For those who don’t know US football, Vince Lombardi is a legendary coach of the Green Bay Packers and one of the 4 horsemen of Notre Dame. Impressive guy. Old School. He had his flaws – all great people do – but when it comes to GRIT. Many people have said similar things – John… Read More »
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Grit is a casual word which means “resolve” in English. Endurance with a mission. Doing something difficult and not giving up . It is the opposite of complacency or indecision. Clearly, people with grit are going to be more successful – because by definition, they are not giving up. That said, how important is it? Is it more important that… Read More »
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Today I’m going to share with you how to position your offerings and your services so that you can earn premium consulting fees. The example I’m going to use is from my last trip to Japan. I was walking through a very well-known department store in Japan. Anyone that knows me knows I’m not a […]
How to Earn Premium Consulting Fees is a post from: Consulting Success
Of the many things I learned in MBA, the “informational interview” is one of those gems that remains relevant a decade later. Information interviews. They are simply low-expectation, business meetings with (relative) strangers to find out more about an industry, company, or opportunity. It is a win-win: The interviewee has the opportunity to be generous – with their… Read More »
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Note this post is about rental properties – not about consulting. That said, all consultants and professionals making $000,000s, need to start putting money away to get yourself retired? It’s actually a question that I ask most all of my friends, and even acquaintances: “What are you doing to get money working for you (assets) so you can… Read More »
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Founder’s Mentality is a simple and elegant framework from Bain that describes how companies lose their way as they grow. The path from start-up to global juggernaut is not a straight line and Bain research shows that only 1 in 9 companies show sustainable growth for 10+ years. They call it the growth paradox – growth creates complexity and complexity kills growth. As consultants – I… Read More »
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Traveled to Arizona recently – God’s country. Beautiful. Great food, nice people, fun hotel, and lots to see. Enjoy the travel. Like they say, “It is a dry heat.”
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When I was a kid I hated writing. I don’t use that word lightly, but I really did. It wasn’t just writing, it was reading too. I didn’t read a full book until grade 9. Remember Coles Notes? Those mini guides that summarized books and texts that teachers had assigned? They were my best friend […]
5 Tips to Get Published In Industry Publications is a post from: Consulting Success
A statement of work (SOW) is a phrase you will hear almost daily in your life as a consultant. It’s a client-facing document that outlines what the consultant is proposing to get done on a new project or phase of work. This is particularly important why? Because new projects are the lifeblood of a firm’s utilization, profitability, and career… Read More »
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Corporate learning and development is a huge market. Training magazine estimates here that it is approximately $70 billion annually for companies with more than 100 employees. While that is a huge number, it feels about right. All of this training takes the form of L&D headcount, outside consultants, training tools, travel, and other education spending. They estimate… Read More »
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Eurostat has published a report which provides detailed information for the urban landscape of Europe. and paints a picture of urban developments and urban life in the EU Member States, as well as European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and candidate countries.
Statistics is an important tool for analysing changing patterns of urban development and the impact that policy decisions have on life in our cities, towns and suburbs. Too often, policy decisions, pre-feasibility studies and feasibility studies are based on statistically questionable data. This report is a very useful source of facts, which can be used to enhance analysis.
Each chapter presents statistical information in the form of maps, tables and figures, accompanied by a description of the policy context and a set of main findings.
The report consists of two parts:
The publication is free and can be downloaded on this link.
The post Urban Europe – Statistics on Cities and Towns appeared first on Bearing Consulting.
It’s consulting interview season which means well-groomed MBAs are sitting across small tables with consulting firm partners and senior managers in something called a case interview. For those readers from consulting firms – you know this fire drill – and probably remember it fondly like Marines who remember “hell week”. Case interview advice. For those in the throes of case interview for full-time… Read More »
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LinkedIn used to be a great channel to publish articles. Is it still? There have been several changes in the way that LinkedIn displays articles published through its platform. While LinkedIn remains one of the most powerful platforms for consultants to showcase their expertise, build relationships and connect with ideal consulting clients – things have […]
LinkedIn Publishing for Consultants: What’s Changed and What You Need to Know is a post from: Consulting Success
2015 was a blockbuster M&A year. Lot of big name deals as companies re-position themselves and push for growth in a slow-growth, low-interest rate environment. Good times for investment bankers and due diligence big 4 firms. BCG 2016 M&A report here.
2016 has slowed down. BCG notes that 1H 2016 is down 27% YoY, but still flat compared to 10-year average. Remember, this is on the heels of a 20% increase in 2014, and 40% increase in 2015. It’s an overly wonky graph below, but your get the point. Lots of deals. Lots of money.
Is this leading to a bubble? BCG posed the question without conclusively landing on an answer, but some compelling arguments for a M&A bubble. Valuations are rich – getting richer. Last two years were higher than the average 12x EBIDTA. In 2015, it was closer to 15x. Dude, if someone were willing to pay me 15x EBITDA, I would sell too.
What about M&A value as a % of GDP. That is a super-macroeconomic metric (similar to the billionaire index I mentioned last post), but M&A continues to creep higher. In fact, in the US, it is the equivalent to 9%+ of annual GDP. That means that almost 10% of the US economy is changing ownership structure, changing hands annually.
Still lots of Private Equity looking for a home. Private equity (PE) funded a lot of deals in 2015 – both in total value and quantity. Yet, looking at the graph on the right – there is still $470B+ ready to invest. I recently bought an investment property, and my interest rate was 3.125%. Money is still incredibly cheap.
The second half of the report is the most interesting. BCG argues that companies who are most active with M&A (they call portfolio masters) have superior returns. This is controversial and a strong point of view because a long list of M&A research shows that 40-75% (depending on how you measure it) of M&A destroys shareholder value.
Portfolio masters have a 10%+ annual total shareholder return. BCG argues that portfolio masters (defined as those who do 5+ transactions within 5 years) develop a core competency with M&A and yields superior returns to those who merge / divest less frequently. Over time the portfolio masters (high volume M&A) have annual total shareholder return of 10.5% vs. every-once-in-a-while M&A companies of only 5.3%.
Are they better at M&A? To me, this intuitively makes sense; the more you do anything (M&A or even practicing piano) you are going to get better at it. M&A-heavy shops like GE, Cisco etc will think about strategy, survey competitors and landscape, assess opportunities, and capture synergies better than those companies who casually, or nervously fall/get trapped into an acquisition.
BCG argues that there are 4 characteristics of portfolio masters:
Consultantsmind reflection on these points:
Related posts:
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