Interested to learn more about creating consulting-style slide presentations? This is my slide writing course mentioned in the video: link.firmlearning.com/slides
I must say as an engineer whose job is to mostly communicate on software projects, I have been finding your videos valuable. The rephrasing of "What does it mean" -> "What do you mean by this?" is genius!
You have to be careful with this. It is a great technique until it is not. I am reminded about a similar technique when you can’t remember a person’s name. Just ask the person how they spell their name .... which is genius until it terms out that their last name is Smith or Jones. You need to read the room. If everyone else seems to know, google it.
The best way to describe a consultant: someone who asks you what time is it, repeats what you told him and goes away with your watch. In 20 years of my experience, it was never wrong.
This is the saying that I featured in the video as well ;) While there might be some truth to it, this is of course too simplified in my opinion. Best, Heinrich
Yeah- common critique. There's more to it: most businesses have about 100 watches, all with different times. Different execs have different hunches as to which one's correct. No doubt one of those watches is correct. Turns out there is a lot of value in reducing uncertainty and explaining why a certain course of action is justified.
I used all of these when I first started Consulting. I still use this. The important thing is - despite these, you can still value add. Great video and very honest. :)
Sharing a few thoughts - Most management consulting assignments instructed by clients carry an ulterior motive. Very few consulting mandates actually are ordered by Clients to seek advice. Most Client's use Consultants as agents to drive their own agendas and motives. That's why beyond a point Consultants are used as footballs 😀 by each department until everyone gets tired and agrees to something. The stress is more from people management than actual deliverables. That has been my experience mostly, although that's quite limited
Hi Anirban, thanks for sharing your experiences. Agree that there is some truth to it, though frankly I never experienced it as extreme as you are talking about it. Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning thank you for your videos as always, maybe you did not because Mck is a very high-level consulting firm. If you had worked your way up on consulting on, say, Deloitte, CI&T, Work&Co, EY!, you'd feel that every week, depending on the client/team, even everyday... On such consulting firms you have to deal with middle management from the client's company. They will always want to advance their career, get their bonus and look for someone to blame if stuff goes wrong. Consulting firms are optimal for blaming when it goes wrong and not ever mentioning when it goes right.
Thanks für the great hands-on insights. The topic on what value consultants create even if their advise is build up on this information of the employees sounds like a really awesome video. Many people underestimate - the blind spots employees have on their own system they act in on a daily basis, - the limitations to act different, if you are part of the system - the avoidance to state the hard truth to make hard decisions - the inability to get from an awareness of a situation to consequent maybe even hard decisions Really would love to hear you perspective on the value of consulting and where you see the limits what world class organizations could achieve here without external consultance. Looking forward to the next videos :-)
I consider the first "tactic" very valuable even to the customer. Like you said, it's one of the main benefits an external person can bring to a company. To take an outside look on different levels and stuff. So it's not necessarily a "con-tactic". The second one is simply not necessary I think. I think you don't have to go into details as where you got the information but it's no problem to say "I've read about this" and then you can usually find applications in the real world or examples even if you didn't have the knowledge at the time. Like "I've read this and I saw that happening when in company xy...". So basicaly you show you can apply your knowledge which then is true as you just did it in front of them. If you have practical experience, off course it's more convincig to talk from that but from a scientific standpoint it's better to use credible data and not just your experience anyway. The third is simply necessary in many cases but you don't have to "fake" your way into it too much I think. Just go out of your way and ask the damn question. It's just honest if you ask about something you don't know. Just remain confident as you know many things very well and you're there to make the connections, not to be the "know it all". If someone calls you out on asking questions they just completely miss the point of having you there, no need to explain yourself to them. Just show them you still can contribute value to the project even without knowing everything in advance. Otherwise it's like a doctor that starts writing down the diagnose without having even asked the patient about his problems or why he's there. Doesn't look good if you ask me. The last one... it's called Hallo Bias and it's not just applicable with calculating math in your head. If you're good at one thing, people will assume you're good at all other things as well. Doing it on purpose with faked math woul be pretty manipulative. Why not just take a topic you feel comfortable about and tell them a few things out of experience and about some knowledge from this topic and stuff? It's going to have the same effect and it's related to the topic, so you don't have to fake anything.
Tip #1 can be also applied to other contexts. For example, contract manufacturers routinely take knowledge gained from one project and apply it to another. If you are a project manager working for such organizations, this is a very natural thing to do.
This was quite interesting. If I were a consultant within my field I could probably add some value but I would have to find a way to work where I can be both transparent and direct. I am really not someone that are good with exaggerating my value, knowledge or experiences and I prefer when people around me don't do that too.
Hi Mikael, thanks for your comment. Can very much see where you are coming from. Hope you find a field that very much resonates with your passions and interests! Best, Heinrich
Greetings from Chile, in my case, I'm an industrial civil engineer, and I work as a consultant in a public project that supplies technological solutions to to small and medium companies for free. The problem is that many of my clients demand extra services and they are willing to pay me. The point is that and dont have a clear way to charge my service because there is also software engineering involve and thus, more professionals. Thanks in advanced.
I've had an successful (technical) consulting career for over 20 years now. It would've been great to have had you back then before I had to learn many of these things on my own. Ha! :) One video that would be extremely helpful (not so much to me, but probably to your general audience) is a video on how to break down and share complex technical ideas to non-technical people who have the checkbook. That's the one area that tech consultants struggle with the most.
I'm also in tech consulting so 100% agree with you there. I think Heinrich's background is in strategy which in my opinion is very different. To put it bluntly, they BS more than we do because in tech we actually have to know how to implement from a technical standpoint. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we are more worthy or anything. To your point, we struggle with the consulting side of things because we're more engineers in nature than consultants until we grow with experiences on projects.
@@dailyrant4068 Yes, what you say is true. But the thing I realized early in my career is that for us to get buy in for our ideas, we have to be able to figure out how to provide *just enough* of the right information framed in the right way too get buy in from the non-technical people (with check books) that have the ability to make the decisions. That is a challenge, because we *love* figuring out and explaining how the sausage is made, and we tend to want to show them the slaughter house instead of the restaurant. In reality, that type of communication to that particular audience needs to be reversed: "We want to build you a grand restaurant, here's the benefits TO YOU of having it, and here's some high level pictures/concepts of the kitchen, and here's the effort/timeline/cost of what it will take to make this happen." Save the discussions of the slaughterhouse to the appropriate audience. (It's Minto's Pryamid Principle) The other *MOST IMPORTANT THING* I've learned in my career is to take the time to create a stakeholder map. Any project/initiative/engagement will have multiple people with completely different goals and attitudes. Making an effort to plot them out gives you an *amazing* sense of clarity for how you manage each of those people to get the best possible outcome from them. I'll make a separate suggest to Heinrich about making a video showing this, the ones on RUclips are terrible.
Is it valuable to have a heavy German accent with German clients? Or within German global companies.? To communicate a sort of belonging? What do you think?
Hi Hare, would not state this as a general rule. Of course, as in most situations, having some proximity and familiarity with your colleagues and clients will help. Though trust this will be similar for most other cultures. Best! Heinrich
Wouldn't much of this be worked out during the RFP process? If we've gone through the procurement/selection process and you're asking basic industry and operational questions, I'm gonna make sure the contract has not been signed as of yet.
