November 2004
Special report on Feaco - Sesma Conference Athens 2004
Interview:
Athanassios Mavros, President Sesma
SESMA,
the Hellenic Association of Management Consulting Firms has been the
organizer of the Athens 2004 FEACO conference. Held at the Astir Palace
in Vouliagmeni, on a rocky hill surrounded by the sea, the conference
was Greek welcome at its best. As Athanassios K. Mavros, President of
Sesma and CEO of consultancy Planning tell it, the dynamism of Sesma is
the first reason to explain this remarkable organization.
Mr Mavros, you are the President of Sesma, the association that hosted in Athens the 2004 Feaco conference in the wake of the Olympic games. This was a high time in the consulting agenda this year. Would you mind introducing the Association Sesma and Yourself to our readers?
Athanassios K. Mavros : Sesma, the Hellenic Association of Management Consulting Firms has been created in 1992 and joined Feaco in 1995. I have been appointed member of the Board in 1999 and then served as President for two periods of 2 years each from 2001 up to now. I am President up to March 2005 and I hope to remain a Board member after that. About Sesma I would say that up to 1999 the concept was to have 25 to 30 members selected among the major Greek and international consultant firms such as KPMG, Deloitte, and PWC, e.t.c. and to focus our energy on executing market surveys for the members sector, an activity we are good at. When I took the Presidentship I had a different vision. I noticed that only 5% of our customers knew about Sesma. When we asked Ministries and Industry leaders « do you know about Sesma », no one knew. I then realize that to establish Sesma we had to open our profession and to communicate. We have had 20 and then 10 more members and reach 58 today with a main result that now we can claim a 85% of consultancy market share in term of Turn over, which gives us power. Today, the market knows us well and respects that Sesma is the social partner that has to be included in discussions when a matter concerning consultancy appears. Now, about myself I was born in 1962 in Pireaus, Greece. I have completed both undergraduate & graduate studies in NY, USA (B.A. in Economics, M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering). Since 1989 I work as a consultant at PLANNING S.A. Since then we have managed to become larger (approximately 60 persons, with 6 offices around Greece and abroad, operating in many S.E. European countries). I am also an elected member of the General Assembly of the Association of Greek Federations (SEV).
Is this Take off an explanation for the Feaco to choose Greece as the 2004 organizer of the annual conference?
Athanassios K. Mavros : I would say so. To get power we had to get representation with the Management Consultants. We succeeded by opening the channel of communication within Greece and abroad. So we selected the associations to be with and the institutions to be close to. And concerning the Feaco we had good relations with Gil Gidron who was naturally Mediterranean mentally open, and discuss with him that we should have closer ties. So before the Slovenian conference I went well prepared to the Feaco General Assembly with a slide show and said that we were ready to host the 2004 conference, the year of the Olympic games. Been prepared helped a lot. In addition, I would like to thank FEACO’s board members for the selection and especially Mr. Gidron who supported our proposition.
On this way to success we can imagine that Sesma has also planned a few actions for the future?
Athanassios K. Mavros : When you are well preparing things on a technocratic level you can get it sooner or later. For this Feaco General Assembly we have suggested something else. Yesterday we proposed to manage the Management Consulting Survey that Feaco is publishing each year. Why? As we can’t get the next conference too soon we can still be helpful at doing what we are good at. So we can undertake a work that BDU has for instance already done a few times in the past. It is a technocratic, solid and logical proposition and I hope that we are going to convince FEACO’s board members for our ability on this issue.
If we compare Sesma to most northern federations it seems that you have been able to rapidly develop your activity. Is it possible to know a little about your budget?
Athanassios K. Mavros : Sesma is a non-for profit organization with a 2003 budget in the range of 110 000 Euros. To reach this level we started Helesma in 2003, the Hellenic Society of Management Consultants, which is an operational branch organizing the 2004 Feaco conference with a budget in 2004 of 140 000 Euros coming from participants and private companies such as Lafarge, Microsoft, Alico, e.t.c. Participants can get golden and silver packages for gala, speakers, invitees and documents. Member companies have brought ~ 5000 Euros each to be official sponsors for the meeting. With Sesma we have the same Board of directors and the same Board of advisors. The 110000 Euros annual budget from Sesma plus 140 000 Euros from Helesma leads to an overall 250 000 budget in 2004 that compares with the Feaco 125000 Euros budget. We went from 50 000 Euros to 250 000 Euros in a few years and are going to keep that on. The important issue now is to be able to maintain at this stage for a period of 2 years and then aim even higher.
How will you sustain this growth without the Olympics and the annual Feaco conference next year?
Athanassios K. Mavros : We have been doubling our budget within a few years so the question is how can we sustain that level? What can we do? We have a plan in 4 points. First organize training of consultants for our members with basics for juniors - we have no consultant school in the country at the moment. Secondly we will try to be on public projects, designing, evaluating, and managing projects such as the Information Society Program of the European Commission via Information Society SA a park company. There are a hundred different European programs for which we can help. We already have been given a project: the costing exercise of the fee rate that should be paid to management consultants when it is dealt with IT project. This worth 26000 Euros. Third we will hold forums, like hosting a South East European Forum in Salonica. And fourth, we will have a support activity to Feaco and do things like the market survey. Yesterday we reminded members that we wanted to be a value added social partner that provides services to the public.
