by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Create a podcast with a few clicks NotebookLM is something new from Google. You upload a document, or link to a webpage. Then you can select “Deep Dive” on the top right, and it creates a super-real, fun, interactive dialogue between two people. Basically,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
McDonald’s strategy presentation We have a strategy presentation due in a few days. It’s 8 pages total, including cover page and any appendix the students want to add. The target company is MCD, which is both easy, fun, and difficult. Easy because...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Fixed costs are everywhere What do airplanes, hospital equipment, and full-time employees have in common? They are all fixed costs. These are costs that a business incurs, regardless of how many passengers you carry, patients you treat, or products you sell. ...
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
Some people might call this unconventional or “outside of the box” thinking. Being radically different. Instead of optimizing an existing part or process, ask the question, “do we even need the part?” This is Lean thinking Actually, I would...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Let’s talk about longevity The Economist “surveys” are great, and the one on Longevity here is no exception. TL;DR – We are living longer than ever – which is beautiful, empowering, just, and also a financial headache. In the 1800s, no...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
GenAI is kinda amazing If you haven’t spent an hour with Chat GPT or a LLM (Lamda, Bard etc), you’ve been missing out. It’s a super easy, personable chat friend, who is 100% interested in what you are. They are like super-smart, ivy-league interns...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
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,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Books are magic Before ChatGPT, before YouTube, before podcasts, before audiobooks, there were books. One of Tim Ferriss’ common question during interviews is “Which book do you most often gift to others?” In a similar way, I asked readers and...
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
This is an apprenticeship Successful consultants are intrinsically motivated. We value a sense of purpose, autonomy, and mastery. We enjoy working in flow state and getting good at our craft. Ideally, we get so good that new clients coming looking for us. After seeing...
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 | Learning
Listened to The Psychology of Money audiobook on Libby app while driving to Florida recently. For those who want to buy the book here (affiliate link). The thesis is simple and powerful. You don’t need to be a MBA to make good money decisions. A lot of this is...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Listen to interview podcasts We can all agree that mentors are great. They have the wisdom that comes from experience. They’ve seen it before and they can save us the trouble and the heartache of their own mistakes. These can be people you don’t know. This...
by Consultant's Mind | Strategy
What is your key takeaway? At the end of each class, I ask that all students spend 2-3 minutes thinking of their key takeaway. This helps us to reflect on what we learned. It also allows me (the teacher) to see if there is any confusion or things to clarify. Since I...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I teach strategy as my day job. I also have the privilege or working with 500+ students, professionals, grinders, learners, athletes, performers, and winners. So yes, I am blessed. During my conversations, I often find myself relating strategy concepts to career...
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 | Healthcare
Complex problems do not have simple answers There is not a simple answer. It took US healthcare 70+ years to get this fragmented, complex, political, entrenched, somewhat inequitable, and definitely exhausting place. It will take a lot of competition, collaboration,...
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
strategy has been on my brain Started teaching strategy at Emory six years ago. Sure, there were glimpses of strategy in my consulting deliverables, but now I am paid to think about it all day. I am either reading, talking, debating, or questioning business strategy...
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 | Strategy
PESTEL and Porter’s 5 Forces Industry analysis is a core part of strategy. Think of Michael Porter’s iconic 5 Forces framework. Yet, we can all agree that the world is changing and fluid. Twenty years ago, would any of us have thought: Disney would...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Clients pay $ millions for recommendations Management consultants are not cheap. Yes, consulting bill rates are high, AND a lot of client energy goes into rallying the client organization for kick-off meetings, focus groups, interviews, working sessions, status...
