Tips for the consultant

Here are few points that I have developed over observing external consultants come in and give seminars. I have seen some impressive people, which made me salute them inside and I have seen some whom I just wanted to ask, “Why did you even join consulting, this does not suit your personality.”

I’ve been making notes on what I should do and shouldn’t do if I am in their shoes.

I was looking up my notes this morning and thought I would post some of them.

Here they are:

• Go to basics

Go to the basics. Ask questions like, “Why are you here” “why did they hire you” “what is the goal of this business” what is the one differentiating factor between you and your competitor”. These questions startle your audience and leads them to a little introspection. I have found that these questions also help when you are trying to motivate individuals.

• Dress like the people:

Blend into the people. Do a little research. Wearing a suit and counseling a group of manufacturing supervisors actually distances you from them. The consultant I felt the most affinity with, actually wore jeans and a rugged work shirt. He was just dressed like the supervisors and they lapped up everything he said.

• Don’t show that you are the smart ass

Don’t try to show them that you are the smartest guy in the room and a know all. Don’t make yourself the center of attraction. Turn the focus lights on them. They are the superheros for the day. Make them feel good and make them like you, fast.

It is more important to be liked and a part of them than to be the smartest guy in the room. Coming back to my age old principle, “ People listen to you only when they like you.” And if they don’t like you, spell out the secret of the holy grail, no one cares.

Following it up with another line that has been very useful to me over the last couple of months “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

• Repeat people’s words and quote their names

Eg: Like Chris rightly said a while ago, the customer is the most important person on the line. Everyone knows that the customer is the most imp person, but by crediting a person in the group to that statement you turn a person of the group into your favor and make him feel proud.

• Show them the future

Show them a dream, a vision of how the whole organization would look 1 year from now with the proposed changes. Eg: A year from now, you would be so high up in your industry that your competitor would just be satisfied to be the number 2. Atleast I bought into the idea, when he described how our plant could look with the changes.

ISB's genesis and the interesting twists behind it

An interesting story about the Genesis of ISB.

Here is an interesting interview by Pramath Sinha.
Interesting points:

>>How he became the unintended founder of ISB atthe last minute

>>How founding a B-School is also like an entrepreneurial activity?

>> Did you know that ISB was born in a McKinsey Lab?

>> How the campus of ISB shifted from Mumbai to Hyderabad ( which was not even in the scheme of things)?

>> What is the role of Bal Thackeray in the founding of ISB??

Here are some excerpts:

"At that time there was the Shiv Sena and BJP combined government, with the Shiv Sena being the power behind the scenes. And so our board member said, "Hey we all know Balasaheb [Shiv Sena, founder Balasaheb Thackeray]. We'll just go and talk to him and sort this out."

Unfortunately, they went to see him at a time when he was having a big gathering at his place. So there was an occasion to grandstand, and the press was there. So in front of all of these people he made a big deal about how the best business school in the world was going to get built in Bombay, and that they were involved in it and there would be 10% reservations for Maharashtrians by the way, and 50% for employees. And this came off the cuff, from the blue, and it was the next day published in Mid-Day, and it was all over.

This was clearly unacceptable to us. We had always said very clearly that this was going to be completely merit of credit. Can you then support the needy candidates? We will never allow any sort of reservation."


"So it was to put competitive pressure on Bombay, but never really to leave Bombay that we wrote a note to all chief ministers and chief secretaries around the country. Well, not all, but Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gurgaon, Haryana, and we said, "Listen, we are these guys, we have the partnership, we have the school, this is our vision, these are the people on our board," from Ratan Tata to Ambanis, to Bajajs, to Mahindras, to Parekhs and Kamath, and Lakshmi Mittal. By then the whole board was there. "And please see if you can give us appropriate land. We are looking for 100 acres of land."

And so one monsoon morning we flew from Bombay to Hyderabad, to Bangalore, to Chennai. But the first place we landed was in Hyderabad, and we were completely floored by the hospitality of Naidu [Andhra Pradesh's chief minister at the time, Chandrababu Naidu].

Now it is much more built up than then, and amazingly open, and he said, "Two hundred fifty acres is yours," and, "I will give you plus one of whatever anybody else offers. And we just knew that this was the right place and the right thing to do. And we came back from that trip. I remember we did a teleconference, and the board approved within a few months. We had possession of 250 acres of land which is prime land today for a business school."


Dude..!! Hats off to Naidu... he was a visionary. Can't comment on his political strategies, but he sowed the seeds for technology in Andhra Pradesh, for which Congress is reaping the rewards.

Anyway, read the entire interview here in Wharton's website: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4399

IDEA Design awards 2009..!!! my Oscars..

As you probably already know that I am an avid fan of product design. I get blown off by new design ideas for the simplest things. We take it for granted that somethings that we use are the best they can be.

And some geek comes ahead and does something so simple that its simplicity just blows us off.

The annual design awards by IDEA are my Oscars. They give me the little kick I need once in a while. I religiously look into every new design and just exclaim inside offering my kudos to the designer.

The new thing that blew me off was the Tikk-Tekk.

Was working on redesigning the stock room layout this week. I had to carry this 25 foot tape measure everywhere, measuring the racks, floor and all that crap. The tape measure is the most physical sort of measurement. You have a piece of tape with physical measurements marked on it

and then you place it along the dimension you want to measure and note down the corresponding measurement on the tape. Age old… and I thought this was the only way to take measurements.

And this morning I came across the Tikk-Tekk.

Tikk-Tekk Rainbow measuring device

Bronze Award
Category: Student Designs
Design: Guopeng Liang and Yun Li, Tongji University (China); Samsung Design Membership China (China)

Tikk-Tekk Rainbow is a low-cost universal measuring tool for the visually impaired that uses visual, tactile, and auditory feedback. A rubber plastic ring slips over each index finger. As the measuring string unwinds, the device makes an audible "tikk" sound at every centimeter and a "tekk" sound at every five centimeters. Printed digits and embossed Braille numbers also provide measurement results.

Woww..!! this is where we ought to be going. Move away from age old design and make things simpler to use with the aid of technology. Its also designed with Braille.

The best thing about it was that it was designed by a student..!!!

Look at this cool promo of the Tikk –Tekk. The mechanism behind how it operates is cool..

I thought that it was the coolest design until I saw the floater ladle. How many times I have sunk my ladles in a big bowl, only to dip my fingers in to pick the ladle up and wash it.

Hats off…to Seongyong Lee for his concept. Cant help but bow to his creativity.
This ladle cant sink..!!!

Look at this cool tape measure. Once you look at this, you cant stop thinking… “I should have thought of this.. Its so simple..”

O,EZ tape measure

Bronze Award
Category: Student Designs
Design: Jaewon Choi, Youngdo Choi, Sanghoon Lee, Jieun Myung, Samsung Art & Design Institute (South Korea)

Not just a tape measure, the O,EZ also includes a built-in pencil. When taking measurements, the retractable lead tip can accurately mark the location, leaving your hands free and avoiding the need to scramble for a pen. The hook at its center can also be secured and used like a compass to draw a large circle on a wall or surface.

This LightLane design is supercool…

A device for the bicycle rider to display its own safety lines behind the rider..

http://www.lightlanebike.com/prototpye_video.html

To look into all the winning designs by students.. peek here..

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/07/0729_IDEA_awards_students/3.htm