by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Messy processes everywhere SIPOC is not a nice sounding acronym, but it’s a useful way to think through problems. Clients often present consultants with complex processes that seemingly don’t have a start or a finish. They go on-and-on. They are...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Two months ago I didn’t know what a M-O-O-C was. Now, I am convinced it will be the juggernaut that disrupts higher education. For the last 20 years, traditional universities have only given lip-service to online education. They may have put out a few extension...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
It tax time and there are usually few things to be happy about. One of the small things is the tax-deduction from charitable gifts. For many of us, we get to enjoy the donations twice – once when we make the gift, and another time when we deduct it from our...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Superbowl Sunday. For many in the US, there are only 2 parts of the day. Getting ready for the Superbowl, then watching it. Interestingly, most people don’t care who wins, and a large number of people are just watching for the ads. (66% female and 47% males say...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Amazon reported 2012 Q4 earnings on Tuesday. Q4 revenues soared to $21 billion, up 22% Y-o-Y. Net income was a dramatically different story at $97 million. Looking at the net margin, it comes out to about 0.5%. It reminds you of the imaginary quote “Don’t...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Client wants more for the same money Not pretty. It’s no surprise that consultants dread it. It usually means late nights, grumpy analysts, dissatisfied clients, and potentially lower project margins. All bad things. In the end, it is a fancy word for...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
In 2013, PricewaterhouseCoppers (PwC) published its 16th annual global CEO survey. It’s a hefty survey with responses from 1,300+ CEOs across 68 countries. To me, this type of survey is very credible. CEOs suffer from the herd mentality like any of us do, but...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
I recently read the 2008 best-seller Nudge (affiliate link) and was surprised to discover how many of our so called “decisions” are actually default choices, illusions, and mental rules of thumb. We are educated to believe that individuals are rationale...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Graphics tell a lot story in a little space It’s descriptive without being prescriptive. For some fun examples look at http://thisisindexed.com/. It’s a blog that Jessica Hagy has diligently been posting since 2006. She hand-draws simple graphics that...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Visual.ly is a website that showcases thousands of infographics where data is displayed in unique and fun ways. For consultants who are in the business of telling stories with data, it is worth a few minutes of your time. Consulting presentations are simpler 90%+ of...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Stanford = engineering + venture capital We all know Stanford was the birthplace of HP, Cisco, Google, Yahoo. Did you know that in a 2011 survey, it was determined that 39K+ companies can trace their roots to the school. If those companies formed a country, it would...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
US gun violence is a problem Approximately 12,000 Americans are murdered each year with a firearm. This per capita homicide rate is 4x that of England and 6x that of Germany. In the 14 days after the sad day in Newton, CT, there have been 242 reported fire arm...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Gift cards are everywhere ABC News recently said that gift cards are the #1 requested holiday gift items for 6 years in a row. This year, I gave out 2 gift cards; they are sold in grocery stores, easy to buy, more thoughtful than cash, and definitely useful. No one...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Accenture reported Q1 earnings I knew that ACN was publicly traded, but never bothered to look at the numbers. Here is what I found in their10Q. Q1 Revenues of $7.22 billion, up 2% YoY Q1 Operating income of $1.05 billion, up 7% YoY Q1 Net income of $698 million Cash...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Charts can mislead In most cases, bad charts are accidental. Perhaps someone was over-eager to show good results, or maybe, just did a sloppy job of formatting. Whatever the cause, it’s bad mojo to put together analyses or charts that mislead. Here are some bad...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
anagement consulting video Just watched my first video advertisement for consulting. It was entitled The Science of Management Consulting; it was cool, visually appealing, and a bit inspiring actually. Done by Accenture and on their website. Says some good things All...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics, Learning
What is the fiscal cliff? This term has become a popular way to describe the abrupt changes expected in the beginning of 2013 due to the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts, and the mandatory cut of several areas of government spending. The NY Times does a great job...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Management consultants make good money They should not complain. If you look at the most recent MBA graduation statistics of Kellogg, you will see newly minted MBAs making a median salary of $165K + if they go into consulting. It is no wonder that it is one of the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (affiliate link) is arguably the most famous book written on negotiations. It was written by Roger Fisher and William Ury in 1981 and has been compulsory reading for negotiations classes at Washington, Columbia,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Yes, consulting = PowerPoint One colleague joked that he gets to the client sites, turns on the computer and just opens up PowerPoint – even before opening email or anything else. Like a baker who turns on the oven as soon as he enters the kitchen. It’s a...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Just watched the Alabama-Georgia game. For international readers, this was the equivalent of the semi-finals for college football between two rival teams who both had a winning season so far (11 wins – 1 loss). It was a very close game which Alabama won...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Consultants spend hours making slides It’s a common sight to see consultants pouring over their PowerPoint slides – moving pages around, adjusting the colors on graphs, mulling over wording, checking verb agreement and proof-reading. Presentations are also...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
I love good food I was recently in New York City vacationing and enjoying wonderful food at great restaurants. Places where there 1,000+ www.yelp.com reviews. Italian ravioli, Japanese ramen, Korean pork belly buns, tuna tartare, lox and bagels etc. . . While there,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Yes, management consulting firms go bankrupt The Monitor Group filed for bankruptcy and will be acquired by Deloitte Consulting. Monitor was a top-shelf strategy consulting firm often mentioned in the same league as the big 3 (McKinsey, Bain, BCG) and other boutique...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Bain & Co conducts a survey every few years on how executives use management tools. Unsurprisingly, these are the management tool that management consultants often use when coaching, prodding, and helping executive think about their business. If you want to learn...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Recently, I was given an excel model that was the Titanic: large, slow, overly ornate, and structurally unsound. Not only was it frustrating to work with and laborious to fix, it was also a bit laughable. It did not answer even the most basic questions: Who is...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Oye Vey, Presidential Elections Tomorrow is election day in the United States. The two candidates (and their super-PACs) have spent an estimated $6 billion in political ads. What a waste of money. I suppose that these ads can sway some voters, but that is too bad....
