OddSocks Consulting is Clarke Ching's one-person consulting practice. Ching describes himself as "the only sock at OddSocks Consulting" — a self-deprecating joke about the solo nature of the operation that also signals the unpretentious, accessible style he brings to his work.
Practice and clients
The practice focuses on helping businesses combine Agile and toc-for-software-development to improve throughput and on-time delivery. Ching works with software teams and their leaders to identify constraints in their delivery systems and apply the core TOC intervention: stop optimizing non-constraints, focus energy and investment at the binding constraint.
Clients have included GE Energy, Dell, Royal London, Gazprom, and Standard Life Aberdeen — a mix of energy, financial services, and technology companies, predominantly UK-based. This client list reflects Ching's base during his Scotland years and the corporate software development market he was addressing.
Relationship to the books
OddSocks Consulting and Ching's writing practice are mutually reinforcing. The consulting work generates the practical experience that feeds the books; the books function as calling cards for the consulting practice. Craig Laley, the consultant protagonist of rolling-rocks-downhill, is a thinly fictionalized version of the OddSocks practitioner — a Socratic guide who helps software leaders identify and address their bottlenecks rather than prescribing solutions.
The focccus-formula developed through the consulting practice and first articulated clearly in the-bottleneck-rules represents the distilled methodology that Ching applies with clients. The formula — Focus, Constraint, Commitment, Cut, Upthink, Simplify — is the practitioner-facing version of his TOC-for-software framework.
Geography and continuity
Ching operated the practice from Scotland for many years before relocating to Nelson, New Zealand. The consulting website clarkeching.com (rather than oddsocksconsulting.com) reflects the personal brand emphasis of the later bottleneck-guy-brand-period, where "The Bottleneck Guy" became the primary identity. The practice continues under this branding.