Strategic Management Consulting


Aims

  • Think like a top tier strategy consultant! Yes, you can learn the proven successful structured problem solving methods and techniques that are the hallmark of the world’s top tier strategy consulting firms. In this course you develop the know-how and skills to successfully apply these methods and techniques. You will learn to:
     
    • identify the client’s competitive strengths and weaknesses
    • diagnose the real strategic issues  
    • develop effective strategies to solve such issues
    • create a process for executing the strategies with big impact   
    • present findings in a clear and coherent manner
    • convince top managers and other important stakeholders of your conclusions
     
    The structured problem solving skills that you develop will be highly valuable for you in any career you choose to pursue. If you do not seek a career in strategy consulting but would like to become a manager or an entrepreneur, these skills can help you solve problems yourself as well as better understand strategic advisors.
    Last but not least, there will be an opportunity to put this structured problem solving approach in perspective with other problem solving techniques through discussion based on academic and philosophical arguments.

Information

In contrast to the academic theories and techniques that you have already learned, practical structured problem solving methods and techniques, although highly effective, are not widely diffused beyond the top tier firms. Both lecturers have worked for such firms. They will share their knowledge with you as much as possible. It goes without saying that any proprietary or confidential information is excluded from the course. 
 
You will learn how to identify the client’s real strategic issues instead of assumed issues. Next, you develop the skills to ‘structure’ these issues, and drill down to uncover valuable insights that other people miss. You will also learn to develop and verify hypotheses about these issues and about the strategies that can be used to solve those issues. Moreover, the lecturers teach you how to custom-design analyses that go beyond the off-the-shelf analytical frameworks. In addition, you learn how to deal with the realities of real world strategic analysis. This can involve client situations of uncertainty and lack of data as well as settings where you are ‘swamped’ with data.  Furthermore, you develop the skills to design clear presentations and convincing argumentation for the boardroom. Last but not least, you will develop a better understanding of the people-side of strategy consulting and learn how to translate strategies into actions that create real impact. Besides training you in the approach of the top tier strategy consulting firms, the lecturers also highlight the academic perspective to help you develop insight in how this practical approach relates and compares to the academic theories and techniques that you have learned at university.
 
Format
The course starts with two days of interactive workshops that together provide a jump-start for acquiring problem solving skills and techniques. This will quickly prepare you for the assignments and the consulting project. In two subsequent classroom sessions you will present and discuss case assignments. These cases are based on real-life situations and provide you with the opportunity to develop your skills and increase your understanding of strategy consulting in a broader context, both academically and in a real world setting. Besides these assignments, you will work in small groups on a field project of your own choice. During the project you will be coached by the lecturers, who will provide you with detailed and specific feedback at milestones. At the end of the project you will present and discuss your findings with a panel consisting of your coach and representatives from top tier strategy consulting firms.
 
Grading
The largest part of your grade is determined by the field project on which you work in small groups. The field project will be graded in various ways. First, at two milestones the lecturers grade your interim-report. Second, your presentation and discussion with the panel will be graded. Third, you will receive a grade for your final report.
Another part of your grade is determined by your performance in solving case assignments during the workshops and the two subsequent sessions.
Lastly, the lecturers will grade (the quality rather than quantity of) your participation in these workshops and sessions where critical discussion of the cases and techniques presented is encouraged. It goes without saying that your attendance is essential.  
 
Lecturers
Marc Baaij is an associate professor of strategic management. In the past, he worked for The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), as a strategy consultant and later as a manager of research for the Dutch office. Besides his scientific research and education activities, Marc provides post-experience training and strategy consultancy. He (co-) authored various books on the structured problem solving methods and consulting. In 2014 Marc’s latest book came out, titled: An Introduction to Management Consultancy (London: Sage).
Jacomijn Klitsie is a lecturer in strategic management. She is completing her PhD research for which she worked at RSM and the University of Cambridge (UK). In the process she has become an expert when it comes to the requirements for institutional change and the strategic issues of innovative organizational forms. Before turning to the academic world she worked at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants where her function involved both research and consultancy activities.

Assessment

Mixed form(100%)

Consulting project (60%); assignments (30%%); participation (10%)

Materials


A selection of academic and managerial articles