Words collected by Bertrand Villeret
ConsultingNewsLine
Athens Astir Palace Vouliagmeni 22 October 2004
Mr Mavros, you are the President of Sesma, the association that hosted in Athens the 2004 Feaco conference in the wake of the Olympic games. This was a high time in the consulting agenda this year. Would you mind introducing the Association Sesma and Yourself to our readers?
Athanassios K. Mavros : Sesma, the Hellenic Association of Management Consulting Firms has been created in 1992 and joined Feaco in 1995. I have been appointed member of the Board in 1999 and then served as President for two periods of 2 years each from 2001 up to now. I am President up to March 2005 and I hope to remain a Board member after that. About Sesma I would say that up to 1999 the concept was to have 25 to 30 members selected among the major Greek and international consultant firms such as KPMG, Deloitte, and PWC, e.t.c. and to focus our energy on executing market surveys for the members sector, an activity we are good at. When I took the Presidentship I had a different vision. I noticed that only 5% of our customers knew about Sesma. When we asked Ministries and Industry leaders « do you know about Sesma », no one knew. I then realize that to establish Sesma we had to open our profession and to communicate. We have had 20 and then 10 more members and reach 58 today with a main result that now we can claim a 85% of consultancy market share in term of Turn over, which gives us power. Today, the market knows us well and respects that Sesma is the social partner that has to be included in discussions when a matter concerning consultancy appears. Now, about myself I was born in 1962 in Pireaus, Greece. I have completed both undergraduate & graduate studies in NY, USA (B.A. in Economics, M.Sc. in Industrial Engineering). Since 1989 I work as a consultant at PLANNING S.A. Since then we have managed to become larger (approximately 60 persons, with 6 offices around Greece and abroad, operating in many S.E. European countries). I am also an elected member of the General Assembly of the Association of Greek Federations (SEV).
Is this Take off an explanation for the Feaco to choose Greece as the 2004 organizer of the annual conference?
Athanassios K. Mavros : I would say so. To get power we had to get representation with the Management Consultants. We succeeded by opening the channel of communication within Greece and abroad. So we selected the associations to be with and the institutions to be close to. And concerning the Feaco we had good relations with Gil Gidron who was naturally Mediterranean mentally open, and discuss with him that we should have closer ties. So before the Slovenian conference I went well prepared to the Feaco General Assembly with a slide show and said that we were ready to host the 2004 conference, the year of the Olympic games. Been prepared helped a lot. In addition, I would like to thank FEACO’s board members for the selection and especially Mr. Gidron who supported our proposition.
On this way to success we can imagine that Sesma has also planned a few actions for the future?
Athanassios K. Mavros : When you are well preparing things on a technocratic level you can get it sooner or later. For this Feaco General Assembly we have suggested something else. Yesterday we proposed to manage the Management Consulting Survey that Feaco is publishing each year. Why? As we can’t get the next conference too soon we can still be helpful at doing what we are good at. So we can undertake a work that BDU has for instance already done a few times in the past. It is a technocratic, solid and logical proposition and I hope that we are going to convince FEACO’s board members for our ability on this issue.
If we compare Sesma to most northern federations it seems that you have been able to rapidly develop your activity. Is it possible to know a little about your budget?
Athanassios K. Mavros : Sesma is a non-for profit organization with a 2003 budget in the range of 110 000 Euros. To reach this level we started Helesma in 2003, the Hellenic Society of Management Consultants, which is an operational branch organizing the 2004 Feaco conference with a budget in 2004 of 140 000 Euros coming from participants and private companies such as Lafarge, Microsoft, Alico, e.t.c. Participants can get golden and silver packages for gala, speakers, invitees and documents. Member companies have brought ~ 5000 Euros each to be official sponsors for the meeting. With Sesma we have the same Board of directors and the same Board of advisors. The 110000 Euros annual budget from Sesma plus 140 000 Euros from Helesma leads to an overall 250 000 budget in 2004 that compares with the Feaco 125000 Euros budget. We went from 50 000 Euros to 250 000 Euros in a few years and are going to keep that on. The important issue now is to be able to maintain at this stage for a period of 2 years and then aim even higher.
How will you sustain this growth without the Olympics and the annual Feaco conference next year?
Athanassios K. Mavros : We have been doubling our budget within a few years so the question is how can we sustain that level? What can we do? We have a plan in 4 points. First organize training of consultants for our members with basics for juniors - we have no consultant school in the country at the moment. Secondly we will try to be on public projects, designing, evaluating, and managing projects such as the Information Society Program of the European Commission via Information Society SA a park company. There are a hundred different European programs for which we can help. We already have been given a project: the costing exercise of the fee rate that should be paid to management consultants when it is dealt with IT project. This worth 26000 Euros. Third we will hold forums, like hosting a South East European Forum in Salonica. And fourth, we will have a support activity to Feaco and do things like the market survey. Yesterday we reminded members that we wanted to be a value added social partner that provides services to the public.
Words collected by Bertrand Villeret
ConsultingNewsLine
Athens Astir Palace Vouliagmeni 22 October 2004
Athanassios Mavros President Sesma
Planetecologie.org