Sep
28
2018
Henry Winkler’s recent Emmy win (finally!) reminded me of his contribution to our modern lexicon. It was as star of the seminal TV show Happy Days some 40 ago when Winkler’s character, Arthur “the Fonz” Fonzarelli, jumped over a shark on water skis.
Sep
14
2018
I had the chance to address graduate students earlier this week on careers in consulting. These forums are always one of the more enjoyable parts of my job, primarily because I’m interacting with newcomers who have yet to be jaded by consulting’s harsher realities.
Sep
7
2018
Ask consultants about their “industry” and you’re often corrected that management consulting is a “profession.” Much like doctors, scientists, and the clergy, many career consultants view their endeavor as a calling rather than a job.
Aug
30
2018
Although it's a cyclical industry, the state of the consulting market seems unusually positive these days. The bullishness on growth seems directly connected to the plethora of buzzwords driving change. Digital … Block-chain … Analytics … every utterance in every market points to consultants as client-whisperers — sage advisors who can make sense out of these chaos-inducing disruptors.
Jul
13
2018
We typically characterize providers with revenues of $100m-$500m as occupying the mid-market — not small and specialized like boutiques, but not gargantuan and multi-dimensional like global firms.
Jun
14
2018
A couple months back, McKinsey was accused by Alix Partner founder Jay Alix with being less than candid about its potential conflicts of interest in restructuring engagements.
Fast forward and we now hear a different -- yet similar -- type of situation with Accenture. The details with Accenture center on the behemoth’s Media Management group, which conducts independent media audits. Rivals say the launch of Accenture Interactive’s Programmatic Services -- an extension of the company’s Interactive’s work in performance marketing -- pivots off the aforementioned audit service and makes a sham of Accenture as watchdog.
Jun
1
2018
Consulting fees are a funny phenomenon. We’re routinely asked by a variety of constituents to conduct benchmarking on fees for all types of consulting and advisory services -- from global or specialist firms wishing to compare their rates among competitive sets, to clients wondering if their negotiated rates are truly “market competitive,” to outside investment companies that offer advisory services to their portfolio companies and must demonstrate compliance to prevailing rates.
May
24
2018
One of the features of the Toyota Production System – the genesis of now-pervasive lean process improvement – is that it empowered assembly workers to stop the production line. Recognizing that errors compound as they move down the line, Taiichi Ohno (the originator of this system) instituted systematic problem-solving to remove them once and for all. Once implemented, this advanced problem-solving meant the line practically never stopped.
May
10
2018
A couple weeks back, McKinsey was roughed up by the Wall Street Journal regarding the firm’s lack of transparency when working on bankruptcy engagements. The gist of the story claimed that McKinsey had potential conflicts of interest based on investments and/or relationships with entities related to the bankruptcy. And even when it did disclose, the list was minuscule relative to other types of advisors.
May
4
2018
Boil it down to its essence and management consulting has always been about transformation. Specifically transforming their clients’ production transformation functions -- how they transform inputs into outputs. So it’s a bit like a second-order transformation function. As it happens, consultants are also in the process of transforming themselves to meet their clients’ demand to “get it done.” This means translating strategies and plans into outcomes for their clients.
