Another week, another guidebook for you, dear reader. This week’s guidebook profiles the most prominent consulting firms operating in Old Blighty. Where is Old Blighty you ask? Well, if you need to ask, then this week’s guidebook is probably not for you. “Blighty” is a slang term for Britain, popularised during World War I and still used (or […]
Category: Consulting
Are you applying to consulting jobs in the good ol’ U.S. of A? Wanting to pursue prosperity, success and a better life? Do you believe in truth, justice and the American way? Are you faster than a speeding bullet? … But seriously, all jokes aside, we’re not entirely sure whether anyone who reads this blog has an interest […]
Categories
Learning From Experience
A natural and unstructured process that results from doing the work LAST week we looked at the value of breaking with experience, which followed on nicely from our initial article on the Experience Curve. This week we focus on learning from experience. What does it mean to learn from experience? And what role does management have to […]
ARE you an aspiring consultant interested in working in Australia? Or perhaps a practicing consultant who wants to better understand the industry? Or maybe a partner/owner who wants to suss out your competition? What ever the case may be, we have produced a new guidebook which provides an overview of the management consulting industry and the most prominent firms in the […]
Categories
Porter’s Generic Strategies
Three strategies to achieve above-average performance: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus In order to understand Porter’s Generic Strategies, it is helpful to take a step back and examine the two things which determine a firm’s profitability in the long run. The first is industry attractiveness, which is determined in any industry by the five competitive forces: […]
Categories
Gorillas in our Midst
Why you’ll often miss the best opportunities – and biggest upcoming problems – when they are right in your face (Source: Freaking News) Suppose for a moment that I were to walk into your office, right at this minute, dressed as a gorilla. Yes, a gorilla – stay with me here. Now imagine I start […]
The definitive 2014 List of Strategy Consulting Firms in Sydney (Source: Flickr) Below is our 2014 list of strategy consulting firms in Sydney. This list will be of interest to you if you live in Sydney (or you would like to live in Sydney), and: you want to become a strategy consultant, or your company, non-profit or government agency […]
Categories
Moving Things Around
The logistics industry provides opportunities for both movers and shapers (Source: Flickr) BACK in the good old days, before the PC and Macintosh, if you wanted something done you would often just do it yourself. Companies sent their own trucks to the factory to pick up supplies, and the local department store could do “home deliveries” if you were happy to […]
Categories
Simple Is Better
See why “simple is better” in this short video from the Boston Consulting Group
Categories
Profitability Framework
The profitability framework can help executives, consultants and entrepreneurs to diagnose and respond to falling prices, declining sales volume, or rising costs BUSINESSES sometimes experience reduced profitability. This is not necessarily a problem if the decline was expected because a business is sustained from cashflow, not profit, and long term growth can be pursued through capital appreciation, which shows […]
Consultants best serve their clients by being consistently seen as approachable and interested in the client’s business problems (Source: Flickr) This guest post is from Tat Biswas, an IT consultant and blogger based in Sydney. He works with organisations to help them implement software and undertake business process improvement. I would like to share my […]
Categories
Obituary: Booz & Company
RIP Booz & Company PwC completed its acquisition of Booz & Co today. Regulators approved the deal, as we expected. They appear to have conveniently overlooked or ignored the large conflict of interest issues posed by a merger of this size between an accounting firm and a consultancy. We outlined these risks in an earlier […]
Categories
PEST Analysis
Understanding the big picture can help reveal hidden opportunities and threats 1. Background In 1967, Harvard Professor Francis Aguilar wrote a book entitled “Scanning the Business Environment” in which he identified four important factors – Economic, Technical, Political, and Social – that a business can use to better understand the big picture. While the ordering […]
Management consultants thrive in the fertile middle ground, a place where new understanding and being easily understood are both essential YOU may have had the experience of talking with a technical expert like a computer programmer and, at the end of a long conversation, being left with the overwhelming impression that you have absolutely no idea what […]
The deal will almost certainly result in post-merger headaches As we learnt at the end of October last year, PwC and Booz & Co are planning to merge. PwC Chairman Dennis Nally and Booz CEO Cesare Mainardi were very upbeat about the proposed deal. Nally stating that the merger will strengthen the scope and quality […]
Consultants can provide genuine expertise, tested methodologies, and quality resources on a variable cost basis In the previous post, we highlighted 6 reasons why executives hire management consulting firms. On reflection, we may have implied that there are only 6 reasons when in reality there are many. Tim Jeffries, experienced Sydney based management consultant, sent […]
