advanced consulting skills workshop - day 1

Anoop Mehendale Abantika Dasgupta

Advanced consulting skills workshop

Mu Sigma Proprietary"This document and its attachments are confidential. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material is strictly forbidden"

Chicago, ILBangalore, India

August 2008www.mu-sigma.com

CONFIDENTIALCONFIDENTIAL

Agenda

• Day 1• Objectives, group formation, engagement lifecycle• Spiel on Issue based frame work• Spiel on Starburst• Spiel on Thought leadership• Home Work – Develop hypothesis through Key Questions

• Day 2• Review Home Work• Spiel on storyboarding• Home Work – Initial storyboard

• Day 3• Review Home Work• Spiel on info matrix to facts/findings etc • Home Work – Refined storyboard

• Day 4• Review Home Work• Refine storyboard and help work through problems • HW - final presentation preparation

• Day 5• Final presentations (4*20 mins)• Assessment

Objectives

This is a workshop where we will learn working in a structured manner and …

•We practice follow a structured process to solving business problems

•We practice articulating suggestions and advice effectively

•Work through the case study

Groups

Group A Group B Group C Group D

Chandan Panda Manas Agrawal Raghu Adarsh

Rahul SaxenaRicha Bhargava;

Sourav Banerjee Badal Rath

Sanjukta Arthi B Neha agarwalBhanu Kumar Prabhat

Manoj SriPriya Ravindra Reddy Nreependra

When in the engagement lifecycle should you be looking for Starburst opportunities?

Sales/ Business Development

Sales/ Business Development

Verify Scope and Plan

Verify Scope and Plan

Conduct Internal Kick-off

Conduct Internal Kick-off

Conduct Client Kick-off

Conduct Client Kick-off

Start Evaluate / Support CRM

Measure Results

Measure Results

Feed Back Results to

Client

Feed Back Results to

Client

Close

Archive recordsArchive records

Capture Intellectual

Capital

Capture Intellectual

Capital

Conduct Engagement

Review

Conduct Engagement

Review

Execute (Diagnose or Plan )

Refine/Define Hypotheses

Refine/Define Hypotheses

Conduct Information Gathering

Conduct Information Gathering

Synthesize / Analyze

Synthesize / Analyze

Develop Conclusions/ Recommend-

ations

Develop Conclusions/ Recommend-

ations

Deliver Conclusions/ Recommend-

ations

Deliver Conclusions/ Recommend-

ations

Identify Additional OpportunitiesIdentify Additional Opportunities

CommunicationsCommunications

Quality ControlQuality Control

Professional DevelopmentProfessional Development

Knowledge ManagementKnowledge Management

AdministrationAdministration

Execute (Implementation)

Architecture and Planning

Architecture and Planning DevelopmentDevelopment

LaunchLaunch

Initiate Lifecycle

Management

Initiate Lifecycle

Management

Issue-based Framework

The Issue-based Framework is a systematic, top-down approach to problem solving

Context

Client Objective

Engagement Objective

Issue Issue

Hypo Hypo Hypo Hypo

Key? Key? Key? Key?

Information Matrix

Fact Fact Fact Fact Fact Fact

Finding Finding Finding

Conclusion Conclusion

Recommendation

Barrier Barrier Barrier Barrier

This approach creates value for both consultants and their clients

Consultant value

– A better chance of managing scope with the client

– An information gathering plan that maximizes value while minimizing effort

– A better way to manage delegation on the consulting team

– An anchor for the project - anchoring it to the issues, not activities

– A logic flow and audit trail that ties results to engagement objectives

Client value

– A clearer picture of where the consultants are headed

– A better understanding of the scope

– A more “on target” end result

Top-down thinking is only useful when you get the context, client objectives, and perceived barriers right

Context: ABC wants to significantly increase both engagement revenues (20 – 40%) and engagement profitability. They intend to grow both organically and by acquisition.

Client Objective: To leverage newly minted internal consultants and newly acquired outside consultants, ABC is keen to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing across the entire consulting and services organization.

Barriers:

Getting the client to articulate the barriers can be an exercise in thought leadership: thoughtful questions can make clients “see” their situation more clearly

Questions to uncover potential Barriers:

– What is hindering collaboration and knowledge sharing today?

– What are the biggest challenges you see in reaching a truly collaborative culture?

Although uncovering the barriers should be done at the proposal stage, it is a useful exercise at the beginning of the engagement as well

Barriers: – Massively different cultures in the

acquired company– Massively different cultures

spanning far flung geographies – No common tools, techniques

and approaches– No common training– A counter productive

measurement system

The Client Objective, fine tuned in light of the barriers, leads to a more clearly stated Engagement Objective

Engagement Objective: Identify and prioritize the initiatives needed to improve collaboration across geographies and across practice areas.