Hi, in reality it is not as easy, in the RfP process the pitch will often be conducted by (Senior) Partners who will indeed have deep industry knowledge. Though the whole team can of course not consist of these super senior people, it will be a mix of different positions and tenures and thereby also levels of expertise. Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning So your saying that the senior leaders with deep knowledge will not share this data with the consulting project team prior to an engagement? That’s strange and seems like a waste of resources. Thank you for the reply, great channel!
@@icm65 Hi, of course they will share knowledge with the team, participate and contribute to problem solving session, try to shape the output etc. Though all this knowledge will not be transferred to the core of the team in just a few weeks :) Best! Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Ich habe gar nicht geschrieben, dass mir das Video nicht gefällt, das wäre auch nicht zutreffend. Ich habe (mich) nur gefragt, wieso es denn auf englisch sein muss. Sie sprechen zwar angenehm schnell und verfügen über einen recht guten Wortschatz, das räume ich gerne ein. Nur leider können Sprachmelodie und Aussprache da überhaupt nicht mithalten, was im Gesamtgefüge auf die Qualität schlägt. Ich kenne jetzt Ihr Publikum und Ihre Zielgruppe nicht und kann deswegen nicht beurteilen, welchen Anteil Ihr internationales Publikum hat, und dennoch bin ich überzeugt, dass das Video auf deutsch viel besser wäre. Fühlen Sie sich bitte nicht gepiesackt, als Muttersprachler des Deutschen UND des Englischen bin ich vielleicht auch nur ein bisschen zu pingelig.
@@Prof.SchulzeSternberg Danke für das Feedback! Die meisten Themen, die ich mache, sind nich Länderbezogen. Entsprechend hoffe ich durch die Videos auf Englisch mehr Personen erreichen zu können. LG
A medical doctor, an engineer, and a management consultant were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world. The doctor started… "Well, in the Bible, it says that God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s body. This must have required surgery, and so I can claim with a high degree of confidence that mine is the oldest profession in the world." The engineer responded, and said, "But earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most impressive application of civil engineering. Therefore, dear doctor, you are wrong: mine is surely the oldest profession in the world." The management consultant leaned back in his chair, smiled, and then said confidently, "Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?"
I think the value added by consultants is mostly around structure and approach. You can look much better at something than you truly are just because you structure it well
Your observations are spot-on from my experience as an ex-consultant. When you first start a new project, you will naturally feel "imposter syndrome" until a few weeks into the project when you genuinely start adding value.
Another way you can ask about an unknown term is: "What is the official definition of this term?" You may be surprised by how different companies define a simple term very differently, which could impact your analysis and recommendation.
Great video - thank you. Some additional advice I give juniors. Prepare before any meeting. No mater how scared you are, fake the confidence, not the knowledge. Make notes, lots of notes and ask the spelling of anything your uncertain of. Then, point to your notes and ask a question of clarification (try not to make it a naive question). (There is always a gap). The value you bring is being able to ask the right questions. Answers are easy, questions are difficult. Most consultants don’t ask enough tough questions. Then immediately following, discuss with a mentor - get a good mentor if you don’t have one - the older the better.
Great tip with re-phrasing on "what do you mean by that". It touches on active listening and empathy techniques as well, both crucial to succeed in any setting. Consulting can be perceived as a con job often, but in my view, it's rather a problem of expectations. Consultants can offer advice and solutions, they can not lead daily execution - this is where it often fails.
As a permie, I am always in awe at how contractors look so competent to the bosses and yet are so incompetent in practice at the same time, in the process earning 4 times as much as me. Kudos.
Sometimes there is a revolving door between senior management and the consultancies, for example between internal and external auditors, in which case the consulting engagement is a related party transaction of sorts -- no-one is fooling anyone, except maybe the board of directors and its audit committee. On the other hand, the top bosses could simply be clueless per the Peter Principle. One thing's certain, never-never-never criticize the lack of tangible value delivered by consultants to your senior management -- in the first case they may be complicit and in the second case they are simply incompetent -- or you'll be looking for a new job before long.
I don't know what industry you are in (I am working in design/engineering) but my experience is not as clear cut, I have seen really competent and incompetent people on both side of the fence . I have also been on both side of myself, I am now working as a permie after a decade of contracting . Contracting definitely offer a financial advantage but also comes with all the drawback of running a business(accountancy, business insurance, variable incomes...), contractors also tend to get let go first in time of lesser workload and get no pension contribution or health plan (if you work for company offering any of these benefits). I often see permanent members of staff complaining about how much contractors are paid, to be fair I struggle to understand where it is coming from, it is easy to just resign and become a contractor .
Keep up the good work on these videos Heinrich! Having been both a consultant and a client, I evaluate three things to measure their ability to appear competent - the ability to listen, the ability to know when to shut up, and how organized they appear. When I hire consultants to perform work in my employer's organization, I'm also putting my reputation at risk, so it's just as important for me that they successfully complete their objectives.
No way I'm relying on some fresh out of university untested graduate for consultation. If I want regurgitated knowledge, I'll rely on my own research from the Internet and books 😂
@@FirmLearning In principle, you are right. And I have used a very select few before. These were people who had already paid their dues, fought their campaigns, had lots of real world value to provide beyond any academic reference. I also believe it's the buyer's responsibility to know what they want, put in the ownership and then apply consultancy services where appropriate. Danke Heinrich. 😊
I think the important thing a consultant (and their firm) brings is objectivity and independent validation. If you spend to much time focusing on a problem you might be to blinded by working in the weeds or to 'attached' to a view point (that's human). Also you think you have a solution and need outside 'experts' to validate that solution or approach. Management consultants can bring that capability. To some it may seem like "Borrowing your watch to tell you the time!" but in the end companies are paying for independent analysis and academic rigor. To the last point about mental math, I disagree with you Heinrich. Just because someone cannot perform mental math does not mean they are not intelligent, it is just not a strength. The approach you outlined of running some figures out ahead of time is not deceptive, but I think is just good meeting preparation! Great and insightful video, Heinrich. This is a difficult topic but is not just limited to management consulting. This issue and the accompanying solutions apply everywhere. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, good points! Regarding the mental math, I was rather talking about the PERCEPTION that - from my experience - people have. Agree that intelligence is much more complex than mental math. Thanks for watching!! Best, Heinrich
Great topic. My 2 cents on this is: The more consultants prepare in advance the quicker they can provide value for their clients. Today there are so many tools out there to do market research, buyers persona analysis and industry benchmarks. Would be great if you can talk about those preparation process in further videos. Keep going with this high quality content 👍
Hey Paul! Can you elaborate further on these things? I have zero knowledge of consulting, but would like to know more about these. Any resources etc to recommend? I currently work in healthcare, and see massive potential to introduce these tools (and be perceived as "groundbreaking" by my boss).
I love this one. I have used the "leverage the knowledge you receive" and "how to frame questions." I also use what Chris Voss teaches in his book "Never Split the Difference" when I ask them something and then repeat it back to them via a summary starting with "It sounds like, it seems like, or it looks like." Great post!
I was an internal auditor until recently so faced similar challenges with knowledge and credibility. Luckily I was internal so didn’t have the added pressure of clients paying a fortune for my time. During the learning phase the relationship can be a one-way street with one person giving and the other taking and this can be awkward and annoy people. I got a lot better at learning quickly and quickly being able to challenge people and add value.
