Just finished reading this book “What is Consulting”
written by Kouichi Hori, previous president of BCG Japan, and currently the chairman
of Dream Incubator (DI). He has been working as a strategy consultant since his
graduation from the Harvard University MBA program 30 years ago. Some notes on this
book:
Essence of consulting – thinking what is the problem?
Why need consulting –
1) Company may not really understand the customer need
2) Company tends to be bonded by previous success
(experience)
3) Consultant pursues thoroughly the cause and
causation
4) Consultant owns the skill and experience for
strategy planning
Consulting process –
1)
Interview : find the gap in
understanding/needs/feeling
2)
Accumulate facts
3)
Graphing : determine the x and y axis
4)
Present
5)
Implement (by Company)
Pre-requisite to be become a consultant
1)
Intelligence : logical thinking
2)
Flexibility : willing to hear what others say
3)
Diligence : curiosity + inquiring mind + hard
work
4)
Toughness : able to work in pressure, able to
stand up after fall down
5)
Luck : gambler luck?
MBA graduates promoted averagely after 3 and 7 years. But
the “UP or OUT” is common within the consulting field where half will out
within 3 years and half of the remaining will out within 7 years. But most OUT will
still success in other fields because the logical thinking and look big perspective
learnt in the consulting will help in any other fields.
Consulting fee – Manhour rate x Manhour x Multiplier
Multiplier > 3.0 accounted for overhead and
benefits of the consulting company.
What is interesting about consulting – a consultant alone
can bring a significant change to the company
