Ian Cai

 Is there a trend for Chinese management consulting firms to employ younger consultants? Is this a good condition or bad condition?

I like traveling hahaha.

If the consulting firms charge a fee for every hour, the consultants may slow down their paces to increase working hours on purpose and loaf on the work, if charge for every project, they could finish the project as simiple as possible and fail to take efforts and spend time on it.

How to ensure the working efficiency of consultants?

On 2017/3/21 at 7:55 PM, Tom Spencer said:

These are good questions. 

In an attempt to avoid reinventing the wheel, read Ellen Vrana's answer on Quora. 

@ I have read the answer on Quora last week but I forgot to mention about it, it is really a good answer with reasonable explanations.

By the way, do u visit Quora frequently? It is  said that it is a good website to learn and share knowledge for English-speaking countries.

Many industries have been disrupted by the internet. Is it possible that someone could establish a consulting platform or online community providing all the competent and talented people to give advice and share their knowledge directly rather than needing to go to a large consulting firm? 

-eg:   Quora or Zhihu could provide a new service giving excellent users chances to sell their knowledge and expertise directly to the clients. 

@Tom Spencer  How can we make sure that consultants use the specialized timesheet software to count the hours worked?

Maybe the clients will know whether the consultants are working or not because they often receive feedback from consultants, they will know the efficiency about the consultants. I think one of the problem of paying based on hours worked is that people could lower their efficiency as the reward they get remains the same no matter how much work they have done.

In my opinion, the best situation would be the firm trains and cultivates consultants perfectly well so that they could be willing to solve the problem efficiently and be honest about hours worked with all their heart.

Is it a good idea for consulting firms to sell insurance to guarantee the consulting services in case of the failure of the advice? If consulting firms are confident enough in their abilities, they basically don't need to pay back the clients.

From my perspective, asking help form consulting firms is not necessary. It depends on the specific situation. In most cases, hiring an external consulting firm help, but you need to contrast the differences between the cost and the benefit of hiring consultants.

Consulting firms can provide a service focusing on saving companies out of bankruptcy and reducing the loss. Additionally, if the clients are worth helping the consulting firms can make an investment on them directly to earn dividend when the clients are on the right track. 

As far as I concern, consulting firms provide advice rather than giving orders so consulting firms can not force clients to do things in any case. Consulting firms have to respect the clients and try to negotiate with them, persuading them of the consultants are capable enough to solve their problems.

  Is there any data which compares companies’ financial situation before and after they hire consults? Do consultants always make contribution to the clients? What is the typical consulting case which tends to be successful?

On 14/03/2017 at 8:25 PM, Tom Spencer said:

Some of the commentary I read elsewhere suggests that junior consultants need to be guarded, and avoid making friends so that they can remain as competitive as possible in an "up or out" environment.  While consulting firms are no doubt very competitive environments, I would suggest instead that junior consultants focus their attention on maximising their contribution (both in a professional and social setting). This will naturally attract positive attention (but be careful not to let others steal your credit). 

Wow! What u wrote is helpful. Viewing the experience as a contribution is a really good idea, and maximizing our contribution to the company truly reminds me of what I am supposed to, thanks a lot!

Big 4 focus on the tactical and operational level while MBB focus on strategic level.

Big 4 are adept at tasks relating to financial management because of its solid financial foundation, but MBB are still the best consulting firms anyway.

Many top consulting firms have an ‘up or out’ policy, which means other companies will know that consultants who leave are not competent enough. Is it a terrible thing for consultants who are asked to resign? How does it affect their career after consulting? Does it mean that consulting is a high risk industry?