by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
On Thursday night, had a talk to MBAs on logical structuring, storytelling, storyboarding, presentations. Yes, lots to cover in 3 hours. One area that we went very light on was data visualization. So here’s my contribution. These are from the Economist’s...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
It’s good to have a healthy skepticism with “business books.” Afterall, there are 8,000 of them published every year. Most are banal, reductionist, or derivative (fancy way of saying, boring). Rework (affiliate link) was written in 2010, and...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
It’s September/October, so case interviews will be in full swing for undergraduates and MBAs. More than 14% of Harvard’s undergraduate class goes into consulting, and it’s a great career that gives you life-long learning, good compensation, and many...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Deloitte published their 2019 Banking and Capital Markets Outlook here. (2.4Mb, 40pgs). Times have been good, historically low interest rates with moderate growth. What’s not to like? High-level takeaways Return on Equity (ROE) for Western banks is up to 8.6%...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Crowdsourced playlist. Yes, I added in some Doors, Led Zeppelin, Prince, and Lou Reed....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Many of you have probably seen Hans Rosling’s famous TED talk where he describes 200+ years of economic history using animated bubble charts and a very big stick. See below. Factfulness is the book. Factfulness: 10 Reasons We’re Wrong About the World,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Operational transparency is exactly what it sounds like. Showing the customer how hard you are working for them. Think of a restaurant with an open kitchen format so you can see the food being made. Think of Amazon that let’s you track the progress of your...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Huge fan of this book, phrase, and career philosophy. In fact, I mention this book to 400+ Emory students every year. So Good They Cannot Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Question for Work You Love (affiliate link). This was written in 2012 by Cal Newport,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
This HBR article has a catchy title: Why Consultants Quit Their Jobs and Go Independent (July 2019). You can easily guess the top 3 reasons: 1) More work-life balance 2) Better compensation, sometimes 3) Less internal politics. The potential downsides are equally...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Recently read a 150pg book on personal financial advice targeting physicians. It’s called White Coat Investor (affiliate link) by James Dahle, a practicing emergency room doctor. Good title, huh? It has a matching website, and podcast here. My physician...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Client service . . . Consulting is a service profession, which at its core, means only one thing. There is a client. As a consultant, you do the work, you worry on the client’s behalf. You make the client’s life better. You serve. I believe this is...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
For my last class of the semester, I share a few of my thoughts on life, work life, and generally, how to be happy. NB, n=1. Just one person’s opinion. One of the more practical diagrams is the following. On the left side is formal education = school. It is a...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
July the 4th is Independence Day in the United States. It’s exactly the right time to reflect on what it means to be American, and how America fits in the world. Yes, its more than fireworks, BBQ, and swimming pools. Exactly six years ago, I blogged saying July...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Consultants excel at making sense of disparate, messy, and sometimes conflicting data. This is not a robotic exercise in copy/paste into an excel – no – you’ve got to think through the problem. What’s relevant? What’s valid? Can you find...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
Naval Ravikant is an angel investor, creator of AngelList, billionaire, and philosopher. After recently listening to a few interviews, my wife and I have been mesmerized. 1) What he says makes massive sense. “Yeah, totally.” 2) He’s got a strong...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
In April 2018, Tesla was at a critical juncture – oh wait, that’s redundant – Tesla is always at a critical juncture. Well, at the time, they had only produced 30K cars (as of August 2024, they’ve produced 5,600,000+) and wanted to improve...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Deloitte recently published Pivoting to Digital Maturity: 7 Capabilities Central to Digital Transformation here. They surveyed 1,200 executives (74% C-level executives, remainders VPs) and identified 7 PIVOTS that can help organizations push the digital transformation...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Recently read The Firm: The Story of McKinsey, by Duff McDonald (affiliate link). Before I do a write up, please find a 16 min video by CNBC which highlights some of the strengths (reputation, history, alumni, 17,000 over-achiever consultants), and controversies...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
PWC surveys CEOs every year and publishes the results at Davos (nice timing, right?). PWC believes that CEOS’ confidence – broadly speaking – on the economy, and business climate can be a leading indicator of actual GDP growth. Seems plausible, in...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
For all of its faults, the United States has been the destination of choice for emigrants since – well – for half a century. Personally, I have friends and family who got their green cards just within the last few years. The US continues to be a magnet for...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Bain & Co released a Healthcare Private Equity and Corporate M&A Report 2019 here. (1.7Mb, 64 pages) Last week’s blog post was on private equity portion. This week, I am covering the M&A portion. Healthcare M&A = $435 Billion in 2018 As a...
by Consultant's Mind | Healthcare
Bain & Co released a Healthcare Private Equity and Corporate M&A Report 2019 here. (1.7Mb, 64 pages) First blog post on the private equity half. Bain & Company notes that “there was significant activity across all segments of the value chain.”...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Yes, you may have seen him on Shark Tank. He is an UBER-successful angel investor and venture capitalist. Famous for his wearing vintage cowboy shirts and being on the ground floor of Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Facebook. Listened to a 90 min interview of him by Tim...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Gift for you – podcast playlist Someone recently asked for a few podcast recommendations (hat tip: JZ), so I put together a playlist of 60+ podcast interviews. Two ways to subscribe: From your Iphone, click here and hold down for 1 second. It will open...
by Consultant's Mind | Healthcare
Yes, US Healthcare can be a puzzle. Or worse, a labyrinth, a Gordian knot. First, I would probably spend 5-10 hours skimming The Health Care Handbook 3rd edition, 2023 Askins, Moore. Google things of interest. As a second step, here is my resource list of 90+ links to...
