Chen Cao

If there is any point that can be further optimised, in my own humble opinion, conclusions can be confidently justified from data analysis from more primary sources. The reliability is usually questioned where external consultancy reports are frequently referred.

Responding to the article published previously: Posted on February 4, 2018 Unspoken truths of top-tier consulting: things every consultant knows, but no one says Here raises an interesting question that: do psychopaths make good managers? In the high finance dominant such as hedge fund, Vault recently posts a relevant study to state the NO answer , which synthesizes a research from academic professors that psychopathic traits (lack of empathy, lack of a conscience, enjoying the pain of others) and investing prowess have a negative correlation. What about in the consulting sector? What are the traits that could be concluded in the mental health issues? Do they vary across top-tier consulting firms? and how do they affect the client satisfaction experience over a project period? It is understood and very true that it is not to the general interest to openly discuss about personal struggling, but there is now a global campaign by WHO recently to advocate the awareness on being of such disease in the workforce.

Hello, just a few quick pieces to supplement Tom's article: 1) companies would prepare RFPs (i.e., request for proposal) to detail their services requirements in need 2) companies would source and invite vendors with RFQs (i.e., request for quotation) to match the capabilities 3) companies would escalate part of their IT systems and further testify technological capabilities of selected vendors 4) companies would formulate a platform for bidding among the qualified vendors often succeed in the final stage 5) companies and vendors draft the service contracts and commit the terms and legal issues on payments and confidentiality 6) companies manage the relationship of the incumbent vendors and alternate vendors to ensure business-as-usual continuity and avoid disruption The stated above is a general life cycle of IT outsourcing management on the shoes of CIO and other departments. It is a collaborative effort.

Hello, the report and stats from IBIS World are very interesting. Particularly, I noticed its saying "the industry is still on a small scale compared with its counterparts worldwide". What are the counterparts of management consulting industry by its definition? Have a look at the service products mentioned on which the stats are calculated based on: enterprise management consulting public relations services education consulting psychological consulting other business consulting services The above arguable area lays on the vague boundary of the management consulting industry, that I am afraid, which leads to the dilution image of the total pie. IT consulting is not included, and so are the market investigation and stats modelling services. Management consulting is undoubtable faced with more fierce competition with turns seen in the profit and loss sheets against the backdrop that enterprises are going digital; IT consulting has advantages of scales, and its operating margin is supposed to lower, whereas management consulting firms have to endure the increasing headcount costs as the labor costs and knowledge capital costs both soar in China recently. Overall, the charging fees vary significantly among firms, and I would suggest to discuss case by case for more rigorous analysis.

This is a very good question. Dealing with the fierce competition in consulting firms is no difference to that of any other companies at the workforce. Competition boosts the outcomes and encourages achievements. The relationships are more complex due to the fact that consulting firms normally staff two hires with similar background in the one single position and adopt "up or out" policy to select the smarter, more fit and productive person for career progression. It is the same in the investment banking division at large banks. The easiest way is to quickly differentiate oneself for client base, skill sets and other domains of the job role. I would also like to recommend a good reading book by Mila N. Baker: "Peer to Peer Leadership". The topic not just applies among peer colleagues but many extends to alumni network of colleagues in law firms and consulting firms.

