, kon tum,lavang, ben hai , thach han, etc, etc, etc ask them they will tell you how south  Vietnamese pilots have flied UHIB helicopter or A37 or H34 or sky rider A1 or AD5 AD6, there is even a south Vietnamese Pilot has become as legend pilot who has been burried in American Arlington . I EVEN THOUGHT SOUTH VIETNAMESE PILOTS ARE DESERVED EVEN BETTER THAN ARLINGTON BECAUSE OF THEIR UNKNOWN COURAGEMENTS note 1 to 10 or may be less, i did not remember exact the number or may be even less for example 1 to 5 and you must have imagination of dog fight  to understand turn in smaller arcs with 12.8 mm 37 mm 50 mm sam missiles on the ground to understand situation of jet fighter pilots at their moments

[gothamnotherstuff]

Is metal fabrication Any Good? 10 Ways You Can Be Certain.

The sheet metal will be subjected to a boxing maker or often referred as the pushing maker. In this procedure, an opening will be produced on the metal write-up, utilizing the suitable tool that will fit the equipment. Trimming is likewise part of this process wherein the additional steels will be removed. Next kind of sheet metal stamping is forming. Forming could be accomplished utilizing various techniques such as flexing or folding, seaming marking, beading and also kinking and grooving. Hammering over the weld zone helps to blend in the connection and also develop an unnoticeable weld. It is necessary to harden the weld prior to hammering or it will certainly fracture. By this factor I had actually been dealing with the sculpture about 150 hours. I was saturated with tortoise images as well as factoids. I was haunted by turtle desires. In this image the jaw has actually been created and also tack bonded in place. I do my copper welding with a Miller syncrowave TIG machine. I utilized de-oxidized copper filler rod which has a little phosphorus in the alloy in order to help maintain the weld tidy. You can see the resulting countered you go into at the robot, once again, using the device suggestion. You enter these numbers X 0, Y 0, Z 20, A 0, B 90, C 0 right into the tool ID of 6 using the physical robotic pendant. See the area Installing a Tool in Taubman College Agilus Workcell Operating Procedure for information on how you can enter these values. See the subject Working with Planes in Kuka|prc for information on utilizing aircrafts in your definitions. The tape is strong yet it needs a really level surface to hold. An Attentive CNC Operator: I was changing the rate with each modification of species of wood. For instance it was simple to relocate quicker than typical on the Mahogany. It cuts so magnificently and is relativity soft. By comparison the White Oak had actually to be cut much slower. I was cutting at half rate when swarf reducing the miters - otherwise there 'd be babble as well as a poor finish to the component.

Using fast and reliable production

What certification will I get

MIG & TIG aluminum/ steel

Kazatomprom and also AREVA agreed to construct a 1200 t/yr fuel construction plant in Kazakhstan. *

On-time delivery: The time and prices of delivery usually eclipse the perceived price financial savings that companies look for offshore. Hold-ups in production and also shipping might place your task on hold. Astro supplies you the quickest lead times. Quality: This, perhaps, is the biggest concern that the majority of ventures encounter. Nevertheless, high quality is an offered when you companion with a firm such as Astro for your stainless steel construction as well as steel manufacture demands. A precision design firm makes equipment and remain in fact high accuracy engineering business. An accuracy engineering company deals with issues which are really significant to existing technical fad. Their research and contribution in these fields assist the advancement of modern technology which is very required for industrial competitiveness. These firms ensure that the items they provide to you maintain the high requirements of your along with their own business. The usage of CNC turning equipments as compared to hand-operated turret create considerably enhanced performance, precision, security and also efficiency given that there is much less human treatment entailed. The automotive industry most likely tops all others when it comes to using stamped steel items as well as elements. From body and also chassis components to brake rotors, there are few systems in any automobile that are not created by stamping, cutting as well as shaping several metal components and afterwards fitting them with each other. try this site And also that's in addition to the many kinds of conveyors, air feeds and also servo feeds that are associated with placing the auto together for you. Regardless of what your sector, opportunities are that it would be much various if it just weren't for the involvement of metal marking experts. A specialist fabricator of steel structures and also components could should strictly follow heaven print given by the project engineer. On the various other hand, the majority of fabricated structures as well as parts have basic requirements as well as patterns that they can easily be created without always adhering to specs that are special to a specific project. Other jobs associated with fabricating steels are necessary to replicate device parts that can not easily be discovered in other places. This sort of fabrication technique is generally sought-after in remediation of vintage machineries. From classic cars and trucks to vintage locomotives to classic planes, much of the components are not anymore readily available or very hard to find. Thus, fabricating several of the parts is not just required but one of the most practical service. Johnathon Black is an expert on a variety of topics.

