by Consultant's Mind | Learning
These two phrases have become my pedagogical mottos. Learn how to learn. Think about your thinking. If we value a liberal arts education (I do), and believe that the nature of work will be forever changing (I do), then the smartest thing we can do: 1. Learn how to...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Grading papers is work Grading papers is a double-edged sword; it’s insanely time-consuming, and yet enormously valuable. As a ballpark estimate, last semester I reviewed 500+ written pages (MS Word, double-spaced) and countless presentation slides (MS PPT)....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Three years ago, I wrote about idea fight club – the simple, fun, true idea that consultants should start projects with an open mind, then systematically, democratically beat up on those same ideas, until the best one emerges victorious. Making ideas stronger...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
We ran a business bootcamp for non-business majors in 2018. We had 4 guest speakers. Good questions and good advice. Thanks for all the great advice AN, IM, WM, DB. This is the advice that they gave. Adding some of my comments in blue too. Do the work. Mark...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
(geek alert) The DuPont Method is one of my favorite things from B school. Yes, it’s a way to calculate return-on-equity, but it’s also a great way for a consultant to get smart on a company quickly. It’s a great first step in tearing apart...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Consultants should be a quick study. Imagine that you find out on Friday afternoon that you are going to be staffed on a new project on Monday. You better spend 2-3 hours getting smart on the industry and company. To that effect, wanted to choose a random company and...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
CNBC interview with Jeff Bezos Amazon is an outlier in approach, scope, scale, and profits. So, let’s listen in on an interview with someone who knows a lot about the company. Founder, Jeff Bezos, quotes in blue italics. My big takeaways: Amazon was not a...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Tomorrow is a big day in my journey. Was voted by students as the distinguished educator of the year. Super winning. Speaking at the graduation celebration. This is the venue. Here is the outline of my talk. (My) Past: Did not always know what I wanted to do The job...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
In the corporate world, most presentations are to small groups. In fact, the most common format is actually with 1 person in his/her office. The slides typically have more details (think: 18-22 font arial) and should be completely self-explanatory. They are skimmable...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
This makes sense. . . Have you ever gone to a fancy restaurant and left disappointed? Of course. Expectations were probably TOO HIGH, and the food and service were good, but not THAT GOOD. As consultants, we are in the client satisfaction business. Happy clients =...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Start with positioning Marketing strategy is an enormously vast, fun, and exciting topic. In that forest of thinking, I would argue that positioning is the first-domino idea to consider. It’s a 40 year-old idea that is just as important as it was in 1972, when...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Charles Aris is a recruiter out of North Carolina that places ex-strategy consultants. Yes, you should sign up for their newsletter. They do great work. Some of their post-consulting job postings here. EVP of Strategy & Corporate Development (Boston –...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
Hands down, the best part of any day for a manager is working with a junior consultant who “gets it”. In the busy crush of client work, deliverables, over-commitment, and fuss – when you are working with a team that instinctively knows what needs to...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is awesome by most any measure. They tackle global problems as wide ranging as education and clean water. They fill some of the societal gaps that public companies and government are missing – nudging nation states,...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
This is something all consultants should watch, reflect, and incorporate into their client work. How can you make “good for you” fun? People want to be engaged and experience life. How can we tap into that curiosity and shape “good for you”...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Stories matter If you type “storytelling” into Amazon, it spins up no-less-than 20,000 book titles. Yikes. It’s a popular business topic and for good reason, we humans are wired (think lizard brain) to tell and remember stories Business storytelling...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
A student recently asked me for clarity on prioritization slides. Yes, we’ve all seen these before. They usually come at the end of a performance improvement presentation with the intent of narrowing down the choices. Super useful, almost simplistic....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Bain published a 2018 Private Equity report (80pg) which you have to sign up to get here. The high-level message seems to be that private equity is doing well (perhaps too well) and there is a lot of investor money looking for returns. This is driving up valuations...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Working on my taxes this weekend, which is no fun. I’d rather be blogging. Recently read T.R. Reid’s book on taxes, aptly titled: A Fine Mess (affiliate link). If you’ve read any of his previous books, you know he is a pretty expansive thinker,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Peter Thiel spoke at the Economic Club of New York 2018. Super insightful, contrarian, clearly an original. If this is a name that is new to you, here is a refresher blog post from 2017. Co-founder of Paypal. Enjoyed this interview and put a few of his quotes in blue...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
I reached out to a dozen recruiters, and hiring managers. We asked them a series of questions on what college graduates should know. (Hat tip: LL, AN, DG, HSK, CM). Quotes in blue 1-3 Basic understanding of broad business skills Basic understanding of...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Super entertaining. Watched this 17min video about the Golden State Warriors made by a NBA enthusiast / student / Youtuber. Dom 2K. Great job – this is really ESPN quality. What was so good about the video? What does this have to do with how consultants think?...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Big fan of Satya Nadella Current CEO of Microsoft. Take a look at this 2 min video. I showed this to 200+ business school students recently. Completely worth your time. Energy and Clarity. Boom. Nadella argues that empathy is core to innovation How can you meet...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Finviz is a great way to filter stocks. It’s free. It’s like Bloomberg-lite for the non-investment bankers. It shows all the stocks traded in the US (including foreign ADRs like HMC, PHG etc). Here is an exercise (as of 03/04/2018): 1) How many stocks are...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Who doesn’t love the Olympics? It’s a chance to see the world’s best compete in a safe environment, free from politicians’ rhetoric and jingoism. It’s inspiring to hear athletes’ stories. It’s good to refresh yourself on all...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Huge fan of Linkedin. It’s the primary way I stay in touch my friends and work colleagues from the last 20 years. Barely use Facebook, but use Linkedin daily. So, when I was trying to filter some of my connections – frustrated, and not working well –...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Happy Valentine’s. For those of you who gave / received roses, bravo. Life is short, enjoy. Indulge yourself and make others happy. So do you know why roses are so popular? B2C: It’s the epitome of beauty and elegance. It’s what people want B2B: They...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Just read a 5,000 word interview with Thomas Friedman here. To say that I am a Friedman fan, would be an understatement. The Pulitzer Prize winning author is beyond wise. Lexus and the Olive Tree and The World is Flat (affiliate links) are incredibly important books....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
