We had a discussion yesterday about the sorts of clients to whom we felt Tuttle Consulting would be best suited (or, put another way, who we'd like to work for). We brainstormed a mix of mostly large organisations, and then came to a quick-and-crude consensus on whether they were

• people we'd love to work with,
• the kind of people we'd be happy to work for if they approached us, or
• people whose money we'd take if they presented a really interesting problem, asked nicely, and if it was a lot of money.

I'm not going to publish the name-by-name classification we arrived at. If you're reading this, you're almost certainly in the first category.

OK, just one, then. BP. We looked at each other, shrugged, and made that funny face, and then admitted that, yes, we'd love to work with BP. There would be some really interesting issues there. And they do need tackling, for the sake of life on earth, and all that.

As we reflected on our list, we drew some lessons about what qualifies a client, and what qualifies us.

1. Organisations that have had the rug pulled out from under them are particularly likely to 'get'/need/value the Tuttle Consulting approach.
2. As implied above, any organisation that is savvy enough to approach us is likely to be wise, beautiful and good.
3. Even within sclerotic and hidebound organisations, there's usually one or two mavericks trying to stir things up, and we need to find those individuals.

Hence we need a maverick magnet, to help draw them towards us!

(Photo credit Matthieu Yiptong)