With the crashing economic situation, Prototek inevitably selected up numerous brand-new customers from other sheet steel production shops. It got to the point where their Pulsar laser as well as Vipros Queen turret were running 90% of the day, every day! This being a wonderful negative effects of an inadequate economic climate, the new issue was simply not having the ability to manage the work. Prototek has actually consistently added bigger, quicker, as well as extra exact milling as well as processing equipments to their toolbox for many years, checking out new innovations to find just what fits them finest. Previously this year was seven brand-new Hurco milling makers and the most recent addition is the VC Nexus 410A from Mazak Corp. Products the business frequently collaborates with consist of ABS materials, all stainless steels, and also all non-ferrous materials consisting of Kovar, Invar, tungsten, as well as titanium. If you loved this write-up and you would certainly such as to receive more info pertaining to metal staircases (site) kindly visit the webpage.

[theworldofaviation-blog]

Duxford Air Festival is an annual airshow held over the Bank Holiday Weekend at Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England. The ex Royal Air Force base was once home to fighter command squadrons in WWII and served as an active base until 1961.

A sea of visitors at the show. All Photos ©Avineesh Suppiah

Now, the airfield is home to the world famous Imperial War Museum, featuring exhibits of hundreds of commercial and military aircraft, as well playing host to some impressive airshows, including the Battle of Britain and Flying Legends airshows.

I visited the Air Festival on Sunday the 28th to experience the displays, featuring a variety of aircraft ranging from WWI trainers to next generation front line fast jets! All pictures were taken using a Canon EOS 700D with 18-135mm and 70-200mm lenses.

US Air Force Boeing CV-22B Osprey

Army Air Corps Westland WAH-64D Apache

The line up at the show featured some interesting military types, including a RAF Mildenhall based USAF Osprey and an Army Air Corp Apache. While the Osprey did not fly during the show, the Apache Demo Team later displayed.

The flightline looking towards the Western side of the airfield

The main taxiway on the airfield doubled as the flightline on the day, with access to the display aircraft costing £6 per person. Access was available until 12 PM, when the organisers started to prepare for the flying display. Aircraft that were performing later in the display were close to the barriers, allowing good photo opportunities for those who wished not to pay the £6.

A visitor admires the “interesting” decals on B-17 Sally B

At 1:15 PM, the first aircraft got on the move. It was Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander G-AXUB, carrying the British Army Parachute Regiment display team, The Red Devils! They departed and climbed to an altitude of 4,500ft before the team jumped out to perform a fantastic display featuring a massive Union flag!

Boarding G-AXUB

Taxiing past the crowds

Squadron leader landing

Flying in with a massive Union flag!

Next, the pace was turned up a little, as Tony de Bruyn of Bronco Demo Team performed a spectacular display with North American Rockwell OV-10B Bronco 99+18 (G-ONAA), painted in a German Air Force livery with additional stickers to relating to WWI, as a tribute to those who perished in the war.

Lest We Forget titles are painted onto the wing

Poppies are painted on the auxiliary fuel tank

Poppies also feature on the aircraft’s tail

The tempo was the increased again, as Flt Lt Ryan Lawton of RAF Coningsby 29(R)Sqn deafened the crowds with his Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4, ZK354. The display team’s hasthag of #BringTheNoise2017 was highly appropriate.