I read through all blog posts on Tom's, and it looks like there hasn't had any article covering turnaround domain. I hereby just list a few thoughts of mine, taken as humble contribution to the topic. Turnaround is a big business and there is no hard-and-fast definition of what constitutes a turnaround situation. According to Stuart Slatter, the author of Corporate Turnoarund, the terms refers to those firms or operating units whose financial performance indicates that the firm will fail in the foreseeable future unless short-term corrective action is taken. A broad definition of what constitutes a turnaround situation recognizes that firms often exhibit symptoms of failure long before any crisis begins. If no corrective management action is taken in a turnaround situation to adapt to the changing product-market environment, a crisis situation will eventually ensue, as it it is in RadioShack's case, and the corporation becomes insolvent, since external events can only postpone insolvency, not avert it. The company could ultimately end up in liquidation under Chapter 11. Four phrases to save RadioShack: 1. Take Control ■ Crisis stabilization · cash management · first-step cost reduction · short-term financing ■ Leadership · change of CEO (e.g., depending on whether there are lots of internal bureaucratic bottlenecks, etc) · change of other senior management 2. Rebuild Stakeholder Support ■ Stakeholder management · communications 3. Resolve Future Funding ■ Financial restructuring · refinancing · asset reduction 4. Fix the Business ■ Strategic focus · redefine core businesses · divestment and asset reduction · product-market refocusing · downsizing · outsourcing · investment ■ Organizational change · structure changes · building commitment and capabilities · new terms and conditions of employment ■ Critical process improvements · improved sales per store and marketing · quality and services improvements · improved responsiveness · improved information and control system (e.g., referring to Zara's savvy systems) Back to the case in point, it ironically reminds me what happened to a still fleshing case - HMV saved by Helico out of administration. Though many successes and shortcomings can be applied from HMV's situation, we'd still like to look at the causes of corporate decline in particular to prioritize efforts on the framework chains we mentioned earlier. This includes looking after both internal and external factors. ■ Internal Factors · poor management · inadequate financial control · poor working capital management · high costs · lack of management efforts · over-trading · big projects · acquisitions · financial policy · organisational inertia and confusion ■ External Factors · changes in market demand · competition · adverse movements in commodity prices As far as from the available evidences and facts we collected from the case, we agree that it is competition that matters more, based on which I could further derive our plan to shift the strategic focus and the following marketing plan for the growth phrase.

Thank you for the case. In general, I agree with Tom's recommendation which I then structure in another way as following. 1. There are normally two solutions for "Growth Strategy". · We would firstly call up the marketing department to gather the historical sales data and prioritize efforts correspondingly. · Should demand is insufficient, undoubtedly, as Tom mentioned, Product/Market Expansion Matrix is a good tool to analyze for organic growth route; · In terms of inorganic growth route, this may involve M&A activities such as acquiring relevant themed museums or boutique arts galleries/workshops, or being acquired by other more successful museums to achieve synergies for cost reduction or client base cross-sell; · But when supply is constrained, we then would suggest to look deeper into operational side both at finance and organisation level; · The framework is not strictly MECE, for example, as M&A activities may have impact on the internal operations and thus help to generate internal growth as well. But because that we have prioritize at the first beginning whichever approach to put more efforts on, we basically avoid being exhausted in crunching numbers. In real practice, we do look at both solutions. 2. "Location, Location and Location!" · Tom raises up a niche economic question: visitors vs transportation fees. Thanks Tom, interesting! · I personally think that the correlation may be insignificant, depending on the regression results we actually run. The reasons why I say so are: 1) visitors of museums attend mostly with intended purposes, and those who will otherwise end up not attending exhibitions due to increased transportation fees tend not do so anyway no matter what. In another word, the price elasticity is close to zero minus ; 2) it depends whichever transportation means targeted visitors choose from. Museums are essentially walk-in buildings which are normally city centre or SOHO-based, and there is normally very limited parking lot for museums nearby; · That's just becoming complicated and even more complicated to look at this specific niche area at early stage! · A golden principle in retailing sector is "location, location, and location!", and I do think this applies to the museum case as well. Together with pricing structure (i.e., charged or not), promotion and theme content, location is more a factor than transportation fees to the contribution of visitor numbers. 3. Go Digital Of course, museums are choosing physically located as close to the mass audience as possible. On a digital era, this could mean anywhere online. · not only to display the museums online with 3D effect but to develop new streams of revenue with creative thinking, · In a real case we did previously for a London-based gallery, we advised them to post the digital pics of the un-allocated assets, literally the arts pieces and to rent out (not for a worldwide tournament this time but short-term or one-off basis) to relevant institutions or private borrowers who are interested. A already-existed website akin to Art Buffet could help us to do this. The rest for the client is to structure warranty contracts, negotiate for better terms and arrange logistics. These are some of my thoughts. Any comment welcomed!