Lyman becomes own boss again with revival of Nordicity consulting company

Media and communications expert Peter Lyman has revived his consulting company Nordicity Group Ltd., which has opened offices in Toronto and Ottawa. Lyman says the "new" Nordicity will still focus on the media and communications industries, but will have a slightly different slant. "I think there will be a difference (between the new Nordicity and the one people knew before) for two reasons. One is that the market has changed and the needs of clients have changed," he tells Canadian Communications Reports. "And secondly, we have added a lot more ability to deal with the private sector and its problems and issues. It builds on what we did before, because you can’t escape your roots, but it adds the corporate capability, particularly what we call enterprise transformation. That’s helping a business transform their old ways so they become companies that can face the future better." Lyman is trying to get specialty broadcasters to address the complex arrangements that they have with advertising and ad agencies in marketing to subscribers. "It’s improving their own internal processes for the packaging and sale of air time, as well as dealing with subscribers more with a retail focus – rather than just leaving it up to cable and satellite to deal with them," he says. He points out that the recent acquisition of the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) by IBM provided the perfect opportunity for him to again strike out on his own. He took advantage of an early retirement package offered by the new owners and restarted Nordicity. But he still plans to work closely with IBM Business Consulting Services, the new global business unit resulting from the US$3.5-billion cash and stock acquisition of PwC Consulting that closed on October 2. "IBM (Business Consulting Services) will be one of our key accounts," Lyman notes. "They want to partner with firms like us and people like us so I’ll be working with them in some areas and working directly with clients in other situations." IBM Business Consulting Services is now the world’s biggest consulting firm, with operations in more than 160 countries. Lyman’s resurrected company, on the other hand, will be operating – at least initially – with a staff of four. Lyman is joined at Nordicity by co-partner Jerry Brown, who has led restructuring projects for such clients as Torstar Corp. and CanWest Global Communications Corp. Based for years in Ottawa, Lyman relocated two months ago to Toronto where Brown is based.In Nordicity’s Ottawa offices are principal Stuart Jack, and senior consultant Dustin Chodorowicz. Jack was director of the information communications and entertainment/media practice at PwC Consulting, while Chodorowicz was a consultant in the same department. "It’s a way to ensure that you control your own time and destiny a bit more…It’s something if I hadn’t done it now, I probably would have done it in a year or two," says Lyman of his decision to restart Nordicity. The old Nordicity merged with international consulting giant Coopers & Lybrand in January 1998 (CCR, Dec. 17/97). At that time, Nordicity’s 25 employees, including Lyman, switched over to Coopers & Lybrand, which later merged with Price Waterhouse to become PricewaterhouseCoopers. In its previous incarnation, Nordicity did work for many clients in the broadcast industry. For example, the company produced a report for the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) that explained why for technical, marketing, economic and regulatory reasons broadcasters couldn’t have common channel positioning from one cable system to another (CCR, Dec. 20/95), and worked with the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA) on a CRTC hearing on whether to license new national television networks (CCR, Sept. 10/97).

Lyman becomes own boss again with revival of Nordicity consulting company

News | 11/07/2002 5:00 am EST

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