Next up was a smoky display from the Breitling WingWalkers, the world’s only aerobatic formation wingwalking team. Only two of their four Boeing PT-17 Stearman aircraft attended the show but their performance was still very impressive.

Smoky departure

Formation wingwalking

Waving to the crowds

A treat for the eyes was Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress 44-85784 (G-BEDF), named Sally B. She is the last airworthy B-17 in Europe, preserved by B-17 Preservation Ltd. For the flying display, she was accompanied by North American TF-51D Mustang 44-84847 (N251RJ)”Miss Velma”

Sally B & Miss Velma

Solo Pass

Waving to the crowds

The display then switched back to jets, with RAF liveried BAC 84 Jet Provost T Mk.5 XW324 (G-BWSG) and Royal Air Force of Oman liveried BAC 167 Strikemaster Mk.82A. The two jets performed a spectacular tandem display; a video from inside the cockpit of the Strikemaster Display UK aircraft can be found on the team’s Facebook page here.

Spitting image: The BAC Strikemaster (left) as a variant of the BAC Jet Provost

BAC 84 Jet Provost T Mk.5 XW324

BAC 167 Strikemaster Mk.82A

Another classic then stepped onto the scene; Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina 43-3915 (G-PBYA) “Miss Pick Up.” The aircraft is owned by the Catalina Society and maintained at Duxford.

High speed pass

Pulling up and away

The Catalina shows off it’s underwing floats

For the second time that day, the tempo was shot through the roof! The Armée de l’Air rocketed onto the scene with Dassult Rafale C 4-GL of Saint-Dizier – Robinson Air Base Escadron de Chasse 01-007 “Provence”. The two Snecma M88-2 turbofans pulled the French front line jet through the air at speeds just under Mach 1 through various rolls, loops and passes!

Top side pass

Afterburners on!

The final act, despite it’s rarity, did not attract much attention. Two Duxford based Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1As took to the skies, but there wasn’t many spectators left to admire them.

N3200 wears the same colours of a Duxford based Spitfire in WWII

As the crowds dissipated, I walked around some of the other permanent displays at the museum, include a tribute to British jetliners; the BAC 1-11, Hawker-Siddeley Trident and Vickers VC-10.

Reflecting on the airshow, I was very impressed with the variety and power of the displays. Unfortunately, two scheduled aircraft did not fly, namely the Norwegian Historical Squadron Mig-15 and the Royal Navy Sea Vixen, which made an emergency gear up landing at RNAS Yeovilton the day before.

For those who are not so interested in the flying, there were plenty of food stalls and other activities. The fact that the show takes place at a historic museum rather than a regular airfield means there is a lot more to do. In the Airspace hangar, younger children could learn about the physics of flight and the development of modern day aircraft while their parents could stroll around the various aircraft displays.

I would definitely recommend the airshow to all aviation enthusiasts and any who just wants a good day out. Duxford Air Festival will return this time next year, while Meet the Fighters and Battle of Britain airshows are still to come in 2017. Find out more details on the Imperial War Museum website here.

Thanks for reading this airshow review. We hope you enjoyed it! Comment below if you have any questions or suggestions on how we can improve 🙂

Duxford Air Festival 2017 Duxford Air Festival is an annual airshow held over the Bank Holiday Weekend at Imperial War Museum Duxford in Cambridgeshire, England.

[dramartyakumar]

Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm

Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm

Dr. Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya

BCE (Hons.) ( Jadavpur ), MTech ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), PhD ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), Cert.MTERM ( AIT Bangkok ), CEng(I), FIE, FACCE(I), FISH, FIWRS, FIPHE, FIAH, FAE, MIGS, MIGS – Kolkata Chapter, MIGS – Chennai Chapter, MISTE, MAHI, MISCA, MIAHS, MISTAM, MNSFMFP, MIIBE, MICI, MIEES, MCITP, MISRS, MISRMTT, MAGGS, MCSI, MMBSI

Chairman and Managing Director,

MultiSpectra Consultants,

23, Biplabi Ambika Chakraborty Sarani,

Kolkata – 700029, West Bengal, INDIA.

