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Approximately 6.7% of the world’s population has a university degree. Less than 1% of this select group has the intent and the will to make a difference. Because you reading this, I know you are likely a part of that small group. Thank you for being the kind of person who wants to make a positive contribution.
Whether you are new to the FC community or have been a client for many years, I would like to personally thank you for being a part of our community. A community of driven and talented people around the world who understand that leadership is about implementing complex ideas and banking the benefits, which includes influencing their colleagues to act without alienating them.
The challenges facing the world are too big to be fixed unless people are willing to lead. This requires teams, and often these teams must undertake innovative solutions for which there is little precedent. Whether it is poverty, climate change, a pandemic or other global health issues, inequality, income, or productivity growth—many of these problems can only be solved by this 1%.
I know leadership can be a lonely and frustrating path of seeking effective, innovative solutions—and overcoming obstacles—while marshaling the resources to implement them. I stand alongside you by curating your arsenal—books, podcasts, immersive video programs, advanced knowledge management systems (including studies, slides, premier strategy and problem-solving books, flipcharts and proposals), bestselling book publishing service, and transformational RESULTS REQUIRED executive mentoring programs—to help you make your contribution to solving mankind’s toughest problems.
I believe ethical business is as high a professional calling as any, and problem-solving, strategy, communication, implementation, leadership, entrepreneurship, and investing are powerful skills that require creativity, business judgment, and acute critical thinking ability. I am grateful that you are pursuing mastery in these skills as we need more capable people to ensure:
We, as a human race, don’t go backward.
If you have not done so already, you will enjoy meeting other members of the FC community – through our executive mentoring programs and community. Many of them, likely the same as you, are self-made. Nothing was handed to them. They worked hard all their lives—now they’re in a position that allows them an opportunity to make a positive contribution to the world. Quite a few of our clients end up dating and marrying. We attract very special people, and our members know they are in a unique group.
I am speaking from experience—my journey has been a long and tough one. I understand where you may have been, what you may be going through, and what you may need:
To fully realize YOUR potential.
Given you were called to join the FIRMSconsulting.com & StrategyTraining.com community, I bet you are a well-intentioned and honorable person. Being a part of your inner circle is an enormous privilege. You aspire for more than what society had intended for you. You are a leader who understands that making a difference requires noble intentions and commitment.
I am excited about the possibilities that will open up for you as a result of benefiting from our powerful training resources. As you may know by now, I work with eminent former partners of major consulting firms, CEOs, top professors at leading universities, and executives at leading organizations to prepare in-depth training programs and resources teaching skills you would not be able to learn anywhere else in the world other than if you were a mentee of those partners and executives. This is our mark of distinction. Our StrategyTraining.com programs are specifically designed not only to teach you the insights but to teach you how to come up with your own insights for your particular, unique situation.
The easiest way to understand the advantage of using our training resources is to review excerpts of our work. Below I will give you a big picture view of various resources we have along our value ladder, including some free samples such as chapters from our books. For simplicity, let’s start from the top of the value ladder and move down from there.
At the top of the value ladder, we have our high-value programs. Here we have 2 levels, Elite and VIP.
Coaching programs are one of the most powerful ways to work with us. You join a small group of some of our most successful clients and work with us over a period of time, 3 months for Elite and 6 months for VIP per program, following a decade-proven process that gets clients results. Our coaching programs include a combination of elements that together position clients for transformational results, including:
Here are the programs you can apply for:
If you need private one-on-one coaching sessions with me outside of coaching programs, you can reach out to [email protected].
If you would like an advice session with Michael, as part of the advice sessions initiative, you can learn more here.
Co-authoring a book with other FIRMSconsulting clients and me, or publishing a full book. Our publishing service guarantees that a book you are participating in or your full book will reach bestseller status in at least 1 Amazon category, which will give you the distinction of being a bestselling author. And we can help you write a great chapter or a great book that can become a huge asset for your career for the rest of your life. The full book can be published by Firmsconsulting and/or we can help you create and launch it, but it can be published in your name on your Amazon account. Each option has pros and cons, and we are happy to have a chat and help you decide which option is best for you.
Next co-authored book we are working on: Become a co-author with a former McKinsey and BCG senior partner, former worldwide head of marketing for McKinsey, and close friend of Marvin Bower. As many of you know, Bill played a key role in making McKinsey successful (from StrategyTraining.com program, The Bill Matassoni Show). Learn more about The Published Author program here. To apply: Submit your application here. Cover the participation fee: in 6 payments of $1278 over 6 months here, in 10 payments of $799 here, secure a discount by covering participation in full here. Add add-ons as needed.
A full book option is also available. You can view all 3 levels of The Published Author Program here.
Our video programs take members deep into fundamental principles to develop insights, transform their careers, launch and grow their own consulting firms, turn around a failing organization, launch a luxury brand start-up and an electric car business, and more.
Members learn from eminent partners like Kevin P. Coyne (former McKinsey senior partner and worldwide co-head of strategy practice) and Bill Matassoni (former McKinsey and BCG senior partner and worldwide head of marketing), and more. Our programming is unique, exclusive, and curated.
This is the world of FC Insiders and Legacy members (Legacy members have access to all Insider materials + additional powerful advanced materials and resources, plus ongoing twice-a-month group coaching guidance and support on Sundays at 12 pm PST).