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
This week my team interviewed more than 20 people, everyone from VPs down to the analysts and clerks. The interviews were a gold mine of insights – especially since we were still in the early days of the project collecting data. My throat was killing me, but...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting, Learning
Consultants know better than to use the word “average” too loosely. It is certainly useful, but too general and sometimes misleading. It’s a good first step, but it is analogous to a chef using pre-cut vegetables or day-old bread. It’s easy, a...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
US government foreign aid was one of the topics of the recent US Presidential debate. Through all the politics and chatter, it always helps to go back to the facts. The US government publishes something called the Greenbook (245 page pdf) which shows where all the US...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
I ran the Philadelphia Rock and Roll half marathon last month. Felt great to finish, but it was pretty painful at mile 11 and 12. There were a lot of people there, and it made me wonder how popular are half marathons? So here is what I found out at www.runningusa.org:...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Americans are fat Currently 2/3 of the US population is overweight or obese. We generally eat too much, eat the wrong things, and don’t exercise. You know things are bad when the US Coast guard reduced the number of passengers allowed on boats because the...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
too much jargon Yes, let’s all admit it. We probably use jargon more than we should. It’s so ubiquitous that it’s like a second language that you might metaphorically list at the bottom of your resume. Hey, wow, look at me. Yes, it can be useful...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
After reading Switch (affiliate link) by the Heath brothers, I am convinced that successful consulting projects must appeal to the head, the heart and the hand. It is a simple way to think about change and also makes a lot of sense. Head: The logic of the analysis and...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
America has been the predominant military power for the last fifty years. With the break up of the USSR in the late1980s, the US stands alone in its military spending. Americans of my Gen-X generation, are now asking the question, “Should America Serve as the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Hypothesis-based consulting Yes, this sounds fancy, but some cynics might call it educated guessing. Either way, it is a smart way to break down complex or ambiguous problems, and quickly start driving towards an answer. At its heart is the scientific method –...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
No one likes taxes Taxes are a universal complaint regardless of where you live. It is the stuff of bar conversations, news reports and Presidential debates. It is mentioned in the bible and let’s not forget that one of the twelve disciples was a tax collector...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Raising capital online, grassroots style This blog post is ostensibly about how crowd-funding websites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter are democratizing innovation by creating ways of individuals to support new products, ideas, bands and charities. Raising capital...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
It’s easy to say YES When the client asks for something – new research, some ad-hoc analysis, an extra workshop – it usually seems like a reasonable request. After all, they pay the bills and shouldn’t they get the most out of their...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
In the US, it is a Presidential election year. Which means we will see lots of TV ads and general non-sense in the news until November. In the graph , you can see that political TV spend is about $2 billion a year (even during the 2010 mid-term Congressional...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Better Olympic metrics please As a consultant, it always seemed odd that news reporters routinely compare the medal count between the USA and China – after all, the USA has 530 athletes compared to China’s 380. Seems like the total number of medals is only...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
The Olympics are a wonder At a macro-level, it is a family get-together of 200+ nations where all the international relations and the geopolitical clatter is replaced with sports. It’s a rare opportunity where xenophobia, racial stereotypes, and hatred are not...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Consultants need to keep up with technology to stay relevant. Once you start to fear technology, you are getting old. So, this is how I finally started using Reddit. Reddit is a funny place. For those who don’t know, it is simply a set of forums where you can...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Stephen Covey passed away recently His most famous book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (affiliate link), sold 15+ million copies and has been on Amazon’s top 100 best seller list for almost 5 years. It is worth buying if you don’t have a copy....
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Had a rough Monday. It is 10pm and I still have 2-3 hours of work to do. That said, I ran across these three stories and it really picked up my day. 100 guitar riffs. sheesh. 3 Million Mile Volvo: Read the NPR story about Irv Gordon who has driven his beloved car for...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Recently came across a list called 101 Most Useful Websites curated by Amit Argarwal, a columnist with the Wall Street Journal India. Useful, free and refreshing websites. 1) FaxZero.com: This a free PC-to-Fax machine service No registration and it takes only 60...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Happy Birthday! The United States is celebrating its 236th birthday today. I saw an article from Mental Floss Magazine by Matt Soniak called How All 50 States Got Their Names. It was well-timed for July 4th, but a bit long at 5,000 words. After reading through the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Management consultants are always looking for ugly problems and broken things to fix. After all, we only get paid when we uncover difficult problems and fix them. Clients do not always know what is wrong What really surprises me is that many clients have trouble...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Consulting travel is brutal, but one of the benefits is loyalty points. We can thank our clients for the silver, gold, diamond, and platinum status we have with airlines and hotels. Good ole’ Marriott loyalty points. Some places my wife and I visited using...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Structure your thinking This is the only way to present your ideas clearly to clients. One excellent tool is the pyramid principle by an ex-McKinsey consultant by the name of Barbara Minto. She authored a book called The Minto Pyramid Principle here (affiliate link)...