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 | Consulting
Not a lawyer So I couldn’t tell you the difference between copyright and trademark (whoa, ignorance), until I read this article from the Economist. It turns out that many famous works are going into the public domain. This means that you can adapt and use it...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Amazon needs to be good at forecasting Saw this 6 page article here on how Amazon has tweaked their forecasting algorithm over the last 15 years. I am not a statistician or machine learning expert, yet, I found the article very easy to read, undertsanding, and...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Yes, economists work for Big Tech Read a short, and surprising, article from the Economist. They shared these startling facts: Amazon has some 400 full-time economists on staff Tech firms hired one in seven newly minted PhDs in 2022 Heck, Uber hired a fifth of Harvard...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
One PowerPoint a day I tell junior consultants to practice making PowerPoints. Read a simple article, group the ideas into buckets. Write a useful title. Have a diagram that helps understanding. Use data points to persuade. This is one for today. US state tax...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric To baby boomers and Gen-X, this a corporate titan who’s name you will remember. He led a renaissance in GE, driving its market capitalization from $14B to $400B+ 20 years later. He famously whittled down GE’s...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning) This is Marketing 101 for many reasons: There is no such thing as an average customer Groups of customers are not just defined by where they live or how old they are In a free market, customers will always have some choice,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Chief Financial officers have to juggle CFOs are trying to juggle 3 competing demands for resources and their time: Optimal capital structure Investor returns Investment in the business With the increase in interest rates, I thought this would be a mighty problem for...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Private equity (PE) has outperformed By most measures, private equity has given investors better returns that most asset classes over the last 5, 10, and 20 year time frames. It’s been an incredible run. The names of Blackstone, KKR, and Apollo have been become...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Parents worry about their kids’ education Of course they do. That’s part of the job description. Clothe them, feed them, love them, teach them values, and give them the education they need to win in life. Yeah, talk about an underpaid job. The last two...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
One-pagers are super useful Consultant put their thoughts on PowerPoint. Sometimes, it’s for the final presentation, but much more often, it’s for simple one-pagers. These one-pagers serve a diversity of purposes: Checklist of data collection progress and...
by Consultant's Mind | Healthcare
30%+ of Nurses are Thinking about resigning Let’s agree that 30% is a big number. You don’t have to be an expert in organization design and change management to see that if 1/3 of your workforce is unhappy or disengaged, that’s a problem. In...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Final project = Give strategic advice to a company After a long semester studying 2 dozen frameworks to breakdown problems, my strategy students have a final assignment due on Tuesday 8pm. They choose a company and give them strategic advice. The wrinkle is that the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Create and keep a customer For all the talky-talk about consulting, it really comes down to what Peter Drucker said 60 years ago, “The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer.” BOOM, how simple and beautiful is that? Create: know...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I asked 40+ recent college graduates a bunch of questions. This is their response to the questions: What is your key takeaway about consulting / corporate life? What surprised you about corporate life? What would you like to share with juniors and seniors in...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Great, you got the job, now what? How do you start your new job off right? I have LOTS of opinions on that, but why take my word? Let’s hear from new hires who just started working over the last 1-3 years. Their direct quotes in blue italics. Celebrate before...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Graduates from 2018-2021 I asked some previous students for their recruiting advice. They all went through grueling recruiting rounds and superdays. After a few years of work experience and reflection, here is their advice. You will see their responses in blue...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Consultants break down problems Open up any newspaper and you see that problems abound. Problems vary from the specific (e.g., corporate concerns about market share) to the global (e.g., accelerating climate change). Yes, to some this may seem negative and a bummer....
by Consultant's Mind | Strategy
Strategy is not simple Like marketing, finance, or any large topic of consequence, strategy doesn’t easily narrow down to sound bites. There is a reason why you study this stuff over 3-4 months with heavy use of case studies, discussion, and debate: Strategy...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
What do consultants do? This seems like such a basic question – and yet, if you ask the parents of most management consultants – mom and dad would find it a bit difficult to explain what their son/daughter did every week. They might be scratching their...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
My students are smart and disciplined. So what happens when you take talent, hard work, and marry that with a strong university recruiting engine and a healthy job market? Yep, multiple job offers Amazing, right? Trust me, I think it’s remarkable too It’s...
