How to Succeed in Management Consulting

Let's explore five elements that make a great consultant

Some people may use the word “analytical skills” but there is so much more than that. Content skills refer to all aspects of day-to-day work of a standard consultant: From knowing how to structure complicated issues, how to crunch massive data, how to pull insights out of numerous sources, to how to logically and concisely present information on output forms (e.g: slides, reports, etc).

Let’s look at a small example of a very common situation in consulting:

Say the client gave you a wrong piece of data. A successful consultant with good content skills would immediately notice and report back to the client for revisions, saving him a lot of time and effort. On the other hand, a consultant without this skill would not notice the holes until the very end. He eventually has to change the big whole analysis and many related work branches, potentially wasting many days of working in wrong directions.

Now, assume that both consultants in the example above possess the same level of content skills. They both can tell right away that the clients are giving them the wrong data.

Clearly, what they need to do then is to contact the person-in-charge and ask him/her to revise the data. Yet, the one with better people skills will do this faster … while the other one may face all kinds of procrastination from the client, seriously delaying his workflow.

Learning in management consulting is an on-going and never-ending process (even for higher levels like managers and partners). There are always things you do not know: a new industry, geography, functions, and new people to work with, etc. And the other consultants in the firm are just as smart as you are. So, the ones who can learn harder and faster can become successful consultants.

Isn’t it impressive when it’s just the first day of the project and you can put some sharp insights about the industry on the meeting table? Remember, consulting is the business of selling brains, the better the brains perform within a time frame, the more value you can capture. The best way to “train” your brain is to fill it with a bunch of insightful input for your job. Other skills aside, those with the strongest learning capabilities go far in the game.

The term “resource” refers to all the “tools” you have to complete your tasks: and time, client’s materials, experts, and supporting teams.

In college, we usually increase output (e.g: grades) by increasing input (i.e: more study hours). However, in consulting, everybody is already maxed out. People have no room left to expand the work hours or the provided materials. So those who know how to plan ahead, communicate effectively with clients, and make the best out of existing resources are the most successful. Resources are also related to your time and health –which is finite, so keeping your workflow smooth will help you save time to maintain your best physical and emotional state.

In the example above, let’s say both consultants notice the holes and both can effectively convince the client to revise the data, one may be stuck with nothing to do in the meantime, especially when this happens at the end of a tight deadline. The other one with better resources management skills would know about this risk way before. He would organize this data-gathering task way ahead in the work plan. He has a number of working branches going on, so even with this one pauses, he and all of his resources can still be running effectively. By the time the right data comes back, he has achieved many other important insights that can enhance how he looks at it. That’s how the gap between a successful consultant and a so-so one is created.