Choosing Team Members

1
Choosing Team Members

• Random drawing of members
• Sit with your team members for the duration of
  the semester
• Team building exercise
• Select project manager
• Team contract

2
Skills and Talents Worksheet

• With regard to your potential consulting career
• List things you can do
• List things you would be rather doing
• Some items will appear on both lists
• Where your true interests lie
• True passion areas determine how successful you
  are

3
Introduction to Business Information Systems
Consulting
4
What is Consulting?

• The U.S. spends 2.3 trillion on projects every
  year, an amount equal to one-quarter of the
  nations gross domestic product.
• The world as a whole spends nearly 10 trillion
  of its 40.7 trillion gross product on projects
  of all kinds.
• More than sixteen million people regard project
  management as their profession.

5
More Consulting Info

• Famous business authors and consultants are
  stressing the importance of project management.
  As Tom Peters writes in his book, Reinventing
  Work the Project 50, To win today you must
  master the art of the project!

6
Categories of Consultants

• Three categories of consultants
• Large firms consultants
• Internal consultants
• Independent consultants
• Solo (proprietorship)
• As a group (partnership)

7
What is Consulting?

• What is a consultant?
• An advisor who is in a position to have some
  influence over an individual, a group, or an
  organization, but who has no direct power to make
  changes or implement programs.

8
What is Consulting?

• The term consultant has become much maligned
  and in disrepute.
• Scenario 1
• Client What time is it?

9
What is Consulting?

• Scenario 1
• Client What time is it?
• Consultant What time do you want it to be?

10
What is Consulting?

• Scenario 2
• Client What time is it?

11
What is Consulting?

• Scenario 2
• Client What time is it?
• Consultant Give me your watch and I will
  tell you.

12
What is Consulting?

• Scenario 3
• Those who cando.

13
What is Consulting?

• Scenario 3
• Those who cando.
• Those who cantconsult.

14
Areas of Consulting

• General Management
• Planning, strategy, corporate policy
• Manufacturing
• Production control, facilities management,
  materials management
• Personnel
• Training, recruitment, employee benefits

15
Areas of Consulting

• Marketing
• New product introduction, pricing, promotion,
  sales forecasting
• Finance and Accounting
• Cost accounting, tax advice, investment
• Procurement and Purchasing
• Commodity classification, inventory management,
  stores operation

16
Areas of Consulting

• Research and Development
• Project determination evaluation, cost control
• Packaging
• Packaging machinery, design, testing
• Administration
• Office management, office planning design space
  utilization, EDP

17
Areas of Consulting

• International Operations
• Import, export, licensing, tariffs, joint
  ventures
• Specialized Services
• Catches all the many other areas
• Executive recruitment
• Test prepping, essay editing, and application
  consulting
• IT/Computer consulting
• E-Business consulting

18
Types of IT Consulting

• Contract Programmer
• Codes, tests, debugs for an hourly rate
• System Integrator
• Selects and configures hardware and software
• Custom Developer
• Develops custom software for clients

19
Types of IT Consulting

• Expert Consultant
• Advices top decision makers on policy or
  technical direction via lectures and seminars
• Technical Management Consultant
• Project management provides SDLC
• Consulting Firms Employee
• Employee of the Big Four accounting firms and
  corporations

20
Why Does Company Want a Consultant?

• Fill in the blank space

21
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?

• The need for personnel
• Put out a great amount of work over a short
  period of time
• Unique expertise on short-term or project basis
• The need for fresh ideas
• Employees too close to problem to understand all
  ramifications

22
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?

• Company politics
• For various political reasons those who
  understand the problem are not allowed to present
  it
• Consultant assumed to be more impartial and less
  likely to be influenced by company politics

23
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?

• The need for improved sales
• No business can exist without sales
• To increase sales in a short time frame
• The need for capital
• Every company needs money
• Help find sources of capital

24
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?

