Pricing and people analytics at PSF consulting

Marie Bernard, the recently appointed CEO of PSF Consulting, was determined to leave her mark on the company she had tirelessly served for more than two decades. And while for most of her predecessors that meant relentless growth, expansion into new countries and industries-a need she was certainly aware of-her focus had recently turned inward, to the "inner workings" of the company. Two issues stood out to her from her tenure as Managing Director for Western Europe: the way the company handled workforce planning (people being its most important resource and asset) and project bidding. Both functions were based on principles of transparency and consensus and did not seem to cause any problems. But Marie was keenly aware that the two functions were operating in a disconnected manner, when common sense would suggest that they should be closely coordinated. To Marie, the current way of working seemed to sacrifice productivity and profitability for the sake of simplicity, and did not take advantage of the vast amounts of data the firm had on past engagements and clients. As she prepared for her first face-to-face executive committee meeting in her new role, she wondered how she could synthesize these ideas into a coherent initiative that would win over the firm's senior leadership, and how hard to push if she encountered resistance.