A clearly stated Engagement Objective is the launching point for identifying a handful of meaningful issues to be investigated


Issues to be investigated: (stated as topics):

– …– …– …– …

Identifying a handful of meaningful issues to be investigated is an iterative process. Some issues come directly from barriers


Issues to be investigated

(stated as topics):– Tools, techniques, and training– Culture– Incentives and measurements

After identifying issues as topics, the consultant must craft the issues as broad questions


Issues to be investigated: – What tools, techniques and training

need to be in place to foster collaborative work?

– What corporate culture enhancements are necessary to enable collaboration across geographies and practices?

– What incentives or measurements need to be in place to encourage good cross- practice/cross-geography collaborative work?

Issues are the topics we will investigate to satisfy the engagement objective

• The number of issues you identify should be a “handful”

– Necessary and sufficient, MECE– Easily remembered– Seven plus or minus two

• The order in which you list issues implies sequence– Investigate the leftmost issue first– Investigate the rightmost issue last

• Issues should be stated as questions to ensure clarity– Begin by stating them as topics– Then, review the topics with clients– Finally, state refined topics as open questions

Hypothesis

Hypotheses represent our best guesses at what we think or suspect is going on relative to the issues

Issue: What tools, techniques and training need to be in place to foster collaborative work?

Hypotheses:

• Many basic tools, such as directories that list responsibilities and areas of specialization, are readily available to new ABC employees.

• Many collaborative tools are available to all ABC consultants, but lack of training has hindered usage.

Hypotheses can be stated negatively or positively and with different levels of intent depending on what is useful for you or your client

High level, positive– The culture of this firm is perfectly set to enable collaboration

High level, negative– The culture of this firm is toxic to collaboration

Low level, positive– A highly forgiving attitude and a sense of learning by mistakes is dominant in

this firm’s culture and this encourages the sharing of individual’s efforts

Low level, negative– Perfectionism and a highly critical attitude are rewarded in this organization

and these aspects of their culture inhibit the sharing of individual’s efforts

Generating hypothesis is an iterative process; it requires an ability to start with an imperfect set and migrate to a better set using time honored guidelines

So, don’t fall down the …

Relevant – that’s a good thing

Advice – that’s a recommendation, we’re not there yet

Testable – that’s a mandatory thing

Hohum – that’s an unacceptable thing

Obvious – that’s a waste of time

Level – that’s a really tough thing

Enough – but not too many, (MECE) that’s a good thing

You formulate key questions that, when answered, will support or disprove the hypothesis

Hypothesis: Many basic tools, such as directories listing responsibilities and areas of specialization, are readily available to new employees at ABC.

Key Question:• …?

• …?

Hypothesis: Many collaborative tools are available to all ABC consultants, but lack of training has hindered usage.

Key Questions:• …?

• …?

You formulate key questions that, when answered, will support or disprove the hypothesis

Hypothesis: Many basic tools, such as such as directories listing responsibilities and areas of specialization, are readily available to new employees at ABC.

Key Question:• What basic tools that support or encourage

collaboration are available to new employees?

Hypothesis: Many collaborative tools are available to all ABC consultants, but lack of training has hindered usage.

Key Questions:• How many collaborative tools are available to

ABC consultants?

• What % of ABC consultants have the skills to use the collaborative tools?

Thought leadership isn’t about being the smartest kid on the block; it’s about helping others think better

• Thought leaders provide a platform from which others can:– Launch their own thinking– Grasp a new concept– Focus– Break through barriers– Take an idea and go further

• Thought leaders cross hierarchic lines and can equally help:– Clients– Subordinates– Peers– Superiors

A variety of tools, techniques and approaches enable thought leadership

?????????

Analogies

Questions

Models

LateralThinking

Examples

ThoughtLeadership

Starbursts happen every 12 seconds and blow countless billions of bits of energy and matter into the universe, creating romantic summer skies . . .

… while consulting Starbursts leverage successful engagements to create more opportunities to bring value to our clients and revenue to Mu Sigma

• “The engagement team expands the client relationships in all directions: up, down and parallel within the client organization”

• “Identifying additional areas of value and potential opportunities that are spawned from or generated from the initial engagement entry point”

• “Moving from transactional to trusted advisor”• “Finding and focusing on opportunities for the breath

and depth of IMS’s knowledge, experience, services and products”

Objective of Airbus

• ?

Objective of Airbus

• Decide whether to commit to A3XX?

Barriers?

advanced consulting skills workshop - day 1

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