CONSULTANTS WHO LOVE CONSULTING – KELEIGH CORMIER, CMC, CAC
Q1 In brief, describe how you entered the profession of management consulting, or when did you decide that management consulting was a profession that you wanted to enter?
I discovered there was a profession called management consulting while in business school at the University of Alberta and was intrigued. This appealed to my sensibilities at the time; wanting to help businesses do / be better and also wanting to provide those services from a firm I owned. I realized I had no experience so I worked in industry for a few years before joining an international management consulting firm. After learning the ropes and having some good mentorship, I grasped the terminology, various thought processes, research techniques, and report writing; and I felt it was time to open my own firm, Clearthink Group. I am the founder of Clearthink Group which I proudly own with my husband who is also a CMC, Pierre Cormier.
Q2 What do you love most about consulting?
I love having a wide variety of clients and helping businesses with their strategic challenges. Consulting has been a very satisfying, rewarding and creative career choice. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Q3 What do you like the least?
Not that I like it the least but the challenge of finding new engagements on an ongoing basis. It’s a balancing act of getting and doing the work. This balancing act forces you to wear different hats at different times such as: researcher, strategist, marketer, and administrator. Mastering these skills is necessary to being an entrepreneur and having a successful consultancy.
Q4 What has been your most satisfying engagement and why?
Those engagements where the client saw the value, a light bulb turned on, and they were excited for their future. An example of a very recent project I am immensely proud of founding, with my CMC colleagues is the Back to Business Coaching program. The BBCP was created for the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, after the wildfire disasters in May 2016. This program helped 66 Fort McMurray businesses recover from a terrible disaster in that community. This project won a Global Silver Award at the 2018 International Constantinus Awards, showcasing excellence in management consulting, and the Canadian CMC Project of the Year Award. I find this project to be very satisfying because we saw a creative way to offer our business skills and profession to help out a community that was suffering.
Q5 What personality trait has helped you the most in your career?
Being curious and a good listener. There is much wisdom in honing these skills as a consultant. Also, never being afraid of hard work and never giving up.
Q6 Finally, if you were stranded on a desert island - What is one book and one luxury item you would take with you?
Funny, how my mind turns to the practical when you mention “stranded"! I would take any large volume book that would provide enough paper to start fires and a very good knife, so I could catch and prepare something to eat. Hopefully, I would be rescued soon.
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Visit Keleigh's LinkedIn Page to learn more.
