Implementation, Strategy, and Operations Consulting

Differences Between Implementation, Strategy, and Operations Consulting One concept is consistently misunderstood in management consulting and that is the differences between strategy, operation, and implementation. Here are the common misinterpretations: McKinsey only does strategy work. Deloitte and other accounting firms are great at implementation. Implementation consulting is the same as operational strategy consulting.  We are going to explain the key difference and which firms are good at each type of consulting. Strategy Strategy consultants help senior executives determine the overall direction in which they will take the business. It is about taking a top-down view of the business and looking at the allocation of scarce resources. Strategy consulting is difficult. It requires deep analytical skills and the application of strong and disciplined problem-solving skills. Principles like decision trees, MECE, and hypotheses-led research are used.  What Do Strategy Consultants Do? Examples of strategy work include: What should be our long-term vision? Should we retain the same portfolio of businesses? Should we enter this market? Do we have a competitive advantage? What is the best way for us to extract value from our SUV division? At the end of a strategy consulting engagement, the client is given detailed market research outlining the…

Internal Strategy Units Rarely Create Strategy Consultants

Before reading this, remember that it is a successful Firmsconsulting strategy to sometimes “park” MBA clients in internal strategy units at banks before we feel they are ready to apply to MBB (McKinsey, Bain and BCG) and other consulting firms. This works because the client is in an internal strategy unit that has some cache with consulting firms, but crucially, this is a temporary stop before they go on to join McKinsey, BCG, etc. The article below is about readers who simply want to stay in internal strategy units to learn management consulting skills. There is a major difference between both strategies. We recommend the former and not the latter if you want to become a capable management consultant. *** Management consultants are all over the place. The big-3 alone have an estimated 50,000 alumni working across the world. Moreover, the rise in the use of management consultants throughout the 1990s accompanied by their rising fees led to some clients actively trying to replicate consulting skills in-house by creating internal strategy units. This professionalized the development of internal strategy consulting teams and created a second-act for many exiting consultants who did not want to immediately jump into operating roles. The banks…

Lessons from the Failure of a Consulting Partner

A McKinsey or BCG partner, or consulting partner of any other firm, must question and challenge a client in a professional manner. The basis of the relationship must be one where the client allows the partner to be candid about what he/she thinks. The best partners build relationships where this is expected of them. The worst partners pander to the client. There is no point claiming to be the advisor to a client when you are afraid to tell him/her the painful truth. External parties reading the phrase “the client always comes first” routinely misinterpret this to mean the client must be given whatever they want and must be always happy. That could not be further from the truth. Putting the client first routinely means putting the client needs first, even if that upsets the client. Sometimes, the client’s needs and the client’s wants do not sync, so while their needs are met they end up being bitter or angry from the process. That happens far more often than you would think. The best clients are mature and professional. They are seasoned and understand a consulting recommendation is just that - a recommendation that does not need to be followed. Therefore,…

Chief Strategy Officer: Promotion or Demotion?

IT Strategy vs. Corporate Strategy: Microsoft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmU3zn5f-sQ Let's assume that in this hypothetical situation, Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nardella, wants to develop a new strategy for Microsoft and appoints Bain to the role. Is Bain preparing an IT strategy for a technology company or is Bain preparing a technology company’s corporate strategy? To develop Microsoft's corporate strategy, the team assembled would be a generalist team of consultants. The consultants would need to develop Microsoft’s plan for the future and develop a set of detailed recommendations on how Microsoft should pursue that plan. Typical questions we would answer in a corporate strategy study include: 1 - What type of company should Microsoft be? 2 - Should Microsoft remain in hardware and software? 3 - If both, which segments should be exited? 4 - How should Microsoft organize its divisions/people to remain competitive? 5 - Where should Microsoft focus its investments? These are pretty much the main questions in any corporate strategy study. If we were developing a corporate strategy for a healthcare, financial services, or mining company, we would ask and answer very similar questions. However, the emphasis will change for this Microsoft study, the analyses will obviously differ, and the study structure will be different. That is because…

Competition in the workplace: competing with a high-performing consultant

Competition in the workplace: competing with a high-performing consultant https://firmsconsulting.com/quarterly/competing-high-performing-consultant/ Competition in the workplace is the reality at any high performing organization, be it Amazon, McKinsey, BCG, Bain or Google. So if you want to work at a leading organization its impossible to avoid having to compete with your collegues. I recently had a few discussions with Michael about a high-performing associate at the firm who was overshadowing me. Michael invited me to contribute this article based on my experiences and the actions I took to differentiate myself and change my profile. While it took a few months for the results to show, I was eventually able to build a very strong profile for myself and receive numerous positive endorsements from partners and directors. I was recently staffed on a project that would last for a few months and, therefore, my performance on this engagement was very important for my standing in the firm. A guy on that project, lets call him Mike, was at the associate level and had a legendary reputation. Many felt that Mike was one level below the level he should have been at. In fact it was not clear why he was an associate since…

Consulting Storyboard for Strategy Engagements

Consulting Storyboard for Strategy Engagements In today’s complex and competitive environment, the difference between a strategy that moves forward and one that gathers dust often comes down to how it is communicated. A well-structured narrative, anchored by a clear storyboard, can transform a set of insights into a meaningful, actionable plan. In today's post (and associated video if you prefer to watch versus read), we will talk about the consulting technique that creates Pixar magic. We will explore why storyboarding is at the heart of effective consulting engagements. By understanding how to build and refine a compelling story, you can turn scattered data and analysis into a catalyst for meaningful change. An effectively designed consulting storyboard allows you to showcase your firm’s credibility, ability to think clearly and creatively, communication in a concise manner, and ability to develop insights others can't. And, of course, you can use consulting storyboards outside of consulting. In fact, it can be an even more powerful tool to use outside of consulting because it is so rarely used. Storyboard matters in consulting studies because useful insights mean very little unless they can be woven into a compelling story. Critical insights that are not presented as a…

HBR vs. News in the Battle to Improve Reasoning

Using Decision Tree Consulting to Build MECE Hypotheses