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. Please find a list of Excel tools and functions that […]
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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 for the new-incoming group of students. Here are some verbatim comments related […]
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We play music before class. Here is the crowd-sourced soundtrack. Enjoy.
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Love Planet Money podcast. It’s my wife’s favorite podcast, for good reason. Engaging, clever, informative, well-curated, and whimsical. Overall, a great use of your half hour. Here is a list of their episodes from 2009-2018. 170+ page PDF of 800+ Planet Money Episodes Yes, they have 800+ episodes, so the copy/paste list of episodes and […]
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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 (bad) which is just trying to fill up space. Just learned about this last […]
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Reached out my network, and asked: “What advice do you have for interns in the last 1/3 of their project?” Here is what they said (slight editing, and my emphasis in blue color) on finishing your internship well. Be proud of your work Summarize the project. Recap all the projects you’ve worked on and the […]
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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 achievements require time. – Maya Angelou Routine, in an intelligent man, is […]
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Now that you got your consulting offer, what should you pack in your bag? Here is a list of things I have used and favored when I travel. Some are common sense (shoe polish), while other’s are personal preference (Tumi vs. Briggs and Riley). Feel free to chime in with some of your favorite products, services, […]
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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 terrible business situation here. Since then, I personally only use Spotify, and well, Pandora Media is even worse shape. Looking at Finviz for […]
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Hope you’re enjoying the summer – full of beaches, lakes, friends, and food. As consultants, it’s often hard to stay “aware” and “fresh”. In reality, the travel and the clients can be a bear. Same hotel concierge lounge, same salmon with capers, same client parking lot. They say that consulting gives your 3x the experience, and […]
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If you are in private equity, this is a name you already know. Rubenstein is the co-founder, and co-chairman, of the Carlyle Group which invests $200+ billion on behalf of their limited partners. He sits on dozens of boards, and is the chairman of the Kennedy Center of Performing Arts, and the chairman of the Smithsonian […]
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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 learn Determine how you learn best. […]
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We ran a business bootcamp for non-business majors for the last 3 weeks. We had 4 guest speakers. Good questions and good advice. Thanks for all the great advice AN, IM, WM, DB. Do the work. Mark Cuban says, “Don’t follow your passion, follow your effort.” Be willing to do what others are not; […]
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(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 financials and comparing companies from the same industry. What’s return […]
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Tomorrow is a big day in my journey as a professor, speaker, and consultant’s mind. Was voted by students as the distinguised educator of the year. Super winning. Speaking at the graduation celebration. This is the venue. Here is the outline of my talk. (My) Past: Did not always know what I wanted to do […]
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In the corporate world, most presentations are to small groups. In fact, the most common format is actually with 1 person in his/her office. The slides typically have more details (think: 18-22 font arial) and should be completely self-explanatory. They are skimmable executive memos on PowerPoint in Landscape orientation with clear tables, graphics and story […]
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David Maister’s Managing a Professional Services Firm (affiliate link) is mandatory reading in my management consulting class. The first 50 pages talks about the different types of work (brain surgery, white hair, procedure projects) and differing roles within the firm: finders, minders, and grinders. Yes, my exam has 4-5 questions about leverage and how it influences profitability. […]
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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 Al Reis and Jack Trout wrote a fateful article in Advertising Age here. When student asks […]
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Charles Aris is a recruiter out of North Carolina that places ex-strategy consultants. Yes, you should sign up for their newsletter. They do great work. Some of their post-consulting job postings here. EVP of Strategy & Corporate Development (Boston – PE-backed Medical Device) Our client has partnered with the Charles Aris team to identify an […]
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This is something all consultants should watch, reflect, and incorporate into their client work. How can you make “good for you” fun? People want to be engaged and experience life. How can we tap into that curiosity and shape “good for you” behavior. It’s hard to describe how much I like this subway piano.
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