E-mail: dramartyakumar@gmail.com

The decision of how to position a professional services firm is actually a collection of decisions made over time. These choices become more strategic and more expensive as the firm grows but they are made at thousands of points along the way nonetheless. The question really is: are they made proactively or reactively?

How Positioning Evolves Within a Firm

It starts at the firm’s founding when the principal makes the decision to hang out a “shingle” and attracts his first client. The nature of these early client relationships establishes a precedent for the type of work and type of clientele the firm continues to service for years to come. And, rarely are those first client decisions strategic choices. In fact, usually the early clients of the firm are not really selected and attracted; they are pursued and sold in a desire to survive.

Over time, the firm grows – adding new clients in new industries and applying new service remedies which require different people and different skills. Along the way, the firm tells itself that it is highly differentiated and well positioned – after all the firm is growing and winning new clients. “We have better client service,” it says. “We do things better (faster or cheaper) than the big boys! We are more accommodating! We are more flexible!”

One day, twenty or thirty years hence, the firm leadership looks around and asks itself a few difficult, yet fundamental questions. The questions themselves are never quite the same but generally speaking they sound something like this:

How did we get in THIS business?

Why are we providing THAT service?

Why are we pursuing THOSE clients?

The amount of time it takes to get here varies and the size of the firm at this point is largely irrelevant. Regardless, this is the moment when positioning stops being reactive and starts being proactive.

Three Fundamental Positioning Models

At this point, the task of positioning moves from being a situational one (how can we win this piece of business with that client?) to being a strategic one (what business are we actually in?). The decision becomes a matter of strategic focus and is about directing the firm’s expertise in a given direction such that it can attract a selection of high-value clients.

Ultimately, the firm realises that it can only truly own one simple idea in the minds of its clients. Generally speaking, that simple idea is the collective expertise the firm offers to the market. Deciding what that expertise is becomes the fundamental task of positioning. While generally the decision is not quite this simplistic, there are three simple ways to think about positioning a firm.

#1 – Horizontal Positioning

Generally the simplest approach to position a firm is by building deep expertise in a relatively narrow service offering that has high value to a wide range of clientele across a variety of industries. I say this approach is the simplest positioning strategy because it doesn’t necessarily ask the firm to radically change itself. The professionals in the firm are asked to deepen their knowledge in a topic they presumably love – some narrow portion of the profession they have set out to do.

That said, if the fundamental goal of positioning is to attract high-value clients, then it has become increasingly difficult to do this solely by positioning around a narrow service offering. As an example, perform a Google search on the topic of “analytics and data mining consulting.” The resulting string yields over 25M hits. One of the subsequent links provides over 150 firms claiming competency in this somewhat narrow IT service offering.

Despite all the noise, it is possible to identify firms having success with this strategy. If you perform a Google search on the topic, “salesforce consulting firms” you’ll find about 1.2M hits. While this is still a daunting list, after clicking through a few firms the user quickly finds out that most firms offering this service are just IT generalists trying to express some modest expertise in this area. After a few clicks, one finds Red Sky Solutions (http://ift.tt/2qBLTWf), a Los Angeles-based firm that specialises in sales automation specifically utilising the Salesforce platform. The message is clear and simple, “We partner with clients to implement and customize the following salesforce.com offerings…” The proof is equally clear and simple – 250 Salesforce projects within just the first 2 years of operations (and that was 7 years ago). Most attempts to proactively position a professional services firm take this first approach, though few do it as well as Red Sky Solutions.

#2 – Vertical Positioning

The second approach to positioning is to align the firm’s resources to serve a range of needs for clients within one or a handful of select industry verticals. Generally speaking, this is a market-based strategy. The firm effectively owns the market it serves in the minds of its clients. One of the best single examples of this is the power-focused engineering firm, Sargent & Lundy. Sargent & Lundy can describe its expertise in simple yet meaningful units of measure: it has led the design of 927 power plants totalling 135,643 MW of energy. This experience is tangible and real to the client. It’s worth noting that the firm has ridden this single market focus for over 120 years and has derived ~$500M in revenue annually from this strategy (equivalent to ~8-10% of the US market for these services).

