Effective Meetings for Management Consultants & Analysts

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Effective Meetings for
Management
Consultants & Analysts
Practical guide how to be effective during
consulting projects

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During consulting projects you will be doing plenty of interviews and
meetings. You may find it at the beginning stressful and challenging

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In business you have to make a lot of important decisions
Luckily, there are a lot of interesting techniques that will help you
conduct efficiently interviews and meetings during consulting projects.

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In this presentation I will show you how to not only conduct such meetings efficiently but
also how to prepare grounds for successful presentation of your work to the customer.

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You will also learn how to conduct implementation meetings with the
customer’s team as well as internal meetings with you consulting team.

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This presentation will help you conduct
efficiently meetings and interviews on the level
of top management consultants

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How the presentation is
organized

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During consulting projects you will have plenty of meetings. Since you do want to
get some sleep during the project, I will show you how to do meetings efficiently

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Interviews –
Preparation Phase
Interviews –
Execution Phase
Regular meetings
with stakeholders
Presentation delivery
Implementation
meetings
Internal meetings

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What you will see in this presentation is a part of my online course where you
can find case studies showing analyses along with detailed calculations in Excel
Effective Meetings for Management
$99
$19
Click here to check my course

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Preparation for interviews –
Introduction

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During consulting projects you will be doing plenty of meetings with different
stakeholders. You have to prepare beforehand to make the most of the meeting

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There are certain things you want to achieve during a meeting
Learn what the role of the person is
in the organization
Understand more about the market
and customers
Understand who do they compete
with
Identify main challenges in the
business
Learn the interviewee’s opinion /
point of view
Identify main drivers and KPIs for
the business
Learn the organizational structure of
the firm
Get his / her contact details and get
data from him / her

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In this section we will discuss what you should do to prepare for the
interview. Below the tools we will discuss in this section
Issue Tree
The value of rough
estimations
Bottom-up approach
Top-down approach Backward Reasoning
How to look for KPIs and
benchmarks?
How to do overall
research on the firm?
Identify which things
matter
Create Value Creation
Plan

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Area of analysis
Area 1
Problem 1
Problem 2
Possible Reason 1
Possible Reason 2
Possible Reason 3
Possible Reason 4
Possible reasonsSuspected problems
Analysis to be
performed
Analysis 1
Analysis 2
Analysis 3
Analysis 4
Let’s have a look at a definition of an issue tree

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In the next lectures we will have a look at examples of issue trees
Issue tree for FMCG firmIssue tree Retail firmIssue tree for logistics

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Issue tree in Logistics –
examples

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Area of analysis
Area 1
Problem 1
Problem 2
Possible Reason 1
Possible Reason 2
Possible Reason 3
Possible Reason 4
Analysis to be
performed
Analysis 1
Analysis 2
Analysis 3
Analysis 4
Let’s have a look at a definition of an issue tree

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Area of analysis
Transport
High costs of transport per ton of
goods
Big level of waste and breakage in
transport
Analysis to be
performed
Analysis of correlation between type
of packaging and percentage of
damaged
Analysis of time spent on the way and
kilometers covered in that time
Analysis of designed routes, their
length and the influence of possible
changes
Analysis of fuel usage and kilometers
covered by vehicles
Analysis of load carried on the way
back
Badly designed routes
Too big fuel usage
No shipments on the way back
Low usage of resources
Badly designed method of packaging
which makes the product prone to
damage
Speed not adjusted to the product
Badly organized work and schedule of
deliveries
Limitation on delivery time of finished
goods
Analysis of level of overtime, daily
organization of drivers work
Analysis of Clients’ preferences on
delivery time
Issue tree – example – chicken meat producer

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Issue tree in Retail
– Examples

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When you are talking about retail you should have a look a the
following areas
Retail chain development
Product Range / Category Range
Management
Pricing
Logistic / Supply Chain
Expansion model
In-store process
HR especially trainings

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Below you can see example of issue tree in Retail Chain Development
Area of analysis
Retail chain
development
Low growth in sales
Decreasing EBITDA of new stores
Analysis to be
performed
Analysis of rents vs comparable
competition
Salaries growth vs rotation – comparison
with competition
Analyze the change in sales after opening
new stores / on-line introduction
Analysis of number of openings vs
availability of new places
Low LFL due to cannibalization (on-
line, new stores in old locations)
Few new openings in locations
Increasing rents due not proper usage
of purchasing power
Growing salaries to keep low rotation
High cost of building new stores
No support from the shopping malls
Not optimized formats, expensive
fixtures
Analysis of contracts with shopping malls
Analysis of cost per 1 sq. m, number of
fixtures, cost per fixtures