There are 6 reasons why executives hire consultants In America, and other Western countries, senior executives often hire management consultants for strategic advice. Given that consulting advice can sometimes sound like a statement of the obvious, albeit very well power-pointed, and tends to come with a shockingly high price tag, you would be forgiven for […]
The take away lesson: pick your consultants carefully We had an interesting conversation with Tat Biswas today about whether consultants should provide “shrewd insights”. The catalyst for the discussion was yesterday’s post, in relation to which Tat made the following remarks: I am wondering why you … decided to use the term ‘shrewd insights’ in today’s post? “We […]
Sometimes you don’t need to say anything, to get your message across
Categories
Product/Market Expansion Matrix
A framework to help executives, senior managers and marketers devise strategies for future growth 1. Background THE Ansoff Matrix (referred to by some commentators as the Product/Market Expansion Grid) was developed by a Russian-American mathematician named Igor Ansoff, and first explained in his 1957 Harvard Business Review article entitled Strategies for Diversification. 2. Benefits of […]
Categories
Mergers & Acquisitions: Valuation
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” ~ Warren Buffett LAST post, I highlighted the importance of strategy when considering the viability of a potential acquisition; however, before a final decision can be made, a consultant needs to estimate the value of the target company. Building on information provided in Management Consulting: […]
Categories
The Coin Flip
Flip a coin. Make a decision HAVE you ever had two options, and found it difficult to choose between them? You may have applied for MBA programs and received offers from Oxford and Cambridge. You may have been offered a new job from a competing firm. Or, you may have been trying to decide what to […]
Categories
Mergers & Acquisitions: Strategy
MERGERS have had a ubiquitous presence in the news recently as leaders in the airline, publishing, and telecommunications industries have taken steps to consolidate. Just this week, two of the largest advertising entities, Omnicom and Publicis, announced a $35.1 billion merger. In recent months, tech giants Google and Yahoo have acquired dozens of companies, most […]
List of Global Strategy Firms for 2013 BELOW is a hand-picked list of leading Global Strategy Firms. The litmus test we used to decide whether a firm is truly “global” was whether it has an office in Sydney. A fair litmus test? Maybe not, but seeing as Sydney is at the other end of the earth you […]
Categories
Resource for Aspiring Consultants
A nice resource to help you break into the industry IF you are interested in breaking into the management consulting industry, you might want to take a look at this super helpful resource on Quora, click here. If you don’t have an account with Quora then you will need to sign up as a new […]
Categories
Some People Will Get it
And Some Won’t FOR those of you who missed it, we made a small typo on the previous post. Instead of writing “weigh your options” we wrote “way your options”. Kind of embarrassing … especially given the painstaking hours that we spend trying to make each post perfect. Thankfully, many of you were good enough […]
List of Australian Strategy Firms for 2013 BELOW is a hand-picked list of leading Australian strategy firms. This list will be of interest to you if: you’re a student who wants to work for a leading strategy firm, or your company, non-profit or government agency is looking for quality strategy advice. The firms are: Nous Group Pacific […]
Categories
Competitive Response
CanadaCo, the largest discount retailer in Canada, currently holds the dominant market share in the industry. USCo, the largest discount retailer in the United States, has decided to expand into Canada by purchasing CanadaCo’s competition. How should the CEO of CanadaCo respond? WHEN considering a case that requires a competitive response, first take a look […]
Categories
Entering a New Market
Your client is a low-cost airline headquartered in Philadelphia with frequent service to cities along the East Coast of the United States. The CEO is interested in expanding service into a small town in the Midwest; let’s call it Greenville. What is your recommendation? THE first step in approaching a question such as this one […]
Categories
Mastering the Case Interview
Demonstrating that you have the business acumen required for the job AFTER impressing interviewers with tales of leadership ability and applicable work experience, the hard part commences: demonstrating that you have the business acumen required for the job. Cases allow consulting firms to see how applicants would react in front of a client when faced […]
Cash strapped governments seek counsel in these tempestuous times THE United States government has utilised management consultants for the past fifty years, beginning when McKinsey organised the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958. The number of consultants hired for public sector projects has been steadily increasing ever since, spiking to new heights over […]
It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it This guest post is from Naked Business Consulting, a firm based in Melbourne. They specialise in capital raising, international expansion and strategic planning. IT’S NO SECRET that a lot of startups begin life with a single employee – the proprietor. If […]
Lack of a sustainable ‘business engine’ is a Social Enterprise’s Kryptonite IT’S a charity … It’s a for-profit … No, it’s a social enterprise! Social enterprise is on the rise (the number of social enterprises in Australia has grown by 37% in the last 5 years). Just like a regular business, but with one key difference; a […]
Categories
Made You Smile?
