Do you speak consulting? We liked this round-up of consulting-ese published by
ConsultingFact.com

Blue-sky Thinking
It connotes thinking creatively, unconventionally, or from a new perspective. Just like the blue sky, ideas should be without limits. It is similar to the expression, "thinking outside the box".
"Each brainstorming session requires blue-sky thinking from all participants."

Boil the Ocean
Boiling the ocean suggests inefficiency when you are working on something which outcome isn't worth the effort.
"There's no need to boil the ocean for this research. We already have the necessary data at hand."

Close the Loop
In meetings, closing the loop means finishing an item on the agenda or a topic of discussion with everyone in agreement. It can also be used to describe an item still to be done.
"Let's close the loop about the pricing model."

MECE
MECE stands for Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive. This acronym originated from McKinsey. Wikipedia defines it as a grouping principle for separating a set of items into subsets, making sure that you include all relevant information without overlaps. Usually used when structuring research and presentations.
"Why don't we try MECE to analyze this scenario?"

On the Beach
It describes management consultants not getting billable projects from clients. The term derived from the idea of bumming on the beach during free time.
"Many consultants have been a lot on the beach during the recent recession."

Ping
Taken from the computer and networking world, to ping someone means to contact him or her on a matter. Generally, it is done with email, but the term can be used no matter the media.
"Can you ping me later this evening?"

Scope Creep
A management consultant is brought in to find out why a company's new marketing strategy is affecting workplace productivity. Scope creep sets in when they find out that they are also responsible for assisting on writing policies and other tasks not initially included in the project.
"Avoid the scope creep in this project."

SWAG
Stands for Some Wild-Ass Guess - an idea formulated without supporting data or facts. Often created based on experience. Another expression used with the same meaning is "POOMA" (Pulled out of my ass).
"It would not be safe to rely on SWAG completely. We must do our research for this project, as well."

Takeaway
The takeaway is the set of key points that the audience should understand by the end of a presentation or meeting. Management consultants who don't ensure their clients get the "takeaway" may not be successful.
"So, what is the takeaway of your analysis?"

View from 30,000 Feet
Viewing something from 30,000 feet means to understand a strategy, business problem or anything in a bigger picture. Because you are viewing things from a distance, you can think more strategically.
"Before we decide on pricing strategy, let's have a 30,000 feet view of the current market."

CSS Director Caroline Evans writes about an important issue in Corporate Governance.

Guy Barrand has recently written an article published in Indirect Tax Voice about BLT’s 25 years in Indirect Tax recruitment – please click here to see the article.

BLT’s home is in Chancery Lane, London. So when we open our Australian office we can save some printing costs by locating it in Chancery Lane, Bendigo (Victoria).

We thank JC, one of our newsletter subscribers, for sending us the picture. And if you see a Quality Court or a Chancery Lane on your travels, please let us know -and send us the snap.

The MCA Annual Awards ceremony attracted a 600-strong crowd of management consultants, their clients, and BLT to the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, London. We sponsored the award for the best change management project in the private sector (won by Boxwood)., We also cheered for PKF and Hudson & Yorke, two smaller consultancies who beat off the big boys to scoop awards for best international project and best outsourcing project. Top-Consultant writer Mick James caught the mood of the evening well.

BLT’s Kate Birtwistle presented the prizes .

Case study guru and strategy consultant Victor Cheng wrote this great item in his newsletter. The first part is an extract from a New York Times interview with the former head of the Bain Capital NY office, who has a new book out on the US economy. It also reveals how this ex-Bain consultant used a statistical approach to choosing his wife.

Here's Cheng’s excerpt from the newspaper (you can click through to the whole New York Times article here )

"There's also the fact that Conard applies a relentless, mathematical logic to nearly everything, even finding a good spouse. He advocates, in utter seriousness, using demographic data to calculate the number of potential mates in your geographic area.

Then, he says, you should set aside a bit of time for "calibration" -- dating as many people as you can so that you have a sense of what the marriage marketplace is like. Then you enter the selection phase, this time with the goal of picking a permanent mate.