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Area of analysis
Product Range
Management
Low margin on Category A
Low margin on Category B
Analysis to be
performed
Analysis of whom we buy from Category B
and the whole value chain
Analysis of planning and allocation process
Analyze of number of suppliers and their
share in sales vs market
Analysis of Private Labels potential –
benchmarks and potential supplier
Too many supplier of Category A that
undermines your purchasing power
Lack of Private Labels
Usage of middlemen instead of direct
suppliers
Improper planning and allocation by
stores
High inventory cost
Improper planning and allocation by
stores
Non-responsive supply chain
Analysis of planning and allocation process
Analysis of lead times, deliverability on-
time, level of breakage
Below you an example of issue tree for Product Range Management

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Issue tree example for a
FMCG firm

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When you are talking about FMCG you should have a look a the
following areas
Marketing
Product Development
Managing Sales Force
Production
Supply Chain including Planning & Sourcing
Customer Data Analysis
Competition Analysis
Expansion Model

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Below you can see example of issue tree in FMCG – Sales Force
Management
Area of analysis
Sales Force
Management
High sales at the end of the month
Different market shares in regions
Possible reasonsSuspected problems Analysis to be performed
Analyze the motivation system
Analyze channels per region
Analyze the motivation system
Analyze sales forecasting, planning of
production and return rate
Bonus system with a high threshold
that incentives pushing the product
The firm is not producing what the
customer wants
We have set-up too low targets for
some regions
Some regions have different channels
High cost of sales force in relation
to sales
We have inefficient sales team
We have too many overlapping sales
representatives
Drive with sales force team members,
analyze processes, tools, efficiency
Analyze sales per sales representative and
compare with competition

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Below you can see example of issue tree in FMCG – Production
Area of analysis
Production
We have high production costs
related to labor
Inventory level are extremely high
Possible reasonsSuspected problems Analysis to be performed
Analyze production planning and
procurement, sales forecasting
Analyze how work is controlled on the
production floor
Analyze solution used by other firms,
especially automatization
Check the Overall Labor Efficiency (OLE)
and look for bottlenecks
A lot of people are required for some
of the processes
We use the people inefficiently
We are very bad at planning and there
is no sales forecasting
The machines / part of production are
not linked properly
We have high waste cost
We are using wrong technology or
machines
We are using wrong materials
Analyze waste by technology and
machines. Check planned vs actual
Analyze cost of production by different typ
of materials

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Check the video for more details
Click here to go to the video

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The value of rough estimations

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Rough estimation is extremely valuable
You get fast some point of
reference
You can use it to cross check
other results
You don’t need much data for
rough estimation
Everybody can understand it
Helps you prioritize you work
during the project
Speeds up the learning process

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 First you should
imagine the
typical users
 Then you should try to
guess his consumption
level
 By estimating the number of
typical users you and their
consumption level you get
the rough size of the market
…the one you will for sure use is bottom-up approach where you go
from single (typical) consumer to market research

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Segment A
Segment B
…sometimes it makes sense to divide markets in segments and estimate them
separately (i.e. women and man, different age groups)

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…let's do a simple example. Imagine that you want to make an application for
franchised restaurants
 You pick the sample
group / area you want to
estimate i.e. city (here
Warsaw)
 You count the number of
all restaurants in the area
 For the chosen area you
count the franchising
restaurants
 You check the population of
the whole country – here
Poland
 Assuming similar density as in Warsaw
you scale up the number of franchised
restaurants proportionally to the
population

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…to make you better at this method imagine you want to sell home made dog
food….. First you have to estimate how many dogs they are…..
 First you should pick your
sample – can be your friends
or neighbors
 Next step is to calculate how
many dogs they have
 Once you have the number also calculate how
many households they are in the sample
 It is now enough to know how many
households there are in the country
 And assuming similar proportion as in your
sample you scale up the number of dogs
+

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…with the number of dogs you just have to estimate the number of food eaten
per year by average dog…..and you get to the size of the food market
 We have the number of dogs in the whole
country. Now we have to get from here to the
dog food
 This requires us to estimate additionally how much food would
average dog eat per year
 In this way using annual average consumption per dog and the estimated number
of dogs we are able to estimate how much food is eaten every year in the country
+

