General Information
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Target Audience
The course is intended both for students interested in management consulting as a career, as well as those students interested in corporate problem-solving more generally. It provides the foundation and pre-requisite insights for the project courses in Management Consulting such as the Management Consulting Practicum, as well as for the Capstone course. It is primarily targeted at full time students at the end of their first year MBA and part-time MBA students who wish to understand specific consulting tools, how to manage client projects and/or plan a consulting career. The learnings from this course are broadly applicable across business functions and industries, and are therefore not only relevant to consulting, but also valuable in corporate strategy assignments or business development challenges.
Format
Two 2-hour classes weekly over 6 weeks in Term 4. The course start date on March 11th and the last class will be on April 18th. Please see the elective course list on Quercus for the detailed schedule and location.
Course Mission
Strategy consultants help organizations analyze and solve some of their most challenging business problems. These problems are typically ill-defined and cross-functional, with clients frequently holding conflicting views on the situation. This course will help students to develop structured problem-solving, and work on their communication, team and influencing skills that will help to bring clarity and structure to the business problem and identify appropriate solutions.
Course Scope
The emphasis in this course is on developing problem-solving skills, with additional focus given to teamwork and communication skills. It will be organized around the phases of a typical consulting engagement: problem definition, problem structuring, data gathering and analysis, synthesis and recommendations development and presentation. Students will learn and practice specific consulting tools and principles associated with each of these phases, such as issue trees, hypothesis-driven problem solving, client communication and team management.
This skills-development course emphasizes hands-on practice and will involve a combination of lectures, breakout exercises, individual and team assignments. A number of guest speakers will provide real life experiences and perspectives of the consulting industry, being a consultant or perspectives from a client.
Evaluation and Grade Breakdown
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Class Participation (Individual) | 20% |
| Team (Group) Project Assignments | 40% |
| Individual Assignments (during the course, and a final paper) | 40% |
Required Resources
There is no textbook. The course package will contain cases and articles and will be available for purchase prior to the course. Other reading materials will be posted on Quercus.
Recommended Book (not mandatory):
- The McKinsey Mind, Rasiel & Frida, McGraw Hill, 2002 9 (Relevant pages that are required pre-reading for the classes will be posted on Quercus)