This channel should be compulsory content for all junior managers. 1) because it teaches so many great techniques and ways to think and message and 2) when you become a manager you will be able to recognise which consultants your company employees have any actual value to offer or not
Coming from engineering, I think these tips are all quite valid communication tips. Like in the context of Tip #1, even if I wanted to share my experience and knowledge openly, if someone came up to me and asked "tell me everything you know", unless I had just recently been writing my memoirs, I'd be pretty stumped as to where to start. But if you give me some information as context, then ask me to provide input within that provided context, I can much more easily give an answer that is likely to also be more useful. Tip #4, even though you position it as potentially tricky, is often also a useful communication tool. Imagine I am presenting the output for some engineering analysis. A single slide might only have space to contain the inputs and the outputs of the calculation or analysis. The intermediate steps might be in backup slides, notes, or just in my head if I'm the one who ran through the analysis. When giving a presentation, it would be totally normal, and probably useful, to discuss the content depicted on the slide in the context of the calculations that were used, and for any sufficiently complex calculation, I would probably be both repeating parts of the calculation from memory, and recomputing parts of it in my head. I might even argue that in any presentation, taking the time to review and memorize intermediate or derived steps in a given set of slides to use in discussion or to answer questions, isn't deceptive at all, and is actually a best practice!
Love this video! I didn’t get good grades in the early part of school due to my own lack of effort so I’m not a consultant but always been fascinated by the work you guys do. We all fake it till we make it (at least a little haha) but I found the video very helpful, thanks for sharing!
Hi, thanks for watching! Yes indeed, already created a video on "solving tough problems" / problem solving methodology, covering some of these topics. Hope it is helpful! Best, Heinrich
Hi!I just wanted to note here that I just had a consultant company come into my workplace last week and knowing these tactics I was able to experience them at first hand. By knowing what you said in this video I knew to keep the great ideas I have for the company for myself, so that the consultant could not steal my ideas. Instead I took my ideas straight to the CEO and I was actually fast tracked for quite a big promotion. Thank you, Heinrich
Thank you Heinlich! notes: Learn quickly. Expected as super competent & knowledgeable from Day 1. a) leverage knowledge you receive. receive lots of info from many diff departments. "consultants borrow your watch to tell you the time." b) how you frame information as your experiences. you do research, talk to experts, read a book or article- framed as your experience seems & sounds better. "This is what other companies in this field do". c) Frame questions & new terms: "What do *you* mean with this term?" d) mental math to portray yourself as intelligent. or knowledge that lends some accreditation as intelligent.
First of all, if you're fresh from university, you're not a consultant, you nor anyone else should call you that, and you shouldn't be looking for consultant positions. You're a freelance subcontractor, at best.
Hi, see your point thanks for the comment. Though it is just a fact that thounsands of young graduates are hired by the large consulting firms every year and these graduates do indeed work as consultant :) Best, Heinrich
These tactics that I have took out from the video. Is there any missing? 1. In my experiences, I would do this way; 2. What do you mean by using this term?; 3. Mental math.
In the Software industry there's a lot of consultants who graduated from Udemy academy, only gaining the learnings from an online course but being paid for their 30+ yrs unrelated / obsolete experience. ConMan: You don't need a bank robber, you need a fake expert consultant to rob a bank and offer a core banking solution.
Heinrich, first of all, congratulations on your channel. Your content is not only useful for young professionals, everyone can learn something from you no matter the age! Regarding the topic, juicy one indeed. In my opinion, unless the professional is really a specialist at a specific topic, every consultant is faced with situations like this. Some are really conmen and indeed take this too far. However, what makes a consultant good at her/his job is the ability to quickly learn and get a holistic perspective of the company, and communicate the insights effectively. The process is key: As you said, sometimes the output is not new to the client, but the way it was obtained and communicated ensure its robustness. Sometimes clients just hire consultants to get external validation on what they already know.
Hi Manuel, thanks for your comment and your reflections! Fully agree, consultants at some point need to catch up and be in a position to really deliver value in order for them to be successful in their job. Best! Heinrich
Do MBB firms conduct personality screening during the hiring process? What is the preferred Enneagram type? Seems you need a balance of introvert/information gathering and extrovert/presentation aptitudes.
Hi! Have heard of many firms that do personality tests (e.g. MBTI) AFTER the hiring process / for the new hires, to help them understand team dynamics etc. Not aware of any firm that is using personality assessment for the hiring process (and thereby somewhat implying that only some personality types can be successful consultants). Best! heinrich
Hi Heinrich, really interesting video. In this context I would like to know how a consulting project is pitched to a client, i.e. what kind of expertise does the client expect? Additionally a general video on how consulting firms pitch projects to potential clients would be interesting. Keep up the good work! :D
Usually, you'll have a global expert on the topic contributing to the engagement + local partners with expertise on the sector and function (+ some more junior research or implementation experts). These are the faces that go on the "pitch deck"/proposal and are the ones that 'steer' the project with senior clients and provide the credibility that firms need to project in order be hired in the first place. Internally, experts/partners bring benchmarks (and this "corporate espionage" is mainly what they themselves learn from the engagements) and help make sense of the information more junior colleagues collect - - this is what the internal "problem-solving sessions" are all about. What Heinrich discusses in the video is more applicable up to the EM/project lead level, before the consultant commits to a sector or function.
Thanks for the suggestion Julian! Vicentte already contributed some great points, thanks for sharing! Indeed an interesting topic, might create a video on this in the future, stay tuned :) Best! Heinrich
Hi Eduardo, was a mix of personal and professional reasons. Have touched on this in several videos in the past, a bit too much to answer in such a comment. Might do a more detailed video in the future - stay tuned! Best, H
A couple of these are reframing and seem above board, but #2, for example, where one actually claims to have experience in something one has only read about, seems to me to cross the line into outright lying and to be unethical.
I absolutely hate business acronyms. I don’t use them, and ask others don’t use them due to transparency issues. I swear people only use them to sound smart.
Good video. Most of the tips I already used intuitively :-) What really helps to accelerate customer knowledge is gaining business insight about a specific industry. Of course, this is part of the experience you build in your career, but focusing on a specific industry really helps you feel confident and truly knowledgeable.
Question re a term that you do not understand: "So, how do you see that xxxxxx impacts on/fits in with your operations?" Then listen, very carefully, to extrapolate the meaning of xxxxxx. If you ask the same question in, say, three different departments, you should quickly learn what it means.
Fantastic tips. I don't think it's negative at all! Frankly, learning "how to sell" is part of every job, whether or not one likes to admit it and to different extents. Any "client-facing" job requires "salesman" tactics, and there is nothing wrong with that. That is part of the fee - the good feeling that they give you when you buy from them.
Don’t fool yourself. Big companies hire McKinsey for internal alignment/politics, not for competency. The answer is already known by the client. And McKinsey tells the client what the client wants to hear. Remember that when the client is a big company, the consultant is hired by someone smarter than them. There are internal strategy teams for the real work anyways.
Hi Tushar, agree that there is some truth to that and to some extent this might happen in some circumstances. It is not my experience though that this applies as generally as you are describing it here. Best, Heinrich
I want to point out - as someone that deals with consultants often - it is very easy for experienced professionals to see through this facade, and lose respect instantly. I would argue instead to ask questions if you don't know and take notes because it shows your willingness to learn and acknowledge the client's specific neeeds. Ask the right question and practice listening.
