by Consultant's Mind | Learning
For many readers, your are excel professionals. You get happy – almost excited – to create tricked-out excel models to impress your boss and clients. The fact that there are 500+ formulas,100+ functions, and 200+ shortcuts, is kinda cool. Yes, you are a...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
For weathered consultants, Excel is not new. In fact, we teethed our brain on it many years ago as analysts, consultants, senior consultants. In fact, it’s possible – just possible – that we have gotten pretty slow at it in our, uh um, old age....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Data is often imperfect As consultants we know that perfect data is a myth. No matter the organization or website, data is gunky, irregular, and often broken. Was at Starbucks this morning doing my travel and expenses. Went to the American Express website and...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Every senior manager has a different style This is one of the hardest parts of being a consultant who rotates on projects. Have to cater to the preferences (some say whims) of managers. That said, some of it is common sense too. I reviewed a presentation today, and...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
This week I coached a new consultant in creating an excel model. Here are some of the words of advice I gave him. I wish I knew these pointers 20 years ago. Excel model structure = easy to understand Put all the assumptions, drivers at the top of the page. This...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Tableau Yes, this is french for Table. It is also the most user-friendly, powerful, and amazing desktop visualization tool for consultants. Tableau is a company based out of Seattle Washington, founded in 2003 to commercialize work out of Stanford. Fast-forward 10...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Poka-Yoke This is a the Japanese phase for “mistake-proofing.” Basically, you design things so well and people cannot help but use them correctly. It prevents errors by design. Basically, awesome and practical design. An everyday example of this is that...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Does your project require excel / Tableau? Whatever your project scope, if you are not using excel – to categorize, count, calculate, or correlate things – I would argue that you really don’t have much of a project. It’s my bias, but a project...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Recently, I was given an excel model that was the Titanic: large, slow, overly ornate, and structurally unsound. Not only was it frustrating to work with and laborious to fix, it was also a bit laughable. It did not answer even the most basic questions: Who is...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun, Strategy
Learning is fun This is something I learned quite late in life; probably my junior year in college. Basically, I learned it 10 years later than most. . . but I am making up for lost time quickly. I think learning is the best; after all, what else is there? As a...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Two hours with executives Spent a great morning. Facilitating a discussion on the topic of strategy. Open discussion, good learning, excellent examples from high-performing managers, directors. Creating a sustainable competitive advantage = strategy. Yes, we covered...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
What advice do you often give? This is one of my favorite questions. It’s interesting to learn from others. The advice is usually pithy and to the point (no book purchase needed). It usually says a LOT about the person, where they are in life, and what’s...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Started golfing in 2021 My dad has been encouraging me to pick up golf for the last 20+ years. But it took a pandemic to get me to take lessons. The greatest unlock was picking up this hobby with my wife – and it’s been a great, weekly adventure ever...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I am a procrastinator, so is my sister We both do good work, AND we do our best work at the last minute. Agreed, it’s a weird way to live and something both my wife and brother-in-law don’t approve of, heh heh. Yes, I have gotten better Learning how to...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Consultants help executives Executives have big, enterprise-size problems, and Fortune 500 budgets. We understand the industry landscape, work well cross-functionally, dig through the messy data, prioritize recommendations, and generally help them succeed in their...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Strategy is difficult There I said it. Strategy is about winning and that ain’t easy. They call it “average” for a reason, because that’s the central tendency of everyone. Yep, scatterplot. A LOT of people end up near the middle of the thing....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Congratulations There are many joys to being a teacher. Watching “sharp-as-a-pin” seniors graduate is one of them. You’ve finished this race, you’ve done the work, you’ve earned your seat at the alumni table. Your paid back your...
by Consultant's Mind | Strategy
Managers ask strategy questions Had a great strategy session with 30+ senior managers and directors recently. Some of the Q&A that came through the chat (yes, John loves chat during remote sessions): 1. Defining a strategy? Q: What are some key steps to take to...
by Consultant's Mind | Strategy
This is something I found myself saying a lot recently. No matter if you’re a 20 year-old university student, or a 45 year-old corporate manager, life seems like it is a constant fire. Exams, recruiting, dating, conference calls, student clubs, PTA meetings,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
David Maister This gentleman has shaped the way I think about consulting, client-services, and my craft. If you look on the bookshelves of senior partners at law firms, accounting firms, consultancies, they have multiple books by David Maister. Recently, I took down...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
I am a huge fan of quotes Whenever I think of something 1/2 useful or deep, I quickly discover that someone has said it with more verve and brevity. Hence, a running list of great quotes. This is not exhaustive (of course) and I did my best to attribute to the right...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Really enjoying ChatGPT If you have not tried ChatGPT, please stop reading this blog post and do that first. It’s worth your time. Massive hype The amount of (probably justifiable) hype on ChatGPT cannot be understated. Heck, my dad sent me a 20+ min video on...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
One PowerPoint slide a Day I first heard the expression “One PowerPoint a Day” reading McKinsey Way (affiliate link), many many years ago and still find it useful. While management consultants have many flaws (oh yeah, we do), we are generally disciplined thinkers. ...
