Need a Deal on Consulting? Hire B-School Students

When Project Runway winner Chloe Dao’s national spotlight faded, she needed help, but couldn’t afford a consultant.

Bridge the Gap Between Strategy and Tactics

Core integrated planning is a five-step process. Here are the key Magic Matrices (a spreadsheet chart with key products or service lines on one dimension, and key market segments or accounts on the other, both arranged in descending order by total revenues), and some important planning issues they enable managers to address.

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Content: Article | Author: Jonathan Byrnes | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Consulting / Analytical Tools, Management

Creating Change Through Strategic Storytelling

The use of strategic storytelling as an agent for change in business organizations is quite new . But its impact is increasingly clear.

Storytelling’s success in helping effect change comes from its ability to open lines of communication and enhance understanding of systemic integration, while actively involving the personal dimension, which is a crucial element in motivating people. Storytelling can be a powerful clarifier: of … [ Read more ]

Leaders for the Long Haul

Article discusses “appreciative inquiry,” a management tool developed by David Cooperrider, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University. Highlighted is its application at Roadway Express.

The Performance Management System: Turning Strategies into Results

“Even the best strategies do not implement themselves” is the pithy opening sentence of this article. The authors suggest that many management systems come up short because they focus too narrowly on measurements and results. Measurement is not management, as they put it. Instead, they argue in favor of the Booz-Allen system, Performance Management, that continuously analyzes decision-making and draws on intra-company relationships rather than … [ Read more ]

New Tools for Negotiators

Business negotiations are filled with dangers and risks. Who are the deal maker’s allies? Who are the enemies? What is the chance that a particular outcome will stick? This article describes readily understood tools to help decision makers in complex multiparty negotiations. Don’t approach the bargaining table without it.

Management consultants: what do they do?

Very little observational data are available on what management consultants actually do on an hour-to-hour basis. The purpose of the present research study is to gain insight into the work of management consultants by answering the following questions: (1) What are the characteristics of the management consultants’ working days? (2) What are the characteristics of the management consultants’ verbal interaction patterns during scheduled interactions? … [ Read more ]

Two tips for translating codes into meaningful terms in Excel

Straightforward explanation of how to use the CHOOSE and VLOOKUP functions in Excel to convert codes (numeric or text) into meaningful descriptions.

How Big 5 consulting firms use Intranets and what they can teach us

Article tracks some of the features and lessons learned from Intranet strategies to manage employee and expert knowledge at Booz-Allen, Arthur Andersen, E&Y and KPMG.

Ethics In The Advisory Industry

Consulting firms would do well to enact business ethics policies that are adhered to and managed