One on One with Exponential Edge's Adrian Ott

In the November/December edition of Consulting , we reviewed Adrian Ott's new book, The 24-Hour Customer . As a former HP executive, and currently CEO and founder of Exponential Edge, she knows first hand why time will be one of our clients' most valuable assets in the 21st Century. In this edition of One-on-One, we ask Ott to consider the challenges that time poses for consultants.

Consulting: F rom your perspective as a leading strategist in Silicon Valley, w hat's the biggest change and challenge you've seen during the last few decades?

Ott: The advent of mobile devices means that everyone is multi-tasking. There is more competition for your clients' time then ever before. And researchers have found that time-starved executives don't always make the best decisions. They've found that when people multi-task, it takes twice as long and increases the error rate. When you're on a conference call with a client, you now have to assume that they are spending at least part of the time thumbing on their BlackBerry and not necessarily listening to every word you're saying. This new reality provides tremendous challenges to consultants, both when you are trying to sell new work and trying to hold client meetings during the course of a project.