by Consultant's Mind | Healthcare
Interested in healthcare? Buy this book. Just held a talk for 25+ MBA who are heading into healthcare this summer and told them to buy this book. I even gave them a money-back guarantee, saying that I would buy the book from them, if not satisfied. BOOM. If you are...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
US Healthcare has so much potential, yet, it remains a super-fragmented, inefficient, and often unjust system. In sum, it’s broken in many places. In the fall, I facilitate a graduate-level course where we try to grok the root causes of an industry which is 1/5...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Stanford d.school is the gold standard for all things experience, design, and honestly, cool. What do you expect when you combine smarts, engineering, meritocratic Groove-style culture, VC money, and graphics. So, it I was fairly delighted to find this 90 pg+ free pdf...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Successful client service means doing great work AND exceeding the client’s expectations. If the client worries unnecessarily, gets surprised, or is somehow unaware of the scope of work, the consultant has done a poor job of communicating. For experienced principals,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Huge fan of Berkshire Hathaway. What investor would not appreciate a 50 year run with a 20% CAGR? The fact that the #3 richest man in the world is humble beyond comparison, eats McDonald’s, and drinks Coke only cements the allure. Full letter dated Feb 23, 2019...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
When is the last time you heard the word “strategy” or “strategic?” They are common words and largely misunderstood. While strategy is certainly important, it’s means more than just “long-term” or “impactful.” I...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Consultants, by the nature of their project-based work, are process oriented. Projects have a start-middle-end. That’s part of the luxury, tempo, and fun of the work. At the beginning, proposals are signed and kick-off meetings held. At the end,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
It’s the beginning of the year and firms are lining up their projects and consultants. Proposals and statements of work are getting written and signed. My students (management consulting class M 10-1pm) have a proposal-writing assignment due, here’s what I...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Had statements of work (SoW) on my mind a lot. Writing some, fulfilling others. What you put in a SOW will affect the quality of your life. Do it well. For the consulting finders, proposals and SOW are the lifeblood of business development. If a fisher, these are...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
So I am very Amazon. My first order from the website was in 1998 – yes, it was this book (affiliate link) Have 2 Echos, 1 Echo dot. Yes, I own AMZN shares. So yesterday, as I was working from home, heard the doorbell / thud outside the door, saw the Echo light...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Charles Aris is an executive recruiter out of North Carolina that all consultants are Linkedin. They have a great track record of placing ex-consultants in great roles. Here is their annual compensation survey here. This came from 500+ consultants at the big 10...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Every semester, ask my students what they’d like to listen to as we prep for class. Here’s the play list for Spring. ← Consultant's Advice: Use numbers Charles Aris: 2019 compensation survey...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Numbers are compelling. They are easy to see and remember. They serve as proof. No wonder your resume bullets should have them. The Economist uses numbers to great effect. In fact, they love fractions. Copy/pasted quotes from last two issues of the Economist. All...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Reached out to readers of the ConsultantsMind blog and asked what they recommend for students on winter break. Here’s a list of books and podcasts. Using first name initial, title, and any other words they might have shared. Caveat: affiliate links. E,...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
On the last day of class, I have career day. Double meaning – students do their course evaluations (impacting my career), and I dole out what career advice I have from the last 25 years. Caveat: 90% are blog posts that I have written since 2013. As a summary of...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Pre-internet I am Generation X. This means lots of things – but for me, it means that I remember life pre-internet. Yes, 1994 was a pivotal year. Crappy job, serious career angst; but the dawn of unlimited information thanks for the Mosaic Netscape browser. Yes,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I work at a business school. So we teach (yes), stay curious about business (yes), and also cheer students on to get great jobs (definitely yes). Set them on the way to career satisfaction and success. Many business students (undergraduate and 2 year MBA) are aiming...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Read the Economist. Full stop. It’s well-written, free-market, slow-news, and entirely useful. If you pick up a copy from 6 months ago, it’s still relevant because they talk about trends, and key drivers. Not the day-to-day gyrations of public opinion,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
M&A continues to boom; 36,000 deals announced in 2017 BCG published a report on 2017 M&A called M&A: Synergies Take Center Stage (Sept 2018) here. (2.7Mb pdf). It’s 33 pages, and gives a run down of all the major deals and trends. Here’s my...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
It’s Halloween in the United States on October 31. Kids (and their parents) dress up in costumes head-to-toe and go from house-to-house in search of candy and chocolate. It’s great fun, and nothing is cuter than kids in their outfits. Costumes are hot and...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has a series of HOW I WORK video interviews (2-3min) with CEOS. Microsoft, Infor, Reddit, Anthem. Very short and snappy questions like “what is the best advice you have ever been given?” You’ll find that these 20+ CEOs...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Most everyone will agree that storytelling is important for professional success. When I recently surveyed some working professionals MBAs (read: folks with jobs), they rated it a 6.3 (out of a 7 point scale) with a stdev: 0.7, n=62. No pushback here. Storytelling...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
It is interview season for consulting firms. People are writing up cover letters, fine-tuning their resumes, and practicing their cases. This is what I said to a packed room of students. Before the interview It’s all about curiosity. Great problem solvers...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
This week is the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the global financial crisis of 2008, and the end of Lehman Brothers, one of the most storied Wall Street firms. A new play opened in London called the “Lehman Trilogy”, and there’s a great...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
For weathered consultants, Excel is not new. In fact, we teethed our brain on it many years ago as analysts, consultants, senior consultants. In fact, it’s possible – just possible – that we have gotten pretty slow at it in our, uh um, old age....