The first woman you date who is a better match than the best woman you met during the calibration phase is, therefore, the person you should marry. By statistical probability, she is as good a match as you're going to get. (Conard used this system himself.)

This constant calculation -- even of the incalculable -- can be both fascinating and absurd."

Cheng continues:

Now, obviously not everyone from Bain actually uses this approach to choose a spouse. Some of us prefer the romance of falling in love. BUT, (and this is very important), everybody I know at MBB most certainly sees the logic behind this approach (even if they would not use it themselves) and many of them will use a similar logical approach to other aspects of their lives.

For example, you should have seen one of my former McKinsey colleagues. She was a woman who was planning her wedding and basically "estimated" how many people would attend her wedding.

She started with a list of everyone invited, estimated whether or not said person would bring a date based on their current relationship status, further estimated based on distance of travel needed what percent would actually make the trip to create an excel forecast model that estimated total headcount.

This in turn provided the assumptions for her wedding cost forecasting model which factored in the latest head count estimate and the cost per person for food.

Crazy? Maybe. Did everyone at McK who saw this, understand and at some level was secretly impressed (even if they wouldn't admit to it out loud)? Oh most definitely.

THIS is just how consultants think about things... or at least have the OPTION to think in this way when they want to. I hope this gives you a sense of the mentality MBB consultants have and how they approach (or have the option to approach) nearly any unstructured problem, and structure it in some logical way.

Is Simon Cowell right to be worried about the threat from ‘The Voice’?

I think he is; ‘Britain's Got Talent’ is tired and out-dated.

The BBC has not only captured The Voice, it’s captured the nation’s voice or, more importantly, its mood. As I watched last weekend’s showings of The Voice I was struck not only of course by the huge talent of everyone competing but - and competing is the key word - they were competing together; the contestants had to share the floor and work with each other to be their best, proving that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Similarly the judges had to share the glory and the pain. Turning over to Britain’s Got Talent, the contrast was clear. Simon had done his best to keep up and wisely ensured that a great young talent would be the first act the channel-hopping audience saw. However, it wasn’t long before a counterpoint appeared and I was faced with the usual embarrassment of watching TV that is simply cruel and voyeuristic. The Voice is reflective a new collaborative culture; Britain’s Got Talent is the equivalent of the worst of the last decade of ruthless “every man for himself” and “laugh at the losers” style of commercial exploitation. I turned over again and found The 1970s: How did the mood of that decade compare? Who can remember?

“It’s not you, it’s me”

It’s the classic fob-off that we all dread to hear, and if we do, we dismiss it as a feeble attempt to sugar-coat the truth. Really, how often is this NOT the case?

Well, today it really isn’t.

The old it’s-not-you-it’s-me line was pretty much the essence of my decision to leave BLT. But I don’t do so running away manically, blinded by the horrors I witnessed within the recruitment world. As a fresh graduate, dragging my feet into full-time employment, I found BLT exciting, nurturing and fun to be a part of, and though I have decided recruitment is not what I currently want to pursue in the long-term, all of these qualities still stand true for BLT. The team are friendly, supportive, committed and kind – everything I could have asked for in my first exposure to a professional environment. More importantly, Don and the other directors didn’t scare me away by frantically waving blank invoices and unmet sales targets in my face, wondering why I hadn’t raked in big money within my first month. They understood that it would take time, training and patience to develop good and solid skills for recruitment.

Next week I’ll be starting an internship with Amnesty International. Short of denouncing secular life for a religious calling, my next move is pretty far removed from Management Consultancy recruitment as one might imagine. But it’s a chance for me to channel what interests me academically and personally in a constructive and productive way. My want to be active and mobile, campaigning for causes I believe in, trying to deliver change in places that are long over-due would have always left me with a sense of restlessness – whether I’d been in recruitment, accounting, marketing or any other solid career path that doesn’t bemusedly ask what on earth you expected to do with a history degree. Not even a year out of university, I’ve no idea what career path I’ll carve for myself, but I’ll always know BLT is where I started to chip into my potential. As the team celebrates BLT’s 25th birthday and remain the preferred recruiter in their specialist areas, I can leave with the pride of having been part of such a successful organisation. And what with ‘BLT Deli’ and ‘BLT Snacks’ being a stones throw from my new office building, they’ll never be far from my thoughts.

