Consulting

Consulting readiness programs are most favored amongst consulting analysts and entry-level consultants. So if you are an aspiring consultant, this article might be of good value to you.

Every consultant would have gone through this training program at some point in time early during their career. Large consulting organizations invest heavily in their resources. The commitment that consulting organizations show towards training and continuous learning is truly inspiring. One such effort is the consulting readiness program.

What do they teach at consulting readiness program?

While a consulting profile requires many attributes, the consulting readiness program focuses on specific training areas that are considered key for consulting. Do keep in mind, that consulting readiness programs are not focused on grooming you into a consultant from scratch. These programs are meant for individuals who already have some industry experience and knowledge and would like to leverage those in the world of consulting. Now let us look at a few key attributes from a consulting readiness program.

a) Mind Mapping – Mind mapping is a popular exercise taught in consulting. Mind mapping is the process by which you map various tasks and activities of an idea in a visual structured form. Usually when mind mapping is completed, the resulting diagram looks like a big banyan tress with tons of roots hanging down. More often in consulting, you are always dumped with information. This exercise will effectively allow yo to filter the right information, map them to the basic idea / concept or business problem. It is intended to better structure a consultant’s thoughts and represent it.

b) Problem definition / Defining a problem statement – Another key area of consulting is understand a problem. Usually in consulting projects, you may be faced with situations where, you are thrown to the client and are required to identify their problems. These problems often tend to become independent consulting opportunities for the firm. So it is critical that when presented with a set of statements in a given business situation, a consultant is able to understand and identify the core problem (s) that the client is facing. This exercise is as close as it can get to consulting world.

c) Problem solving through case studies – Now a lot of us might think, this is a pain. But case studies are often a wealth of information and learning. I wouldn’t think there could be a consulting readiness program without case studies. Again depending on what you are being trained for, the cases studies would differ. As always you are dumped with a wealth of information in these case studies and as a consultant or an analyst you are expected to identify and understand business problem to come up with potential solutions. If you do not like case studies, then you may not like consulting

d) Communication skills – As I have always emphasized communication plays a vital role in consulting. As a part of the consulting readiness training program, you could very well expect role plays and case studies that focus exclusively on testing and developing your communication skills.

e) Power point skills – Thanks to Microsoft, the life of a consultant revolves around power point presentations. In consulting, like case studies, there is no escape from power point presentations. There are plenty of articles and options on presentations. In fact, there are some cool tips and tricks that one could learn in effectively using power point in the world of consulting through this program. Of course, some organizations have skill development exercises exclusively focused on power point skills. These may help you better.

All the attributes above belong to a mother characteristic of structured thinking and problem solving. So key is to develop structured thinking and problem solving capabilities in consulting. You can also expect to have other activities like team building, role play decision-making etc that may get added to the exercise depending on the day and the sessions post lunch.

Do consulting readiness program really live up to expectations?

Like every other learning program, the effectiveness of consulting readiness programs varies with participants. The focus of these programs are provide you with elementary direction on how to proceed and tune your thoughts to the world of consulting. If your expectation is that these programs stand-alone would help you become an exceptional consultant, then you may be in for a disappointment. Consulting readiness programs are enablers that allow a candidate to learn and shape their consulting careers better. The key word being “better”. This means, you already need to be good in certain aspects of consulting and this program would help you become better consultants

If you are entering the world of consulting then you may find these programs to be of great interest. But like every other walk of life, irrespective of what you learn, unless you are willing to apply them in your area of work or life, the skill set would die with time. So good luck. Ensure you learn as much as you can and apply them in all walks of life and work. Happy consulting!

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There are many ways in which You may Save Money by utilizing Virtual Consulting, Virtual Consultants and a Virtual Consulting Firm to help you satisfy your business needs!

In this article we will briefly discuss the Top 7 Ways in which You may Save Money by utilizing Virtual Consulting, Virtual Consultants and a Virtual Consulting Firm to help you satisfy of your business needs, OK?

The first three (3) Money Saving items, below, are ways in which You may Save Money by utilizing Virtual Consulting and Virtual Consultants relative to the costs of utilizing “traditional” consultants that you or they require that they work at your site/facilities. You should be able to realize these Significant Money Savings whether utilizing independent Virtual Consultants and/or Virtual Consultants from a Virtual Consulting Firm, namely:

1) You Save Money on Travel and Living Expenses

By utilizing Virtual Consultants who work remotely/virtually from wherever in the world they happen to be, you don’t have to pay all of the travel and living expenses generally if you or the consultant requires that they work at your site/facilities, you know?

These travel and living expenses, you save by utilizing Virtual Consultants, may include any to all of the following:

* Airfare

* Rental cars

* Hotels

* Meals

* Per Diems

* Etc.

And some “traditional consultants” will even bill you for all of the time they spend traveling to/from your site and their “home/base”, you know?

All of these travel and living expenses can really mount up when you have to fly each consultant in and out to your site(s) every week for potentially months on end!, you know?

Virtual Consultants provide you their consulting services remotely/virtually. This means you don’t incur any of these types of travel and living expenses by utilizing Virtual Consulting, you see?

So …

How much money would it immediately save you if you didn’t have to pay all of these travel and living expenses for each/all of the consultants you may wish to engage to help you satisfy your business needs?

