Consulting Company - Revenue and Cost Drivers

Revenue and Cost Drivers in a typical software services firm

Click on the link above to see the full image. This is a mind-map of the revenue and cost drivers of a typical consulting firm

IT Strategy

I just wrapped up an IT Strategy assessment for a local company here. The interesting thing for me with these kinds of engagements is the ability to learn about a new division, a new business etc. The typical process for completing an IT Strategy is simple on paper.
1. Understand the goals and objectives of the company - why are they interested in an IT Strategy now, what do they want to achieve?
2. Understand the current processes of the department(s)
3. Understand how they use technology today
4. Figure out how they can apply technology to improve their processes so that it fits in with #1 above

At a high level, that is it..However,the trick is to be able to:
1. Interview the stakeholders effectively in order to capture their processes. This is not necessarily easy
2. Have a broad, but deep understanding of current technologies, and how they can be leveraged. This means you will have to be comfortable talking about off the shelf products, custom solutions, CRM, ERP, hardware and infrastructure etc. Industry experience really comes in handy here..
3. Being able to tie the output of step 1 and the knowledge about step 2, in order to help the company with an actionable plan to realize the suggestions. How much to spend and when to spend it, and why are the key points here.
4. Get buy-in!! Understand the players, their motivations and influence and get their buy-in. Most important step.

Fatherhood

I am writing after a long break. In the meantime, Vedaant Karthik Mahadevan made his way into the world and gave me the title of 'Father'. While it feels different, it has also been a pretty awesome journey so far. Vedaant has been a very good baby. Added to that both sets of parents have been a huge help.

Problems with implementing change

As a consultant, I am frequently asked to implement change in large organizations. However, the challenges in implementing change within my current client are huge. Political issues abound. There are way too many other projects that are impacted by our proposed changes, and upwards of 100 stakeholders. All the stakeholders want to know, before anyone else, about what we plan to propose and the impact to them. Tip toeing around all of these stakeholders and keeping them happy is pretty challenging. Also, add to the fact that these stakeholders are all 19 - 20 year veterans of this company, and most of them started work when I was born..
Add also to the mix the amount of push back and need for gaining feedback and soliciting their input.
With M&A accounting and Marketing Strategy, this was one project I didn't need on my plate..

Competitive Strategy

Marc Knez's competitive strategy class did nothing for me. Haphazard and lack of any proper framework made me feel like this was not a class worth taking. At the end of the day, I am not convinced that I got out of this class everything that it promised..

Accounting

Ryan Ball's class on M&A accounting has to be one of the more tougher classes I have taken in Booth. There are way too many 50 page 10K statements to analyze..accounting for goodwill and all the intangible and tangible assets is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I am easily spending upwards of 10 hours per week and feel like I need to spend more..

Overall though, I think it gives a good picture of what goes on in M&A..from a company's strategic point of view, very insightful. Plus, Ryan Ball provides the information in a very step by step framework based manner, which is easy to follow.

Good class, I recommend taking it..