Channel Four’s Peep Show has a clip 3 minutes into the programme which might amuse you about management consultancy. Here’s the conversation:

Johnson: Here's my pitch: New Management Consultancy, you and me. I'm the face, you're the, uh, tendons and the grisly shit under the surface. Whaddaya say?

Mark Corrigan: Oh my God... I don't know. Really?

Johnson: Look at you! You're like the fat girl who's just been asked to the school disco.

Mark Corrigan: Well, yeah... my only hesitation is that I don't have any actual experience of management consulting...

[Johnson shuts Mark's lips with his fingers]

Johnson: In, fire 30% of the workforce, new logo, boom! Out. You are now a fully trained management consultant.

This comes on top of the US dark comedy House of Lies, which has lines like:
"We're here to open wallets, not minds," and, "Still don't know what it is we do? Then I guess we're doing it well."

Are there any more TV references to consulting out there? Let us know.

We’re helping The Consultancy Company www.the-consultancy.co.uk recruit once more. Following our Autumn 2011 campaign for consultants, they are hiring again.

The firm have been around for almost as long as BLT, and have an interesting business model which I haven’t come across before. It’s a fee-sharing one: 70% of fees on average are redistributed to the consultant team.

They attract experienced senior managers/directors from industry and the public sector who are looking for a new career direction and want to be trained as consultants.

I like their proposition that you can do as little or as much as you want with them – a way of addressing the work/life balance issue which is the consulting industry’s big turn-off for many people.

They are now recruiting Supply Chain, Procurement and Logistics consultants. If you’d like me to put you in touch with them, email me your cv – TheConsultancyCompany@blt.co.uk

Johnson: Here's my pitch: New Management Consultancy, you and me. I'm the face, you're the, uh, tendons and the grisly s**t under the surface. Whaddaya say?

Mark Corrigan: Oh my God... I don't know. Really?

Johnson: Look at you! You're like the fat girl who's just been asked to the school disco.

Mark Corrigan: Well, yeah... my only hesitation is that I don't have any actual experience of management consulting...

[Johnson shuts Mark's lips with his fingers]

Johnson: In, fire 30% of the workforce, new logo, boom! Out. You are now a fully trained management consultant.

Just as I typed the title above, a small sigh of weariness escaped me over the inescapable buzzword of ‘social media’. Despite the impressive leaps and bounds that have been made in social media to project it to its global (and lucrative) stage, I cannot help but think one too many tech-savvy entrepreneurs are jumping on the digital bandwagon.

As a ‘consumer’ of social media and networking sites, I’m not entirely convinced on whether I’d benefit from syncing my LinkedIn profile to my Twitter account that connects to my Pinterest page which links to my Facebook that features my blog that’s connected to Foursquare. If someone were to subscribe to all of these at once, they’d know where I’m working, what I’m doing, what I’m looking at, who my friends are, what I’m thinking and where I physically am ALL HOURS OF THE DAY.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is…is it all really necessary?

In some instances, I like the way in which new modes of social media is targeted to specific needs and has directed some traffic away from the likes of Facebook. For example, I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling irritated and bored when my Facebook friends forget to make their statuses interesting, and instead I receive hourly updates on their daily routine. ‘Walking the dog’, ‘Stubbed my toe. Ow’, ‘Excited for the weekend!’ have, thankfully, largely now made a shift to the Twitter-sphere. Likewise, I can’t say I care to have my Facebook feed bombarded with pictures of kittens showcasing a variety of fancy dress, sat in cardboard boxes. Pinterest came to the rescue and now obsessive cat-lovers can seek each other out and collectively indulge in cute, feline fluffiness. Foursqaure escapes me still. I don’t personally see the appeal in constantly alerting followers of my exact whereabouts. And as for Google +, I can’t even figure out how to use it, let alone understand what it’s for.

