Resources
Resources to help Business Managers and those who support them progress.
Articles, guides, methods, and tools directly usable for onboarding, management, and the Business Manager profession.
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Latest resources
Platforms: a useful channel, but rarely a business advantage
Platforms can open up opportunities, but they mostly expose needs to immediate competition. For a Business Manager, the challenge is to use them as a signal, without making them the main source of business development.
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HOT: the three levels of cooperation that every manager should master
The HOT model shows that sustainable cooperation relies on three complementary levels: human, organizational, and technological. An effective manager learns to diagnose the right level of action before adding a tool, ritual, or process.
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Asking junior business managers to make lists of 500 prospects is pointless
Having a junior Business Manager produce 500 prospects gives an illusion of progress, not a real understanding of the market. The goal is not the volume of data, but learning to sort, prioritize, and conduct commercial analysis.
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"Watch how I do it" is not enough to convey a skill
Watching an experienced Business Manager is not enough to build a true skill. To pass on in a lasting way, it is necessary to explain the reasoning, have practice, and debrief.
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Should all confirmed Business Managers be developed towards management?
Promoting an excellent Business Manager to management is not always a natural progression. Without a clarified role or tested skills, the company risks losing a good operative and weakening its juniors.
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Win in the short term... or build in the long term?
The short term becomes dangerous when it accumulates without a framework, until it silently redefines the company's strategy. To preserve the long term, decisions must be made visible, temporary, and controlled.
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The evolution of consultants is often the weak link in many IT services companies
The annual review cannot make up for a year without a structured follow-up. To fairly evaluate a consultant's progress, the Business Manager must observe, document, and adjust throughout the year.
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Business Managers are asked to work on their posture… while the problem lies elsewhere
Behind a supposed posture problem often hides an inconsistent work framework for Business Managers. Clarifying responsibilities, arbitration, and decision-making power is often more urgent than coaching the individual.
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When the time saved by AI is just used to create more hot air
AI saves time, but this gain can simply accelerate inefficient practices if nothing changes in the quality of work. For Business Managers, the challenge is not to produce more, but to improve what truly creates value.
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When KPIs give the impression that everything is under control
Green KPIs can hide a deteriorating commercial mechanism. To truly manage, you have to connect volumes to quality, transformation, and time.
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Saying "yes" to a consultant who wishes to leave a project is not a business failure
Accepting a request to leave a project does not mean giving in, but rather regaining control over an existing risk. For the Business Manager, the challenge is to organize a managed transition that protects the client, the consultant, and the business.
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When the same numbers don't tell the same story
A KPI is never enough to explain a situation: it highlights a gap but doesn't reveal the causes or quality. This article shows how to transform an indicator into a useful diagnostic to better manage Business Managers.
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The great commercial probability scam
Assigning a percentage to each commercial opportunity gives an illusion of precision more than a real forecast. It's better to manage with steps, objective criteria, and scenarios.
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Recruiter, Business Manager: no longer ask for your candidates' current salary
Asking a candidate's current salary is a counterproductive, unfair practice and is soon to be banned. It's better to assess the value of the position and skills to recruit more fairly and effectively.
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When you're a Junior Business Manager in an ESN and feel overwhelmed by trivial tasks
Why do so many junior Business Managers feel overwhelmed without really advancing their business? This article deciphers the concrete causes and the tools to regain control with more method, pace, and impact.
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Business Manager in ESN: a role dissected… at the risk of being stripped of its meaning
The breakdown of the Business Manager role in ESN promises more specialization, but often weakens the coherence between sales, recruitment, and management. This article analyzes the risks of this breakdown and the conditions for a more balanced model.
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Remuneration of Business Managers: performance lever or frustration factory?
The remuneration of Business Managers can stimulate performance… or fuel injustice and demotivation. The whole challenge is to align the variable with the behaviors actually expected.
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Is it still necessary to check references when recruiting?
Checking references remains a valuable tool to ensure reliable recruitment, provided its limitations are understood. When done well, it offers a useful, ethical, and contextualized external perspective.
