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 […]
Category: Consulting
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
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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 […]
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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: […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
TODAY MAY 1st 2011 (US time) the news of Osama bin Laden’s death circled the globe. According to the New York Times, Bin Laden was shot in the head when he resisted capture and his body was later buried at sea. And there was much rejoicing! Bin Laden’s death is a popular outcome for the US and its […]
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Relationships Matter
IN THE English-speaking world, we have issues when it comes to relationships. There is only one word for friend, which begs the question: “are you a friend, or aren’t you?” Facebook has helped us go some way towards solving this problem by providing a new class of friend, you can now have “real life friends” […]
Consultants make a god damn difference Teachers and consultants are alike in many ways, one of the more striking similarities is that great teachers and great consultants both make a god damn difference!
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Understanding the Competition
“Know your [competition], know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” ~ Sun Tzu YOU are running a company, advising companies or would one day like to be. A company needs to understand its competition, and here are 11 points to help you do that. 1. Identify the competition Who are the […]
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Set SMART Goals
Whether your goals are personal or professional, setting SMART goals is the first step to actually achieving them “A goal properly set is halfway reached.” ~ Zig Ziglar 1. Background ALTHOUGH its origins are unclear, SMART goal setting appears to have been first used by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book “The Practice of Management”. […]
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Understanding the Customer
“One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.” ~ Lewis Carol IF THE GOAL in life (and business) is to help others, then a good first step would be to try to understand the people we are aiming to help so that […]
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Understanding the Product
WHETHER you are entering a new market, launching a new product, growing market share, developing a pricing strategy or managing costs, you will want to understand the products that you are dealing with. Here are 9 things to think about when trying to understand a product. 1. Identify the product What is the product? What […]
HERE is a short list of quality consultancies in Spain: 1. Everis Website: www.everis.com Founded in Madrid in 1996, Everis operates in 26 locations across 13 countries (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, UK, USA). In Spain, Everis has offices in A Coruña, Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Las Palmas, Madrid, Murcia, […]
OVER the last 3 years we have witnessed the birth of student run management consulting firms in Australia. Student run management consulting firms harness the energy and enthusiasm of capable students to help non-profits enhance their social impact, and provide a platform to foster mutually beneficial relationships between students and the non-profit sector. Students benefit because […]
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Why consulting?
You will be more likely to succeed if you can clearly articulate why you are getting into the consulting industry BEFORE applying for interviews, one question that you will want to ask yourself is “why consulting?” Relevance of the question The question is important for at least two reasons: You will be asked this question […]
Good presentations are clear, relevant, structured and provide the audience with a takeaway message YOU have probably seen a presentation at school, university or at work that you would describe as “less than successful”. The presentation was probably unsuccessful because it failed to meet your expectations. You may have found yourself asking one of the following questions: […]
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Don’t boil the ocean
THERE is a term that consultants use which is called “boiling the ocean” (I borrowed this idea from Victor Chang). If you want one cup of hot water, there are two ways you can do it: go and collect one cup of water, and heat it up; or try and boil the entire ocean. As […]
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Approaching the Guesstimate Question
IN A RECENT post we learnt 12 tips for nailing the Guesstimate Question, which is a usual type of question that you can expect to be asked when interviewing for a position at a consulting firm. We now consider how to approach the Guesstimate Question. There are at least three ways to answer a guesstimate […]
THE only way to do well in the consulting case interview is to do lots of practice. Here is the most current list of free online case interview questions: Ace the Case Bain & Company Booz & Co Boston Consulting Group Capital One Job Search Online MBA Case McKinsey MIT Oliver Wyman
AS WE found out in the previous post, 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 are 12 tips to help you nail the guesstimate question: Practice: We live in a world where most of us use a […]
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The Guesstimate 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. What will you be asked to do A typical guesstimate question will require you to estimate a number by doing a rough “back of the beer coaster” calculation. You are […]