Great advice, and quite funny with faking the math. I have another 2 tips from my experience: 1) when you state an opinion, it helps if you find a person from the organization that is perceived as very competent that also shares your view. You can use this to protect against critics before they even occur by saying soon that your conclusion hav been validated by this and THAT person. 2) If you are a foreigner working in a non English speaking country where English is used as well as the country's language, USE ENGLISH in critical situations if you can decide. If you are using the firms native language, some native people will perceive you as less intelligent because of your accent and mistakes. Even many people congratulate you for good your xxx is, you will be at risk. This is something subconscious and is not xenophobia, it just happens.
Please write summary of your video as well. At times, I am so fast that I like to skim your video..a summary of your lecture with specific points, will help me remember them longer..thanks a lot for sharing ur knowledge
Problem with consultants as well as some areas of investment banking like analyst etc is they are really not skilled in anything in detail and more art of BS. Unlike a doctor or dentist or architect etc...but they had the biggest mouths of all these business terms IRR, cost of capital, beta etc but when asked to do a detailed DCF analysis or something technical they fall apart. All hot air wanting to order but not do the work...
Hi Anna, thanks for sharing! My experience is a bit more nuanced, got to know lots of highly capable people in consulting. Still appreciate your perspective ;) Best! Heinrich
Hi Einrich! Nice video :) I was wondering if it is possible to work for a consultancy firm in Germany without being completely fluent in German. What do you think? Thank you
Hi Nicolo, most large firms will want at least business proficiency in German. You might finde some boutique firms / niche roles where this is not the case. Best! H
This is very similar to technical sales. You need to be the expert and often a client knows more than you do. One thing I very try hard to NOT say is I dont know, I'll get back to you. Cliche that you're a hard worker to return with that information that's likely not important anymore. I'll say if really pressed, I'd like to put my head together with a couple of colleagues and get back to you.
Interesting observation and comparison, thanks Brett! Yes, fully trust that other types of jobs and careers face very similar challenges. Thanks for sharing! Best, Heinrich
As a lifelong consultant, this video really gives the wrong idea. What happens in 99% of cases, is that junior consultants who know nothing about the industry are on a PROJECT TEAM, and the senior team members have tons of experience and knowledge in the industry. You don't represent yourself as an expert until you've worked in that industry for several years. After that point, you're at Manager level and you have junior consultants under you who are learning on each project.
Powerful tips in this one! Thank you! This is one of my favourite videos of yours that I have watched so far. I will share this with my team of marketing technology consultants. Keep them videos coming, I enjoy them very much!
![Yailin La Mas Viral, @kreizyk.official - Dale 2 (Remix) [Video Oficial]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JaYHBzgqz94/mqdefault.jpg)
Interested to learn more about creating consulting-style slide presentations? This is my slide writing course mentioned in the video: link.firmlearning.com/slides
Hi
I am interested if the course includes a few practical real life case presentations from the start till end. With down loadable slides.
I must say as an engineer whose job is to mostly communicate on software projects, I have been finding your videos valuable. The rephrasing of "What does it mean" -> "What do you mean by this?" is genius!
Thanks for watching Micave! Yes indeed, believe this one is quite helpful :) Best! Heinrich
Agreed! It sounds so simple but such a small change to imply so much.
You have to be careful with this. It is a great technique until it is not. I am reminded about a similar technique when you can’t remember a person’s name. Just ask the person how they spell their name .... which is genius until it terms out that their last name is Smith or Jones. You need to read the room. If everyone else seems to know, google it.
As an ex-MBB consultant, consulting = appearing super competent while doing a decent job and feeling like a massive fraud.
There is for sure some truth to that ;) Always great to see fellow MBB consultants watching the channel, appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Consultants are high finance salespeople.
🤣🤣🤣
😂😂
The best way to describe a consultant: someone who asks you what time is it, repeats what you told him and goes away with your watch.
In 20 years of my experience, it was never wrong.
This is the saying that I featured in the video as well ;) While there might be some truth to it, this is of course too simplified in my opinion. Best, Heinrich
Yeah- common critique. There's more to it: most businesses have about 100 watches, all with different times. Different execs have different hunches as to which one's correct. No doubt one of those watches is correct. Turns out there is a lot of value in reducing uncertainty and explaining why a certain course of action is justified.
I used all of these when I first started Consulting. I still use this. The important thing is - despite these, you can still value add. Great video and very honest. :)
Thanks for the honesty :) Indeed agree that despite all this, consultants can create value for organizations. Best, Heinrich
This is immensely valuable information, and I am not even working as a consultant! I want to see more of that stuff!
Super happy to hear that - THANK YOU! Best, Heinrich
Sharing a few thoughts - Most management consulting assignments instructed by clients carry an ulterior motive. Very few consulting mandates actually are ordered by Clients to seek advice. Most Client's use Consultants as agents to drive their own agendas and motives. That's why beyond a point Consultants are used as footballs 😀 by each department until everyone gets tired and agrees to something. The stress is more from people management than actual deliverables. That has been my experience mostly, although that's quite limited
Hi Anirban, thanks for sharing your experiences. Agree that there is some truth to it, though frankly I never experienced it as extreme as you are talking about it. Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning thank you for your videos as always, maybe you did not because Mck is a very high-level consulting firm. If you had worked your way up on consulting on, say, Deloitte, CI&T, Work&Co, EY!, you'd feel that every week, depending on the client/team, even everyday... On such consulting firms you have to deal with middle management from the client's company. They will always want to advance their career, get their bonus and look for someone to blame if stuff goes wrong. Consulting firms are optimal for blaming when it goes wrong and not ever mentioning when it goes right.
Thanks für the great hands-on insights. The topic on what value consultants create even if their advise is build up on this information of the employees sounds like a really awesome video.
Many people underestimate
- the blind spots employees have on their own system they act in on a daily basis,
- the limitations to act different, if you are part of the system
- the avoidance to state the hard truth to make hard decisions
- the inability to get from an awareness of a situation to consequent maybe even hard decisions
Really would love to hear you perspective on the value of consulting and where you see the limits what world class organizations could achieve here without external consultance.
Looking forward to the next videos :-)
I consider the first "tactic" very valuable even to the customer. Like you said, it's one of the main benefits an external person can bring to a company. To take an outside look on different levels and stuff. So it's not necessarily a "con-tactic".
The second one is simply not necessary I think. I think you don't have to go into details as where you got the information but it's no problem to say "I've read about this" and then you can usually find applications in the real world or examples even if you didn't have the knowledge at the time. Like "I've read this and I saw that happening when in company xy...". So basicaly you show you can apply your knowledge which then is true as you just did it in front of them. If you have practical experience, off course it's more convincig to talk from that but from a scientific standpoint it's better to use credible data and not just your experience anyway.
The third is simply necessary in many cases but you don't have to "fake" your way into it too much I think. Just go out of your way and ask the damn question. It's just honest if you ask about something you don't know. Just remain confident as you know many things very well and you're there to make the connections, not to be the "know it all". If someone calls you out on asking questions they just completely miss the point of having you there, no need to explain yourself to them. Just show them you still can contribute value to the project even without knowing everything in advance. Otherwise it's like a doctor that starts writing down the diagnose without having even asked the patient about his problems or why he's there. Doesn't look good if you ask me.
