The need to increase revenue per employee (*see footnote) and the number of management consultants in the IT industry is both an opportunity and a challenge for technology and subject matter experts. On one hand, they would do well to pick up some management consulting skills, progress beyond routine technology or engineering roles and get into management consulting. They can travel the world, work on a broad range of assignments, get exposure to different industries, and interact with senior management in client organizations. But on the other hand, are they ready to become management consultants yet?

Consulting deliverables are not pre-defined unlike technical deliverables. For example, an engineering firm knows exactly what to do when a motor company asks them to manufacture steering assembly parts. However, when this motor company wants to improve their steering assembly, it would be difficult for them to respond because technologists think in terms of finite and familiar solutions.  Their typical response would be to ask for more information from the client or put in a bid with a list of their past success stories and hope to win the contract.

A consulting firm on the other hand will take a solution development approach. As a first step, test their cars on different terrains, conduct a consumer satisfaction survey, study what steering technologies are available, and analyze the motor company’s strengths and weaknesses. As a second step come up with a set of options with cost benefit analysis and present it to the management. Finally, guide them on selecting the best option to create the final project plan.

How does one make a transition from a technologist to a management consultant? Getting an MBA will certainly help. After all, all leading consulting firms seem to prefer a combination of an engineering degree with an MBA. This is because Business Schools provide a foundation in business studies and cultivate analytical thinking through working on case studies and project work. Though in my opinion, it is not enough.

If you are considering a career in consulting, you should develop this analytical thinking ability with a passion. Interview process in consulting companies is quite heavily slated towards testing this ability. A method called hypothesis based issue analysis can help you strengthen this capability. Seasoned consultants literally live by this tool.

This tool allows a consultant to avoid the ’solution first’ trap. To explain this, take the example of a good detective. Before she arrives at the murder scene, she will think of the motives. Who would want Mr Nanda dead? Did he have a large insurance policy? Did he have enemies? Was he in financial trouble? Or was it simply a petty thief who got caught in the act? The detective would create an exhaustive list of possibilities or hypothesis. Then she will arrive at the crime scene and systematically eliminate or validate each hypothesis on the basis of evidence or information she gets.

With hypothesis based issue analysis, a consultant does not fall prey to accept issues at face value. Issues can be symptoms or imaginary problems just like the detective who could have encountered decoys and misleading information. A good consultant always relies on his trusted hypothesis tool to get to the root cause of the issue.

The second area to develop is the ability to inspire confidence and develop a relationship of trust with clients. To do this consultants always go the extra mile. They deliver more than what they promised and delight the client. Consultants typically end up spending 20 pc to 30 pc more time over the official billing hours.

Consultants will always let the clients take the credit for success. Since good consultants always work with client teams, this is not that much of an anomaly. When Tata took over Corus, did anyone read anything about any consultants doing a great job in the newspapers? So whenever you see large M&A deals, spin-off, IPO or when Apple launches their next cool product, think of the unsung heroes behind those successes. On the flip side this is how client-consultant relationships are built and repeat business starts to flow in.

Technologists are hired for their knowledge but consultants are hired for their ability to solve problems. It’s not what you know but its what you can figure out. Typically 80% of a consultant’s time is researching, analyzing and determining root cause of issues. 20 pc of the time is then spent on developing a solution. Each consulting engagement situation is different; there are no cookie cutter approaches. It’s all down to thinking out of the box and being creative in developing solutions once the root cause is known.

Which brings us to the next tool in the consultant’s toolbox known as ‘frameworks’. Frameworks are structured methods to arrive at solutions. A good framework has two important qualities. The solution you develop using a framework should have ‘client acceptance’ and that it is ‘viable and practical’.  To best explain a framework lets go back to how the consultancy firm had taken a ‘framework’ approach to developing an improved steering assembly. If you go back and read the stepwise approach the consultancy used, they took into account the motor manufacturers limitations, strengths, and technology available to jointly arrive at the most optimum solution.

In job interviews, Consultancy firms will ask framework (or case interview) style questions to see how good you are at thinking out logical steps to arrive at your answer. A typical framework question might be “How much rice is consumed in India per year?” A bad answer is a direct guess. A better answer is to start with the population of the country, then break it down per region, then estimate the age groups, then the eating habits, then household income, and finally make individual estimate per region, and income groups to aggregate the final answer. Thinking it out in small steps towards a final answer wins more points.

There are also well known generic frameworks. For example the BCG Growth Share matrix suitable to assess an organization for investment or divesture, McKinsey’s 7S and Kaplan’s Balanced Scorecard for improving organization effectiveness. In interview questions (and relevant to real live consulting engagement also) you may be asked to solve a case where the application of generic frameworks is appropriate.

For example, you could be asked how you can help a company analyze where to invest for growth. Here BCG Growth Share matrix may be quite appropriate but not always. It really depends on the situation data given to you. There are no rules or ’standard methods’ in consulting. It’s a paradigm shift for professionals in India, particularly in the IT and ITeS industry where process is followed to the letter.
The best way to practice creative thinking skills in would be to work on live consultancy projects such as market research studies, competitive landscape analysis, consumer behavior data analysis through secondary and primary research. Most leading B-Schools have consulting societies. You can create one at your school if you do not already heave one. Enter into competitions hosted by leading Business Schools on writing business plans. If you can write winning ‘go to market’ strategies in your business plans then you are good at frameworks. The more creative and original your strategy, the more likely you are to succeed as a consultant.

Indian professional services landscape is set to see a big change in the next decade. To compete with other emerging economies such as China, Brazil, and Russia she will need to move from standard well-defined engineering and technical solutions to Research & Development, Program Management, and Management & Technical Advisory Services. All of which will require creative thinking, relationship development and problem solving skills. In other words, India will need lots of professionals with consulting skills.

Some recommend reading and references. The McKinsey Way by Ethan Rasiel, The Trusted Advisor by David Maister and Management Consulting by Sugata Biswas & Darryl Twitchell.

* Typical consulting billing rates are 3 to 5 times higher than
corresponding engineering roles. Rising costs in India from salaries
and infrastructure costs are forcing service providers to enter
consulting markets. The one big barrier today is lack of “consulting
talent” in India.

Saibal Sen is the founder of ZENESYS, a professional services
training organization. ZENESYS has trained hundreds of engineers in
consulting skills at leading consulting organizations in India and
abroad.  ZENESYS also runs distance workshops for consulting
certification. Saibal was formerly a management consultant at Arthur D.
Little and founder of KUBER consulting in Boston MA. He can be reached
at ssen@zenesys.in

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