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Lets sum up the bottom-up approach
 Bottom-up approach enables you to estimate within one minutes the
indicative size of the market
 It is very good for the B2C markets
 For better estimation you should segment customers and increase the
sample size

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When to use top-down approach?
 You know the size of the whole market
 You are interested in a specific segment of the market
 Segment is big enough
 You are thinking about niche strategy or low cost strategy (market re-
segmenting)

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For a change lets see how it would work with top-down approach
 You use the total market size
to get to the size of the
segment in which you are
interested
 You have to use some
sort of sample
measure
 By applying the result from
the sample you can get to
the size of the segment in
which you are interested

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… let’s use the top-down approach to estimate the market for science
fiction books sold in Poland….
 You use the total number of books sold in your
country
 Then you go to the bookstore that belongs to the biggest
chain of bookstore and check what percentage of the
shelves are take by science fiction books
 If you use this proportion to the whole market you should
get the rough estimation of the science fiction book
segment

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Imagine that you were supposed to say how much you have to
spend to create a company that has revenue of $ 100 M dollar
Imagine that you were supposed to say how much you have to
spend to create a company that has revenue of $ 100 M dollar

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You could use for that the so called backward reasoning
CC: Flickr; Cycle Track

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Imagine that you were supposed to say how much you have to spend to
create a company that has revenue of $ 100 M dollar
Total Costs
$ 400 M
Cost of 1 lead
$ 2 K
# of leads
200 K
÷
% Conversion
10%
x # of customers
20 K
Average revenue
per customer
$ 5 K
Revenues
$ 100 M
x

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There are 2 types of benchmarks
Internal External
 Based on previous execution
 Extremely comparable
 Very reliable
 Detailed – can be put for each and every activity
 Based on some external source (i.e. reports)
 Not that easily comparable
 They to be treated with caution
 Only for chosen amount of activities
 Can give you food for drastic improvements - by
analyzing them you can find totally different method of
working

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By comparing your results and benchmarks you can decide what to improve,
work on
Internal
 Salary
 Speed of typing
 Speed of analyzing
Excel
Area Unit
Current
result
 K USD
 words/ minute
 minute
 5
 40
 15
4
39
10
External
7
80
12
 Your salary went up in comparison
with your previous one, but you are
still below the market
 Your typing speed has improved
slightly yet you are far below the
speed achieved by others
 You not only improved your speed of
analyzing but also are better than
others
 Makes sense to teach others how to
do it
Conclusions

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To understand and analyze business you have to identify the drivers /
KPIs that a key for specific business and translate it into a model in Excel
# transactions
Average
revenue per
transaction
Total revenuex
% Fee of the
marketplace
Average
transaction value
Total searches % conversion
x
x
Total Costs
Total margin
-
Rent
People
Cost of traffic
Ratio of visitors
to searches
Average cost of 1
visit
+
x
Development

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Imagine that you have to estimate typical family spending's. You can
take into account countless number of factors…..

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…or you can limit yourself to the most important ones i.e. number of
kids, size of house, main repetitive spending like food.

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To measure the selected factors you have to use some sort of KPIs
Spending per 1
person per month
per category
# of people in
average family
Average size of the
house in sq. m
Average rent per
sq. m

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In the next lectures I will show you how to define and use KPIs and
business drivers
How to improve the results of
the Cinema

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Imagine that you were responsible for managing the cinema. What KPIs
metrics you would look at to see whether you are doing a good job?

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Let’s see what KPIs you should look at
# sold tickets
Average revenue
per Ticket
Total revenue Total Costs
x
Total margin
-
Average price per
ticket
Average additional
purchase per ticket
Total capacity in
tickets
% Utilization
Rent
People
# of People
Average wages
+
+
x
x

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How to look for KPIs and
benchmarks?