While this method to positioning is generally the most successful one, less than 5% of professional service firms in a given industry has the courage to position itself in this manner. This is due to the fact that it requires the professionals in the firm to learn quite a bit about something they often do not care much about – their clients. While all firms talk about how well they understand a client’s business, very few actually commit themselves to building deep expertise through the methods of listening to clients, reading their industry publications and attending their relevant professional conferences. Even if they do all these things, few have built systematic approaches to sharing this insight firm-wide to build the collective knowledge of the firm’s people to truly be experts.

#3 – Positioning Through Business Model Innovation

The third approach to positioning is to innovate an entirely new business model to serve clients in a new or novel way. Since this is a bit more difficult to wrap your head around, I shall offer a more detailed example.

QStart Labs

At first glance, QStart Labs is just another software development firm. But, as you look more closely, you realise that the firm has created an entirely new business model for providing this service. Essentially, it is part developer, part investor and part entrepreneur. The firm contracts with venture-backed startups over multi-year terms through revenue-share arrangements. That sounds confusing, but it is really quite simple – the firm knows a boat load about how to get a new software product to market so they are willing to share in the risk (and reward) of a new venture. Now, the interesting part is that while the revenue share model was built to serve the needs of startup companies, it has enabled the firm to open relationships with companies of all sizes and types that are interested in a unique type of relationship with a software development firm.

While this approach to positioning generally creates the most value for the client and has potential to create the most growth, it is by far the most difficult path. The skill sets required to innovate a business model generally start with the difficult decisions made to build deep, meaningful expertise in a narrow area of service or a narrow market. The folks at QStart Labs built significant chops by working closely with a number of VCs to take products to market over a number of years – skill sets you do not just build overnight.

A Fourth Approach for the Remaining 0.5% – “The Big Idea”

Wait a minute. Isn’t the title of the article, “Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm?” In actuality, there is a fourth way to position a firm but it is reserved for a very small collection of very well established firms in a marketplace. These are the firms that have already risen above the noise and grown to a significant level of status in the marketplace. They are seen as leaders and the phrase, “nobody ever got fired for hiring [insert firm name]” is a phrase used regularly in the space. Many of these firms are quite generalist in nature but grew at a time when demand for their expertise far exceeded the available supply of it. They exploited this opportunity by being the most professional consultants in the room.

This 0.5% of firms in any professional category has already been defined. There is no room for additional firms to join this rank. For this small set of firms, it is quite effective to position around “the big idea.” The firms that have been most successful with this approach are, of course, Accenture and IBM. Accenture has done it by positioning itself as “the firm to achieve high performance.” And IBM has followed with its campaign “for a smarter planet.” Both approaches position around a “big idea” that is much greater than the underlying expertise of the collective resources within either firm. That said, it is the collective expertise and talent of each firm that enables it to deliver on the lofty message declared through the positioning.

This approach to positioning could best be described as “do not try this at home.” Positioning any firm in the remaining 99.5% in this way sets the firm up for disappointment when marketing initiatives fail to deliver the outcomes sought by the firm leadership.

from Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm

[chuyenvienmatrixfield]

Viendongthoicuoc12 seconds ago the article remind me Vietnam war that vc pilot mig 15 mig 17 mig 21 could shot down American pilots with better jet fighter F4, F105, F100 F 101 even though the difference is about 10 to 1 vc pilot got one American pilot with better jets get 10. The trick for vc pilot is smaller turn with smaller and weaker jet engines that American better and stronger jet engines cannot do, another trick is north Vietnamese Pilot can go lower than American pilot due to 12.7 mm, 12.8mmm. 37 mm. 57 mm anti-aircrats guns on the ground. note 1 to 10 or may be less, i did not remember exact the number or may be even less for example 1 to 5

[dramartyakumar]

Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm

Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm

Dr. Amartya Kumar Bhattacharya

BCE (Hons.) ( Jadavpur ), MTech ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), PhD ( Civil ) ( IIT Kharagpur ), Cert.MTERM ( AIT Bangkok ), CEng(I), FIE, FACCE(I), FISH, FIWRS, FIPHE, FIAH, FAE, MIGS, MIGS – Kolkata Chapter, MIGS – Chennai Chapter, MISTE, MAHI, MISCA, MIAHS, MISTAM, MNSFMFP, MIIBE, MICI, MIEES, MCITP, MISRS, MISRMTT, MAGGS, MCSI, MMBSI

Chairman and Managing Director,

MultiSpectra Consultants,

23, Biplabi Ambika Chakraborty Sarani,

Kolkata – 700029, West Bengal, INDIA.

E-mail: dramartyakumar@gmail.com

The decision of how to position a professional services firm is actually a collection of decisions made over time. These choices become more strategic and more expensive as the firm grows but they are made at thousands of points along the way nonetheless. The question really is: are they made proactively or reactively?

How Positioning Evolves Within a Firm

It starts at the firm’s founding when the principal makes the decision to hang out a “shingle” and attracts his first client. The nature of these early client relationships establishes a precedent for the type of work and type of clientele the firm continues to service for years to come. And, rarely are those first client decisions strategic choices. In fact, usually the early clients of the firm are not really selected and attracted; they are pursued and sold in a desire to survive.

Over time, the firm grows – adding new clients in new industries and applying new service remedies which require different people and different skills. Along the way, the firm tells itself that it is highly differentiated and well positioned – after all the firm is growing and winning new clients. “We have better client service,” it says. “We do things better (faster or cheaper) than the big boys! We are more accommodating! We are more flexible!”

One day, twenty or thirty years hence, the firm leadership looks around and asks itself a few difficult, yet fundamental questions. The questions themselves are never quite the same but generally speaking they sound something like this:

How did we get in THIS business?

Why are we providing THAT service?

Why are we pursuing THOSE clients?

The amount of time it takes to get here varies and the size of the firm at this point is largely irrelevant. Regardless, this is the moment when positioning stops being reactive and starts being proactive.

Three Fundamental Positioning Models

At this point, the task of positioning moves from being a situational one (how can we win this piece of business with that client?) to being a strategic one (what business are we actually in?). The decision becomes a matter of strategic focus and is about directing the firm’s expertise in a given direction such that it can attract a selection of high-value clients.

Ultimately, the firm realises that it can only truly own one simple idea in the minds of its clients. Generally speaking, that simple idea is the collective expertise the firm offers to the market. Deciding what that expertise is becomes the fundamental task of positioning. While generally the decision is not quite this simplistic, there are three simple ways to think about positioning a firm.

#1 – Horizontal Positioning

Generally the simplest approach to position a firm is by building deep expertise in a relatively narrow service offering that has high value to a wide range of clientele across a variety of industries. I say this approach is the simplest positioning strategy because it doesn’t necessarily ask the firm to radically change itself. The professionals in the firm are asked to deepen their knowledge in a topic they presumably love – some narrow portion of the profession they have set out to do.

That said, if the fundamental goal of positioning is to attract high-value clients, then it has become increasingly difficult to do this solely by positioning around a narrow service offering. As an example, perform a Google search on the topic of “analytics and data mining consulting.” The resulting string yields over 25M hits. One of the subsequent links provides over 150 firms claiming competency in this somewhat narrow IT service offering.

Despite all the noise, it is possible to identify firms having success with this strategy. If you perform a Google search on the topic, “salesforce consulting firms” you’ll find about 1.2M hits. While this is still a daunting list, after clicking through a few firms the user quickly finds out that most firms offering this service are just IT generalists trying to express some modest expertise in this area. After a few clicks, one finds Red Sky Solutions (http://ift.tt/2qBLTWf), a Los Angeles-based firm that specialises in sales automation specifically utilising the Salesforce platform. The message is clear and simple, “We partner with clients to implement and customize the following salesforce.com offerings…” The proof is equally clear and simple – 250 Salesforce projects within just the first 2 years of operations (and that was 7 years ago). Most attempts to proactively position a professional services firm take this first approach, though few do it as well as Red Sky Solutions.

