by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
When you are on a large consulting project, it’s easy to get lost. Lost in the activities, status reports, client meetings, and project management mess. It’s easy to forget the basics. . . Get back to basics Think What a great job where clients pay you...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
“I do this” said the newbie manager I gave this advice to a newbie manager this week. The manager kept acting like an individual contributor, as if that was enough to succeed. He kept saying, “well, I do this” and “I do that”. Wrong...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
We all need motivation Here is mine for today. Kacy Catanzaro completes the American Ninja Warrior course. Just watch it here. 18 million views and counting; the 7 minutes of crushing athleticism will power you through this work week. Uh, no more words needed. Just...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Be. Do. Say. I heard this for the first time 3 weeks ago. It makes so much sense. In the overly-marketed world we live in, there is incessant advertising noise, propositions, and promises. Through the clutter of insincerity and puffery, which brands and people can...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I listened to a lot of whining this week It was partly sad, partly frustrating. New consultants – unaware of what consultants really do – had a list of reasons why it is hard: I can’t get the data, so that’s why I am behind I sent an email;...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
If you like your boss = winning There is significant evidence that shows that “liking your boss” is a huge source of work satisfaction. Put another way, if you don’t like your boss, you will not be happy. Accenture says 31% of people leave their job...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
We all like to talk This is not always good. It is often good to stop talking. Don’t re-iterate what the person said. Don’t overdo it on the paraphrase. If you agree, nod your head. Say “it makes sense”. Say “Great”. Stop talking....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
This is my calendar from a recent week. Granted some of these were client interviews, but needless to say, the real work and thinking was done between meetings, or at night at the hotel. The time before and after the meeting were also “wasted” because I...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Sunk cost This is a simple economic concept that we often ignore. The idea that “resources already spent cannot be recovered” seems simple. You cannot “un-spend” money or time. We intuitively know this and yet, we constantly don’t follow...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
This is a post I did 2 years ago. My new edits are in red color. Management consultants use the phrase “best practices” often. Perhaps too often. You will see that magical phrase mentioned numerous times in white papers and research on these...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
What’s the deliverable? You will hear this jargon often. A deliverable is the final product of a consulting phase or project. It comes in many forms: excel model, marketing plan, master facilities plan, workshop, customer research, or presentation. As an...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Nice things about consulting. . . Good food, restaurants, and wine New experiences and places New problems to solve, and things to learn People to teach and learn from Getting to know your team, becoming fast friends In my opinion, the 2 BEST things about...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings. Be likable This sounds...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Scalability This is my new favorite business-y word. It applies to our careers, client’s success, and business generally. We all want to scale our businesses. In a perfect world, this word describes the ability to copy/paste the good parts of the business with...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
There is a famous TED talk by Simon Sinek called How Great Leaders Inspire Action. 57 million have watched it so far. If you have an interest in consulting, management and persuading people into action, you need to watch it here. The concept is basic, but powerful...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Consultants solve ambiguous problems So do lawyers I recently watched an interview with Kenneth Feinberg, a famous lawyer, and was struck by his confidence, poise, professionalism, humor, and mindfulness. All traits that consultants should try and emulate. Even...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Opportunity cost = what if? I first learned about opportunity cost in college. It was a radical idea for me at the time, and frankly, clients and consultants probably don’t think about it enough. The idea is simple, but powerful; resources you plan to spend...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
BCG has a new book They make the argument that companies have a bad habit of responding to complex business environments by simply getting more complicated. This is so true. For those of us who have worked with Fortune 500 clients, there seems to be an endless number...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Poka-Yoke This is a the Japanese phase for “mistake-proofing.” Basically, you design things so well and people cannot help but use them correctly. It prevents errors by design. Basically, awesome and practical design. An everyday example of this is that...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Never My colleagues and I disagree about this. Some use clipart or photos to demonstrate the emotion or “mood” of a PowerPoint. Not me. Call me a puritan. I tell my team to not include clip art or superfluous photos. It shows a lack of substance. If you...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Over the last 15 years, I’ve interviewed lots of candidates. Beyond the resumes and case interviews, it comes down to fit. When I think about the most important characteristics of a consultant – or anyone I plan to work with – it gets narrowed down...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
It was a tough week For all of my positive energy, pro-client attitude, and traveler’s stoicism, I remember one week that ran me over. Meetings going awry, data being wrong, unmet expectations, miscommunication among the team, cancelled flights, false...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Consultants, lawyers, accountants bill for their time For good or bad, the traditional time and expense way of billing still prevails. This means that your time is valuable to you (as a professional) and to the client (as an expense). Every hour that you bill, the...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Have some gratitude There is a lot of research that shows that when you are grateful, you are happier. I firmly believe this, and it applies to everyone, not just consultants. Small things Current project has a nice conference room. Nice and sunny, private,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting, Learning
You cannot know everything As consultants, clients know more about their business than you do. Fact. However, we have the logical structuring, resources, focus, and objectivity to do great work. It’s a life-saving skill to get smart quickly on the topic, client...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
How many consultants are there? Like a typical market sizing problem you might get during a consulting interview, it’s an interesting question. According to the last population census, there are 700K+ people in the United States who identify as a consultant. Of...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Save face This is a simple concept that is critical for consultants and sales people to understand. Never put your client in a situation where you are directly and publicly disagreeing with them. Never box them into a corner where they might be ashamed of the...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Get-away day My friends and I joke that Thursdays are get-away days. You have been at the client for 4 days, slept in a hotel room for 3 nights. Too much restaurant food, and it’s time to go home and get your life in order on Friday. On Thursday many management...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Are you a management consultant? Related Posts: Great consultants vs. good consultants Consulting is a team sport Consulting jargon: Airport Test “On the beach” means you are consulting...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
I have subscribed to the Economist for 20+ years. Solid reporting. Libertarian angle, but with a strong heart. Another benefit are the excellent graphs. Consultants love graphs Executives are visual people, and graphs can make an enormous impact without using too...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Wordpress reminded me today that it was my blogiversary. Two full years blogging. When I told my wife, she said we should celebrate. Thanks to Associatesmind for encouraging me to start this because it has been one of the most fun and meaningful things I have done...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Leverage is how consulting firms make money As I discussed in a previous post, professional services firms – lawyers, accountants, marketers, consultants – are built on organizational pyramid structures. There are fewer partners than analysts, no surprise....