I teach Strategic Management I work with 400+ students every semester. We read 10+ cases, watch CNBC videos, read the Wall Street Journal, use Finviz, research with S&P industry surveys, grok the DuPont formula, question the validity of RBV, try to Cross the...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
The US stock market fell on Friday and Monday in large part due to fears of inflation. The logic goes: economy is doing well, inflation is creeping up, Fed might get over-eager and raise interest rates too much, companies might have difficulty making profits, stocks...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Today I found an old Fortune magazine on my shelf dated March 2005. Warren Buffet is on the cover – looking a good bit younger – and the title proclaims: “The best advice I ever got.” Perhaps this had more significance to me because I was wrapping up my...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
I stumbled across this video of four global leaders talking about education. Yes, it’s from Davos (yawn), but addresses the importance of education as a vehicle for empowerment. Honestly, one of the best way to learn smart things is to listen to smart people go...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Book-to-bill This is a ratio that many B2B marketers watch closely because it gives an early indication of where the company’s business is headed (up or down). It is pretty simple math; take the bookings (orders) / billings (revenue). When you have long...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Management consultants make good coin. It would be silly to think otherwise. Think, 14% of Harvard’s undergraduate class go into consulting. There is a reason for that – work with smart people on difficult, fun problems. Charles Aris – executive...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Wrote this post in 2018, still applicable today. Mentors are critical One of the biggest mistakes I made early in my career is that I did not ask for advice. I plodded along, thinking I knew best, and did not get advice from others. B.I.G.M.I.S.T.A.K.E. Now, getting...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Looking for some new music? Tired of the same Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, and Cat Stevens? Curious what smart young professionals are listening to? I was, so I asked my business school students. Please find 4 Spotify stations curated from my business students....
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
What’s a Venn diagram? Yes, you’ve seen these overlapping circles before. It’s a simple and visual way to show different data sets. What is separate and what overlaps? Consultants and executives love diagrams, right? I Used to not like them For the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I teach strategy to business students. Strategy can be a difficult concept to describe succinctly. Recently discovered this video from Strategy& below. It’s short and good – plan to use it in the classroom. Covers many of the key tenants of business...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Wrote the original blog post in 2018. It’s 2023, and three things: a) SuperCell still abides by this management philosophy and finding great smart people, keep teams tight, celebrating failures (because it’s a sign of innovation), willingness to say...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
If you are a consulting geek, or like to read business history, The Lords of Strategy (affiliate link) is a fascinating and easy read. Helps you understand the economic, regulatory, and business trends that gave rise to the Big 3 consulting firms (McKinsey, BCG,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Teaching consulting Teaching management consulting this semester to a select group of 40 students. I imagine 1/2 of them will have consulting internship or full-time offers already. This is an elective, and they are elite. That said, I wanted to describe management...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Platform for consulting? A few ex-consultant friends and I mused over this concept several times in Marriott hotel bars across the country. “Why not set up a two-sided platform (think: VRBO, UBER) where companies can hire consultants for 1/3 of the price? Cut...
by Consultant's Mind | Real Estate
Note, this was originally written in 2018 (fed funds at 1.5-2.25%) vs. this update in blue color in 2023 (fed funds at 5.30%). That is a massive increase in marginal interest rates, so the math is a LOT different in 2023 in blue. What is the economies of rental...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
This is shocking because it shows the extent to which outsourcing is no longer a trend, but just a simple, fat reality. Fact. The days of Hershey, PA life-time employment are long-dead. Labor has become so specialized (read: Adam Smith talk) that there is a company...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Managers assume too much We get busy and think to ourselves, “I have seen this problem before, I know what to do, why don’t you get it?” We (falsely) assume junior consultants should know what we know. Silly bias. As result, expectations can be...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
In the WSJ today, learned that UPS encourages / asks its office workers to help sort and deliver packages during the holiday delivery rush here. Quotes from WSJ article in blue italics. UPS normally has “ready teams,” or office workers that help to sort, load or...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Management Consulting. It’s a lot of things. It is an industry; we all know McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PWC, and others. It is a profession built on asking good questions. It is a team sport. It is a bit of an attitude. It is a tribe that is difficult to get...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Started reading The Inevitable: 12 Technological Forces that Will Shape Our Future (affiliate link). I am only on page 83, and I have already bought 9 copies for friends. It’s written by Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired magazine, and does an amazing job of...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
Why is consulting tribal? It’s easier to work with people you have history with. You can jumpstart and go directly to performing. Forming, storming, norming, performing This is a classic framework that Professor Bruce Tuckman developed in the 1960s that...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Huge fan of quotes. Whenever I have something to say, I remind myself that someone has probably said it better, in fewer words. For leadership, a few that made me really reflect. Get results Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership...
