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Strategy consulting isnt just about analyzing data and advising clientsits also about communicating complex ideas in a clear, persuasive, and compelling manner. Start With a Clear Objective The first step is to define the purpose of your presentation. In strategy consulting, clarity of purpose is paramount.
In 2025, the world of strategy consulting continues to evolve rapidly. From traditional powerhouses such as McKinsey, Bain, and Boston Consulting Group (collectively known as MBB) to other generalist and specialized firms, the industry presents a diverse landscape for aspiring consultants and seasoned professionals alike.
If youre ready to go deeper, consider enrolling in Think Like a Strategy Consultant. I created Think Like a Strategy Consultant as an online course to make the tools of strategy consultants accessible to driven professionals, executives, and consultants. Click here to learn more or if you are interested in getting started now.
The project leader might role-play the client, and other team members present their findings or recommendations. This isn’t just about rehearsing a presentation; it’s about surfacing potential challenges and testing your assumptions. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
Alternative Approach: Consider combining social media and affiliate marketing into a single category if the strategies and metrics used overlap significantly, then add a separate category for emerging digital channels such as mobile app advertising. The post Ten Business MECE Examples appeared first on StrategyU. Want more examples?
“Strategy” is a word that attracts a lot of excitement in the business world. People who work on strategy get paid more and senior executives like to use the word a lot to talk about their decisions. In consulting, I worked with many companies helping them to develop strategies.
Management consulting focuses on improving overall organizational performance; strategy consulting helps companies decide on the best course for growth and competitive advantage; technology consulting centers on digital transformation and IT strategy; and there are many niche areas such as human resources, marketing, and operations consulting.
A big mistake that people presenting information make is that they assume their audience has the same knowledge of the information as they do. We’ve all sat through these presentations. You decided to turn this into a clear visual for the audience you are presenting to. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
Here is an excerpt from Lords of Strategy about how BCG helped to repackage this thinking: BCG devised the curve in 1966. A client, General Instruments, was having trouble matching competitors’ prices in its television-components business. If they are, then there is a clear problem. Wishful Thinking? ” Damn.
Each mini-game within the ProblemSolve Game presents you with complex, real-world scenarios that consultants might encounter in their work. But it’s not just about reaching the correct solution—how you approach the problem, the strategy you use, and the decisions you make along the way are just as important.
Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving? I created Think Like a Strategy Consultant as an online course to make the tools of strategy consultants accessible to driven professionals, executives, and consultants. Ask yourself while working on things: “So what?” ” “So what?”
In a presentation to First Round Capital in 2015 she presented an intuitive framework: Source: Radical Candor Many people can quickly identify experiences where they have received feedback that falls in the yellow or green zone. For example, anytime I give a public presentation I always ask one audience member to give me feedback.
Ansoff’s matrix for growth strategy). use MECE not just for problem-solving, but also for structuring your communication. MECE presentations are always more clear and more persuasive. For example, let’s say you decide to shift your strategy from being a cost leader to a premium brand.
The mystique of strategy consulting has inspired films such as Office Space and Up In the Air and TV shows like House of Lies. While I generally agree with many of the criticisms of strategy consulting, I am more interested in demystifying what consultants do and how you can learn the same skills without having to work in the industry.
In my course, Think Like A Strategy Consultant, you have to complete an issue tree for a case example featuring Facebook’s transition from desktop to mobile and I’ll walk you through the process step-by-step which also providing you feedback if you want. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
To demonstrate this, I asked Bard , googles AI chat tool, the following question: “What are three ways someone might use a tool like Bard that would help them work like a strategy consultant?” This information can then be analyzed to identify trends, patterns, and insights that would be helpful to a strategy consultant.
Using this framework, the company’s CFO could present a clear picture of revenue trends to the board. Check out this video for a deeper dive into MECE and other strategy consulting skills. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving? Strategic planning: Helps identify areas for growth or improvement.
They might say yes initially but then I ask if they’ve read strategy reports, investor documents, done store visits (if appropriate), and done interviews to understand their clients better. We tend to glorify words like “Strategy,” but strategy isn’t that complex. If so, how much? They never thought of it.