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Sigma You will hear about this a lot in operations consulting. It is the idea that a process is very consistent and repeatable. Six sigma means there are only 3.4 defects per 1 million units. Essentially, it is almost perfect. Motorola coined the term in the 1980s...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Deloitte published its 5th annual Top 10 technology trends recently here. It’s 137 pages, but very readable. Deloitte included lots of client interviews and real-life examples. They kept the consulting-y talk to a minimum. Thank you. Even if you don’t...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
I was reading an article in the Economist about immigrant diasporas. Overseas Chinese, Indians, and Jews are a few examples of tight-knit, highly-educated, geographically-dispersed groups, who are extremely successful and make things happen. The article argues that...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Best practices After 15+ years in Fortune 500 and management consulting life, I am convinced that business problems are similar. Yes, industries differ. Yes, companies are different. Yes, products are different. But many of the problems are similar Common problems...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Today I fired my CPA I have been thinking about it for a while. A few things have bothered me over the last six months, and in the end, it was the lack of courtesy and communication that really tipped the scales for me. Customer service is an attitude which makes the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I have never worked at McKinsey. Yet, I have 10+ credible reference points and 10,000 words of interview-worthy comments written by previous employees. Is this an ebook that you purchase for 99cents on Kindle? No. It’s on Quora, and it is free. What is it like...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
What does success look like? During a consulting interview, a candidate once asked me, “What are you looking for in a candidate?” No surprise, I answered “It Depends.” As I described in a previous post called Finders, Minders, and Grinders,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
This is the most important thing you need to know as an operations consultant. Bold statement I know, but Lean is so pivotal and fundamental, it precedes other concepts I M H O. Lean cannot be overstated. Lean is a philosophy of management, corporate culture, set of...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Everyone understands inventory It’s the stuff sitting on Walmart’s shelves. It’s the frozen pizzas in the freezer. The unsold house in the neighborhood. The empty hotel rooms and empty movie seats. Non-billable consultants are no different....
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Does your project require excel / Tableau? Whatever your project scope, if you are not using excel – to categorize, count, calculate, or correlate things – I would argue that you really don’t have much of a project. It’s my bias, but a project...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Clearly, this is some type of slang, but what does it mean? David Maister coined this term to describe the different roles you find in a professional services organization. Yes, he advised law firms on how to build their practices, but this advice applies to...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Yes, that’s right. . . supply chain Many of us don’t think of supply chain in our day-to-day life. Instead, we go to the store or order something online and expect it to be available. Welcome to life in the rich North. So, 2020 was a milestone year for...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Oh, ERP ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning (pronounced “E-R-P”) and anyone working in a Fortune 500 knows what this is. Many people use it daily at work. Quite simply, it is the software backbone that runs most large businesses. In the early days...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Don’t use jargon It is usually nonsensical and a boring way to talk. It is precisely why the British – who generally have excellent word choice – find Americans to be lazy speakers. Think before you speak. You will have better word choice. Less...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Consultants are structured thinkers They may not have as intuitive a grasp on the topic as the client – after all, the client has been living in this field their entire life – but consultants excel at piecing together bits and pieces of data until it...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Supply chain seems boring To most people, the phrase “supply chain” creates little excitement. To the chagrin of operational consultants everywhere, it probably ranks close to the bottom on the list of sexy MBA topics – somewhere close to the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Vegetable pricing machine I was walking through Walmart the other day and saw this simple machine that weighs and prices veggies and fruits. On the surface it seems simple enough – shoppers can price their produce, and save time at check out. To this...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
It’s a marathon The hours are long, and the schedule erratic. It’s not for slackers or sleepy-heads. Including travel, it’s easily a 70+ hour a week job. Days start early This Monday, my flight was at 6:45am. Same thing this coming week. I live an...
