CONSULTING FRAMEWORK

Presented by BIDHU

What is Consulting ?

Consultant A consultant is a person in a position to have some

influence over an individual, a group, or an organization but has no direct power to make changes or implement programs.

The core transaction of any consulting contract is the transfer of expertise from the consultant to the client.

Manager/Client A manager is someone who has direct responsibility

over the action. The moment you take direct responsibility, you are acting as a manager

Identify Who is the Client, Power, Influence in the organization

What are the skills?

Technical Skills:- How much do you know about the industry ? Or how much you can possibly know through your contacts/ from Experts ?

Interpersonal Skills:- How well you can charm people to accept your view

Consulting Skills Entry & Contracting: - This sets the tone of the project, check about

constraints from client, State what you need to accomplish your job Discovery & Dialogue Analysis & Decision to act

Agree on the Objectives of the study Agree on the dimensions of the study, Set clear scope, out of scope Agree on the methods of the study Agree on the measurable metrics of the outcome Client buy in is a Must

Engagement & Implementation Help the client learn the problem Self realization of the problem Build the competencies in the client

Extension , Recycle & Termination

Contracting Items1. The Boundaries of Your Analysis2. Objectives of the Project3. The Kind of Information You Seek4. Your Role in the Project5. The Product You Will Deliver6. What Support and Involvement You

Need from the Client7. Time Schedule8. Confidentiality9. Feedback to You Later

Consulting Process Flow1. Define the Initial Problem:- It is not just up to the client to make the initial problem

statement. You should feel free to add your 50 percent, even at this early stage.2. Decide Whether to Proceed with the Project:- In deciding whether to proceed, you

also have some choice. If the project is set up in a way that you think it won’t succeed, you should negotiate the terms. Or if u feel there is going to be less contribution from the client side then l Learn to say NO if needed

3. Select the Dimensions to Be Studied:- Given your expertise in the project, you may know best what aspect of the problem should be analyzed. The client, though, has operating experience with the problem and the people and can be asked what to look for.

4. Decide Who Will Be Involved in the Project:- Doing the job by yourself is always simpler and faster. Having people from the client organization takes more time and agony, yet this involvement directly encourages commitment and promotes eventual implementation of the work.

5. Select the Method:- The client is in the operation for long, so ask the client for how the data to be collected & what data to be. You as consultant decide what is relevant for you.

6. Do Discovery:- Let the client go through the same discovery phase along with you.7. Find the Key People who has the all the info:-8. Gather data & make sense of data:-9. Provide Results & Recommendations:-10. Decide on Actions:- Have a say on actions and track on the actions 11. Go back to step 1 if this does not solve 100 % of the problem & client

agrees for it

What is the Problem ?

Ask Questions Why ? Why not ? Employ Ishikawa Diagram What are the Assumptions ? Problem mayn’t be the problem Back up the problem with Facts Benchmark to confirm the problem This is 99 % of your consulting

Doing Research

Don’t reinvent the wheel, start with existing secondary data

Annual Report is the gospel Interview the right people

Interview , don’t lead Open Ended Questions Let Interviewee’s boss set up the meeting Interview in Pairs Paraphrase Be sensitive to the interviewers feeling Manage difficult interviews Practice Positive Deviance in difficult times

Building the Solution

Fact Based Solution MECE Framework(Mutually Exclusive & Collectively Exhaustive) Hypothesis Driven Approach(Build/verify Issue Tree) All Key Drivers of the Problem addressed ? Can you define a Elevator Speech ? Make the solution comes from facts Make the solution fit the client 80-20 rule also applies here Client Buy In is a must What is out of scope Things need to be in to watch list

Selling the Solution

Build Trust with People in Clients organization Selling the Solution

When people feel that something is important and they have some control, they will be motivated to exert the effort to make things work.

When they believe that something is important but they can exert no control, the common tendencies are to become cautious or defensive, play it safe, withhold information, protect themselves from blame.

Internal Commitment from Client

Building the Solution-Example. Value & Purpose Mission & Vision PESTLE Porters 5 Forces, Industry reports, Benchmarking, Gap Analysis, SWOT McKinsey - 7S(Strategy, Systems, Structure, Skills, Staff, Style, Shared

Values) Ex: A marketing problem , take 4 P as the starting point Drivers :– Fixed Cost, Variable Cost, Sells, Marketing Expenditure, Sells

per employee etc.. Then Issue Tree, Benchmarking, Best Practices, Alignment with 7C,

Tools: -Ansoff’s Matrix ,Balance Scorecard, Benchmarking, Business Process Re Engineering, Change Management, Core Competencies, CRM Practices, Value stream mapping, Value chain

Support with data:-Annual Reports, Industry Data, Primary Data, Analytics, Causal Relationship-Hypothesis testing, Solution Design, Solution Presentation, Solution Effectiveness

Clients are Skeptical

Is this consultant someone I can trust? Is this someone I can trust not to hurt me, not to con me—someone who can both help solve the organizational or technical problems I have and, at the same time, be considerate of my position and person?

Q&A

Thank You