2) You Save Money on Facilities

Virtual Consultants work from their own offices, homes and/or wherever they happen to be.

Therefore, you do not have to provide facilities, e.g. offices, conference rooms, telephones, etc. for any of the Virtual Consultants you utilize, you know?

How much money might you save by not having to provide the facilities for each/all of the consultants you may engage to help you satisfy your business needs?

3) You Save Money on Computer and Office Equipment

Virtual Consultants use their own computers and office equipment to perform their consulting services for you.

Therefore, you do not have to provide additional computer or office equipment for any of the Virtual Consultants you utilize to use, which a traditional consultant would likely need to use while working at your site. Further, none of your staff has to spend their time setting up, configuring and/or cleaning up computers and/or networks just for your consultants to use at your site, you know?

How much money would you also save by not having to provide and manage all of the additional computers, networks and office equipment for each/all of the consultants you may engage to help you satisfy all of your consulting needs?

The next two (2) Money Saving items, below, are additional ways in which You may Save More Money by utilizing Virtual Consulting and Virtual Consultants versus having to recruit, hire, employ and your own employees to provide these services, complete these projects and/or tasks to satisfy your same business needs, namely:

4) You Save Money on your Human Resources

Why have to carry employees on your payroll all the time, when you may only need their particular skills, talents, and/or experience for particular tasks, projects and/or part of the time?

Why not just pay for the resources with the skills, talents, and/or experiences you need just when you need them, e.g. to complete a particular task or project?

Virtual Consulting provides you with with access to a “Just In Time (JIT)” flexible workforce. You can engage just the Virtual Consultants that you need and just when you need them to complete your particular tasks and projects. These resources then don’t cost you anything when you aren’t using / don’t need them!, you know?

Further, by utilizing Virtual Consultants, you don’t have to pay all of costs associated with providing all of the benefits that you would have to when employing your own full time employees, you know?

So …

How much money would you also save by utilizing Virtual Consultants and not having to carry all of the employees on your payroll all the time, from whom you may only need their particular skills, talents, and/or experience for particular tasks, projects and/or part of the time?

5) You Save Money on Recruiting and Hiring

Having access to this type of flexible workforce of Virtual Consultants also allows your business to Save Money by being able to more efficiently and effectively “ramp up” or “scale back” your human resources with all of the “ebbs” and “flows” of your business, you know?

You don’t have to incure all of the additional costs of posting jobs, recruiting candidates, hiring and training new employees to address seasonal variations in your business, new projects and/or unexpected increases in your business that may not last forever, right?

You may quickly and easily engage all of the Virtual Consultants to more efficiently and effectively match your human resources with your business needs at any time! and Save Money in the process, you know?

The final, for now, two (2) Money Saving items, below, are additional ways in which You may Save even More Money by engaging a Virtual Consulting Firm who provides all of the Virtual Consultants and Virtual Consulting services to satisfy your business needs, versus having to recruit, hire, employ and your own employees to provide these services and satisfy these same business needs, namely:

6) You Save Money finding the Right Resource for the “Job”

Do you realize how much time, effort and money it costs you to find the right person to successfully perform a particular “job” / complete a particular project or task?

It has been my experience as both a corporate hiring manager and as the Principal of a consulting firm, that the Pareto principle, more commonly known as the 80/20 Rule, applies in these situations as well! This means that for every position for which you are trying to hire an employee or find the right consultant, and in each phase of this process, only 20% of the people you interview or hire/engage will be the right person for that job or task. That means that you are likely to hire/engage up to five (5) different people before you find the right/best person for that job or task. Spending all of this time and effort to find this one (1) right person may be very time consuming and very costly!, you know? And you have to start all over with this whole process each time you need to replace someone for whatever reason, you know?

You may avoid all of this lost time, effort and these costs by employing a Virtual Consulting Firm that takes care of all of that for you! A good Virtual Consulting Firm will find the right person for each job, task or project for you! Further, a good Virtual Consulting Firm will replace any consultants as needed, for whatever reason, completely transparently to you!

So …

How much more time, effort and Money will this Save You by engaging a Virtual Consulting Firm to provide you with the right person for each job, task or project you need for your business?

7) You may Save Significant amounts of Money on Consulting Rates

Even many independent Virtual Consultants may offer you significantly lower rates for their consulting services if they are able to remotely/virtually simple due to the benefits of Virtual Consulting to them and their strong preference to be able to work from wherever they want, you know?

A good Virtual Consulting Firm may further be able to offer you lower rates for the specific consulting services you need to satisfy your specific business needs. They are able to offer you these better rates by having access to many Virtual Consultants of various levels, skills and experiences such that they may match the right consultants with the best rates for your specific requirements and business needs, you see?

Further, a Virtual Consulting Firm is itself typically a virtual organization, they generally don’t have the traditional overhead of facilities, etc. and are able to capitalize on all of the aforementioned Money Saving benefits. Therefore, they are able to pass these savings on to you in the form of lower consulting rates, and you ultimately Save More Money!, you see?

So …

Given all of these ways, discussed herein, in which you may Save Money by utilizing Virtual Consulting, Virtual Consultants and a Virtual Consulting Firm, Just think of all of the Money You may Save by starting to utilize Virtual Consulting, Virtual Consultants and a Virtual Consulting Firm to help you satisfy your business needs Today!

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