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ESN: should we continue recruiting when the inter-contract rate increases?
When the inter-contract rate increases, freezing recruitment seems logical, but this reflex can worsen the problem. It's better to rethink your recruitment strategy to make it a targeted business lever.
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The KPI kills the indicator: autopsy of a managerial misunderstanding
By exalting KPIs, companies ignore weak signals that are nevertheless crucial. This article shows how to balance primary management and awareness of secondary indicators.
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Should you recruit your business managers from competitors... or train them yourself?
Hiring an experienced business manager or training a junior guarantees nothing without a real integration and development strategy. The real issue is not the chosen profile, but how to build their progression over time.
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Business manager in IT services company: entrepreneur or employee?
The position of business manager in an IT services company is often sold as an entrepreneurial adventure, while it remains a salaried role with strong constraints. This paradox makes it a very formative position, but also a ground for wear and departure for the best profiles.
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Should business managers still be trained?
Training business managers remains essential, provided that theoretical and poorly conveyed approaches are abandoned. A truly structured, progressive, and supported program transforms onboarding into a lever for performance and loyalty.
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When success blinds you
Success can foster an illusion of mastery that blinds business managers to the true causes of their results. To endure, one must analyze their victories with lucidity, remain humble, and continue to learn.
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Business Manager-Consultant Relationship: Allegiance or Alliance?
The relationship between a Business Manager and a consultant can no longer rely on a simple hierarchical logic. To be sustainable, it must become an alliance based on transparency, co-construction, and shared responsibility.
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When junior Business Managers forget (too quickly) that they are salespeople
Many junior Business Managers discover too late that prospecting is at the heart of their role, without having been really prepared for it. To avoid rejection and avoidance towards other tasks, they must be trained early and the commercial stance must be given meaning again.
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The worst criterion for promoting a business manager
Evaluating a business manager by the number of consultants they manage is a misleading and toxic shortcut. The real impact is better measured by retention, satisfaction, anticipation, and the ability to sustainably develop their area.
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ESN: Should we keep the best salespeople when they don't follow the rules?
Top performers who bypass the rules may seem indispensable, but they undermine trust, transparency, and cooperation. In the medium term, their collective impact costs more than their individual performance.
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How to Sabotage a Business Manager's Onboarding in 7 Easy Steps
Seven common mistakes explain why a Business Manager's onboarding fails in SSIs. A deliberately provocative article to identify onboarding pitfalls to avoid from recruitment.
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ESN: Stop "placing" consultants
Talking about consultants that are "placed" reveals a dehumanizing view of the profession. Choosing more accurate words acknowledges their active role in projects and teams.
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What if we talked a little about IT services company clients and their behaviors?
This article highlights seven toxic behaviors of certain IT services company clients and their adverse effects on business and management practices. A useful read to better understand the sector's deviations on both the client and IT services company sides.
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Business Manager: Technical or commercial profile?
Should we recruit a Business Manager with a commercial or technical profile? This article compares the strengths and limits of each path and shows why learning ability remains the true factor of success.
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IT service companies love to be hated! (In any case, they do everything to be so…)
Why do some IT service companies themselves fuel their bad reputation? A deciphering of common practices and concrete suggestions to build a more ethical model.
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Recruit in one interview: a risky gamble?
A recruitment in a single interview can save time, but it also increases the risk of poor matching. Everything depends on the quality of the evaluation, the structure of the exchange, and the stakeholders involved.
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Turnover in ESN: systemic problem or poor talent management?
Turnover in ESN is both a sector model issue and a matter of improvable HR practices. The article shows how better support, clear perspectives, and an appropriate salary policy can reduce it.
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Salespeople, allow yourself to be prospected!
What if the prospecting calls you receive became a training ground? Observe the hooks, tone, objections, and biases to sharpen your own sales practice.
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Throw your principles and values in the trash, adopt behaviors
Displayed values are reassuring, but it is the observable behaviors that truly create trust. To manage with consistency, it's better to embody concrete actions than to flaunt principles.