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Before meeting with specific director you want to know 2 things
KPIs, drivers, metrics that
matter
Benchmarks for those KPIs,
drivers & metrics

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There are a few places that you can find what you are looking for
Brainstorm for 15
minutes
Official reports esp. of
public firms
Press releases / blog
posts / etc. esp. done by
experts
Interviews with CEO /
COO / Directors
Analytical reports done
for valuation purpose
Market reports
KPIs reports publicly
available
Other analytical reports
covering firms or
industries

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Check our playlist on KPIs

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How to do overall research on the
firm

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I recommend to start Market Research roughly 4 weeks before the start
of the project
Task 0-4 -3 -2 -1 1 2
 Prepare Presentation Template
 Send data request to Target Company
and the Investor
 Gather independently data
 Fill in the templates
 Discuss the results
3 4 5 6 87

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You should start by defining the scope of the project and then use this
to define what data you need
Presentation template Data request for the firm Market ResearchIssue Tree

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Market size
estimation and
General Data
Analyzing
competition
General remarks
and rough
estimation
Independent data gathering consists of 5 streams we will discuss in 5
separate sections
Analyzing trends
Consumer /
Marketing research

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In this one I will concentrate on general remarks and rough estimation.
That you should do the very first week. Luckily it does not require much
data
Market size
estimation and
General Data
Analyzing
competition
General remarks
and rough
estimation
Analyzing trends
Consumer /
Marketing research

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To do general estimation you will be using 3 main methods
Bottom-up approach Top-down approach Backward Reasoning

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Let’s have a look at the things that you may use to do market size
estimation and General Data
Market size
estimation and
General Data
Analyzing
competition
General remarks
and rough
estimation
Analyzing trends
Consumer /
Marketing research

75
In this group you have the following tools
World Bank
Keyword Planner by
Google
Ubersuggest Public data by Google
Euromonitor
Markets for mobile
applications
Statista
Trendy Economy – public
data
Trading Economics
Store Checks and
financial reports from
competitors
Bottom up approach
using general data (i.e.
population)

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In this section we will discuss Analyzing Competition
Market size
estimation and
General Data
Analyzing
competition
General remarks
and rough
estimation
Analyzing trends
Consumer /
Marketing research

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There are number of tools that will help you analyze your competitors
Official data especially
from publicly quoted
firms
Financial Data
Information on the
strategy of competitors
Store checks
SlideShare and YouTube
Facebook Audience
Insight
SimilarWebMystery shopping

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Let’s see what you can use to analyze trends
Market size
estimation and
General Data
Analyzing
competition
General remarks
and rough
estimation
Analyzing trends
Consumer /
Marketing research

79
For analyzing trends we can use number of tools / sites
Google Trends
Consumer Barometer by
Google
Conversation with
experts
Statista
Market changes on more
developed markets
Publicly available
reports on drivers
Industry reports
World Bank
Public data by Google
Trendy Economy
Market structure on
more advanced markets

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In this section we will discuss Analyzing trends
Market size
estimation and
General Data
Analyzing
competition
General remarks
and rough
estimation
Analyzing trends
Consumer /
Marketing research

81
For consumer research you can use the following things
CAPI CATI
CASI
Bulletin Board (BB)Exit Surveys
Focus GroupsTGI
Assisted shopping
Blind Tests In-home visits
CAWI

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For more details and content check my online course where you can find case
studies showing analyses along with detailed calculations in Excel
$99
$19

84
Performing interviews –
Introduction

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In this section we will discuss how to perform interviews during a
consulting project
My framework for
interviews
5 Whys rule
What is an
organizational chart &
some examples
How to take notes
during an interview
Examples of notes from
an interview

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Performing interviews –
Create a framework

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You should create a framework for your interviews. It will help you to discover
the problems fast. Below you can find mine
Say who you are &
what is your role
Learn who he / she
is
Learn what and how
they do it
What KPIs they look
at and why at them?
Ask for rough
numbers' estimation
esp. on KPIs
Who is their
competition and
how do they differ
Ask for examples of
reports they use
Sketch with him /
her the
organizational chart
& number of FTE
What he / she thinks
can be improved?
What are the main
challenges?
Ask for contact
details from him /
her
Ask who they think
you should talk to in
the firm
Ask them to send
you data / reports

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In production you will know far less than the your customer’s team so you have
to use smart ways to get to the bottom of the things. 5 Why is one of such
methods
Why we are not selling more? We are not able to produce more
Why we are not able to produce
more?
Because we have reached our
production capacities
Why we have reached our
production capacities?
We do not have enough designers.
Why we do not have enough
designers?
We have used up the budget for
training?
Why we have used up the budget
for training?
Financial Director cut it last year in
order to save money

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Organizational Chart –
Introduction