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 | Learning
As we near the end of the semester, I’m proud of my students and how much we’ve learned. It’s a learning journey full of questions, curiosity, discussion and debate. A safe place to learn. These are 175+ questions that Emory BBA would feel...
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 | Consulting
Solving business problems is fun, and follow many of the same steps you take when putting together a 1,000 piece puzzle. Original blog post here. Now the 3 minute video summary: Don’t forget to look at the box; what is the picture we’re making? what does...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Executives are busy. Start with the overall story and answer. Frame the problem so they understand the distinct parts. Do the right analysis, so you are sharing insights (not data). Stand behind your PoV. Prove it. Make it easy to say “yes”. Related blog...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
We listen to music before class starts. This is what the incoming strategy class curated.
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Data visualization sounds fancy, but it basically means charts and graphs. Consultants are good at quickly breaking down problems and telling stories with data. Graphs can be succinct: yes, “a picture tells a thousand words.” Lots of research has been done...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
During the winter recess (remember those days as a student?), I read through several weeks of the Economist. Some of the topics that caught my attention, direct quotes in blue italics font. Linked to the original articles. No one will forget 2020 It was a milestone...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Yes, Linkedin, GitHub, and Indeed make it easier to find and apply for jobs. But after your first, second, third job out of college – it’s all about relationships. Even with record unemployment, recruiters still find it difficult to find the...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Good decisions require data Of course. Without some robust thinking and analysis based on data, it’s called (um) . . . guessing. Even if you are not a “quant”, you better be able to explain what a regression is and roughly how it works. Look –...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
When will America re-open? Simple question on all of our minds, and yet, impossible to answer with certainty. Any forecast is doomed to be partially (if not completely) wrong. The first of the vaccines is arriving this week, and yet, new cases are climbing with...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Huge fan of this book. Did a tear-down of the first half of this book here; this covers the 2nd half. As a quick recap, A.G. Lafley (ex-CEO of P&G) and Roger Martin (ex-Monitor, ex-Dean of Rotman School of Management) explained that strategy is a set of choices...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
For consultants and all those who solve problems for a living, we know that “average” is a bit of a dirty word. A misnomer. “Average” is a four-letter word Averages are lazy; shows a lack of effort. Averages are inherently reductive and often...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Recently, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with 20+ executives to talk about strategy. It was a thought-provoking and courageous conversation. Yes, executives are under enormous pressure to 1) continue to do their day job well (maintain uptime, eliminate...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
I’ve bought 6 copies of this book over the last few years: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works (affiliate link). It was co-written by A.G. Lafley (ex-CEO of P&G) and Roger Martin (ex-Monitor, ex-Dean of Rotman School of Management) and breaks down...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Bain & Co published their Global 2020 Private Equity Report here in February 2020. Like all things Bain, it is very readable and useful. Here’s my tear down of the first 30 pages of the report: Buyout firms have outperformed Starting with the main point, PE...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Podcasts are a great life hack, a low time-cost way to learn something. Recently, I’ve been enjoying the Goldman Sachs’ Exchanges podcast even though I am not a finance wonk. It has an interview format. The heads of different Goldman Sach’s business...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Urgency “Urgency” is a word that I heard twice last week in separate conversations. And it’s no wonder, right? So many reasons why things feel urgent right now: Economy – we are collectively still stumbling out of a global economic coma....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Happy 4th of July weekend. The country’s birthday makes me reflect on a lot of things – history, freedom, national governance, community, the future, and money. What? Money? Really John? Let’s not ruin the BBQ. Yep, money, let me explain why. . ....
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
Starting in mid-March, I went on an intellectual camping trip with 226 university students. We decided (a generous expression) to take our learning remote. How did it go? What did I learn? What worked? As with all things strategy, it involves trade-offs and using your...
