13 Tips for Writing Winning Consulting Proposals

The good stuff in the sector is in a vault

The good stuff in the sector is in a vault What could your life be like if for the most important decisions you had to make, you had a trusted advisor that is trained on the thinking and to think like some of the top minds in the world of consulting and strategy? Take a simple example: What makes a good proposal? You actually just go and say, “Look at all the proposals in the database. Tell me what's common to them.” Then say: “What are the things that only appear in a few of the proposals? Why do you think that is the case? For example, the high-value letter of proposal, why is this such a valuable proposal? What did they do there that most proposals are missing?” Using public LLMs is not going to be helpful in this situation because, in certain sectors, the most valuable information is not public. Information that creates value and changes the world is not public. Consulting and strategy is one of those areas. LLMs that are trained on the internet are never going to give you much value because: The good stuff in the sector is in a vault.  So, you need to have…

Senior McKinsey partner on the most important skill you should develop

Senior McKinsey partner on the most important skill you should develop We trained our AI system on our proprietary information. It’s like having access to our brains 24/7. That said, you might still run into challenges. Maybe you ask a question and don’t get the response you want. This is very common with LLMs. This boils down to something called prompt engineering. And that is how do you ask the system the right questions or what kind of prompts you put into it. It's a sequence of questions to tease out what you need. Liz Hilton Segel, senior partner at McKinsey, said the most important piece of advice she gives people in the firm is to learn to become a great prompt engineer. Recently, I interviewed Mike Maples Jr. for the Strategy Skills podcast. He is a distinguished seed investor in Silicon Valley. He was an early investor in Twitter and Twitch. He passed on being an early investor in Airbnb but then learned from it and was an early investor in Lift. And I asked him which pattern will be disrupted in management consulting. And he said that a lot of cognitive tasks in consulting will be done by AI. It…

24/7 Personal Strategy & Consulting AI Platform

Business leaders, executives, management consultants, business analysts, internal consultants, and, in fact, everyone in business relies on correct and sound advice to make critical decisions. You must be able to trust the source, and you do not have the time to fact-check. The difference with the field of business, strategy and analyses in general is that the best and tested tools, frameworks, methodologies, toolkits, training guides, books and even proposals are not available for free access. This is a very important distinction with the legal field, for example. The field of strategy consulting, in particular, is heavily modelled on the elite law firms, but there is a major difference between both. The law is written in a series of books that are public. Almost all cases before judges and all case law is public. Anyone can find the best law content and read it. AI platforms for the legal profession are built on this public information. All firms have access to the same information, and success comes down to the lawyer who can best interpret this public information and create an argument. The field of strategy, and business in general, is the polar opposite. The best information is not public... The best studies are not public... The…

Digital Transformation Consulting: Top Challenges

Digital Transformation Consulting: Top Challenges The Digital Transformation consulting space is one of the most lucrative and stressful right now. Today, I had an insightful discussion with Raj (name changed to protect his privacy), a technology leader in the digital transformation space working for a major consulting firm. We spoke about the critical challenges he and his peers are facing. This is part of the research project I am conducting. Below, I share with you highlights from the discussion as it can be very helpful for you. Raj started by explaining his role, "I work with C-suite executives in my organization, as well as on my clients' side, working on transformation projects and bringing up emerging tech, understanding the client needs, the problems, etc., and then creating journeys around it." 3 Key Challenges for Digital Transformation Consultants 1) Balancing Vision and Practicality Raj mentioned, “The biggest challenge that I feel is that there is an imbalance between the transformation that the clients or the leaders are thinking currently. Few leaders are thinking way ahead of time... On the other hand, there are leaders who are not so agile.” Sometimes the same client would have some senior leaders who are pushing…

How the hypothesis testing process helps frame the study

The role of a CEO and why should consultants target CEOs

The Role of a CEO and Why Should Consultants Target CEOs What is the role of a CEO and why should consultants target CEOs? It's important to understand the difference between consultants targeting a CEO and targeting someone like the Chief Operating Officer, the head of Strategy, the Chief Marketing Officer, or even a divisional vice president. The differences are quite profound. The role of a CEO At the most fundamental level, the role of a CEO is to oversee everything that has an impact on the organizational health and performance of a company. A CEO has the authority to tackle any issue while the EVPs and other executives focus on their narrow domain of authority. The CEO can look at the work the CFO is doing, the work that the Chief Marketing Officer is doing, the work that the Executive VP of Beverage is doing, and what the Executive Vice President of Snacks is doing. The CEO has purview over everything and anything that, at that point in time and for the foreseeable future, has an impact on the organizational health and performance of the company. The point is, the role of a CEO is to wear many hats.…

McKinsey’s Marvin Bower, a Father of Management Consulting

McKinsey's Marvin Bower, a Father of Management Consulting If you read until the end, you will learn about the father of management consulting, Marvin Bower. I will share some of his story and 6 reasons Marvin Bower succeeded while so many failed when building a management consulting firm. And 19 rules McKinsey consultants had to obey under Marvin Bower’s leadership. Consulting as a profession is relatively new. It was brought into prominence, at least in the USA, by Marvin Bower from McKinsey & Company. Many management consultants don’t know who Marvin Bower was. Marvin Bower was a legendary man. He had a vision of what management consulting should be, which he brought into reality while sticking to high values and maintaining an unbelievable level of integrity. He knew what was required to build respect for McKinsey, and did not compromise to make a quick buck. He showed an unprecedented level of commitment to the firm. For example, when it was time to sell his shares, he sold it at book value, whereas he could have taken the company public and made a fortune during his exit. Note: Some links below are affiliate links where in case of a purchase we…

What is an IT Consultant