To our clients and friends:

I always find fall invigorating, and not just because of the refreshing change of season, the baseball playoffs, and the intensifying football rivalries. For many organizations, fall brings a new round in the corporate planning and budgeting cycle. It is a time of looking ahead; of excitement and optimism about the coming year. For most of us, this feeling was absent last fall. We all knew that 2009 was going to be a very challenging—if not downright difficult—year. Instead of readying our growth plans, we shifted gears, hunkered down, and took steps—some quite painful—to cut costs.

That’s why I’m particularly glad to see the changing leaves this year. Even as we head toward freezing weather, there are some definite and positive signs that the 18-month recession is thawing. The pace of recovery will likely be much more moderate than we would like, and nothing like the bull runs of the recent past; nevertheless, most businesses can—and should be—preparing for growth once again.

Some of our more progressive and prepared clients are taking steps now to get a jump on the next period of economic expansion—for example, by:

• Exploring more flexible and cost effective ways to deliver web services or other applications by using a cloud computing solution, such as the compelling new Windows Azure platform.
• Developing the right analytics to ensure that they know their customers.

We take a closer look at these strategies in this issue of Best of the West.

In particular, efficient and well-managed technology infrastructure will be important as companies adapt to a changing market. Yet, due to recent cost cutting, many don’t have a full complement of technology resources and/or leadership. Over the past few years, West Monroe Partners has supported clients in a variety of industries with proactive technology maintenance and support programs—a service model that many have said enables them devote more attention to their core businesses. We are pleased to announce expansion of our Managed Services practice—complete with new tools and added IT service management experience. Mark Nelson, whom many of you know, will lead this practice full time.

Last month, Consulting Magazine named West Monroe Partners one of its 15 “Best Small Firms to Work For” - the second time in three years we have been recognized in this annual look at the quality of life within the consulting profession’s top firms. This is certainly great news, not to mention validation of our people-first strategy. As the market turns around and the consulting profession strengthens, however, we know it will become very challenging to attract and retain top talent. We are very pleased that Gary Beu has joined West Monroe Partners as managing director-People and Leadership Development. Gary spent the majority of his 35 year career with Arthur Andersen, where he held a number of local, national and global human resources leadership roles. He is well-known and respected in the local and national human resources and business communities, and his experience will help us build on our core strength and set the stage for further growth.

In addition to welcoming Gary, we have been fortunate to add some very experienced executives recently in key practice areas, particularly healthcare and private equity. I invite you to stop by the executive team page on our website and get acquainted with our updated management roster.

Additionally, I recently spoke to The Growth Strategist about West Monroe Partners' unique people-first culture and talent management. The show aired on November 3 - listen here!