Michael Boricki

To quit your job either as a management consultant or an industry specialist and be a successful independent consultant, you need a set of tools. The right tools can help you in so many ways, while the wrong tools or tools poorly used can make the difference between a successful consulting career and failure. Effective use of technology and tools can save you lots of money and improve your ability to serve clients.

This evening we had dinner with the founders of a boutique firm of management consultants. As former colleagues we were interested to know how they were doing. Invariably the question of growth came up and the question above was posed. It is an intriguing and very common question. If you are starting a new firm by yourself this question would also come up, or like my former colleagues, if you are growing and need to break into new areas this also comes up.

Score-boarding is the phase of the benefits calculation in a project that takes place when a recommendation, proposal or a "To Be" process is developed. The "score boarded" benefit related to the recommendation identified by the team and documented through a business case which: 1. Summarises the business issue and the recommended proposal for change, 2. Outlines how success will be measured, 3. Establishes baselines and targets, and 4. Is fully approved by the most senior client responsible

A War Room is set-up for both project and client usage. The contents of the War Room will, at minimum, include the Project Master Schedule and Deliverables, Project Stream Schedules and Deliverables, Project Benefits Reports (financial and non-financial), and Project Master Calendar (current and following month).

You would have heard the term benefits case and business case used loosely. It can be confusing. A benefit is generated from a business case.

The market is tough and you have plenty of competition. You need to be very aggressive about meeting new clients. Here are some of the ideas we have to help you.

The purpose of this quick reminder is to try and capture all of the things experience has taught us need to be in place to ensure the project goes as smoothly as it can. The start-up is the foundation of the project.

A great management consultant firstly needs an outstanding appreciation and adherence to ethics and a strong value system. Management consulting is ultimately about trust, respect and placing your client's needs first. The way consultants conduct themselves is sometimes referred to as the consulting guard. This refers to the overall image a consultant projects into the market. This article is about ethics, values and the overall package that is "the consulting guard".

It is ultimately difficult to be a top-notch consultant unless you can build a case for your recommendations. That is, a business case. While we in no way expect every management consultant to have stellar business case and finance skills, we think that it is important you understand how to present numbers in a coherent and stimulating way.

Focus interviews are a powerful method of extracting information from a client, building support for your work, determining other issues you made not have considered and creating your earliest data points for the consulting engagement. They force you to see above the financial analyses to test your thinking at the organisational level. This is a crucial test of your thinking.