Consulting assignments 101

Consulting assignments 101
4/20/2017 consultorama.101@gmail.com - all rights reserved 1

You can use several terms to define the work consultants perform for their
clients …
Assignment
Engagement
Case
Intervention
Mission
As a consultant, you will spend a huge portion of your time
working on 2 categories of assignments
External assignment
Internal assignment

There are 2 categories of assignments, depending on who your client is
External assignment Internal assignment
a lawful contract a moral contract
between the consultant(s) and an external client
With other consultant(s) in the firm (often a
partner)
according to which consultants allocate
resources
=
in order to deliver expert advice =
within a certain period of time =
for a given cash fee no cash fee
Most of the tips & techniques fully apply to both categories

Assignments’ 4
branches

Consulting assignments : finding the right balance between 4 key components
Approach
How shall we structure our work in order to find the
best solution to the client’s problem?
Deliverables
What outputs are necessary to durably solve the
client’s problem?
Team
What combination of experience, skills and expertise
are we going to allocate to the problem?
Price
How much shall it cost to solve the client’s problem?

Consulting approach is a bespoke cocktail, mixing a broad palette of
techniques and know-how
Project management
Anlalysis tools
Change management
Communication

Consulting assignment deliverables can take a variety of forms
▪ Market survey
▪ Benchmark
▪ Diagnostic
▪ Analysis
▪ Manage a project
▪ Design strategy, organization,
process
▪ Implement strategy, organization,
process
▪ Numerical / analytical model
▪ Application
▪ In-house software
Information Action Tool

Consulting teams are assembled for each assignment, in order to optimize
collective experience and expertise

The fee paid by the client covers a wide spectrum of costs
People Transport &
accommodation
Others
There are several invoicing modes - time based, success based or lump sum fee – which
has structuring effect on the consultant / client relationship and on the way the
assignment is managed and monitored.

Assignment is a
complex
process

Consulting assignments consist in 6 working steps, each of them of equal
importance …
Close
Plan
Prepare
Monitor &
control
Execute
Win

… even if in reality, things may not follow this path
No preparation phase No closing phase
Neither preparation nor closing
Common causes
▪ Field work starts the day after the case is won,
▪ Team members, and especially the engagement
manager, are too busy on other assignments to
initiate preparation
▪ The engagement manager prefers ‘free style’
interventions
Consequences
▪ Actions normally performed during preparation
phase will either be skipped or done after the
beginning of field work
Common causes
▪ Closing tasks not budgeted
▪ No time left or resource available at the end of
the assignment
▪ No appetite of the engagement manager to
invest time on Knowledge Management
A mixture of cases above
Consequences
▪ None for the client
▪ Consultants miss an opportunity to learn from
the past (positive & negative aspects),
▪ Further assignments will reinvent the wheel
instead of capitalizing on past experience

Each step of the process requires specific techniques and know-how
Win
Selling techniques
Financial proposal
Convince your client that you offer the best
combination of approach, people and cost

Win
Prepare
Logistics
Team training & on-boarding
Ensure that field work will take a quick & efficient
start from D1 on

Win
Prepare
Plan
Global roadmap & Workplan
Final approach
Design and formalize the outlines of the
assignment

Win
Prepare
Plan
Execute
Analysis tools, Change
management & Communication
Produce agreed upon deliverables

Win
Prepare
Plan
Execute
Monitor
Progress monitoring
Risk management
Ensure work is performed according to plan and
readjust roadmap if necessary

Win
Prepare
Plan
Execute
Monitor
Close
Post-mortem analysis
Knowledge Management
Learn lessons and prepare future assignments

… requiring
team work &
collaboration

Approach
Consulting is by essence a team work that requires diverse categories of
contributions …
Planning &
organization
Logistics
Information
processing
Consulting
techniques
1
2
3
4
5

… from all team members
Approach
Follow the approach Relay the approach to
the team
Design & adapt the
approach
Validate the approach
Logistics
Take care of day-to-
day logistics
Take care / coordinate
day-to-day logistics
Take care of sales
related logistics
Sign contracts
Planning &
organization
Make progress
feedbacks
Receive & make
progress feedbacks
Assemble the team
Keep progress in line
with commitments
Validate team mix
Handle crises
Info processing
Collect & process info Collect & process info Handle confidential
info
Handle very sensitive
or political info
Consulting
techniques
Implement Coordinate Control Take final
responsibility
Analyst Consultant Manager Partner
1
2
3
4
5

Ccontributions per ‘level’ is indicative and is adapted to the actual team mix
on the assignment
If the team mix does not include all levels in the pyramid, tasks are
distributed according to experience and expertise.
Logistics is the responsibility of the most junior staff; it is not the most
thrilling aspect of the job, but clients are often very sensitive to this
part of this aspects of assignment.
Support functions can play a precious role at all the stages of the
assignment life cycle.
But not all consulting firms have them; in small to medium firms,
consulting teams receive almost no support and must handle
everything, including logistics.
Limited team mix
Support functions

Consulting assignments 101

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