The last one... it's called Hallo Bias and it's not just applicable with calculating math in your head. If you're good at one thing, people will assume you're good at all other things as well. Doing it on purpose with faked math woul be pretty manipulative. Why not just take a topic you feel comfortable about and tell them a few things out of experience and about some knowledge from this topic and stuff? It's going to have the same effect and it's related to the topic, so you don't have to fake anything.
Thank you for your detailed reflections on these tips. This is much appreciated! Trust others will find this interesting as well. Best! Heinrich
Tip #1 can be also applied to other contexts. For example, contract manufacturers routinely take knowledge gained from one project and apply it to another. If you are a project manager working for such organizations, this is a very natural thing to do.
Yes, yes, and yes. You need to be able to build confidence. That emotional factor hits harder and more immediate than the knowledge factor.
This was quite interesting. If I were a consultant within my field I could probably add some value but I would have to find a way to work where I can be both transparent and direct. I am really not someone that are good with exaggerating my value, knowledge or experiences and I prefer when people around me don't do that too.
Hi Mikael, thanks for your comment. Can very much see where you are coming from. Hope you find a field that very much resonates with your passions and interests! Best, Heinrich
That is an excellent value ad. Play to your strengths.
Once, one of my colleague said:
"If you cannot convince them, confuse them"
;) Thanks for watching Adolf! Best, Heinrich
Heinrich, thanks for your video..it takes guts to present the facts like this..
It‘s called the consultant‘s virtue: Totale competency at absolute oblivion. And it really is a virtue when you think about it.
Thanks Martin, there is some truth to that ;) Best! Heinrich
From my experience. Using fancy IT terms will make you look competent, even if you don't know anything. lol
Interesting observation, thanks for sharing Rotena! :) Best, Heinrich
Greetings from Chile, in my case, I'm an industrial civil engineer, and I work as a consultant in a public project that supplies technological solutions to to small and medium companies for free. The problem is that many of my clients demand extra services and they are willing to pay me. The point is that and dont have a clear way to charge my service because there is also software engineering involve and thus, more professionals. Thanks in advanced.
Nicken und gelegentlich die letzten drei Wörter des Gegenübers wiederholen wirkt Wunder.
Ja solche Mirroring-Techniken sind auch oft ganz gut :) LG! Heinrich
I've had an successful (technical) consulting career for over 20 years now. It would've been great to have had you back then before I had to learn many of these things on my own. Ha! :) One video that would be extremely helpful (not so much to me, but probably to your general audience) is a video on how to break down and share complex technical ideas to non-technical people who have the checkbook. That's the one area that tech consultants struggle with the most.
Hi Christopher, thanks for your kind words! Video idea is well noted, might pick this up in the future! Best, Heinrich
I'm also in tech consulting so 100% agree with you there. I think Heinrich's background is in strategy which in my opinion is very different. To put it bluntly, they BS more than we do because in tech we actually have to know how to implement from a technical standpoint. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we are more worthy or anything. To your point, we struggle with the consulting side of things because we're more engineers in nature than consultants until we grow with experiences on projects.
@@dailyrant4068 Yes, what you say is true. But the thing I realized early in my career is that for us to get buy in for our ideas, we have to be able to figure out how to provide *just enough* of the right information framed in the right way too get buy in from the non-technical people (with check books) that have the ability to make the decisions. That is a challenge, because we *love* figuring out and explaining how the sausage is made, and we tend to want to show them the slaughter house instead of the restaurant. In reality, that type of communication to that particular audience needs to be reversed: "We want to build you a grand restaurant, here's the benefits TO YOU of having it, and here's some high level pictures/concepts of the kitchen, and here's the effort/timeline/cost of what it will take to make this happen." Save the discussions of the slaughterhouse to the appropriate audience. (It's Minto's Pryamid Principle)
The other *MOST IMPORTANT THING* I've learned in my career is to take the time to create a stakeholder map. Any project/initiative/engagement will have multiple people with completely different goals and attitudes. Making an effort to plot them out gives you an *amazing* sense of clarity for how you manage each of those people to get the best possible outcome from them. I'll make a separate suggest to Heinrich about making a video showing this, the ones on RUclips are terrible.
The 4 dislikes must be from Big4 Consulting Partners
hehe thanks for watching Fabian! :)
"I'm not saying you should do this...but it works."
;) Thanks for watching Johnny! Best, Heinrich
Do you have a methodology to ramp up as quickly as possible on a new project ?
Very practical and useful strategies
Thanks, appreciate that! Best, Heinrich
This is so helpful!!!
Hi Youhui, happy to hear the video is helpful! All the best, Heinrich
Is it valuable to have a heavy German accent with German clients? Or within German global companies.? To communicate a sort of belonging? What do you think?
Hi Hare, would not state this as a general rule. Of course, as in most situations, having some proximity and familiarity with your colleagues and clients will help. Though trust this will be similar for most other cultures. Best! Heinrich
There's no training by companies before hired as a junior?
Great episode!
Great to hear that, thank you for watching Wan! Best, Heinrich
Excellent tips!
Thank you Charles!! Best, Heinrich
Wouldn't much of this be worked out during the RFP process? If we've gone through the procurement/selection process and you're asking basic industry and operational questions, I'm gonna make sure the contract has not been signed as of yet.
Hi, in reality it is not as easy, in the RfP process the pitch will often be conducted by (Senior) Partners who will indeed have deep industry knowledge. Though the whole team can of course not consist of these super senior people, it will be a mix of different positions and tenures and thereby also levels of expertise. Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning So your saying that the senior leaders with deep knowledge will not share this data with the consulting project team prior to an engagement? That’s strange and seems like a waste of resources. Thank you for the reply, great channel!
@@icm65 Hi, of course they will share knowledge with the team, participate and contribute to problem solving session, try to shape the output etc. Though all this knowledge will not be transferred to the core of the team in just a few weeks :) Best! Heinrich
Really insightful!
Thank you!! Best, H
Learning credibility tension
Yes, this is indeed how they call it at HBR :) Thanks for watching!! Best, Heinrich
I am looking for master degree in forensic accounting in germany can u recommend one ???
Hi Mohamed, not really knowledgeable in this field sorry..! Lots of success to you!! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning thank u heinrich
What Harvard just realised I knew years back when worked with 2 of the big names in 2 different companies from the client side.
Hi Salman, thanks for watching! Indeed a situation many consultants will be quite familiar with and some clients realize it too :) Best! Heinrich
HI Heinrich, wie alt bist du eigentlich gerade? Dafür hast du echt viel erreicht
Danke dir Tim! Bin jetzt 31. LG, Heinrich
HAHAHAHAHA WTF 😂😂😂😂
Thanks for watching Nive! ;) Best, Heinrich
Faking the mental math 🤣 sneaky
Agreed! Thanks for watching :)
Wer hat Sie eigentlich auf die Idee gebracht, solche Videos auf Englisch zu machen? Und wieso glauben Sie, dass das eine gute Idee war?
Hallo, tut mir Leid, wenn das Video nicht gefällt. Dennoch vielen Dank fürs Zuschauen!
@@FirmLearning Ich habe gar nicht geschrieben, dass mir das Video nicht gefällt, das wäre auch nicht zutreffend.
