Transcript Introduction to Consultancy

Choosing Team Members
Random drawing of members
Sit with your team members for the
duration of the semester
Team building exercise
Select project manager
Team contract
Skills and Talents Worksheet
 With regard to your potential consulting
career:
1. List things you can do
2. List things you would be rather doing
 Some items will appear on both lists
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Where your true interests lie
True passion areas determine how successful
you are
Introduction to Business
Information Systems Consulting
What is Consulting?
 The U.S. spends $2.3 trillion on projects every
year, an amount equal to one-quarter of the
nation’s gross domestic product.
 The world as a whole spends nearly $10 trillion
of its $40.7 trillion gross product on projects of
all kinds.
 More than sixteen million people regard project
management as their profession.
More Consulting Info
 Famous business authors and consultants are
stressing the importance of project management.
As Tom Peters writes in his book, Reinventing
Work: the Project 50, “To win today you must
master the art of the project!”
Categories of Consultants
Three categories of consultants:
– Large firms consultants
– Internal consultants
– Independent consultants
• Solo (proprietorship)
• As a group (partnership)
What is Consulting?
What is a consultant?
– An advisor who is in a position to have some
influence over an individual, a group, or an
organization, but who has no direct power to
make changes or implement programs.
What is Consulting?
The term “consultant” has become much
maligned and in disrepute.
Scenario 1:
Client: What time is it?
What is Consulting?
Scenario 1:
Client: What time is it?
Consultant: What time do you want it to be?
What is Consulting?
Scenario 2:
Client: What time is it?
What is Consulting?
Scenario 2:
Client: What time is it?
Consultant: Give me your watch and I will
tell you.
What is Consulting?
Scenario 3:
Those who can…do.
What is Consulting?
Scenario 3:
Those who can…do.
Those who can’t…consult.
Areas of Consulting
1. General Management
 Planning, strategy, corporate policy
2. Manufacturing
 Production control, facilities management,
materials management
3. Personnel
 Training, recruitment, employee benefits
Areas of Consulting
4. Marketing
 New product introduction, pricing,
promotion, sales forecasting
5. Finance and Accounting
 Cost accounting, tax advice, investment
6. Procurement and Purchasing
 Commodity classification, inventory
management, stores operation
Areas of Consulting
7. Research and Development
 Project determination & evaluation, cost
control
8. Packaging
 Packaging machinery, design, testing
9. Administration
 Office management, office planning design
& space utilization, EDP
Areas of Consulting
10. International Operations
 Import, export, licensing, tariffs, joint ventures
11. Specialized Services
 Catches all the many other areas
 Executive recruitment
 Test prepping, essay editing, and application
consulting
 IT/Computer consulting
 E-Business consulting
Types of IT Consulting
1. Contract Programmer
 Codes, tests, debugs for an hourly rate
2. System Integrator
 Selects and configures hardware and
software
3. Custom Developer
 Develops custom software for clients
Types of IT Consulting
4. Expert Consultant
 Advices top decision makers on policy or
technical direction via lectures and seminars
5. Technical Management Consultant
 Project management; provides SDLC
6. Consulting Firms Employee
 Employee of the Big Four accounting firms
and corporations
Why Does Company Want a
Consultant?
Fill in the blank space
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?
1. The need for personnel
 Put out a great amount of work over a short
period of time
 Unique expertise on short-term or project
basis
2. The need for fresh ideas
 Employees too close to problem to
understand all ramifications
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?
3. Company politics
 For various political reasons those who
understand the problem are not allowed to
present it
 Consultant assumed to be more impartial and
less likely to be influenced by company
politics
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?
4. The need for improved sales
 No business can exist without sales
 To increase sales in a short time frame
5. The need for capital
 Every company needs money
 Help find sources of capital
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?
6. Government Regulations
 If not obeyed can result in penalty
7. The need for maximum efficiency
 Inefficiency leads to high costs, making
prices noncompetitive
8. The need to diagnose problems and find
solutions
 You should become very adept at this
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?