I will cover each of the four sections of her book: Logic In Writing Logic In Thinking (coming soon) Logic in Problem-Solving (coming soon) Logic In Presentation (coming soon). Minto’s first job in the business world was working for Cyrus Eaton, who founded the Pugwash Conferences of nuclear scientists.
When I give feedback to people on writing and presentations, I often just ask them, “What are you really trying to say?” Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving? Say, “Given the recent challenges on our major product lines, this analysis will show the two major pressures that have put pressure on profitability.”
He detailed how he had decided in high school, after getting into Stanford, that he would work in strategy consulting. At the highest level, most cases are similar: The interviewer presents background on a “client’s” businessproblem or scenario (e.g., Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
I started StrategyU with the intention of teaching knowledge workers the tools, frameworks, mindsets, and approaches that I learned in strategy consulting. When I started this, I thought that my audience would be people in big companies stuck inside strategy, finance, or analytics groups that didn’t have access to training.
She gives credit to her time in consulting for being able to become a CEO: “I don’t think I could have gotten here without a strategy consultant background because it taught me inductive thinking. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving? Both versions include lifetime access and all future updates.
Related Essays And if you’d like to explore this thinking further, here are some resources you can spend time with: Critical Thinking Is Still Valuable How I’d use AI tools if I were still a consultant Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving? Both versions include lifetime access and all future updates.
In 1976 the founder of Boston Consulting Group, Bruce Henderson published a strategy memo with a bold claim : “ a stable competitive market never has more than three significant competitors, the largest of which has no more than four times the market share of the smallest.”. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
This is why consulting can feel more like therapy than businessproblem-solving. This is the value of a consultant, the ability to continue to search for the problem behind the problem. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving? In consulting, things are always changing.
The Analyst and Associate Levels: Early-Career In Strategy Consulting. Strategy Consulting Firms Hire Entry-Level Consultants, But Typically Less Than Grad School Hires. One weird thing about the strategy consulting industry is that many people join the industry with an intention to leave.
But what is problem-solving? From a psychological perspective, it’s a cognitive process in which a person uses mental strategies to achieve a goal or find an answer to a challenging situation. Remember, effective problem-solving isn’t about having all the answers – it’s about asking the right questions.
In 2012, I was first exposed to the world of freelance strategy consultants while working for a-connect. I wanted something that signaled a firm and also allowed me some flexibility in the type of work I did (I landed on Vivo Strategies). At the time, I had a hunch that this was a path I wanted to explore.
One of the most important ideas in consulting problemsolving is MECE. If you’ve been around current or former strategy consultants, you probably heard someone say this. By grouping ideas, simplifying them, and ensuring that you are fully presenting them (through MECE) they will be much more memorable.
A common strategy is to start with a brand and then shift to working under your name later. In my case, I started freelancing under the name “Vivo Strategies.” At this point, I still use the Vivo Strategies for legal documents but rarely use it with anything else. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
The history of strategy consulting starts with Frederick Taylor and the Scientific Management movement but took many twists and turns as it evolved into its current state, an industry looking inward and pondering where it fits in the new technology-powered business world. one that would focus on businessstrategy.
In my several years in strategy consulting, I learned about the many ways data, information and charts could be used to fit with an existing storyline. What is the intent of this presentation of information? Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving? Is this the best way to show the data?
If you’d like to go to the previous section you can find the following links to each: Logic In Writing Logic In Thinking Logic in Problem-Solving Logic In Presentation. For example, let’s say you are assessing a business. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
Consultants get criticized for creating “obvious” presentations. Yet in the best case, the presentation is only obvious in the sense that it is the result of a slow, deliberative process to develop clear ideas and takeaways for a specific audience. Do you have a toolkit for businessproblemsolving?
The most valuable professionals and leaders aren’t just smart – they consistently demonstrate an ability to solve complex problems. Analytical mindsets allow problem solvers to navigate through complexity and arrive at data-driven solutions as efficiently as possible. We can’t really shape things without imagination.
The most famous kinds of consulting The three biggest areas of consulting are strategy and operations, technology, and financial and transaction advisory. Here’s some examples of the “big three” industries: #1 Strategy and Operations Consulting At the top of the consulting world are firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG.
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