Ich habe (mich) nur gefragt, wieso es denn auf englisch sein muss. Sie sprechen zwar angenehm schnell und verfügen über einen recht guten Wortschatz, das räume ich gerne ein. Nur leider können Sprachmelodie und Aussprache da überhaupt nicht mithalten, was im Gesamtgefüge auf die Qualität schlägt. Ich kenne jetzt Ihr Publikum und Ihre Zielgruppe nicht und kann deswegen nicht beurteilen, welchen Anteil Ihr internationales Publikum hat, und dennoch bin ich überzeugt, dass das Video auf deutsch viel besser wäre. Fühlen Sie sich bitte nicht gepiesackt, als Muttersprachler des Deutschen UND des Englischen bin ich vielleicht auch nur ein bisschen zu pingelig.
@@Prof.SchulzeSternberg Danke für das Feedback! Die meisten Themen, die ich mache, sind nich Länderbezogen. Entsprechend hoffe ich durch die Videos auf Englisch mehr Personen erreichen zu können. LG
A medical doctor, an engineer, and a management consultant were arguing about what was the oldest profession in the world.
The doctor started… "Well, in the Bible, it says that God created Eve from a rib taken from Adam’s body. This must have required surgery, and so I can claim with a high degree of confidence that mine is the oldest profession in the world."
The engineer responded, and said, "But earlier in the book of Genesis, it states that God created the order of the heavens and the earth from out of the chaos. This was the first and certainly the most impressive application of civil engineering. Therefore, dear doctor, you are wrong: mine is surely the oldest profession in the world."
The management consultant leaned back in his chair, smiled, and then said confidently, "Ah, but who do you think created the chaos?"
Made me laugh ;) Thanks for sharing! Best, Heinrich
Then a woman steps out from behind all three and says 'actually im the oldest profession as i balance all three of your checkbooks'...
I think the value added by consultants is mostly around structure and approach. You can look much better at something than you truly are just because you structure it well
There is for sure some truth to that. Best! Heinrich
Wittgenstein said - philosophy is a byproduct of misunderstanding language.
Do Consultants live by that dictum?
Your observations are spot-on from my experience as an ex-consultant. When you first start a new project, you will naturally feel "imposter syndrome" until a few weeks into the project when you genuinely start adding value.
True that! Thanks for sharing your experience! :) Best, Heinrich
Another way you can ask about an unknown term is: "What is the official definition of this term?" You may be surprised by how different companies define a simple term very differently, which could impact your analysis and recommendation.
Great suggestion, thanks for sharing - appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Agree, semantic changes in countries, industries, etc. This is a good justification for ask even "simple" definitions.
Great video - thank you. Some additional advice I give juniors. Prepare before any meeting. No mater how scared you are, fake the confidence, not the knowledge. Make notes, lots of notes and ask the spelling of anything your uncertain of. Then, point to your notes and ask a question of clarification (try not to make it a naive question). (There is always a gap). The value you bring is being able to ask the right questions. Answers are easy, questions are difficult. Most consultants don’t ask enough tough questions. Then immediately following, discuss with a mentor - get a good mentor if you don’t have one - the older the better.
Thanks for sharing Jeff! These are for sure great tips, will be helpful to others watching! Best, Heinrich
I love your heavy German accent. You go Heinrich
Guess I take this as a compliment - thanks Arzu! ;) Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning Absolutely, I really like German accent :)
Great tip with re-phrasing on "what do you mean by that". It touches on active listening and empathy techniques as well, both crucial to succeed in any setting. Consulting can be perceived as a con job often, but in my view, it's rather a problem of expectations. Consultants can offer advice and solutions, they can not lead daily execution - this is where it often fails.
Great thoughts - thanks for sharing Yuri! Best, Heinrich
As a permie, I am always in awe at how contractors look so competent to the bosses and yet are so incompetent in practice at the same time, in the process earning 4 times as much as me. Kudos.
;) Thanks for watching, appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Sometimes there is a revolving door between senior management and the consultancies, for example between internal and external auditors, in which case the consulting engagement is a related party transaction of sorts -- no-one is fooling anyone, except maybe the board of directors and its audit committee. On the other hand, the top bosses could simply be clueless per the Peter Principle. One thing's certain, never-never-never criticize the lack of tangible value delivered by consultants to your senior management -- in the first case they may be complicit and in the second case they are simply incompetent -- or you'll be looking for a new job before long.
I don't know what industry you are in (I am working in design/engineering) but my experience is not as clear cut, I have seen really competent and incompetent people on both side of the fence .
I have also been on both side of myself, I am now working as a permie after a decade of contracting .
Contracting definitely offer a financial advantage but also comes with all the drawback of running a business(accountancy, business insurance, variable incomes...), contractors also tend to get let go first in time of lesser workload and get no pension contribution or health plan (if you work for company offering any of these benefits).
I often see permanent members of staff complaining about how much contractors are paid, to be fair I struggle to understand where it is coming from, it is easy to just resign and become a contractor .
Those sneaky Conzaltants!
Sneaky indeed ;) Thanks for watching Mohammad! Best, Heinrich
Keep up the good work on these videos Heinrich! Having been both a consultant and a client, I evaluate three things to measure their ability to appear competent - the ability to listen, the ability to know when to shut up, and how organized they appear. When I hire consultants to perform work in my employer's organization, I'm also putting my reputation at risk, so it's just as important for me that they successfully complete their objectives.
Well said, thanks for watching Jung! Trust this will be helpful to many starting out in consulting. Best! Heinrich
Going to use these "sneaky tactics" for my upcoming interview HAHA
Good luck! Thanks for watching Dun ;) Best, Heinrich
No way I'm relying on some fresh out of university untested graduate for consultation. If I want regurgitated knowledge, I'll rely on my own research from the Internet and books 😂
Fair enough ;) Do think though that consultants, if used in the right way, can add value to organizations. Best! Heinrich
@@FirmLearning In principle, you are right. And I have used a very select few before. These were people who had already paid their dues, fought their campaigns, had lots of real world value to provide beyond any academic reference. I also believe it's the buyer's responsibility to know what they want, put in the ownership and then apply consultancy services where appropriate.
Danke Heinrich. 😊
I think the important thing a consultant (and their firm) brings is objectivity and independent validation. If you spend to much time focusing on a problem you might be to blinded by working in the weeds or to 'attached' to a view point (that's human). Also you think you have a solution and need outside 'experts' to validate that solution or approach. Management consultants can bring that capability. To some it may seem like "Borrowing your watch to tell you the time!" but in the end companies are paying for independent analysis and academic rigor.
To the last point about mental math, I disagree with you Heinrich. Just because someone cannot perform mental math does not mean they are not intelligent, it is just not a strength. The approach you outlined of running some figures out ahead of time is not deceptive, but I think is just good meeting preparation!
Great and insightful video, Heinrich. This is a difficult topic but is not just limited to management consulting. This issue and the accompanying solutions apply everywhere. Thanks!
Thanks for your comment, good points! Regarding the mental math, I was rather talking about the PERCEPTION that - from my experience - people have. Agree that intelligence is much more complex than mental math. Thanks for watching!! Best, Heinrich
Great topic. My 2 cents on this is: The more consultants prepare in advance the quicker they can provide value for their clients.
Today there are so many tools out there to do market research, buyers persona analysis and industry benchmarks.
Would be great if you can talk about those preparation process in further videos.