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Are the starts of your meetings messy? Try OPA
OPA is a simple method to frame the start of a meeting and engage all participants. Objective, Plan, Agreement: three steps to clarify the exchange and gain efficiency.
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Inter-contract periods in service companies: inevitability or opportunity?
Often undergone, inter-contract periods mainly reveal flaws in recruitment, management, and prospecting. This article helps business managers understand the causes and turn them into action levers.
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AI: the ally that makes salespeople dumb
By automating search, argumentation, and even calls, AI can weaken the essential reflexes of salespeople. A provocative text about the limits of automation and the role of management in preserving human skills.
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Are you still asking your client for their budget? Beginner's mistake
Asking a client for their budget can make you lose the initiative from the start of the negotiation. Learn how to manage anchoring to defend the value of your offer and frame the exchange.
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Should the same goals be set for all junior business managers (BMJ) in ESN or consulting companies?
Standardizing the objectives of BMJ simplifies management and enhances transparency, but it can create fairness gaps depending on the contexts and profiles. This article examines the compromises between standardization, customization, and managerial efficiency.
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Be obsessed with the inter-contract period
The inter-contract period is not a fatality: poorly managed, it destroys your profitability and weakens your consultants. Well anticipated and managed, it becomes a lever for conquest and loyalty.
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The pursuit of rapid growth often costs young IT service companies and consulting firms dearly
Rapid growth may seem vital for a young IT service company, but it often leads to risky trade-offs on recruitment, pricing, and management. This article deciphers the causes, practices, and long-lasting consequences of this headlong rush.
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How KPIs go from indispensable allies to the undertakers of your business
KPIs are useful for driving activity but become counterproductive when they turn into rigid goals. Misinterpreted, they push teams to favor quantity over quality and actual performance.
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Why you shouldn't hire experienced Business Managers for your consulting firm
An intentionally ironic article that debunks the false arguments against hiring experienced Business Managers. A useful read to rethink autonomy, demand, and performance in consulting.
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KPI: When mathematical logic causes chaos
Increasing KPIs doesn't always solve performance delays. This article shows how the race for numbers can degrade quality, exhaust teams, and worsen results.
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Real best practices and false good ideas: how to avoid shooting yourself in the foot
Not all practices are equal: some sustainably improve performance, others silently degrade it. This article helps distinguish real best practices from counterproductive reflexes among business managers.
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Business Managers: the transfer of skills at risk
The transfer of the Business Manager profession deteriorates when everyone only teaches what they master best. Without safeguards, the role becomes impoverished generation after generation despite a promise of richness and complexity.
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The "pushing" of skill dossiers: a deplorable practice by IT consulting firms harming the entire profession
The massive push of skill dossiers erodes client trust, degrades the reputation of IT consulting firms, and undermines the profession of Business Manager. This article explains why a targeted and qualitative approach is essential.
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Should the number of performance indicators be limited to be effective?
Limiting KPIs is not always the best approach to effectively manage an activity. The challenge is mainly to prioritize the indicators and shift focus according to current priorities.
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Knowing how to use KPIs: a rare yet essential skill in performance management
KPIs are ubiquitous, but their true value depends on how they are interpreted. Well-used, they allow for refined performance management rather than blindly following numbers.
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Intuition, a fantastic recruitment tool... for making mistakes
Relying on instinct to recruit Business Managers exposes you to costly cognitive biases. Structured methods and objective criteria ensure reliable decisions and improve the quality of recruitments.
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Consulting firm recruiters: underestimated pillars of success
In consulting firms and ESNs, recruiters play a strategic role that is often undervalued. This article highlights the lack of recognition, the pressure of KPIs, and the need for better collaboration with business managers.
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Why hiring experienced Business Managers often ends in failure
Hiring an experienced Business Manager guarantees neither quick integration nor immediate results. This article analyzes the cultural, relational, and managerial barriers that often turn this gamble into disappointment.
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Meritocracy does not exist in Consulting Firms. Welcome to the Era of Resultocracy
In consulting firms, Business Managers are judged primarily on their results, much more than on their efforts. This article deciphers the rules, benefits, and limits of this "resultocracy."
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