I had an interesting conversation today with a coworker about why projects tend to fail at organization and meeting key milestones. One point we touched on was communication, or lack thereof. Are daily standing staff meetings enough? Or should there be a better policy the team should follow to ensure decisions, ideas and issues are properly shared and recognized by the entire team? Too often does the left hand not know what the right hand is doing. Team members simply aren’t on the same track.
I know it may sound obvious or preachy but this is a KEY reason IMO why team members need to be on site the majority of the week. Whether it be passing by someone’s office or next to the coffee machine, it’s much easier to spark up a quick conversation rather than play phone tag or have your simple, one-line question buried in someone else’s inbox. Even with all the fancy telepresence we have today, face-to-face time is still much more valuable than hiding behind a computer, webcam, telephone etc. It saves time and helps the entire team stay on the same wavelength. I agree, this concept has been so belabored that it’s lost absolutely all meaning. But implementing effective communication practices in reality is actually quite difficult and takes a coordinated, collective effort by the entire team; which is why few teams actually succeed at it.
A former consultant who is now head of the PMO at my company recently provided me with some wise words in consulting: He said that with all the offshoring done today, consultants must find ways to add value and stay relevant to the client. They have to be able to ask the right questions and conversation that incite the client to think differently about their own organization. You, as the consultant, must constantly justify and remind the client why they need to continue to fly you out every Monday morning and have you onsite.
When I started college, I knew immediately that I wanted a job that involved business, technology and lots of traveling. At the time, I thought that such a profession carrying those qualities were strictly reserved for some rare breed of savvy sales people or c-level executives. I hadn’t the slightest idea yet of what consulting was. But one evening in a Barnes & Noble, I came across a very interesting Fortune article titled “The strange existence of Ram Charan” that read almost like a myth, something retirees tell their sons/daughters going to business school. It told the tale of a management strategy consultant guru who had no wife, no car and no real home (he used his empty office address for his passport). He would travel multiple continents a week to answer the call of the CEOs of Fortune 100 companies and advise them on business and organizational strategy. A sad, pitiful lifestyle to some but I was totally captivated and intrigued by such a nomadic way of living. It was at that precise moment, after reading that article, that I knew consulting was the life for me; may not be as extreme as Charan’s “existence” but something like it.
However, I didn’t and still don’t quite want to do management consulting (yet). After all, what right do I have as a recent college graduate to advise companies how to run their business? During college, I joined a large semiconductor firm. Instead of giving me a regular desk, my superiors stuffed me into a large conference room full of consultants working on a year-long PeopleSoft ERP upgrade project. For an entire year, I worked with these people learning more about their occupation and the interesting experiences they had. At the time, I was so amazed how the majority of them were originally from some other state; they flew in Monday morning and left mysteriously Thursday evening. After this particular experience, I was able to narrow the scope of my career aspirations from some vague understanding of consulting to ERP/IT consulting (SAP or Oracle). To me, it perfectly blended all the three original qualities I was looking for in a profession. First, it involved implementing and working on large enterprise technology/systems. Second, it required individuals to have a strong understanding of business processes. And last, maybe the most important of them all, it involved tons of traveling.
Now a lot people say I’m way too idealistic about consulting…and I probably am. But I think at my age it’s definitely worth a try. Who knows, if it turns out to be as glamorous and awesome as I imagine it to be this could become a very long and illustrious career. And if I get burnt out and end up hating it, I can always settle back to my suburban hometown and find a cushy 9-5 desk job.
This summer, I’ll be joining a large IT consulting firm in New York City as an gruntslave analyst. My hope with this blog is to be able to share my journey through the industry, offer some advice to those interested in consulting (mainly IT) and leave the forum open for any advice/warnings from other seasoned professionals who been through itall. You’ll find a variety of posts on this blog: anything from aligning business with IT strategy to little SharePoint programming tricks I’ve discovered. Note that what I don’t want is some elitist from MBB (McKinsey, Bain, Booz) mouthing off about how awesome they are and how much better management consulting is. Though any constructive input is always welcome! Thanks for reading!