Keep going with this high quality content 👍
Great topic, thanks for suggesting it Paul! Have added this to my ideas list! Best, Heinrich
Hey Paul! Can you elaborate further on these things? I have zero knowledge of consulting, but would like to know more about these. Any resources etc to recommend? I currently work in healthcare, and see massive potential to introduce these tools (and be perceived as "groundbreaking" by my boss).
My current situation. Chemical engineering background but get assign in financing project 😂
Good luck Atika! ;) Best, Heinrich
If you are in consulting, there is no way you can escape from finance. Hope you are enjoying learning it.
This is of real value ‘behind the scenes stuff’ which has been articulated so clearly by you Heinriche.
Great to hear the video was helpful - thanks for watching Jake! Best, Heinrich
I love this one. I have used the "leverage the knowledge you receive" and "how to frame questions." I also use what Chris Voss teaches in his book "Never Split the Difference" when I ask them something and then repeat it back to them via a summary starting with "It sounds like, it seems like, or it looks like." Great post!
Lol I did feel like mgmt consultants are sometimes conman when I started my first mgmt consulting internship 😆
Hi Emily thanks for watching! I do think this is only one side of the reality though :) Best! Heinrich
Love it. You could say that the last example is just good preparation for a meeting - anticipating questions and keeping an answer up your sleeve :-)
Fair point ;)
I get the situation, but "based on my experience" lying is never a good idea...
Hi Francesco, thanks for your comment! Yes, there are for sure more noble ways to handle this. Best! Heinrich
I was an internal auditor until recently so faced similar challenges with knowledge and credibility. Luckily I was internal so didn’t have the added pressure of clients paying a fortune for my time. During the learning phase the relationship can be a one-way street with one person giving and the other taking and this can be awkward and annoy people. I got a lot better at learning quickly and quickly being able to challenge people and add value.
Thanks for sharing Alistair! Great journey! Best, H
Be careful with the question technique - some clients turnaround and ask how others describe the term before launching into their own definition
Hi Manasa, thanks for your comment. For sure something to be mindful of and not overdo it..! Best, Heinrich
I was smirking during the entire duration of this video hahaha. A "juicy" topic for sure!
Thanks for the comment Long! :) A juicy topic indeed.. thanks for the support!! Best, Heinrich
This channel should be compulsory content for all junior managers. 1) because it teaches so many great techniques and ways to think and message and 2) when you become a manager you will be able to recognise which consultants your company employees have any actual value to offer or not
Coming from engineering, I think these tips are all quite valid communication tips.
Like in the context of Tip #1, even if I wanted to share my experience and knowledge openly, if someone came up to me and asked "tell me everything you know", unless I had just recently been writing my memoirs, I'd be pretty stumped as to where to start. But if you give me some information as context, then ask me to provide input within that provided context, I can much more easily give an answer that is likely to also be more useful.
Tip #4, even though you position it as potentially tricky, is often also a useful communication tool. Imagine I am presenting the output for some engineering analysis. A single slide might only have space to contain the inputs and the outputs of the calculation or analysis. The intermediate steps might be in backup slides, notes, or just in my head if I'm the one who ran through the analysis. When giving a presentation, it would be totally normal, and probably useful, to discuss the content depicted on the slide in the context of the calculations that were used, and for any sufficiently complex calculation, I would probably be both repeating parts of the calculation from memory, and recomputing parts of it in my head.
I might even argue that in any presentation, taking the time to review and memorize intermediate or derived steps in a given set of slides to use in discussion or to answer questions, isn't deceptive at all, and is actually a best practice!
Great reflections on these tips. Trust this will be insightful to others reading this as well. Thank you James! Best, Heinrich
Love this video! I didn’t get good grades in the early part of school due to my own lack of effort so I’m not a consultant but always been fascinated by the work you guys do. We all fake it till we make it (at least a little haha) but I found the video very helpful, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for your comment, glad to hear the video was helpful Gautam! :) Best, Heinrich
Do you apply any techniques to create many hypothesis at the beginning of a project to try to verify them afterwards and eliminate some of them?
Hi, thanks for watching! Yes indeed, already created a video on "solving tough problems" / problem solving methodology, covering some of these topics. Hope it is helpful! Best, Heinrich
Sneaky sneaky with the mental math but also a fun trick if in good company with friends. :)
Such great content. Thanks! 🎉
Thanks Vanessa! Indeed, every project is more fun with the right team :) Best, Heinrich
I love this video! Subscribed!
Hi Manish, thanks for your comment! So great to hear you found the video to be helpful! Best, Heinrich
Talking (fairly) fast, making it seem effortless, and using the occasional "abstract" or uncommon word also seems to be very common in consultants
Thanks for sharing and the comment! Best! Heinrich
Hi!I just wanted to note here that I just had a consultant company come into my workplace last week and knowing these tactics I was able to experience them at first hand. By knowing what you said in this video I knew to keep the great ideas I have for the company for myself, so that the consultant could not steal my ideas. Instead I took my ideas straight to the CEO and I was actually fast tracked for quite a big promotion. Thank you, Heinrich
Happy to hear that you made this work for you soo quickly ;) Lots of success to you! Best, Heinrich
Thank you Heinlich!
notes:
Learn quickly.
Expected as super competent & knowledgeable from Day 1.
a) leverage knowledge you receive. receive lots of info from many diff departments. "consultants borrow your watch to tell you the time."
b) how you frame information as your experiences. you do research, talk to experts, read a book or article- framed as your experience seems & sounds better. "This is what other companies in this field do".
c) Frame questions & new terms: "What do *you* mean with this term?"
d) mental math to portray yourself as intelligent. or knowledge that lends some accreditation as intelligent.
First of all, if you're fresh from university, you're not a consultant, you nor anyone else should call you that, and you shouldn't be looking for consultant positions.
You're a freelance subcontractor, at best.
Hi, see your point thanks for the comment. Though it is just a fact that thounsands of young graduates are hired by the large consulting firms every year and these graduates do indeed work as consultant :) Best, Heinrich
These tactics that I have took out from the video. Is there any missing?
1. In my experiences, I would do this way;
2. What do you mean by using this term?;
3. Mental math.
In the Software industry there's a lot of consultants who graduated from Udemy academy, only gaining the learnings from an online course but being paid for their 30+ yrs unrelated / obsolete experience.
ConMan: You don't need a bank robber, you need a fake expert consultant to rob a bank and offer a core banking solution.
It is super stressfull
Hi Alexandru, yes it can definitely become stressful. Thanks for watching! Best, H
Heinrich, first of all, congratulations on your channel. Your content is not only useful for young professionals, everyone can learn something from you no matter the age!
Regarding the topic, juicy one indeed. In my opinion, unless the professional is really a specialist at a specific topic, every consultant is faced with situations like this. Some are really conmen and indeed take this too far.
However, what makes a consultant good at her/his job is the ability to quickly learn and get a holistic perspective of the company, and communicate the insights effectively. The process is key: As you said, sometimes the output is not new to the client, but the way it was obtained and communicated ensure its robustness. Sometimes clients just hire consultants to get external validation on what they already know.
Hi Manuel, thanks for your comment and your reflections! Fully agree, consultants at some point need to catch up and be in a position to really deliver value in order for them to be successful in their job. Best! Heinrich
True
Do MBB firms conduct personality screening during the hiring process? What is the preferred Enneagram type? Seems you need a balance of introvert/information gathering and extrovert/presentation aptitudes.
