The Strategy Skills Podcast: Management Consulting | Strategy, Operations & Implementation | Critical Thinking

In this episode of the strategy skills podcast we take a brief look at how to conduct a value chain analysis.  Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

In today’s podcast we discuss the role of the business unit strategy stream within a corporate strategy study. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

Corporate strategy is very different from other types of strategy. In this video podcast we explain why. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

In this podcast we go back to the visioning workshop part of the study and re-visit some of the most important points you need to keep in mind. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

In this podcast we discuss how your cost of capital changes as you take on more debt and how this change is different between organizations. Its a crucial concept for this utility. We explain how the cost of capital change usually takes place and then we review the drivers at play that are different for this power utility vs. an average company. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

Welcome to the 54th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. In this podcast we look at the problem of superficial financial analysis. One way to save the client money, before they run out of cash in about 16 months, is to stop all investments which lose money. This, however, is a terrible idea which will cause enormous damage to the client’s core business, consumers and the economy. We discuss how we handle this recommendation and what we proposed on the study to fix the problem. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

When a consultant must dissent and how it should be done. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

This is the next Strategy Skills podcast. In this episode we discuss 5 tips to fight fatigue.   SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

This is the 50th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study and we are wrapping up week 4. In this podcast we recap a crucial milestone for power study.     SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING STAY IN TOUCH: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn IF WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

Welcome to the 49th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. This podcast is for those who have mastered all the basics on slide design and formatting. In this podcast we discuss how to determine if your powerpoint slides are influential on a study. Influential powerpoint slides may not be the most beautiful pieces of work or even the ones with the most effort, though it is usually at least the latter. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. If you enjoyed this conversation we will be so grateful if you jump over to iTunes and share a quick review. It helps more people find us.  Also a huge thank you for making “Strategy Skills” one of the most popular podcasts in the world for careers.    SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS? REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

Welcome to the 48th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study and we remain in week 4. The previous podcasts discussed each of the elements which together comprise the visioning workshop. In this podcast we discuss the workshop structure, how we ran it and the overall outcome.  Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. TCO IV is underway and turning out to be unusual. 4 participants and all are roughly the same in terms of performance so all have a clear chance. This is unlike TCO I where Felix was clearly stronger all the way from the screening interviews, and TCO II where Alicedominated from start to finish and even TCO III where Jen was the stronger participant from the start.  If you missed our recent announcement, note that The First 90 Days in Consulting training program is now live. Thank you for all the great feedback we are receiving and your requests for continuing with this series are noted. Step 5 Week 3 of the Corporate Strategy

Welcome to the 47th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study and we remain in week 4. And as I mentioned in previous posts, the reason we spend so much time on visioning workshop is because if you ever take a senior role in strategy in any company, or if you ever serve as a corporate strategy consultant, running a visioning workshop or corporate strategy workshop in general is the skill you must have. And scenario planning is something used extensively in visioning workshops. So in this podcast, and related article, we discuss what is scenario planning and how to run a scenario planning session during a visioning workshop as part of a consulting engagement. There is a also a very elegant way to combine corporate finance and corporate strategy to help companies develop effective strategies under extreme uncertainty. If this interests you, post a comment and we will build out an explanation for this approach. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry 

In this podcast, and related article, we address how to answer difficult questions raised by the client during a executive workshop or another type of client's executives group meeting. We start with discussing the right mindset any consultant requires to be able to effectively handle difficult questions from a client. We thereafter review the particular steps in addressing a client's difficult questions raised during a workshop or a presentation. Lastly, we dive into which skills are required to be able to handle difficult questions, especially the kind of questions for which you don't have an immediate answer. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS? REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

Welcome to the 45th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study and we remain in week 4. At least once in your life you would have received feedback to be a more big picture thinker. The problem is that everyone will have a different definition of big picture thinking and many of the definitions are vague, counter-intuitive or wrong. Based on advising some of the consultants on the study, this podcast provides a very simple, intuitive, practical and correct definition of the big picture concept. It also explains why it is so important and how to use it. Keep in mind that this study is being updated on our website where you can view the training videos and power point slides - the next update is scheduled for this month. This is a huge study and will offer the most realistic training for both consultants and industry professionals. Pure corporate strategy studies are rare. This is a unique training opportunity. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry 