Perhaps my disillusion with social media stems from where I am now in my life. Having graduated only last year, it was not long ago that I fled to Facebook in the face of essay deadlines. Other forms of procrastination such as FitFinder (I still mourn its abrupt end) were very much welcomed. As a student, Facebook was an excellent way to organise events, tag photos from fancy dress socials and share our desperation as we updated each other on the position of the rising sun in relation to our word counts, the morning of deadline day.

Back then, I was less concerned with an apparent need to ‘cover all bases’. But now, as a consumer, I feel a sense of information overload from all directions and a little resentment over the increasing necessity to connect one form of social media to another. I’m not contesting the effectiveness of social media (not on this occasion anyway), I just wonder how alone I am in feeling that the novelty may be wearing off.

By the way, if any of the above mentioned names went over your head, here’s social media explained: http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2011/3/16/10/social-media-explained-2911-1300286039-2.jpg

Look out for links to this blog via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and maybe even a viral version on Youtube!

With the recent sacking of Andre Villas-Boas and Roman Abramovich looking for his eighth permanent manager since buying the club in 2003, what can we in the business and recruitment world learn from the saga?

*Money doesn’t necessarily bring you success – AVB spent £82m on buying new players this season! Deep pockets may help but are no guarantee of being the leader in your field.

*Don’t bite off more than you can chew – was AVB just too young and inexperienced for such a big job, despite the fact that he had won four trophies with Porto?

*Make sure you understand exactly the nature and influence the “man in the big chair “, your very own Roman Abramovich will have before you accept a job.

*What about the team you will join and or manage – as the Chelsea saga has indicated, no amount of talent will compensate if a team doesn’t work as a team and respect the manager.

Contrast the Chelsea situation with that of Martin O’Neill – he took over at Sunderland when they were 17th (out of 20) in the Premier League on Dec 6th and they have now moved out of the relegation zone and into 12th place. He must have some lessons for us all……..

We hear a lot about “fat cats,” and the curbing of executive pay, pensions and bonus pots…..but in reality isn’t it fair to say that we need this business elite? In order for Britain to remain a strong economic power, we need the best business leaders to want to base their companies here. This business elite, directly and indirectly creates opportunities for all of us ….from the employment created to the money spent on goods and services not only by them but by those they employ.

I do take issue with executives being handsomely rewarded for failure, but for running successful, profitable businesses……then they should be well rewarded. The tax system should support this (so the 50% tax rate should go?) and we should allow the most talented business leaders to come to the UK (increasing visa restrictions will limit the leaders of tomorrow from coming to the UK to study and work).

Otherwise we are in danger of becoming seen as anti business. Some of our biggest companies will follow the lead of the Prudential which is reported to be considering relocating out of the UK in response to the restrictions imposed by Solvency II.

That’s not an attractive prospect for any of us.

It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts. But to be honest, we’re pleased to have won. Not the 100 yard dash, but the Top-Consultant readers poll for best management consultancy recruitment consultancy 2012, and Don’s individual management consultancy recruiter accolade.
A big thank you to everyone who voted. We appreciate it.

Business not as usual.

Don't think that because your business is not in East London that you won't be affected by the 2012 Games. There are a total of 22 competition venues in London and whilst many are based Stratford way, several events will take place in Central London; Hyde Park, Earl's Court, Lords and the Horse Guards Parade for instance. Transport networks throughout London will be stretched to their limits. It is estimated that there will be an extra 3.3 million journeys taking place on the busiest days of the competition. The capital will be welcoming some 55,000 members of the Olympic family (athletes, officials, sponsors, the media etc.) and 8.8 million ticketed spectators – that's a lot of people!

During the Games, the tubes, DLR and overground trains will run both more frequently and later. There'll be an extra 200 buses on the roads and the Javelin Service will shuttle people from Kings Cross to Stratford in just 7 minutes. But this won't be enough to keep London moving. Businesses should therefore be considering ways they can help alleviate the stress on the capital's transport system. They should also be planning for severe disruptions to their supply chains during the nine weeks of the Games. If you don't think your business's supply chain will be affected, think again – what about those all important deliveries of tea, toilet roll and post?