Some of our most advanced programs are exclusively available to them on StrategyTraining.com, and through our advanced knowledge management system with studies, workshop packs, letters, proposals, and more (a separate membership we refer to as SCR-Advanced).
Our strategy studies (get downloadable maps here) provide a step-by-step blueprint to explain both the analytic and soft skills required to solve critical problems.
Our advanced knowledge management system with studies, workshop packs, letters, proposals, books and more (a separate membership we refer to as The Strategy Control Room). The SCR gives access to our knowledge management system, with full studies and proposals. A phenomenal value for someone who knows what to do with it. Our more senior clients who want to be able to access our FULL knowledge management system should select an annual membership, which immediately grants ADVANCED level and full access. Alternatively, you can earn an advanced status when your 7th month as a SCR monthly member begins. Here you can view what is available within SCR monthly and SCR advanced.
Succeeding as a Management Consultant (download excerpt) and The Strategy Journal (download excerpt) guide you, step-by-step, to understand the problem, develop a framework, develop hypotheses, design the tests for the hypotheses and track daily and weekly tasks. If you are an Insider or a Legacy member, you can access the audiobook version here.
These books will also show you how to plan the message for your team and manager, manage the project, work through critical update meetings, calculate the benefits case to convince your colleagues, and start the pilot implementation of the recommendations.
Bill Matassoni’s memoir, Marketing Saves the World (download excerpt), goes behind the scenes as told by one of the partners who conceived and implemented McKinsey’s incredibly successful strategy to differentiate itself from BCG and Bain & Co. Bill also holds the distinction of being both former McKinsey and BCG senior partner. You can access additional training with Bill if you are an Insider or a Legacy member (those resources are located on our streaming site: StrategyTraining.com).
Mavis (download excerpt) and Turquoise Eyes (download excerpt) are a new genre of business books with immersive and compelling storylines and worldbuilding. These books are part of an ongoing series that teach business concepts and critical thinking through engaging formats. If you are an Insider or a Legacy member, you can access the audiobook versions here.
We help our members remain energized and focused on their work. Last year for a period of a few months, we released Monday Morning 8 a.m., a newsletter that went out at the start of the week. There we distilled the insights from the noise by summarizing the big themes of the week and provided compelling, counterintuitive, and critical insights and information that every leader needs. You can listen to the audio version of Monday Morning 8 a.m. by searching “Strategy Skills” in any podcast app, or you can get a compilation of Monday Morning 8 a.m. newsletters published as a book, “Strategy Insights.”
Review the books available for purchase here. We sometimes remove books from the publicly available portfolio of books and make them available only to selected clients, so this page is the best place to pick from the books currently available. Start with Succeeding as a Management Consultant.
Strategy Skills podcast channel: Our Strategy Skills podcast is ranked among the top 5-10 podcasts for careers in many countries. This is where we discuss the latest insights in strategy and business with executives from large organizations, leading professors, and influential McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Deloitte, PwC, et al. partners, such as Tim Koller, Rob Markey, Aaron De Smet, and Bill Schaninger.
The podcast is used by senior managers and executives from major companies like Amazon, Google, major banks, P&G, executives within public sector giants around the world, McKinsey, BCG, Accenture, PwC, Deloitte, all the way up to executive board members.
Case Interviews & Management Consulting podcast channel: The largest and most popular in the world case interview and management consulting podcast with over 500 episodes released to date. If you are preparing for consulting case interviews this podcast (along with our The Consulting Offer programs on StrategyTraining.com) can be instrumental in helping you get offers from your target firms.
In most countries, subscriptions/enrollment to/into any of our programs (memberships and coaching programs) are tax-deductible since they can be classified as a training/career placement/search expense. And most large organizations, and many smaller ones, will reimburse tuition for professional development. If you are running your own business, your investments in training to improve the performance of your business can and should be expensed to your company. Download this draft reimbursement request and make the necessary changes.
Beyond coaching, we have an additional level along the value ladder, which includes even higher value work, such as launching businesses or collaborating with some of our closest clients (you can see those businesses documented on StrategyTraining.com). We also do select consulting engagements and more. The journey always starts with executive coaching as we need to get to know the client to see that there is a good fit.
Initially, please focus on the options above. There you will find support, powerful and unique resources, personalized executive coaching, care about your success and future, and accountability that can help you get transformational results, saving years of trial and error and setting you up for a different future and level of performance.
I hope this overview of what we do was helpful for you. If something is still unclear, please do not hesitate to email my team and me at [email protected]. I would like to make this description as comprehensive but also as easy as possible to help our clients and members have a big-picture view of various opportunities for support and resources available.
I look forward to helping you make your meaningful contribution to solving mankind’s toughest problems, realizing your full potential, and living a fulfilling and impactful life while achieving more than you ever thought was possible.
Take care,
Kris Safarova
P.S. I tried to give you an overview of all the resources you can get access to. You can view it as a reference guide to use when you are determining the best combination of resources to use right now. If you are struggling to select what will be most helpful for you right now out of the options I shared with you, please email team@firmsconsulting explaining your objectives and goals, and we will be able to guide you on developing your coaching and training plan.
Disclaimer: Some links we share may be affiliate links. As Amazon Associate, we may be receiving a commission for purchases from some of the links, at no additional cost to you.
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