Okun Consulting has recently achieved a milestone – ten years in business. I started the business in January 2000, at the height of the dot com boom. And here I am, ten years later, still in business.

During these ten years, I’ve seen tremendous ups and downs. I weathered the dot com bust, the financial services crisis, corporate downsizing, and national unemployment. I learned a lot during the good times, but I think I have learned as much during the downturns. It was during the down times when I learned to take nothing for granted. I often tell my clients during tough times, “This is when you need to look hardest at yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, as a business and as an individual.”

I have experienced some of my most creative and strategic insights during these times. While my core business has not changed, I found that organizations use my services in different ways at different times in the business cycle. Right now, many organizations are running lean, and they welcome an extra pair of experienced hands to help during crunch times. Contract work is growing again; organizations are not yet ready to resume the risk and responsibility of hiring full-time staff.

What’s new in 2010? As organizations are expected to do more with less, I have seen an increased demand for workplace research services. Now, more than ever, businesses need to make smart, data-based decisions about organizational structure and talent management. New technology has enabled us to offer cost-effective, high quality research services, including affordable on-line surveys, phone focus groups, interview studies, and competitive analyses. We also are exploring creative applications of web conferencing, webinars, and e-learning.

I have worked with wonderful people in the past ten years. I look forward to the next decade of partnership.