#2 – Vertical Positioning

The second approach to positioning is to align the firm’s resources to serve a range of needs for clients within one or a handful of select industry verticals. Generally speaking, this is a market-based strategy. The firm effectively owns the market it serves in the minds of its clients. One of the best single examples of this is the power-focused engineering firm, Sargent & Lundy. Sargent & Lundy can describe its expertise in simple yet meaningful units of measure: it has led the design of 927 power plants totalling 135,643 MW of energy. This experience is tangible and real to the client. It’s worth noting that the firm has ridden this single market focus for over 120 years and has derived ~$500M in revenue annually from this strategy (equivalent to ~8-10% of the US market for these services).

While this method to positioning is generally the most successful one, less than 5% of professional service firms in a given industry has the courage to position itself in this manner. This is due to the fact that it requires the professionals in the firm to learn quite a bit about something they often do not care much about – their clients. While all firms talk about how well they understand a client’s business, very few actually commit themselves to building deep expertise through the methods of listening to clients, reading their industry publications and attending their relevant professional conferences. Even if they do all these things, few have built systematic approaches to sharing this insight firm-wide to build the collective knowledge of the firm’s people to truly be experts.

#3 – Positioning Through Business Model Innovation

The third approach to positioning is to innovate an entirely new business model to serve clients in a new or novel way. Since this is a bit more difficult to wrap your head around, I shall offer a more detailed example.

QStart Labs

At first glance, QStart Labs is just another software development firm. But, as you look more closely, you realise that the firm has created an entirely new business model for providing this service. Essentially, it is part developer, part investor and part entrepreneur. The firm contracts with venture-backed startups over multi-year terms through revenue-share arrangements. That sounds confusing, but it is really quite simple – the firm knows a boat load about how to get a new software product to market so they are willing to share in the risk (and reward) of a new venture. Now, the interesting part is that while the revenue share model was built to serve the needs of startup companies, it has enabled the firm to open relationships with companies of all sizes and types that are interested in a unique type of relationship with a software development firm.

While this approach to positioning generally creates the most value for the client and has potential to create the most growth, it is by far the most difficult path. The skill sets required to innovate a business model generally start with the difficult decisions made to build deep, meaningful expertise in a narrow area of service or a narrow market. The folks at QStart Labs built significant chops by working closely with a number of VCs to take products to market over a number of years – skill sets you do not just build overnight.

A Fourth Approach for the Remaining 0.5% – “The Big Idea”

Wait a minute. Isn’t the title of the article, “Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm?” In actuality, there is a fourth way to position a firm but it is reserved for a very small collection of very well established firms in a marketplace. These are the firms that have already risen above the noise and grown to a significant level of status in the marketplace. They are seen as leaders and the phrase, “nobody ever got fired for hiring [insert firm name]” is a phrase used regularly in the space. Many of these firms are quite generalist in nature but grew at a time when demand for their expertise far exceeded the available supply of it. They exploited this opportunity by being the most professional consultants in the room.

This 0.5% of firms in any professional category has already been defined. There is no room for additional firms to join this rank. For this small set of firms, it is quite effective to position around “the big idea.” The firms that have been most successful with this approach are, of course, Accenture and IBM. Accenture has done it by positioning itself as “the firm to achieve high performance.” And IBM has followed with its campaign “for a smarter planet.” Both approaches position around a “big idea” that is much greater than the underlying expertise of the collective resources within either firm. That said, it is the collective expertise and talent of each firm that enables it to deliver on the lofty message declared through the positioning.

This approach to positioning could best be described as “do not try this at home.” Positioning any firm in the remaining 99.5% in this way sets the firm up for disappointment when marketing initiatives fail to deliver the outcomes sought by the firm leadership.

from Three Proven Ways to Position a Professional Services Firm