9. The need to train employees
 Business operations are becoming more and
more complex
10. The need for a complete turnaround
 Consultant troubleshoots to pull off a
complete turnaround
11. Computers and data processing
How Do Clients Analyze
Consultants for Hiring?
Fill in the blank space
How Potential Clients Analyze
Consultants for Hire
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Can you add something to company’s total
output?
Will your expertise bring company any closer
to its goals?
Can you make company work more
effectively?
Will you save company time and money?
Within budget, can you do a comprehensive
and effective job?
Assessing Your Skills and Talents
Aware of both strengths and weaknesses
– Type of consulting field to break into
Take time to assess skills and talents
In-class Consulting Skills Assessment
Exercise – Do It Now … take out a sheet
of paper and make 2 columns – list your
strengths and weaknesses
What Skills Do You Need To Be
An Outstanding Consultant?
Fill in the blank space
What Makes an Outstanding
Consultant?
1. Bedside manner
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Ability to get along with client
Not so much what you say but how you say
2. Ability to diagnose problems
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One of most significant criteria
3. Ability to find solutions
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After diagnosis, suggest right course of
action
What Makes an Outstanding
Consultant?
4. Technical expertise and knowledge
 Technical expertise in a field is important
 Expertise comes from education, experience,
personal skills
5. Communication skills
 Superior communication (written/oral)
What Makes an Outstanding
Consultant?
6. Marketing and selling abilities
 A good marketer and a good salesperson
 Sell an intangible product
7. Management skills
 Ability to manage a business
 Ability to run projects
What Makes an Outstanding
Consultant?
 Two groups of skills
 BIG Three and BIG Four
 BIG Three
1.
Communications 2. Technical command of a
subject 3. Ability to get along
 BIG Four
1. Analytical skills 2. Sensitivity to others
3. Tolerance for lifestyle 4. Strong personal drive
Minimum Six-Figure Consultant
1. Eat, drink, and breathe customer service
2. Keep up with latest changes in your field
of expertise
3. Develop ability to identify problems
quickly
4. Look for creative ways to solve problems
5. Use excellent communications skills
Minimum Six-Figure Consultant
6. Be 100% confident that you will succeed
7. Be professional in everything you do
8. Be a people person
9. Be the best manager you can be
10. Give clients more than they expect
Skills and Talents Worksheet
Outstanding job skills possessed
Specialized education and training
possessed
Special licenses possessed
What most do you like about present job
What you have been told that you do
extremely well
Marketing Yourself
Naming Your Business
What is in a name?
– Plenty, esp. if you want your business to be
successful
– Choose names carefully
– Portray an aura of professionalism
– Stay away from cutesy names
– Must contribute effectively to your marketing
approach
Naming Your Business
1. Should name of practice contain your
name?
Advantage:
•
Clients like personal touch
2. Should name of practice precisely and
and immediately communicate the
services that you provide?
Naming Your Business
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Examples:
•
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Telephone Marketing Consultants
Preciseness locks you into predetermined
market and service
Hindrance to expand your services later
3. Should the company name cause others
to view your practice as being a publicinterest, non-profit organizations?
Naming Your Business
 Examples:
o
o
o
o
The Center for _____________
The ___________ Resources Center
The Institute for the Study of ___________
The Alliance to ______________
Advantage:
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Prestige, lends credibility
Field important enough to warrant founding of an
institute or center
Naming Your Business
Using fictitious names other than your
business names?
– Advantages:
• On retirement or withdrawal from business, you
can sell your assumed name but keep your
corporation
• Helpful for trial efforts. If they flop, no harm done
Developing a Brochure
As part of marketing plan
Entire career depends on it
Describes what you have accomplished
and what you can do for client
Concentrate on your past successes
Developing a Brochure
Five issues to be addressed:
1. Should clearly convey your services
2. Should tell customers why you are best
3. Should give a few reasons why you
should be hired
4. Should include brief bio information
5. Should include info about your other
clients
Brochure for Your Consulting
Firm
 Develop a brochure to market yourselves
to your client