Diagnosing and Planning


Overview/Description
Target Audience
Expected Duration
Lesson Objectives
Course Number


Overview/Description
Your success as a consultant depends on your ability to diagnose each situation correctly. You need to use your previous experience, and bring fresh ideas to every new contract. Frameworks and models help you to make an effective diagnosis. They help you to evaluate the strategic position of the client organisation, which is vital. To deliver solutions that are relevant and appropriate to the client's particular business, you must have a knowledge of the organisation. Each organisation is unique: there are different people and different challenges. One size does not fit all. You cannot respond to each and every organisation in the same way. Rapidly learning about the peculiarities of each business is one of the biggest challenges that you face. Take the time to plan what you deliver to clients. Time spent planning implementation--the resources and budget that you'll need--can help to prevent problems arising during delivery.

Target Audience
Anyone with some specialist knowledge and general management experience who has recently moved, or is considering moving, into external consultancy

Expected Duration (hours)
4.0

Lesson Objectives

Evaluating the Strategic Position

  • recognise the benefits of evaluating the strategic position of an organisation before making recommendations.
  • determine whether identified factors are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats.
  • use Porter's Five Forces model to analyse an external consulting scenario.
  • differentiate between the key elements of Rogers and Levitt's Product Life Cycle model.
  • make an appropriate recommendation for a hypothetical business situation, using the Product Life Cycle model.
  • identify the different parts of the Boston Matrix.
  • make appropriate recommendations for a specific consulting scenario, using McKinsey's Seven S's model.
  • recognise the different elements of a Value Chain model.

    • Planning and Implementation

  • recognise the value of planning delivery thoroughly for any consulting assignment.
  • match examples of resources management with remedies for shortfalls.
  • make appropriate decisions to ensure effective resources management, in a specific consulting scenario.
  • distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate ways of managing a consulting budget.
  • analyse the success of a given external consulting project using a profit and loss statement.

    • Course Number:
    CONS8113