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Partner
Executive
Director
Director
Project
Manager
BA Senior BA
Assistant BA
Project
Manager
BA BA BA
Director
Project
Manager
BA BA
Project
Manager
BA BA BA
Organizational structure shows you how the firm is organized. Below
example for a consulting firm

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It is crucial to look at the organizational structure to understand the
business for number of reasons
You can spot conflicts
You can spot inefficiencies
Easy to identify bottlenecks
Organizational structure
defines how you run business
You can see what to change to
achieve positive domino effect
You can see the big picture
You can map how the
information flows
One of the tools to set
priorities

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In the next lectures I will show you how examples of organizational
chart for 2 types of organizations
Cosmetics producer (FMCG) Consulting Firm (B2B Services)

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Organizational Chart – FMCG
Example

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Below you can see the organizational structure of cosmetics producer
Sales Director 1
CEO
Regional Directors
Brand A
5
Regional Directors
Brand B
5
Sales Force Brand A 30
Sales Force Brand B 30
Marketing Director 1
Brand Manager A 1
Brand Manager B 1
Marketing
Specialists A
10
Marketing
Specialists B
15
R&D Director 1
R&D Specialists 8
Operations 1
Finance & IT 15
HR 10
Investor Relations 3
Admin 5
Sales Planning 3
Customer Service 20

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Below you can see the organizational structure of cosmetics producer
Sales 1
CEO
Marketing 1 R&D 1 COO 1
Production Director 1 Logistics Director 1 Purchasing Director 1
Production
Employees
150
Maintenance
Employees
50
Production
Planning
7
Warehouse
Employees
60
Coordination
Center
8
Buyers 15
Purchasing
Planning
7

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Organizational Chart – example
of a consulting firm

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Partner
Director
Project
Manager
BA A
Project
Manager
A BA BA
Director
Project
Manager
BA BA
Project
Manager
A BA BA
Consulting companies operate using pretty flat structure…..
Market Research Department
Visual Department
Knowledge Base Department

99
Partner
Director
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Director
Project
Manager
Project
Manager
Some of them even the Business Analyst and Associate keep in a pool
without fixed assignment to specific director or PM
Market Research Department
Visual Department
Knowledge Base Department
Business Analyst and Associate Pool

100
Partner
Executive
Director
Director
Project
Manager
BA Senior BA
Assistant BA
Project
Manager
BA BA BA
Director
Project
Manager
BA BA
Project
Manager
BA BA BA
Obviously, bigger company tend to overcomplicate the structure

101
What is the role of business analyst?
Business
Analyst
Associate
Senior
Associate (PM)
Director Partner
Consulting companies
McKinsey
Business
Analyst
Senior Business
Analyst
Associate
Senior
Associate (PM)
Engagement
Manager
Associate
Principal
PrincipalDirector

102
How to take notes during an
interview

103
Below some rules that I follow while taking notes
Use a notebook / paper & pen not a
computer
Put in your notes all sort of numbers
the interviewee quotes
Use shortcuts & bullet points
Check the consistency and integrity
of data
Transfer notes to the computer
Take photos / shoot movies of what
you see
Draw relations and check them with
the interviewee
Draw relations and check them with
the interviewee

104
Examples of report you can get as a
result of the interview

105
Regular meetings with
stakeholders

106
Regular meetings
– Introduction

107
As a part of the consulting project you will carry out a lot of regular meetings with the
customer to show them and discuss your findings. Let’s have a look how to do such meetings.

108
There are 2 types of regular meeting you will have during consulting
projects
Interim meetings to
report the progress /
findings
Meetings with the
customer’s
representatives

109
In this section we will discuss what to do during regular meetings
General framework for
regular meetings
Interim meetings How to get a buy-in?
Meetings with the
customer’s
representatives
How to over-deliver

110
General framework for regular
meetings

111
Regular meetings with the customer a key to success. Below my general
framework for such meetings
Send the
presentation 2-3
days before the
meeting
Walk the customer’s
representative
through the
presentation
Write down all his
remark regarding
the presentation /
analysis
Explain what you
can during the
meeting
Send notes /
minutes from the
meeting the same
day
Send additional
explanation
requested by the
customer
Send modify version
of the presentation
with the
modifications

