Yash Dogra_Consulting_Oct'11

Consulting is a process to give advice to someone and whoever gives advice is a consultant like physician, lawyer, teacher etc. One important aspect of a consultant is to be authoritative without having authority. The job of a consultant is to provide solutions and it is client’s responsibility to implement the solution.  Client knows what the departure and arrival pint for a problem is and a consultant’s job is to help client to navigate to the destination. I learnt the following main aspects of consulting:

• First meeting with the client is very important as it makes or breaks the contract.
• Our body language like posture, gesture, dressing etc. should be good as it makes our first impression in from of the client.

The consultant should show a genuine interest in the client’s problem and should step in his shoes. He should ask open ended questions with an intention to understand the main pain area of his organization. A consultant must possess these qualities - understanding the problem of client and what he is saying, a structured approach, listening with patience, good communication and articulating skills, a good homework of the organization

A consultant should use these 5 questions to understand the problem:

1)      What are you trying to do?

2)      What are the outcomes that will testify whether we are successful or not?

3)      What would go wrong?

4)      What countermeasures do we take responsibility for?

5)      What and how often is the review process?

We should make sure that these questions are answered correctly and we have all the information related to these questions. We should be at a binding terms with the client to solve the problem collaboratively.  If there is any confusion we can play role reversal in which client and consultant changes the role. Another important thing for a consultant is to maintain a good relationship with the clients. We should break the ice by enjoying the people around us and the environment, being curious to what people says, being attentive and respectful to the person and always asking open ended questions. After a relationship is developed with the client, a consultant needs to add value to the work. A consultant should fill the gap between value creation and value realization by using an authentic behaviour. A consultant should learn how to say no and should show the right picture to the client. A consultant should understand the problem by having answers to these question like  what the problem appears to be, what is others contribution and clients contribution to the problem. Consulting can be in three ways:

1.       As an expert

2.       For client

3.       With client

The best is working with client in which accountability of both is equal. Feedback is also very important as we can reflect back and can understand which areas are needed more attention.

Nitin Bhardwaj_Consulting_Oct'11

Consulting is a process of giving advice to someone. And in professional terms, consultants navigate client from departure situation to the desired result. Consulting is not just for professionals but all of us practice consulting in our day to day life while helping our friends and family.

During the class Sir emphasized that first meeting with client is very important because it makes or breaks a contract. Anil Sir explained  how to behave during first client interview to make right impressions.  Also consultant should ask probing questions and show genuine interest in client problems. I also got to know five favorite questions for a consultant:

1)      What are you trying to do?

2)      What are the outcomes that will testify whether we are successful or not?

3)      What could go wrong?

4)      What countermeasures we will take with respect to 3 prior questions?

5)      What is the review process?

These questions help both client and consultant have clear understanding of the situation and future path to be followed. A good consultant should always be ready to invest time on client.

To understand the problem in better way the consultant should always practice role reversal. We all were divided into groups and  Anil Sir gave us a case which he encountered during his professional career. Using this case we practiced the concept of role reversal.

I Also learned that relationship building is very important part of consulting and achieve best results. At the end of consulting assignment the consultant should present recommendation to the client. The implementation phase is the responsibility of client. However as per me the consultant should also work during implementation phase to ensure the desired results are achieved by client. This approach will help in building strong relationship with client and building reputation within the industry.

Nitin_bhardwaj_SelfLeadership_10Jan

Based on my past experience, I have recognized  networking, resilience and assertive as my strengths. I also realized that skepticism is one my major weakness. To overcome skepticism I need to start working in different teams within my class. This will help me in expressing myself in a better way and improve my participation within teams. After few years from now, I  see myself in position wherein I would be interacting with teams from different functions so I should continuously work towards improving my weakness.

I think that is why SOIL is different from other B-schools wherein it helps individual to realize what strengths one has and what are his weaknesses and how an individual can leverage his strengths to overcome his weakness.

Nitin Bhardwaj_BLP059_Consultingskills_Jan03

The day was full of excitement as HR consulting firm Mercer was visiting our campus. As I was part of the recruitment process so I could not attend first half of the session.

During the recruitment process Mercer asked each of the applicant to prepare 3 questions which I feel each individual must have on their tips:

1)      Which event had a significant impact on your life?

2)    A regret/failure in life, from which you got to learn.

3)    The 2 attributes a person being interviewed for a position in your team should possess

Post the one-on-one discussion with company officials, Mercer applicants were divided into groups and each group was suppose to come up with 'strategy to survive after a plane crash'.

