Consultant’s Advice: Use numbers

Numbers are compelling. They are easy to see and remember. They serve as proof. No wonder your resume bullets should have them.  The Economist uses numbers to great effect. In fact, they love fractions. Copy/pasted quotes from last two issues of the Economist. All...

Winter reading list 2018

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,...

The Internet is Thin

Pre-internet I am Generation X. This means lots of things – but for me, it means that I remember life pre-internet. Yes, 1994 was a pivotal year. Crappy job, serious career angst; but the dawn of unlimited information thanks for the Mosaic Netscape browser. Yes,...

Economist – November 2018

Read the Economist. Full stop. It’s well-written, free-market, slow-news, and entirely useful. If you pick up a copy from 6 months ago, it’s still relevant because they talk about trends, and key drivers. Not the day-to-day gyrations of public opinion,...

BCG: Synergies take center stage

M&A continues to boom; 36,000 deals announced in 2017 BCG published a report on 2017 M&A called M&A: Synergies Take Center Stage (Sept 2018) here. (2.7Mb pdf). It’s 33 pages, and gives a run down of all the major deals and trends. Here’s my...

In memory: Lehman Brothers (1850-2008)

This week is the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the global financial crisis of 2008, and the end of Lehman Brothers, one of the most storied Wall Street firms. A new play opened in London called the “Lehman Trilogy”, and there’s a great...

Excel Basics – Things You Gotta Know

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....

Great Advice from Students

Advice from Students. Shouldn’t we learn from those with more experience and great track records. Stand on the shoulder of giants. Use best practices. Learn the hacks. Work smart. I started asking students who crushed my class last year, what their advice was...

Company analysis: Pandora Media

Wrote this blog post in 2018, it was prescient  Reading Pandora Media’s financial statements is like rubbernecking at a car crash on the highway. Completely not necessary, not classy, and perhaps a waste of time. Two years ago I wrote about Pandora’s...

US Guns, complex issue that needs resolution

I wrote this post 5 years ago after the Newton tragedy. After Las Vegas, this is all too common. This how this consultant thinks about the problem. It’s a complex and charged issue that needs real mature discussion. US gun violence is a problem.  Approximately...

Learn how to learn, think about thinking

These two phrases have become my pedagogical mottos. Learn how to learn. Think about your thinking. If we value a liberal arts education (I do), and believe that the nature of work will be forever changing (I do), then the smartest thing we can do: 1. Learn how to...

Feedback on Final Papers

Grading papers is work Grading papers is a double-edged sword; it’s insanely time-consuming, and yet enormously valuable. As a ballpark estimate, last semester I reviewed 500+ written pages (MS Word, double-spaced) and countless presentation slides (MS PPT)....

Ideo: Make your ideas tangible

Three years ago, I wrote about idea fight club – the simple, fun, true idea that consultants should start projects with an open mind, then systematically, democratically beat up on those same ideas, until the best one emerges victorious. Making ideas stronger...

What is the DuPont Method?

(geek alert) The DuPont Method is one of my favorite things from B school. Yes, it’s a way to calculate return-on-equity, but it’s also a great way for a consultant to get smart on a company quickly. It’s a great first step in tearing apart...

Company analysis: 1 hour version, Agilent

Consultants should be a quick study. Imagine that you find out on Friday afternoon that you are going to be staffed on a new project on Monday. You better spend 2-3 hours getting smart on the industry and company. To that effect, wanted to choose a random company and...

What is positioning? It’s everything

Start with positioning Marketing strategy is an enormously vast, fun, and exciting topic. In that forest of thinking, I would argue that positioning is the first-domino idea to consider. It’s a 40 year-old idea that is just as important as it was in 1972, when...

Bill & Melinda Gates: 10 Tough Questions

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is awesome by most any measure. They tackle global problems as wide ranging as education and clean water. They fill some of the societal gaps that public companies and government are missing – nudging nation states,...