112
Rules for regular meetings

113
Remember also about some general rules that is good to follow during
regular meetings
Introduce the presentation template
early
Use the same template every time
1 message = 1 slide
Communicate everything 2x (in
person and repeated by email)
Do regular meetings with people on
different levels
1 slide = 1 Analysis in Excel

115
Let’s have a look how a 7-week project should look when it comes to
execution
 Project Start
Task 1
 Additional Data Gathering
 Analysis and slides preparation
 Presentation of intermediate works
2 3 4 5 6 7
 Transfer and teaching
 End of the project

116
There are number of reasons why you want to make frequent meetings
with the customer
Make sure that you are
creating value
Create relationship with
Manager / Director
Educate the customer about
your approach
Involve the customer and
make him co-responsible
Make the customer
participate in the project
Get the customer
accustomed to the end-
products
Get to know his negative
remarks on the product
Look for new projects

118
What is a buy-in?
Customer agrees with you
He is happy with the project
outcome
He will support the project
publicly
He will gladly pay for your
service
He considers the project value
for money
He will want to work with you
in the future

119
How to get the buy-in?
Make sure that you are
creating value
Meet with him often to create
a relationship
Educate him about your
approach and the products
Involve him and make him co-
responsible
Show him how he can benefit
from it
Overdeliver
Prepare him to sell it to the
whole organization

120
Meetings with the customer

121
Let’s have a look how a 7-week project should look when it comes to
execution
 Project Start
Task 1
 Additional Data Gathering
 Analysis and slides preparation
 Presentation of intermediate works
2 3 4 5 6 7
 Transfer and teaching
 End of the project

122
There are plenty of reasons why weekly updates with the customer as
well as informal meeting are so important
You get his feedback early and
often
You have an opportunity to
educate him
Understanding difficult things
takes time
You get exposure for you and
the team
Increase chances of future
projects
Helps you define how to
overdeliver
You become more of a 1 group
than opposite sides

124
By overdelivering we mean doing more than expected and faster
Define the expectations
Doing more
Doing Faster

125
$99
$19

127
Presentation delivery –
Introduction

128
Delivering the presentation is key to show the customers that you have created value and
that you were worth the money they have paid for you. We will discuss this in this section.

129
In this section we will discuss some issues that are extremely important
during the presentation delivery
How to win over the
audience?
How to be clear during
presentation
How to minimize the
risk of attacks?
How to deflect attacks?

130
How to win over the audience?

131
There are a number of ways to win the audience over
Show the money / value fast
Give credit to customer’s team
Send the presentation ahead of
the meeting
Create an Executive Summary
Talk the presentation over with
people before the meeting
Bring cookies to the meeting
Don’t do the meeting around
lunch
Don’t be stupidly stubborn
Prepare backups slides and
Excels

132
How to be clear during
presentation

133
You should try to be as clear as possible during the presentation. Below
some tips on how to achieve it
Imagine that you are talking
to a 5-year old kid
Don’t use consulting bullshit
jargon
Use terms / definition used
by the customer
Make simple slides
Use trackers to show where
you are
Discern between useful and
interesting
Crack a joke from time to
time
Don’t overburden them with
messages
Follow 1 message = 1 slide
rule

134
How to minimize the risk of
attacks?

135
You don’t want to have people attacking you during your presentation. Below
some tips on how to minimize the risk of this happening to you
Talk the presentation over
before the meeting
Use the critical chain method
to the project delivery
Have often regular meetings
with the customer
Make yourself likable
Have your team present during
the presentation
Make the Customer’s director
deliver some slides
Stress that what you show is
not yet the final version
Reframe attacks as feedback
Remain calm no matter what
Send them a lot of detailed
materials

137
At any given presentation you may expect some hostility. Below some
tips on how to deflect attacks if they happen
Identify what you disagree on
Don’t be stupidly stubborn
Admit if you are wrong
Use backup slides and Excels to
clarify issues
Go back to them with a data-driven
detailed answer to the questions
Have your team present during the
presentation
Don’t get stuck on some parts
Take some hostile attacks to the
extreme to show that they are not
valid ones
If there are doubts write down the
question and promise to go back to
them

138
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140
Implementation meetings –
Introduction

141
During certain projects you will be also doing a lot of implementation meetings during
which you will be working along with the customer’s team to deliver certain projects

142
Implementation meeting will differ greatly from the typical consulting meetings.
During implementation you want to transform recommendations into tangible
results

