Green cap, blue ladder, red airplane

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Who wants to learn consulting stuff? 

Over the last 10+ years blogging about consulting, teaching at Emory University, and corporate clients – I talk A LOT about consulting stuff. More recently, I put 70+ videos on management consulting on Coursera here. So, thinking like a good marketer, I asked the fundamental question, “Who would wander into Coursera and watch these videos?” 

This is the approximate answer I came to.

There is no such thing as average

Coursera folks come from around the world – which is fun and fascinating. They have dramatically different backgrounds: Biotechnology PhD, CPA, Sales, Military, University, Interior design, Architecture, Computer science.

Yes, Jobs-to-Be-Done

Consultants think in buckets. What are the buckets of people. Geography = no.  Age = no. Instead, it made me think of Christensen’s Jobs to be done (JTBD); “what’s the job these 70+ videos are serving?” That’s where I came up with this:

Green (Graduation) cap = Get the job offer

This is my Emory crowd. These are undergraduate and graduate students who are in the full-scale assault in the job market. They are conducting informational interviews, reading research reports, re-crafting their resumes, they are eager. They’ve learn a lot of disparate things, and now it’s time to put those cooking skills to test in a real kitchen.

  • Unfair advantage: Super learning mode. Able to taking in learning, take notes, train their brain to absorb content
  • Challenge: Some of this can feel theoretical. Sample size is small, perhaps 1-2 internship, or 1 non-consulting job so far 

Blue (corporate) ladder = Get more done

This is most people. You have a steady job, or if you’re lucky, a career. You know how to work with bosses and vendors. You’ve gotten raises, you’ve gotten promoted. Perhaps you’ve been laid off before. You’ve been to “offsite” meetings and lots of corporate training. You remember the Y2K ramp up or ERP, or 2008-2009 global financial crisis, or other events. For me, this was semiconductor equipment strategic planning, agriculture equipment pricing, and healthcare consulting.

  • Unfair advantage: You have content. You have an industry, product, company, competitor knowledge
  • Challenge:  It might not immediately obvious how to apply consulting skills, tools, tips to your daily work

Red (solo) airplane = Grow, grow, grow

You are an entrepreneur. You are a “single shingle”, one-person shop. Perhaps you’ve retired from your 1st career, and this is your second career as an executive coach. Perhaps you work full time (W2 salary income), but want to augment that will a side-hustle (1099 freelance income).  For me, this has been rental properties and consulting training. 

  • Unfair advantage: You finally got your wish. You’re the CEO, CFO, COO. Think Gary Vaynerchuk. Crush it.
  • Challenge: This is lots of work, more risk, and can be lonely. How do you ramp up your own business?

#1 Green cap to Blue ladder

Okay, smarty-pants. Now you got the job offer. Now it’s time to put all your “resume bullets” to the test. Sure, you learned about disruptive innovation “less for less” in the classroom, but is it really smart to mention that to your boss in the first month you are there? No. No one wants to potentially cannibalize their most profitable products. 

#2 Blue ladder to a (different) blue Ladder

You got your first job via the CMC (career management center) through a formal recruiting process. Now, you live in NYC and you’re not sure you will stay in investment banking. Okay, now where? Which industries, which location, which role?  How do you translate your experience, skills, relationship into your next career step?   

#3 Blue ladder to red airplane

After 15 years of corporate life, now how to “start your own thing?”  What are you uniquely good at? Who will your first 3 customers be? How strong is your balance sheet, can you go 18 months without income to build up the sales pipeline?  How to demonstrate your work, give prospects a taste of your work?

#4 Red airplane to green cap

After years of success as an entrepreneur, you admit that “times are a changing.”  Clients want different things. ChatGPT is not perfect, but it’s damn good. What was “good work” in the past, is essentially free in many places in the internet.  Time to retool and learn new things. 

#5 Green cap + blue ladder + red airplane

The most relevant archetype is probably the combo of all three. We are continually learners (caps), leaders and team builders (ladder), and building a business around ourselves (airplane). 

If you’re not: 

  • Using GenAI tools now, you are probably falling behind; it’s incredible how useful this stuff can be. Don’t fear it
  • Building your network in a smart and thoughtful way, you’re becoming a grain silo, rich / full / solitary
  • Putting your thoughts on paper, you will forget it. Yes, you are valuable, you are an influencer 

Everything is education selling

IMHO, all of these archetypes lead to the same place:

  • Learn to stay ahead, find novel ways to add value to clients
  • Work in teams to be effective; 1 person is not leverage
  • Be clear on “Why is my company hiring me? what’s the value I drive?”
  • Reverse-engineer the client’s situation; “How can I help them succeed?”
  • Explain the “So What” simply to clients and prospects

As Einstein said [paraphrase], “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” BOOM.

 

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