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 | Fun
I admire Warren Buffett for many reasons. Many people do. He’s a legendary stockpicker that outperforms the market (read: real alpha). Ironically, he also believes that most people should NOT follow his footsteps – but instead, invest in passively managed...
by Consultant's Mind | Graphics
Consultants use PowerPoint almost to the point of parody. Yes, some of us turn it on first thing in the morning (hat tip: FL). Kinda makes sense. We are in the business of turning the complex into the simple. We put things into buckets – and the individual...
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 | Learning
Yuk, news all the time. . . Like everyone else, I’ve been a bit glued to my phone – looking at the continually “breaking news” on the Covid-19 crisis. Frankly, there is a lot to know and be concerned about. As I told my students, the entire...
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 | 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 | 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
I listened to a podcast interview with Kai-Fu Lee a few months ago and immediately ordered his book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order (2018, affiliate link). Since then, I’ve order several copies for friends. If you want to get...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Proposals are the life blood of any professional services, consulting firm. As Peter Drucker said, the purpose of business is to create a customer. In professional services, easier said that done. Customers don’t always know with clarity what they want, who...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
1. Consulting work/life balance? This is a question I get asked a good bit, so I sent out a survey and 90+ readers responded. Thank you. I asked several questions about the quality of the work, people, travel. See the original survey here. Will include a good...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Before class, I like to play music and get in the mood to learn. This is the playlist – crowdsourced from students – this semester. Gen-X readers, add some new music into your playlist...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Last week, I went to my first Orange Theory Fitness (OTF) class with my two sisters. Not a big fitness person, and yes, I was pretty sore from all the exercise. If you have not been – it’s quite an experience. Immersive. Loud. Fun. While I was running,...
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 | Graphics
On Thursday night, had a talk to MBAs on logical structuring, storytelling, storyboarding, presentations. Yes, lots to cover in 3 hours. One area that we went very light on was data visualization. So here’s my contribution. These are from the Economist’s...
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 | Consulting
It’s September/October, so case interviews will be in full swing for undergraduates and MBAs. More than 14% of Harvard’s undergraduate class goes into consulting, and it’s a great career that gives you life-long learning, good compensation, and many...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Deloitte published their 2019 Banking and Capital Markets Outlook here. (2.4Mb, 40pgs). Times have been good, historically low interest rates with moderate growth. What’s not to like? High-level takeaways Return on Equity (ROE) for Western banks is up to 8.6%...
by Consultant's Mind | Fun
Crowdsourced playlist. Yes, I added in some Doors, Led Zeppelin, Prince, and Lou Reed....
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Many of you have probably seen Hans Rosling’s famous TED talk where he describes 200+ years of economic history using animated bubble charts and a very big stick. See below. Factfulness is the book. Factfulness: 10 Reasons We’re Wrong About the World,...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Operational transparency is exactly what it sounds like. Showing the customer how hard you are working for them. Think of a restaurant with an open kitchen format so you can see the food being made. Think of Amazon that let’s you track the progress of your...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Huge fan of this book, phrase, and career philosophy. In fact, I mention this book to 400+ Emory students every year. So Good They Cannot Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Question for Work You Love (affiliate link). This was written in 2012 by Cal Newport,...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
This HBR article has a catchy title: Why Consultants Quit Their Jobs and Go Independent (July 2019). You can easily guess the top 3 reasons: 1) More work-life balance 2) Better compensation, sometimes 3) Less internal politics. The potential downsides are equally...
by Consultant's Mind | Learning
Recently read a 150pg book on personal financial advice targeting physicians. It’s called White Coat Investor (affiliate link) by James Dahle, a practicing emergency room doctor. Good title, huh? It has a matching website, and podcast here. My physician...
by Consultant's Mind | Consulting
Client service . . . Consulting is a service profession, which at its core, means only one thing. There is a client. As a consultant, you do the work, you worry on the client’s behalf. You make the client’s life better. You serve. I believe this is...
by Consultant's Mind | Team
For my last class of the semester, I share a few of my thoughts on life, work life, and generally, how to be happy. NB, n=1. Just one person’s opinion. One of the more practical diagrams is the following. On the left side is formal education = school. It is a...