by Consultant's Mind
After 10+ years blogging about consulting, I’ve finally put it down in a more systematic way for you. Spent 8 months recording videos on the following topics. You can access it here: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/managementconsulting There are 5...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
No project has perfect data For the jaded and and road-weary consultants, this will sound like an understatement. In fact, it’s usually like an Easter egg hunt where the team has a good idea where the data eggs might be, but can’t be 100% sure until they...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Consulting is broad Management consulting is a disparate field with more than 700K+ Americans describing themselves as consultants. Yes, that’s possible – even though there are probably a good number of project managers, contractors, subject matter...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
I started this blog in 2012. Now, eight years later, I am starting a new blog here. I will be the editor, not the writer. Started blogging in 2012 When I started a new job in 2011, there was not a lot of work. Our group was not that busy and I was a bit bored. ...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Small gift. Found a great business resource online, for free, that chronicles 40+ years of business thinking. Written by Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, legendary investors at Berkshire Hathaway (BRK). All put together into a book, it is 600 pages long with 4.6...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
First of all, you gotta love the provocative title of this article from Roger Martin, ex-Dean of Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto here. Big. Lie. Hard to get past those two words. Big Lie. Why is strategy (potentially) a scary thing? Martin starts...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Writing is a superpower Putting your thoughts on paper in an organized way pays massive dividends. If executives can learn quickly from the work you’ve done and make smart decisions, then you are winning. If it’s a pleasure to read and reflect on, even...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
The fancy phrases are “contingency plan” or “business continuity.” A year ago – if you were mature and prescient enough, you would have called it “scenario planning”. For now, it’s shocking and disorienting. In my...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
What should you be doing mid-project? Just got off the phone with a project manager (hat tip: FH) about working smart in the middle of the project. Seems like we talk a lot about the beginning (proposal, kick-off, problem set up) and the end of the project...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
It’s the end of the semester, so I will be grading 50+ final strategy papers. Unlike previous write-ups, the students have the freedom to choose their company and use any resources they want. This sounds deceptively simple: choose a company, do the research,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Last Friday, I spent time with two of our case competition teams. We chatted about the logistics, judging, teamwork – but the majority of the time was spent on making killer presentations. Here’s the way I framed the pow-wow. 1.1 Start with the audience...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
It’s good to have a healthy skepticism with “business books.” Afterall, there are 8,000 of them published every year. Most are banal, reductionist, or derivative (fancy way of saying, boring). Rework (affiliate link) was written in 2010, and...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Consultants excel at making sense of disparate, messy, and sometimes conflicting data. This is not a robotic exercise in copy/paste into an excel – no – you’ve got to think through the problem. What’s relevant? What’s valid? Can you find...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Deloitte recently published Pivoting to Digital Maturity: 7 Capabilities Central to Digital Transformation here. They surveyed 1,200 executives (74% C-level executives, remainders VPs) and identified 7 PIVOTS that can help organizations push the digital transformation...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Recently read The Firm: The Story of McKinsey, by Duff McDonald (affiliate link). Before I do a write up, please find a 16 min video by CNBC which highlights some of the strengths (reputation, history, alumni, 17,000 over-achiever consultants), and controversies...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
PWC surveys CEOs every year and publishes the results at Davos (nice timing, right?). PWC believes that CEOS’ confidence – broadly speaking – on the economy, and business climate can be a leading indicator of actual GDP growth. Seems plausible, in...
by Consultant's Mind | Healthcare
Bain & Co released a Healthcare Private Equity and Corporate M&A Report 2019 here. (1.7Mb, 64 pages) First blog post on the private equity half. Bain & Company notes that “there was significant activity across all segments of the value chain.”...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
US Healthcare has so much potential, yet, it remains a super-fragmented, inefficient, and often unjust system. In sum, it’s broken in many places. In the fall, I facilitate a graduate-level course where we try to grok the root causes of an industry which is 1/5...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Stanford d.school is the gold standard for all things experience, design, and honestly, cool. What do you expect when you combine smarts, engineering, meritocratic Groove-style culture, VC money, and graphics. So, it I was fairly delighted to find this 90 pg+ free pdf...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
It’s the beginning of the year and firms are lining up their projects and consultants. Proposals and statements of work are getting written and signed. My students (management consulting class M 10-1pm) have a proposal-writing assignment due, here’s what I...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
So I am very Amazon. My first order from the website was in 1998 – yes, it was this book (affiliate link) Have 2 Echos, 1 Echo dot. Yes, I own AMZN shares. So yesterday, as I was working from home, heard the doorbell / thud outside the door, saw the Echo light...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Reached out to readers of the ConsultantsMind blog and asked what they recommend for students on winter break. Here’s a list of books and podcasts. Using first name initial, title, and any other words they might have shared. Caveat: affiliate links. E,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I work at a business school. So we teach (yes), stay curious about business (yes), and also cheer students on to get great jobs (definitely yes). Set them on the way to career satisfaction and success. Many business students (undergraduate and 2 year MBA) are aiming...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
It is interview season for consulting firms. People are writing up cover letters, fine-tuning their resumes, and practicing their cases. This is what I said to a packed room of students. Before the interview It’s all about curiosity. Great problem solvers...
by Consultant's Mind | 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...
by Consultant's Mind | 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...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Huge fan of quotations. Whatever you are thinking, its probably been said by a famous person – more succinctly, more eloquently. Here are some of my favorites. The bucketing is approximate, and definitely not MECE. We are what we repeatedly do All great...