WE wanted to share the above video because it made us smile. Consulting firms are often associated with ivory tower elitism or faceless prestige. It is always refreshing then to find a firm that doesn’t take itself too seriously and appears to clearly enjoy the work that they do. We weren’t paid to share this […]
Categories
MECE Framework
MECE stands for “mutually exclusive” and “collectively exhaustive” 1. Background MECE stands for “mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive” and is one of the hallmarks of problem solving at McKinsey (The McKinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel). 2. Benefit of the MECE framework You can use the MECE framework to help you think clearly about a business problem. […]
[Last Updated: 31 May 2012] THE list of strategy and general business consulting firms is part of the full list of consulting firms in Australia: Tier One – Global 1. Bain 2. BCG 3. McKinsey Tier One – Australian 4. Nous Group 5. Pacific Strategy Partners 6. Port Jackson Partners Classic – Global 7. Accenture 8. A.T. Kearney 9. Booz […]
Categories
The Hospital Bed Question
THE guesstimate question is a usual type of question that you can expect to be asked when interviewing for a position at a consulting firm. Here is one to test your mettle. The Hospital Bed Question The question is this: How many hospital beds are required in New York city to provide for all of its pregnant […]
List of economic consulting firms in Hong Kong AECOM Arup Asia Risk FTI Consulting Gallup GHK Navigant 1. AECOM Website: www.aecom.com Address: AECOM 8/F, Tower 2, Grand Central Plaza, 138 Shatin Rural Committee Road, Shatin, N.T. Hong Kong Tel: +852 3922 9000 Founded in 1990, AECOM is headquartered in Los Angeles and also has offices […]
List of strategy consulting firms in London Accenture Alpha Financial Markets Consulting Alvarez & Marsal Applied Predictive Technologies Applied Value Group Arthur D. Little A.T. Kearney Bain & Company BearingPoint Booz & Company Boston Consulting Group BTS Cambridge Strategic Management Group Candesic Capgemini Cedar Management Consulting Celerant Consulting Deloitte Consulting Frost & Sullivan Global Intelligence […]
To be persuasive your pitch will need to contain the right building blocks EARLIER POSTS looked at the elevator pitch and tips for creating an effective pitch. The elevator pitch, as you may recall, is a high-level overview of whatever it is that you are selling and is designed to just get the conversation started. […]
List of strategy consulting firms in Hong Kong Accenture Alvarez & Marsal Applied Value Group A.T. Kearney Bain & Company Booz & Company Boston Consulting Group Deloitte Consulting Forum Corporation Global Intelligence Alliance Hay Group Hill & Knowlton IMS Health Kurt Salmon Associates Lippincott McKinsey & Company Monitor Group Navigant Consulting OC&C Strategy Consultants Oliver […]
Successful businesses use the Rule of Three to help them drive sales or raise awareness PREVIOUS posts looked at the Rule of Three, how you can improve your speeches with the Rule of Three, and a few amusing examples of where the Rule of Three has been used in comedy, storytelling, and the movies. This post provides […]
Categories
The Three-Question Rule
“I Can’t Stand to Be Asked the Same Question Three Times” ~ Mustafa Part 1: The Rule of Three Part 2: Improve Your Speech Writing with The Rule of Three Part 3: The Three Question-Rule THE PREVIOUS two parts looked at The Rule of Three and how you can improve your speeches with The Rule of […]
The Rule of Three can make you more persuasive, memorable and entertaining Part 1: The Rule of Three Part 2: Improve Your Speech Writing with The Rule of Three Part 3: The Three Question-Rule EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION is a skill like any other, and the Rule of Three is a simple tool that you can start […]
Categories
The Rule of Three
Omne Trium Perfectum – everything that comes in threes is perfect Part 1: The Rule of Three Part 2: Improve Your Speech Writing with The Rule of Three Part 3: The Three Question Rule OKAY, you may be thinking, what’s so special about the number 3? Good question. The “Rule of Three” is the name […]
The Value GROW Model can be used to help people set and achieve goals 1. Background The Value GROW Model is an adaption of the traditional “GROW Model” – a framework used widely for coaching individuals to set and achieve goals. The traditional GROW Model has been used and popularised by various high profile coaches […]
This guest post is by Rob Ashton, chief executive of Emphasis – a business writing company that runs report-writing courses for consultants. No matter how knowledgeable you are as a consultant, you’re only as good as your last report. Meetings come and go, but reports last. You may meet five or ten people while on an assignment, […]
Good management consultants follow the scientific method A GOOD scientific experiment will follow 7 steps. The type of science can change: biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computing, management consulting – but the steps remain the same. 1. Aim Clarify the questions that the organisation is trying to answer: Who, What, When, Where, Why, How? For example, the organisation may […]
THERE MAY be a business school bubble for other people, but not for you. Whether you are buying into a bubble depends on whether the cost of what you are buying significantly exceeds its intrinsic value. For most assets, you can find the intrinsic value by looking at the expected return – the more money […]
THANKS to Wil for pointing us towards an interesting HBR article looking at The Business School Tuition Bubble. Is there a business school bubble? Almost certainly, and you can view a scary graph of the higher education bubble here.