Welcome to the 44th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. In this phase of the podcast series we are focusing on week 4 when we are bringing the entire leadership team together to help them make one decision. The only decision they have to make is: "Should Empire International focus on the non-regulated non-core activities as they are now doing or refocus their efforts to support Empire Energy on their core regulated business: generating energy, transmitting energy and distributing energy?" In today’s podcast, while we are heavily focused on week 4 and the build up to that major visioning workshop, we step back to understand a little bit of the broader contextual issues facing this client. If you have been following this podcast series you will realize that there are 2 criteria that must be met for any strategy study to be a corporate level strategy study. The first one is the objective function for the client, the key question for the client, must be unclear. If the objective function

Welcome to the 43rd podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. In today’s podcast we will talk about about general professional values or etiquette that consultants should apply on an engagement. We specifically discuss things that consultants sometimes do on studies that may alienate the client. And rather than talking about every single thing you need to avoid, we will talk about some principles. And these principles apply across every issue. We also discuss how to address a situation where a consultant’s behaviour is incompatible with the firm’s professional values. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study. SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS? REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

Welcome to the 42nd podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study. What I noticed on this, and other studies, is that the associates and business analysts are very competitive, in a way that is damaging to clients, to the firm and to their own careers. I am fine with consultants being competitive but I think they go about it the wrong way. You can be competitive and work long hours but you should not seem to be competitive when you are working long hours. I am not saying don't work long hours. Yet, don't make it sound like you are competitive and that is why you are working long hours. Cause and effect matters. If you work hard to be competitive, people see you as someone who is working hard only because you want to get promoted and only because you want to stand out from everyone else. These consultants tend to be so obsessed with telling people how committed they are that they are moving away from the objective of getting the right work done. No one likes someone who is competitive for the sa

Welcome to the 41th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study and we remain in week 4. Promoting women into leadership roles is a hot topic and, sadly, a debate. Why is it a debate? What are the elements that require further analysis? To paraphrase Marvin Bower, one does not ask a client if a woman should take over the relationship, one simply tells a client a woman is taking over. It is not the client’s job to decide what is right. In this podcast we explain why we have more female than male partners at FC and how we constantly develop them to serve in more and more senior roles. Click here to see the full study and here to see the merger study and market entry study.   SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn WANT TO LEARN FROM FORMER STRATEGY PARTNERS? REFER TO THE FIRMSCONSULTING ORIGINAL TRAINING PROGRAMS.

Welcome to the 40th podcast on the Corporate Strategy & Transformation study and we remain in week 4.  In this podcast we explain how leadership is defined at great firms like McKinsey and BCG, and how we also manage leadership transition at FC. It will surprise you to see how different the mindset can be and that we think about these issues all the time.  The most important role of a partner is to leave the firm in a better place than when she/he joined, and to hand over a client relationship to a newer partner. The ability to maintain this cycle is critical.  If the mechanism is not there, even proud and great firms suffer during leadership changes. You want to avoid that. The cycle must be continuous.  SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn For more details on how to conduct strategy, operations or implementation consulting studies refer to the Firmsconsulting Original Training Programs.

In today’s podcast we step away from Corporate Strategy & Transformation study and discuss something that affects every single consultant in the world. And that is the issue of confidence, or even arrogance, and the role it plays in getting results on a consulting engagement. We discuss the role confidence plays in your career. We look at what actually creates competitive advantage in your career. We further look at an example that showcases the limited value of confidence on a consulting engagement.  SIGN UP FOR EMAIL UPDATES HERE & RECEIVE FREE STRATEGY TRAINING COME HANG OUT WITH US: Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn For more details on how to conduct strategy, operations or implementation consulting studies refer to the Firmsconsulting Original Training Programs.