CONFIDENTIAL

Advanced consulting skills workshop

Anoop Mehendale Abantika Dasgupta

Chicago, IL Bangalore, India August 2008 www.mu-sigma.com

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

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

Day 1

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 Adarsh Badal Rath Bhanu Kumar Prabhat

Chandan Panda Manas Agrawal Raghu Richa Sourav Rahul Saxena Bhargava; Banerjee Sanjukta Manoj Arthi B SriPriya Neha agarwal

Ravindra Reddy Nreependra

When in the engagement lifecycle should you be looking for Starburst opportunities?
Sales/ Business Development Identify Additional Opportunities
Start

Execute (Diagnose or Plan )

Refine/Define Hypotheses

Close

Conduct Information Gathering

Evaluate / Support CRM

Synthesize / Analyze Archive records Initiate Lifecycle Management

Verify Scope and Plan

Conduct Internal Kick-off

Develop Conclusions/ Recommendations

Deliver Conclusions/ Recommendations

Capture Intellectual Capital

Conduct Engagement Review

Measure Results

Execute (Implementation)
Conduct Client Kick-off Architecture and Planning Launch Development Feed Back Results to Client

Communications Quality Control Professional Development Knowledge Management Administration

Issue-based Framework

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

Context Barrier

Client Objective Barrier Barrier

Engagement Objective Issue Issue

Barrier

Hypo
Key?

Hypo
Key?

Hypo
Key?

Hypo
Key?

Information Matrix Fact Fact Fact Fact Fact Fact

Finding
Conclusion

Finding

Finding
Conclusion

Recommendation

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

Engagement Objective: Identify and

prioritize the initiatives needed to improve collaboration across geographies and across practice areas.

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

Engagement Objective: Identify and

prioritize the initiatives needed to improve collaboration across geographies and across practice areas.

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
Engagement Objective: Identify and prioritize the initiatives needed to improve collaboration across geographies and across practice areas. 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/crossgeography 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 firms culture and this encourages the sharing of individuals 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 individuals 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, dont fall down the

Relevant thats a good thing

Advice thats a recommendation, were not there yet

Testable thats a mandatory thing Hohum thats an unacceptable thing Obvious thats a waste of time Level thats a really tough thing

Enough but not too many, (MECE) thats 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 isnt about being the smartest kid on the block; its 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

Examples Lateral Thinking Thought Leadership Analogies Models

?????????

Questions

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 IMSs knowledge, experience, services and products

Objective of Airbus
?

Objective of Airbus
Decide whether to commit to A3XX?

Barriers?