Hi! Have heard of many firms that do personality tests (e.g. MBTI) AFTER the hiring process / for the new hires, to help them understand team dynamics etc. Not aware of any firm that is using personality assessment for the hiring process (and thereby somewhat implying that only some personality types can be successful consultants). Best! heinrich
Hi Heinrich, really interesting video. In this context I would like to know how a consulting project is pitched to a client, i.e. what kind of expertise does the client expect?
Additionally a general video on how consulting firms pitch projects to potential clients would be interesting.
Keep up the good work! :D
I agree
Great idea!
Usually, you'll have a global expert on the topic contributing to the engagement + local partners with expertise on the sector and function (+ some more junior research or implementation experts). These are the faces that go on the "pitch deck"/proposal and are the ones that 'steer' the project with senior clients and provide the credibility that firms need to project in order be hired in the first place.
Internally, experts/partners bring benchmarks (and this "corporate espionage" is mainly what they themselves learn from the engagements) and help make sense of the information more junior colleagues collect - - this is what the internal "problem-solving sessions" are all about.
What Heinrich discusses in the video is more applicable up to the EM/project lead level, before the consultant commits to a sector or function.
Thanks for the suggestion Julian! Vicentte already contributed some great points, thanks for sharing! Indeed an interesting topic, might create a video on this in the future, stay tuned :) Best! Heinrich
@@vijq Hi Vicente, thanks for the insights ;D
Your German accent is just adorable oh my gosh
Guess I take this as a compliment ;) Thanks for watching Claude! Best, Heinrich
@@FirmLearning definitely is a compliment. I love the variety of native accents the world have to offer, especially the really strong ones like yours
Haha these are all facts
Could you tell us why you left McKinsey?
Hi Eduardo, was a mix of personal and professional reasons. Have touched on this in several videos in the past, a bit too much to answer in such a comment. Might do a more detailed video in the future - stay tuned! Best, H
A couple of these are reframing and seem above board, but #2, for example, where one actually claims to have experience in something one has only read about, seems to me to cross the line into outright lying and to be unethical.
I absolutely hate business acronyms. I don’t use them, and ask others don’t use them due to transparency issues. I swear people only use them to sound smart.
Good video. Most of the tips I already used intuitively :-)
What really helps to accelerate customer knowledge is gaining business insight about a specific industry. Of course, this is part of the experience you build in your career, but focusing on a specific industry really helps you feel confident and truly knowledgeable.
I liked the part where he said turn information into experience.❤️🌻
Thank you Ankita, appreciate it! :) Best, Heinrich
Enjoyed this video. Also…
“Get back to zeh choppah!”
:) Thanks for watching
Question re a term that you do not understand: "So, how do you see that xxxxxx impacts on/fits in with your operations?" Then listen, very carefully, to extrapolate the meaning of xxxxxx. If you ask the same question in, say, three different departments, you should quickly learn what it means.
Very valid... thanks for sharing, appreciate it!! Best, Heinrich
Love your channel mate. All your videos are very insightful and very useful in practical life. Keep up the good work 👍
Hi Suhayb, thanks for your comment! So great to hear you found the video to be helpful! Best, Heinrich
Fantastic tips. I don't think it's negative at all! Frankly, learning "how to sell" is part of every job, whether or not one likes to admit it and to different extents. Any "client-facing" job requires "salesman" tactics, and there is nothing wrong with that. That is part of the fee - the good feeling that they give you when you buy from them.
Please help me I am a fresh Publishing consultant and I am learning right now becase we need to reach the quota hehe
But honestly, it IS a bit of a con job. Own experience
Great video Heinrich! Once again, thank you very much :)
Thanks for watching Thomas, much appreciated!! Best, Heinrich
Don’t fool yourself. Big companies hire McKinsey for internal alignment/politics, not for competency. The answer is already known by the client. And McKinsey tells the client what the client wants to hear. Remember that when the client is a big company, the consultant is hired by someone smarter than them. There are internal strategy teams for the real work anyways.
Hi Tushar, agree that there is some truth to that and to some extent this might happen in some circumstances. It is not my experience though that this applies as generally as you are describing it here. Best, Heinrich
I want to point out - as someone that deals with consultants often - it is very easy for experienced professionals to see through this facade, and lose respect instantly. I would argue instead to ask questions if you don't know and take notes because it shows your willingness to learn and acknowledge the client's specific neeeds. Ask the right question and practice listening.
Thanks for sharing Raza! Definitely important to be aware of this. Best, Heinrich
Great advice, and quite funny with faking the math.
I have another 2 tips from my experience:
1) when you state an opinion, it helps if you find a person from the organization that is perceived as very competent that also shares your view. You can use this to protect against critics before they even occur by saying soon that your conclusion hav been validated by this and THAT person.
2) If you are a foreigner working in a non English speaking country where English is used as well as the country's language, USE ENGLISH in critical situations if you can decide. If you are using the firms native language, some native people will perceive you as less intelligent because of your accent and mistakes. Even many people congratulate you for good your xxx is, you will be at risk. This is something subconscious and is not xenophobia, it just happens.
Interesting insights, thanks for sharing! Best, H
Please write summary of your video as well. At times, I am so fast that I like to skim your video..a summary of your lecture with specific points, will help me remember them longer..thanks a lot for sharing ur knowledge
Thanks for the idea! Will think about it :) Appreciate you watching! Best, Heinrich
Being productive in the learing curve, that what it is all about
Problem with consultants as well as some areas of investment banking like analyst etc is they are really not skilled in anything in detail and more art of BS. Unlike a doctor or dentist or architect etc...but they had the biggest mouths of all these business terms IRR, cost of capital, beta etc but when asked to do a detailed DCF analysis or something technical they fall apart. All hot air wanting to order but not do the work...
Hi Anna, thanks for sharing! My experience is a bit more nuanced, got to know lots of highly capable people in consulting. Still appreciate your perspective ;) Best! Heinrich
Hi Einrich! Nice video :) I was wondering if it is possible to work for a consultancy firm in Germany without being completely fluent in German. What do you think? Thank you
Hi Nicolo, most large firms will want at least business proficiency in German. You might finde some boutique firms / niche roles where this is not the case. Best! H
This is very similar to technical sales. You need to be the expert and often a client knows more than you do. One thing I very try hard to NOT say is I dont know, I'll get back to you. Cliche that you're a hard worker to return with that information that's likely not important anymore. I'll say if really pressed, I'd like to put my head together with a couple of colleagues and get back to you.
Interesting observation and comparison, thanks Brett! Yes, fully trust that other types of jobs and careers face very similar challenges. Thanks for sharing! Best, Heinrich
As a lifelong consultant, this video really gives the wrong idea. What happens in 99% of cases, is that junior consultants who know nothing about the industry are on a PROJECT TEAM, and the senior team members have tons of experience and knowledge in the industry. You don't represent yourself as an expert until you've worked in that industry for several years. After that point, you're at Manager level and you have junior consultants under you who are learning on each project.
Thanks for sharing your perspective and experience, appreciate it! Best, Heinrich
Powerful tips in this one! Thank you! This is one of my favourite videos of yours that I have watched so far. I will share this with my team of marketing technology consultants. Keep them videos coming, I enjoy them very much!
Thanks for your comment and watching! Sure thing, super happy to hear the video is helpful to you and the team! Best, Heinrich