Great Advice from Students

by | Learning

Advice from Students. Shouldn’t we learn from those with more experience and great track records. Stand on the shoulder of giants. Use best practices. Learn the hacks. Work smart. I started asking students who crushed my class last year, what their advice was...

List of 800+ Planet Money Podcasts

by | Fun

Love Planet Money podcast. It’s my wife’s favorite podcast, for good reason. Engaging, clever, informative, well-curated, and whimsical. Overall, a great use of your half hour. Here is a list of their episodes from 2009-2018. 170+ page PDF of 800+ Planet...

The Noun Project

by | Graphics

The NounProject is a website where you can search, download, and customize millions of icons. Consultants are continuously “bucketing” ideas and concepts, and icons are a classy way to draw the viewers attention to a bucket. This is different from clip art...

Listen up: internship advice

by | Team

Reached out my network, and asked: “What advice do you have for interns?”  Here is what 25 senior managers and owners said (slight editing, and my emphasis in blue color) on finishing your internship well. Be proud of your work Summarize the project. Recap...

Consultant’s packing list

by | Team

Now that you got your consulting offer, what should you pack in your bag? Here is a list of things I have used and favored when I travel. Some are common sense (shoe polish), while others are personal preference (Tumi vs. Briggs and Riley). Feel free to chime in with...

Company analysis: Pandora Media

by | Learning

Wrote this blog post in 2018, it was prescient  Reading Pandora Media’s financial statements is like rubbernecking at a car crash on the highway. Completely not necessary, not classy, and perhaps a waste of time. Two years ago I wrote about Pandora’s...

Who is David Rubenstein?

by | Fun

If you are in private equity, this is a name you already know.  Rubenstein is the co-founder, and co-chairman, of the Carlyle Group which invests $200+ billion on behalf of their limited partners. He sits on dozens of boards, and is the chairman of the Kennedy Center...

US Guns, complex issue that needs resolution

by | Learning

I wrote this post 5 years ago after the Newton tragedy. After Las Vegas, this is all too common. This how this consultant thinks about the problem. It’s a complex and charged issue that needs real mature discussion. US gun violence is a problem.  Approximately...

Learn how to learn, think about thinking

by | 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...

Feedback on Final Papers

by | 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)....

Ideo: Make your ideas tangible

by | 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...

Advice for recent non-business graduates?

by | 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...

What is the DuPont Method?

by | 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...

Company analysis: 1 hour version, Agilent

by | 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...

Speaking to 800 people tomorrow

by | 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...

Presenting to 30 people instead of 3

by | 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...

What is positioning? It’s everything

by | 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...

Great next job? Yes, please. . .

by | 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 –...

“Here” start the meeting

by | 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...

Bill & Melinda Gates: 10 Tough Questions

by | 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,...

Subway piano: Make “good for you” fun

by | 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”...

Oh, that makes sense, let’s do that

by | 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...

What makes good prioritization slides?

by | 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....

Bain: Private Equity Report 2018

by | 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...

Taxes: A Fine Mess (T.R.Reid)

by | 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,...

How to download Linkedin data

by | 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 –...

Why roses? They’re the toughest

by | 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...

Strategic Management in 20 Icons

by | 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...

US stock: 8 great years, now rising rates

by | 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...

The best advice I ever got

by | 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...

What is book-to-bill ratio?

by | 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...

Looking for some new music? 120+ songs

by | 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....

What is your Venn Diagram?

by | 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...