According to Rose McArthur (part of the Travel Advice for Business Team), businesses should start preparing themselves now, so that they can work around peak times and busy competition days. They should think about flexible working: who can work at home on which days and can employees travel to work at a different time, for instance come in earlier and leave earlier? Individuals should be considering different routes to work – can they walk or cycle parts of their journey? According to McArthur, it's all about 'peak spreading' – this will keep London moving during the Games, the biggest event a country can host.

For more information on what you can do as a business or an individual, visit: www.getaheadofthegames.co.uk

My thanks to Trinity College Dublin for this wise advice to non-English speakers.

It is well known that the British do not always say what they really mean. So, with the growing international nature of the business, the definitions below may help people from other nations understand their British counterparts better.

What they say - What they mean - What is understood

1)I hear what you say - I disagree and don’t wish to discuss it any further - He accepts my point of view
2)With the greatest respect - I think you are wrong (or an idiot) - He is listening to me
3)Not bad - Good or very good - Poor or mediocre
4)Quite good - A bit disappointing - Quite good
5)Perhaps you would like to think about…I would suggest…It would be nice if… - This is an order. Do it or be prepared to justify yourself - Think about the idea, but do what you like
6)Where appropriate - Do whatever you like - Do it if you can
7)Oh, by the way…Incidentally… - This is the primary purpose of our discussion - This is not very important
8)I was a bit disappointed that…It is a pity you… - I’m very annoyed - It doesn’t really matter
9)Very interesting - What a load of rubbish - They are impressed
10)Could we consider some other options - I don’t like your ideas - They have not yet decided
11)I’ll bear it in mind - I will do nothing about it - They will probably do it
12)Please think about that some more - It is a bad idea. Don’t do it - Good idea; keep developing it
13)I’m sure it is my fault - It is your fault! - It was their fault
14)This is an original point of view - You must be crazy - They like my ideas
15)You must come for dinner sometime - NOT an invitation, just being polite - I will receive an invitation shortly

And you thought it was just Consultants who used doublespeak…

It’s our 25th anniversary in 2012. If you’d like to contribute an anecdote about BLT, please get in touch.

I may have been one of BLT’s first consultant recruits but I was almost certainly the easiest!

I worked for Birmingham City Council way back in 1987 in an internal consultancy called the Management Effectiveness Unit. We had a great Chief Executive who gave me some honest career advice that I ought to see more how more organisations worked and experience the private sector. He was frankly pushing at an open door. I was only interested in Government consultancy and the market leader was Coopers & Lybrand. I had met the local Partner, Ken Crossland, when he tried to sell us an IT strategy, and I had warmed to him. So I asked Don Leslie to arrange a discussion with Ken. One week later I had met him and the lead consulting Partner in the Birmingham office. The following week I had an offer and moved. I am sure Don wished all assignments were so easy.

Alan Edwards
International Director
CIPFA

Alan Edwards went on to became a Partner at both IBM and KPMG

Any student educated at a UK university will be entitled to work under a Tier 2 visa provided the role pays at least £20k (or higher in some cases)

Any student educated outside the UK will be entitled to work under a Tier 2 visa provided the role pays as above, and the Resident Labour Market Test is satisfied (ie the role has been advertised and no UK/EU person can be found to do it.)

The Tier 2 visa is obtained from the UK Borders Agency, and the Employer issues a Certificate of Sponsorship which lasts 3 years, can be renewed for a further 2, and then the student can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.

There is no limit to the number of Certificates of Sponsorship an employer can offer to UK-educated students. For those educated outside the UK, there is currently a limit of 15,000 Certificates per month.

There is also a Tier 5 Youth Mobility visa which lasts 2 years and in issued to those under 30 from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Monaco, Japan and South Korea.

Most employers are unaware of the current rules.

You know the very last bit on your CV? Those few lines – almost an afterthought – where you write something about your outside interests and achievements?

I’ve been taking a closer look at what you’ve been putting down, and wondering What Is The Point?
In a CV you should try to present as much useful information as possible about yourself within the confines of a couple of pages of A4. So when it gets to that very, very last bit, why do you let yourselves down? What possible positive message is conveyed by “going to the cinema” or “reading”?

