Midterm - Management Consulting

Who came up with the business model canvas ?

Alexander Osterwalder

Which of the following sections would you expect to find in a management consulting proposal:

Approach, Financial Proposal, Client Requirements, and Executive Summary

Who was it that suggested the managerial and organizational responsibilities operate at four levels?

Archie Carroll

Who came up with the Pyramid Principle ?

Barbara Minto

There are three main levels of strategy...

Corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategy

Michael Porter's framework for competitor analysis points to 4 key indicators of a rivals likely future strategic moves, these are:

Current strategies, future objectives, assumptions about itself and the industry, competitor's capabilities

True or False: If a company is on a framework contract, it is always guaranteed to win project work.

False

True or False: Private sector clients have much stricter procurement rules because they manage their finances more carefully than public sector clients.

False

True or False: The segments covered by 7 segment or PESTEL analysis are business environment factors that are easily controlled by companies.

False

Tuckman's 5 Stages of Team Development are as follows (please make sure that they are in the correct order):

Forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning

External business environment analysis usually involves the following 3 main levels of analysis

General, Industry, and Competitive Environment

In the context of management consulting, the acronym MBB stands for:

McKinsey, Bain, BCG

Michael Porter's value chain is segmented into two main groupings of activities, which are:

Primary and Support Activities

Select the answer where the consulting process steps are placed in the correct order.

Project proposal, contract award, information collection/analysis, recommendations, implementation

What does RFP mean in the context of the consulting process ?

Request for Proposal

In the 4S model which is sometimes used as a structure to solve problems, the 4th S stands for...

Selling the solution

True or False: A management consulting proposal (arguably) has two main aims: 1. State what the project aims to achieve; 2. get the client to commit to it.

True

True or False: Belbin identified 9 team roles, and he further categorized them into: action-oriented, people-oriented and thought-oriented.

True

True or False: Developing a strategy and implementing a strategy are usually two distinct phases in a strategy project.

True

True or False: Henri Fayol, the French management theorist developed the so-called 4 functions of management. These are planning, organizing, influencing(leading), and controlling

True

True or False: In any given industry, a company will compete more directly and intensively with other companies in its own strategic group, than it will with companies that are outside its strategic group.

True

True or False: Information collection and analysis is often a really important part of a management consulting project.

True

True or False: Matching what a firm can do in relation to its strengths and weaknesses, with what it might do based on the opportunities and threats in the external market place, is is one of the key bases on which companies select strategies.

True

True or False: One of the essential skills required for relationship building is the ability to communicate ideas effectively.

True

True or False: One of the key skills of a consultant is the ability to look at the business in a different and more objective way.

True

True or False: One of the main reasons that clients hire management consultants is because they would like an outsider's perspective.

True

True or False: One of the reasons that Greiner's model is helpful (in the context of this course) is because it helps to identify stages in the growth stages of a company where management consulting projects might be needed.

True

True or False: Staff augmentation is the use of outside personnel on a temporary basis to augment the capacity of your organization.

True

True or False: The UK's MCA defines management consulting as: "the creation of value for organizations, through improved performance, achieved by providing objective adviceand implementing business solutions."

True

True or False: The following are typically regarded as complex, cross-functional processes in an organization: strategy, new product development, risk management.

True

True or False: The strengths and weaknesses element of a SWOT analysis tends to focus on the internal business environment, whilst the opportunities and threats element tend to focus on the external business environment.

True

True or False: The way that you plan on undertaking a project is often referred to as your "approach" in a project proposal.

True

True or False: This course highlights three key skills which are known to be important for success in the field of management consulting. These skills are: PPM, analytical skills, relationship building and communications.

True

True or False: To be really useful when analyzing information/data, it is important to convert these facts into meaningful "insights".

True

True or False: Two key modes in management consulting are "advisory" and "implementation".

True

True or False: With Porter's Five Forces model, the stronger the force in a particular industry market, the lower the potential is for a company to earn above average returns.

True

According to the VRIO model, which collection of characteristics does a company's capability need to have, before it can be classified as a "core competence" ?

Valuable, rare, inimitable and has an organization that is set up to take advantage of these aspects

Hypothesis-based problem solving is about:

not trying to cover every angle at the start when attempting to solve a problem, but instead, using a mix of common sense, experience and incomplete information to make an educated guess.

It is important that projects are managed in a deliberate and structured way. One of the key components of this is:

task sequencing and prioritization of tasks

Two of the 6 "client types" that Edgar Schein identified are:

unwitting, primary