Bain: Private Equity Report 2018

Bain published a 2018 Private Equity report (80pg) which you have to sign up to get here. The high-level message seems to be that private equity is doing well (perhaps too well) and there is a lot of investor money looking for returns. This is driving up valuations...

Taxes: A Fine Mess (T.R.Reid)

Working on my taxes this weekend, which is no fun. I’d rather be blogging. Recently read T.R. Reid’s book on taxes, aptly titled: A Fine Mess (affiliate link). If you’ve read any of his previous books, you know he is a pretty expansive thinker,...

How to download Linkedin data

Huge fan of Linkedin. It’s the primary way I stay in touch my friends and work colleagues from the last 20 years. Barely use Facebook, but use Linkedin daily. So, when I was trying to filter some of my connections – frustrated, and not working well –...

Strategic Management in 20 Icons

I teach Strategic Management  I work with 400+ students every semester. We read 10+ cases, watch CNBC videos, read the Wall Street Journal, use Finviz, research with S&P industry surveys, grok the DuPont formula, question the validity of RBV, try to Cross the...

US stock: 8 great years, now rising rates

The US stock market fell on Friday and Monday in large part due to fears of inflation. The logic goes: economy is doing well, inflation is creeping up, Fed might get over-eager and raise interest rates too much, companies might have difficulty making profits, stocks...

The best advice I ever got

Today I found an old Fortune magazine on my shelf dated March 2005.  Warren Buffet is on the cover – looking a good bit younger – and the title proclaims: “The best advice I ever got.”  Perhaps this had more significance to me because I was wrapping up my...

What is book-to-bill ratio?

Book-to-bill This is a ratio that many B2B marketers watch closely because it gives an early indication of where the company’s business is headed (up or down). It is pretty simple math; take the bookings (orders) / billings (revenue). When you have long...

Syllabus: What is management consulting?

Teaching consulting Teaching management consulting this semester to a select group of 40 students. I imagine 1/2 of them will have consulting internship or full-time offers already. This is an elective, and they are elite. That said, I wanted to describe management...

Why are UPS accountants delivering packages?

In the WSJ today, learned that UPS encourages / asks its office workers to help sort and deliver packages during the holiday delivery rush here. Quotes from WSJ article in blue italics. UPS normally has “ready teams,” or office workers that help to sort, load or...

Visual Capitalist: Great Infographics

Consultants are very visual people, because our clients are. Executives like to see complex ideas and data simplified, so it is easy to understand and act upon. Clients pay to see simplicity. Simplicity is difficult to do well. Infographics are fun. Honestly, this is...

What are case competitions?

Case competitions are great fun I did 9 of them during my MBA days. It’s a chance for you to compete with students and see how good you are at ‘cracking the case’. The format differs considerably: Some competitions last 3-4 hours, while others can...

US gun violence: Yes, we have a problem

I wrote this blog post in 2017, after the Sandy Hook mass shooting of school children. Remember that? Horror. Additional comments in red color, but the sad fact remains that America has the same senseless gun violence as it had then. Just in the last month, shooting...

What is post-merger integration?

This 21 letter hyphenated-phrase generates $billions of management consulting work. With M&A booming the last few years, it’s no surprise that companies need lots of post-deal support. Whether a company hire outsiders to help or not, post-merger integration...

What is the elephant chart?

Thought-provoking I first read about the “elephant chart” in Edward Luce’s The Retreat of Western Liberalism (affiliate link), where the author explained how income inequality was a key factor in the global rise of protectionism and angry populism....

Richard Thaler, Nudge, Nobel Prize

Richard Thaler Yes, professor from University of Chicago, won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Most people know him for writing the 2008 best-seller Nudge (affiliate link) with Cass Sunstein. Super enjoyed the book and was...

Beware of false equivalence

Check the quality of the fruit When you are buying a banana at the grocery store, do you blindly pick up anything?  No way. A green banana and yellow banana means something completely different. Depending on your taste preference, when you plan to eat it, and you want...