143
Therefore, also implementation meeting differ drastically
They are usually more informal
You meet with people from lower
level in the chain of command /
hierarchy
The aim is not to produce slides but
achieve a specific goal
The team will consist mainly of
people on customer side
Quite often you have to provide the
analytical support
Implementation meetings tend to be
shorter
They have to be done regularly – at
least 1 a week – same day and hour
You will have to support the team
with describing and presenting
results
You have to do the project
management

144
In this section we will discuss the implementation meetings. As a part
of it we will go a bit deeper in the following topics
Kick-off meetings
General framework for
implementation
meetings
How to create a to-do
list
Example of to-do list for
implementation project

146
Kick-off meeting is the first implementation meetings. Below what you
have to do before the meeting and during it
Agree how you will manage the
project with the sponsor
Agree on resources with the
sponsor of the project
Set the general goal and
deadline for the project
Select the team and agree with
their superiors
Agree with the team how you
will work
Set regular hour and day of the
meeting
Explain to them the to-do list
and the tool for this
Create the to-do list
Organize the kick-off meeting Send the to-do list
Done before
Done during

147
General rules for
implementation meetings

148
For the regular implementation meetings I recommend the following
framework
Show the to-do list
on the screen
Go through each
point and ask for an
update from the
team
Update the to-do list
during the meeting
Add new points to
the to-do list if
needed
Make a decision if
needed
Make sure that all
to-dos are assigned,
have deadline and
status update
Send the updated
to-do list after the
meeting

150
To do list will help you to arrange you work into smaller actionable
pieces

151
There are few rules that will help you write down the to-do list and
make the best out of them
Put everything on a list
Use multiple lists
Specific actionable things
Divided jobs into small tasks
Set pace
Use calendar as one of the lists
Go through lists regularly
Use tools to track tasks
execution
Put project as to-do list

152
You can use different type of list of to-dos
Next Actions
Lists by status – by Getting Things Done
Projects Waiting for Someday Maybe
Home
Lists by place – by Getting Things Done
Work On-line Calendar Phone
To be done
Lists by status
Currently
Doing
Done
Topic Research
Lists by production stages – example of Udemy course
Presentation Script Recording Post-production Upload

153
I use 4 types of lists
To be done
Managing me
Expecting from
others
Recurring items
Managing
personal team
Master list
Monika
Lidia
Michael
Lisa
Project done for
customers
Project A
Project B
Project C
Project D
Supervising
startups
Startup A
Startup B
Startup C
Startup D

154

156
Internal meetings
– Introduction

157
If you want to deliver the project on time and deliver value for the customer at the same
time you have to have internal meetings during which you check the status

158
In this section we will discuss internal meetings that you organized
within your consulting team
General rules for
internal meetings
KPIs that will help you
manage the project
Kanban for managing a
project
Production process of
the presentation
Tools that your team
may need

159
General rules for internal
meetings

160
Below some general rules for internal meetings
Only your consulting team is
present. No bullshit meeting
Some are group meetings whereas
some are 1-to-1
Should be done by the project
manager or his deputy
The goal is to check where we are
with the current project
1-to-1 tend to be longer
Do the group meeting at least 1 a
day
Use the presentation template or
the Kanban to check how are you
doing
Check the KPIs
The group meeting is relatively short
Check the Excels & data integrity
during 1-to-1

161
KPIs that will help you manage
the project

162
It’s good to define some KPIs that will help you track progress. Below my
proposals
 # of slides / analyses produced so far
 # of days so far
=
# of slides / analyses produced per
day
# of slides / analyses still not
produced
Time needed to finish outstanding
slides / analyses
 Total number of slides /
analyses to be produced
=  Total number of slides /
analyses already produced
-
 # of slides / analyses still not produced
 # of slides / analyses produced per day
=

163
It’s good to define some KPIs that will help you track progress. Below my
proposals
% of Finished Work
% of work that is in progress
Completion ratio
 Total number of slides / analyses already produced
 Total number of slides / analyses to be produced
=
 Total number of slides that are currently being produced
 Total number of slides / analyses to be produced
=
 % of Finished Work
 % of Time that elapsed
=

164
Kanban for managing a project

165
There are 2 main ways to control the progress of the project. You can use for this
purpose the presentation template or a Kanban showing the status of all activities /
analysis that are supposed to be delivered as a part of the project
Presentation template in power point Project kanban

