President's Corner October, 2008 As many of you begin planning for 2009, I wanted to let you know about some of our new workshop offerings for training and development: 2 ½ hour Turbo Sessions: Negotiations, Communications, Productivity, and Coaching Cold Call Coaching 'Discovering New York' Scavenger Hunt: a team building activity Developing High Potentials: Leadership Presence Global Communications Managing Difficult Conversations Managing During Turbulent Times Managing Remote Teams As the new year quickly approaches, please let us know if there is anything we can do to assist you with your training and development plans. Best regards, Marilyn

President's Corner For the last fifteen years, The Madison Consulting Group has been a leader in customized, creative solutions that produce significant results for our clients. Today, we are expanding our capabilities beyond to include HR Consulting. Aligning your company's business goals with your HR strategies are critical in today's ever changing business landscape. Speed and agility are necessary ingredients in ensuring that your HR strategy is working. In today's world, you only get one shot to get it right. Our HR Practice can work with you to accelerate your transition to a high-performance HR function - one that adds value and adds to your top and bottom line to ensure success. Today, our consulting services enable companies to confront complex business challenges head-on. Here's where we can help: Recruiting and Selection Effectiveness Talent Management Performance Management Competency Models Organizational Change Executive Coaching Learning and Development Management Systems

Madison Celebrates its Fifteen-Year Anniversary We are very pleased and proud to be celebrating our fifteen-year anniversary in 2008 and are taking a few moments to reflect on this milestone. Since 1993, we've had the opportunity to develop over 80,000 employees, in over 100 companies, in more than 15 industries. We're proud of our long-term relationships with many of these clients - many of whom have been with us since the beginning. There have been many changes during this time, both in our business world and in Learning and Development - increased globalization, advancements in technology, Gen Y'ers and the aging workforce are all relevant issues. Yet some things haven't changed - we find that "people are people," and the issues and challenges we find in today's workplace are the same. The need for people skills and "work relationships that work" is more important than ever. Managing others is increasingly complex - matrix management and remote management are challenges that need to be addressed. How do we attract, retain, and motivate the best talent? (SHRM reports that "Talent Shortage" is still the #1 concern) How do we engage the disengaged? It's hard enough during good times, even tougher during change or cutbacks. Communication, recognition, and involvement become even more important. Now, perhaps more than ever, Madison is committed to helping our clients. We understand that their success is our success. In our fifteenth year and for years to come, we have one mission: "To protect and develop our clients' most valuable asset - their employees - throughout their life cycle - from new hires to executives." Here's to the next fifteen years! Sales and Service Suite Announcement Madison is happy to announce its new Sales and Service Suite to help our clients develop their business. This suite of programs for workshops or individual coaching includes programs in Consultative Selling, Effective Sales Presentations, Service Excellence, Effective Sales Negotiations, Major Account Selling, and our brand new, Service that Sells program. Whether taken alone or in conjunction with others, this group of programs will enable participants to better prepare, judge, and execute effective sales and service strategies and techniques to ensure a win-win outcome for the parties involved.

News from Madison Marilyn Volpe, our President and CEO, recently attended the 10 year anniversary conferences for the Women President's Organization - of which we are a member - and the Women Business Enterprise - through which Madison received our official certification as a WBE. Since we are working with a number of our clients to help them 'develop their women talent,' we wanted to share a few highlights with you: 1. Women own 48% of US Companies, account for 2 out of 3 start ups, and the largest growth market is 'prime time women' - mid life baby boomers! (Marti Barletta, Trendsight) 2. 80% of our purchase decisions are emotional - since we're in the 'the attraction economy,' and we're all in the business of attracting the best talent and the best customers, we need to 'thrill, delight, excite, connect, and inspire' our customers and our employees. These 'love marks' will make our brand, our company, our product or service - irresistible! (Kevin Roberts, LoveMarks) 3. What distinguishes 'great' leaders and companies from 'good': - Discipline - just keep doing it! - Humility - be open to new and wacky ideas - Ambiguity - embrace creativity along with discipline - BHAG - beyond the S.M.A.R.T. goals we set in corporate America, we all need to have a 'Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goal' (Jim Collins, Good to Great) Joshua Decker, our Client Relationship Specialist, was recently selected as the Key Note Speaker for the Westmoreland Human Resource Association (WHRA). As a specialist in the development and implementation of measurement tools, Joshua spoke to HR professionals from a variety of industries on the most cost-effective ways to measure the success of workplace training, organizational consulting, and internal HR implementations. Valerie Carey has joined The Madison Consulting Group as our newest consultant in the areas of human capital consulting, change management, and organizational development. Valerie has extensive experience in designing, developing, and implementing customized solutions for clients, and we are pleased to welcome her to our team! At the end of this year, The Madison Consulting Group will say goodbye to our premiere writing facilitator, Barrett J. Mandel. Barrett, the designer and master trainer of The Successful Writing Process will retire at the end of this year. Barrett has been an invaluable resource over the years and is currently available to help you address any of your writing-related needs. We would like to welcome our newest facilitator, Michael Crystal. In addition to Michael's extensive experience in corporate training and consulting, he holds degrees in psychology, industrial management, and organizational behavior, and has post-doctoral certifications in the advanced study of change management from Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia Universities. We're happy to have him as part of the Madison family!

The Madison Consulting Group Announces our Newest Book Publication As the newest addition to our Professionalism and On-Boarding curriculum, The Madison Consulting Group is thrilled to announce the launch of a fantastic, new book by our consultant Lindsey Pollak, Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World (HarperCollins, April 2007). In Getting from College to Career, Lindsey applies her expertise in career advice for young professionals and college graduates, sharing the tips and tactics that will help them land their first job, succeed from the very first day, and prep them for continued success in today's competitive workplace. As the newest element of our flagship program, Professionalism at Work, it can help you gain the edge you need in having your new staff hit the ground running. At The Madison Consulting Group, we are absolutely committed to providing the very best resources for our clients, and we look forward to helping you train your new-hires to become tomorrows leaders! Look for an e-mail about our special event to get your signed copy and hear Lindsey speak. If you wish to pre-register, simply e-mail info@tmcginc.com, and a member of our Client Partnership Team will contact you personally.

A Certified Women's Business Enterprise New York, NY - The Madison Consulting Group, a business specializing in corporate training and consulting, has received national certification as a Women's Business Enterprise by the Women President's Educational Organization, a regional certifying partner of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). By including women-owned businesses among their vendors, corporations and government agencies demonstrate their commitment to fostering diversity and the continued development of their supplier/vendor diversity programs. WBENC's national standard of certification, implemented by the Women President's Educational Organization, is a meticulous process including an in-depth review of the business and site inspection. The certification process is designed to confirm the business is at least 51% owned, operated and controlled by a woman or women. The Women's Business Enterprise National Council is the nation's largest third party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the United States. WBENC is a resource for the more than 700 US companies and government agencies that rely on WBENC's certification as an integral part of their supplier diversity programs.