杰奧夫?武萊塔

????現年49歲的杰奧夫?武萊塔是Fahrenheit 212的首席執行官。這家咨詢公司的成功應歸功于其相對新穎的業務模式。Fahrenheit 212將一半的服務費押在客戶能否達到雙方商定的里程碑上；如果目標達到，這家咨詢公司將獲得一定比例的回報。

????這還不是這家公司唯一的賭博。“2008年9月經濟衰退襲來時，在兩周的時間內，我們第四季度的已入賬收入就損失了200萬美元，”武萊塔說。“那一年非常艱難，非常非常艱難。”

????金融危機對F212這類專注于通過創新創造增長的咨詢公司造成的沖擊尤其嚴重。“第一次，美國每位首席執行官的核心關注點不再是增長，Fahrenheit正是通過增長獲取收入。很多個月，首席執行官們都沒什么動作。”

????武萊塔原本也可以像大多數首席執行官那樣，重點縮減成本。但是，Fahrenheit新創了一個名為“35/35”的新項目。過去由武萊塔1個人負責尋找新業務機會，新項目要求整個團隊將35%的時間都用于尋找新的收入機會。

????結果如何？武萊塔的財務資源一夜間增長了900%。“隨后，我說服公司合伙人同意，將35%的自由現金用于尋找收入增長機會。過去，我一般是同時接觸5-8家公司。如果我們能同時接觸500-800家公司，情況會怎樣？那段時間也是招募優秀人才的絕佳時機.....””

????這樣的成功在事后笑談起來是件美事，因為錢已經落袋為安——但當初決定實施“35/35”計劃并不容易。做出這一選擇，只是因為武萊塔認為他別無選擇。

Geoff Vuleta

????Geoff Vuleta, 49, is CEO at Fahrenheit 212, a consultancy that owes its success to its relatively novel business model. Fahrenheit 212 bets half its fees that its clients will hit mutually agreed milestones; if it works out, the consulting firm gets a percentage of the return on the effort.

????That's not the only risky bet the company has taken. "When the recession hit in September 2008, in a two-week period, we lost $2 million of booked revenue for that last quarter," says Vuleta. "It was a touh year, bloody tough for us."

????The financial downturn was particularly bad for consultancies like F212, which focus on creating growth through innovation. "For the first time, the core concern of every CEO in the country was not growth, where Fahrenheit earns its revenue. For months, CEOs just flat-lined."

????Vuleta could have responded the way most CEOs have -- by focusing on cutting costs. Instead, Fahrenheit invented a new program called 35/35. While Vuleta had originally been solely responsible for generating new business leads, the new program called for the entire team to spend 35% of their time searching for new revenue opportunities.

????The result? Vuleta's financial resources grew 900% almost overnight. "And then I got the partners to agree that we would invest 35% of all our free cash in pursuit of revenue generating initiatives. I was used to approaching five to eight companies at a time. What if we approached 500 to 800? It was also a fantastic time to recruit great people..."

????This kind of success is fun to chuckle over in hindsight, when the money is in the bank - but rolling the dice on 35/35 couldn't have been easy. Making that choice was only possible because Vuleta saw it as his only option.