• Government Regulations
• If not obeyed can result in penalty
• The need for maximum efficiency
• Inefficiency leads to high costs, making prices
  noncompetitive
• The need to diagnose problems and find solutions
• You should become very adept at this

25
Why Need a Consultant Anyway?

• The need to train employees
• Business operations are becoming more and more
  complex
• The need for a complete turnaround
• Consultant troubleshoots to pull off a complete
  turnaround
• Computers and data processing

26
How Do Clients Analyze Consultants for Hiring?

• Fill in the blank space

27
How Potential Clients Analyze Consultants for Hire

1. Can you add something to companys total output?
2. Will your expertise bring company any closer to
   its goals?
3. Can you make company work more effectively?
4. Will you save company time and money?
5. Within budget, can you do a comprehensive and
   effective job?

28
Assessing Your Skills and Talents

• Aware of both strengths and weaknesses
• Type of consulting field to break into
• Take time to assess skills and talents
• In-class Consulting Skills Assessment Exercise
  Do It Now take out a sheet of paper and make 2
  columns list your strengths and weaknesses

29
What Skills Do You Need To Be An Outstanding
Consultant?

• Fill in the blank space

30
What Makes an Outstanding Consultant?

• Bedside manner
• Ability to get along with client
• Not so much what you say but how you say
• Ability to diagnose problems
• One of most significant criteria
• Ability to find solutions
• After diagnosis, suggest right course of action

31
What Makes an Outstanding Consultant?

• Technical expertise and knowledge
• Technical expertise in a field is important
• Expertise comes from education, experience,
  personal skills
• Communication skills
• Superior communication (written/oral)

32
What Makes an Outstanding Consultant?

• Marketing and selling abilities
• A good marketer and a good salesperson
• Sell an intangible product
• Management skills
• Ability to manage a business
• Ability to run projects

33
What Makes an Outstanding Consultant?

• Two groups of skills
• BIG Three and BIG Four
• BIG Three
• Communications 2. Technical command of a subject
  3. Ability to get along
• BIG Four
• 1. Analytical skills 2. Sensitivity to others
• 3. Tolerance for lifestyle 4. Strong personal
  drive

34
Minimum Six-Figure Consultant

1. Eat, drink, and breathe customer service
2. Keep up with latest changes in your field of
   expertise
3. Develop ability to identify problems quickly
4. Look for creative ways to solve problems
5. Use excellent communications skills

35
Minimum Six-Figure Consultant

1. Be 100 confident that you will succeed
2. Be professional in everything you do
3. Be a people person
4. Be the best manager you can be
5. Give clients more than they expect

36
Skills and Talents Worksheet

• Outstanding job skills possessed
• Specialized education and training possessed
• Special licenses possessed
• What most do you like about present job
• What you have been told that you do extremely
  well

37
Marketing YourselfNaming Your Business

• What is in a name?
• Plenty, esp. if you want your business to be
  successful
• Choose names carefully
• Portray an aura of professionalism
• Stay away from cutesy names
• Must contribute effectively to your marketing
  approach

38
Naming Your Business

• Should name of practice contain your name?
• Advantage
• Clients like personal touch
• Should name of practice precisely and and
  immediately communicate the services that you
  provide?

39
Naming Your Business

• Examples
• Telephone Marketing Consultants
• Preciseness locks you into predetermined market
  and service
• Hindrance to expand your services later
• Should the company name cause others to view your
  practice as being a public-interest, non-profit
  organizations?

40
Naming Your Business

• Examples
• The Center for _____________
• The ___________ Resources Center
• The Institute for the Study of ___________
• The Alliance to ______________
• Advantage
• Prestige, lends credibility
• Field important enough to warrant founding of an
  institute or center

41
Naming Your Business

• Using fictitious names other than your business
  names?
• Advantages
• On retirement or withdrawal from business, you
  can sell your assumed name but keep your
  corporation
• Helpful for trial efforts. If they flop, no harm
  done

42
Developing a Brochure

• As part of marketing plan
• Entire career depends on it
• Describes what you have accomplished and what you
  can do for client
• Concentrate on your past successes

43
Developing a Brochure

• Five issues to be addressed
• Should clearly convey your services
• Should tell customers why you are best
• Should give a few reasons why you should be hired
• Should include brief bio information
• Should include info about your other clients

44
Brochure for Your Consulting Firm

• Develop a brochure to market yourselves to your
  client