166
Below an example of Kanban used to manage the progress of the project
To be done Work in progress
Help / Data
needed
Done
Task 1
Task 2
Task 10
Task 20
Task 22
Task 5
Task 7
Task 9
Task 15
Task 17
Task 23
Task 8
Task 21
Task 18
Task 19
Task 25
Task 41
Task 11
Task 3
Task 4
Task 6
Task 12
Task 33
Task 34
Task 35

167
If there are more areas, you can make them visible by using colors. Every color
is a different area
Help / Data
needed
Done
Task 1
Task 2
Task 10
Task 20
Task 22
Task 5
Task 7
Task 9
Task 15
Task 17
Task 23
Task 8
Task 21
Task 18
Task 19
Task 25
Task 41
Task 11
Task 3
Task 4
Task 6
Task 12
Task 33
Task 34
Task 35

168
Or dividing the Kanban into separate sub-kanbans. Every sub-Kanban is
devoted to specific area
Help / Data
needed
Done
Task 1
Task 2
Task 10
Task 20
Task 22
Task 5
Task 7
Task 9
Task 15
Task 17
Task 23
Task 8
Task 21
Task 18
Task 19
Task 25
Task 41
Task 11
Task 3
Task 4
Task 6
Task 12
Task 33
Task 34
Task 35
Sales
Operations
HR

169
We can also combine both ways to make it clear what is happening in each and
every stream
Help / Data
needed
Done
Task 1
Task 2
Task 10
Task 20
Task 22
Task 5
Task 7
Task 9
Task 15
Task 17
Task 23
Task 8
Task 21
Task 18
Task 19
Task 25
Task 41
Task 11
Task 3
Task 4
Task 6
Task 12
Task 33
Task 34
Task 35
Sales
Operations
HR

170
Production process of the
presentation

171
As you may remember from previous lectures you want to transform the
data you have gathered into a presentation
Templates and data
Presentation in Power Point and
models in Excel

172
For this to happen you have to follow some rules
1 person is in charge of the
whole master presentation
Different people can have
assigned different parts
Every day you have to combine
parts into 1 master
Every slide has to have a Excel
to back it up
Don’t throw slides – shift them
to backup
Keep track of versions
Everybody does his own slides
At the end you can send the
presentation to graphics
department

173
In practice the person that keeps the master has to assigned specific
slides (sections) to specific person

174
If you are in charge of the master file you assign specific parts of the
presentation to specific consultants

175
At the end of every day they should send you updated version of their
part and you should put it in the master

176
Use the right tools and
master them

177
You have to find tools for the most often done activities
Define what you do
most often
Find tools
Master the tools you
are using
Constantly improve
and test new ones
 Analyze  Excel  Learn advanced formulas ,
formats and VBA, shortcuts
 Test Access, SPSS, R
for specific purposes
 Present  Power Point  Learn animation, using of
templates, shortcuts
 Test Prezio, Powtoon,
Explain everything for
this purpose
 Collect knowledge  Database on Google
Sheet with links
 Use advanced function and
templates, use zapier for
partial automation
 Test Get Pocket,
Evernote
 Manage projects and
teams
 Database on Google
Sheet
 Learn advanced features of
Google Sheet that will enable
you managing the project or
team
 Test Asana, Leankit,
Smartsheet, Trelllo,
Nobe
 Sell  Direct sales and
content marketing on
events
 Increases your network
(LinkedIn) and start
propagating content
marketing on different
platforms (Guest blogging,
reports distributed to
customers, Slideshare)
 Use Linkedin
Premium, Buffer,
start microblogging
on Twitter, Google+
 Get cloes.io for cold
calling and delegate it
partially to other
team members

178
The same goes for any department. Below an example of engineers
Define what you do
most often
Find tools
Master the tools you
are using
Constantly improve
and test new ones
 Prepare projects
for clients
 AutoCad  Create libraries
 Store previous projects
 Buy add-on Autocad
that changes the
drawing methods
 Time in hours
needed for 1
project
 16 hours  10 hours  2 hours

179
List of the most important tools for consultant
Analyze Present Sales & Marketing
Knowledge
Management
Market research Team management

180
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181
Badass
Consultants
Blog
Subscribe to our channels:

182
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Management Consultants
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Management Consulting Hacks
Practical Guide
presentation

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with Excel
Practical Guide
presentation

185
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Management Consultants
Practical Guide
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