I remember, as a teenager, being desperate to impress at the first dinner party I’d been invited to by the parents of my girlfriend. “All you need to do is talk sensibly about the topics on the front and back pages of the newspaper” advised a friendly Uncle. (And it worked: the parents took a shine to me, even if the girlfriend decided shortly after that she didn’t.) Maybe that’s why “current affairs” and “watching sport/football/cricket ”pops up regularly on CVs – more advice from friendly Uncles. But it’s not good enough now you’re not 15.

So please: try to think of the interests and achievements - last year in high school onwards – which really say something about you, and make you distinctive. How about the charity fundraising, the reading support, the new society you founded at Uni? The team sports you captained, the community group you led? You owe it to yourself.....

‘Internship’ seems to be the ubiquitous buzz word amongst undergraduate communities, no longer contained within the somewhat more daunting world of university finalists. It’s now hardly surprising to come across first year students seeking work experience for the summer. In fact, many companies only consider students eligible for internships if they have one more year of university remaining, automatically rejecting the thousands of graduates that descend upon the UK job market every year. With youth unemployment at an all time high, internships are increasingly more of a necessity than an advantage; the competition for placements is as fierce now as the standard first-job hunt was perhaps five years ago. So are internships still worth their weight?

It is still true that internships are a good way to transition from a student environment to a professional working one and certainly offer valuable insights into business operations or a particular industry. In addition, an intern can gain new contacts, have a great selling point for their CV and could potentially leave with an offer for a full-time, post-graduate position. They might even find themselves a mentor, learn how to network effectively and leave with tangible accomplishments that prove their contribution to the host organisation.

Interest in internships, however, has reached unprecedented levels. With more graduates striving to enter the UK work force every year, budget cuts and new legislations regarding unpaid internships, opportunities are increasingly limited. Students find themselves embarking on a recruitment process almost identical to that for first-time permanent positions. The Guardian reported in November 2011 that, so far gone are the days when interns were reimbursed for lunch and travel, companies are now charging students for their months’ experience. It also revealed that selling internships had become a business in itself; the Tories last year auctioned off internships at City hedge funds. This in turn was seen as harmful to social mobility since ambitious students from poorer backgrounds could not afford to buy their way onto the career ladder.

Is it really reasonable for employees to make unpaid work experience during or after university a prerequisite for future employees? With escalating debts and living costs, many students use the summer and Christmas holidays for paid work that has no direct bearing on their future careers. In fact, the vast majority of students won’t have figured out the path of their professional life by the age of 20, and so hold off on applying until they have a better idea of what they might do. That can be a risky gamble in itself; once you’ve missed the internship boat, it’s harder to climb aboard once you graduate. One might think that leaves the option of graduate schemes. Not necessarily so. Big employers that offer the best grad schemes will often require prior experience as well as the usual 2.1 degree from a good university. For those who revert back to grad schemes a few years out of university could find that their irrelevant experience can be held against them for not showing the right kind of ‘commitment’ and ‘enthusiasm’.

Internships used to be a great way to research a potential profession or to try your hand at something new. But now the emphasis seems to be on ‘what prior experience do you have?’ Where should companies draw the line? How early are students now expected to start considering their careers? How will this coupled with the current economic climate shape the future of internships and their merits?

I read in this week’s Independent on Sunday that there is a new craze sweeping America and now heading to the UK – ‘sweatworking’ – networking whilst working out!

Apparently business people are now taking their clients to the gym instead of lunch and literally sweating out the details of their contracts.

So, if your New Year resolution is to get fit, is this such a bad idea?

Whilst I appreciate gyms aren’t for everyone, Fitness First is soon to launch a structured business breakfast networking meeting at which people will have the chance to meet and greet one another, attend a spin class, and network at the juice bar. If this proves successful I suspect others will follow.

I for one would love to try it. Let’s face it, most of us battle to incorporate more exercise in to our weekly routine and we all feel the guilt when we over-indulge at the traditional ‘boozy lunch’.

To me ‘sweatworking’ offers a healthy alternative and an opportunity to engage with people on another level.

So my question to you as you read this is, ‘sweatworking: are you fit enough?’ If any of the BLT contacts want to try it, let’s give it a go, it could be a new craze for our monthly breakfast seminar!