During the second half I was part of session where SOIL’s financial department shared future plans of SOIL.  Practicing such transparency level  is what makes me proud being part of SOIL family.

Later during the day I interacted with my batch mates to understand what was covered during the class. During the class Sir explained the process of proposal writing  which is the most important part of consulting assignment. Sir emphasized  the fact that consultant should have in depth knowledge of the subject they are dealing with and then he shared real life examples/ case study which he encountered.

On the whole it was a great learning experience for all of us.

AparnaChowdhry_BLP040_Consultingskills_Oct 9, 2011

The session on Oct 9, 2012, acquainted me to the Consulting World. What is consulting? In simple words Consulting is, ‘Responsibility without Authority.’

Consulting is not just for professionals. We do consulting in our day to day life. We are all consultants in our own accord. We advise our friends, family, people and take advice as well. So Consulting is identifying the problem and proposing solutions. The implementation of the solution lies on the client or on the individual being advised.

One of the most important steps in a professional Consulting assignment is Contract Meeting.  A contract meeting it is all about understanding the problem thoroughly by asking probing questions. It also includes showing genuine interest and appreciation to the client and looking for a win-win. Last but not the least; a consultant has to demonstrate commitment to the client and then bring clarity on what the client wants. It is important to understand the unspoken needs as well as the spoken one.

An important learning of the day was that our body language and dress up shows a lot and if taken care of helps build a rapport with the client.

I got to know about the 5 favorite questions for a consultant:

• What are we trying to do?
• How will we know that we are successful?
• What could go wrong?
• What countermeasures do we take responsibility for with respect to 3 questions?
• Who, how often, when and where is the review process?

These questions help both consultant and client clearly understand the problem and lay a path for working together.Equally important is establishing good relationship with the client. Being a good problem solver is not enough for a consultant if his client does not trust and is not able to express his concerns with him. Some do’s that can help break the ice are:

• Enjoying people
• Being curious
• Listening with attention
• Asking open ended questions

After establishing good relation and understanding the problem a consultant needs to work on adding values to the work at hand. A consultant’s role is not only to create value but also to help the client realize that value. It might take more time, but a good consultant is ready to invest that time on his client.

One more learning of the day was the courage to say ‘No.’ A good consultant should learn how to say “no” in a perfect manner. A consultant knows what he can do and what problems require clients focus. As a consultant one should communicate what is really happening and if he can help or not.

Even when a consultant takes up a task, he should let the client know what he would do and what are the things a client would be accountable/responsible for. A consultant proposes solutions/suggestions. Implementation is client’s responsibility. And last but not the least a consultant needs to be practical and realistic. 

L Krishnan_BLP017_Consulting Skills_3rd Jan

With the new year having just begun, we are all excited and looking forward for ambitious pursuits in career, primarily through placements. So far few candidates have been offer placements with lucrative packages, and have affirmed our hopes.




In class, the primary issue that we focused was the way ahead for our college, School Of Inspired Leadership. Like any brainstorming session, we all pooled our thought against the options that our college management have come up with


1. Day scholar campuses across the country 
2. Large Residential campus close to Bangalore


We discussed the fund requirement, taking into consideration the anticipatory trend in profits and thus the ability to invest in future plans accordingly. To our surprise, we were even given the balance sheet of SOIL, which usually any profit making organization does not reveal. At least not to their customers
Mr. Gaurav Bhalla from the finance department was invited to elaborate us on the heading and assumptions that they had taken while preparing the excel file.


The session was engaging and very interactive, because it was a debate on its own with two very strong strategy having distinct pros and cons. The factors we discussed were 


Learning experience
Corporate linkages for placements
Total infrastructure cost and break-even
Admission of student and capacity to handle
Cost of faculty and cost to facilitate them for the stay
Governance of college by founder and team


I enjoyed the whole process of speculating each of the factors mentioned and many others as well, in full dept and comparing them against one-another. With a consulting task at hand, and a stakeholder who is very eager to listen, because he (Mr. Anil Sachdev) in fact is keenly interested in listening to perspectives that we as students recommend or foresee for our college.
The chats continued even out of the college premises in the nearby tea stalls where we would constantly pool our thoughts and give a justification for the same.


Apart from the consulting task, we also had finished Chapter 9 & 10 of Flawless Consulting by Peter Block. 


Consulting is a tactical job, were one recommends the expert in their field to enhance their performance. This primarily asks for the basic understanding of a consultant towards the business of the client and the underlying strategy of the same. 



Chapter 9 revolves around the resistance that the clients exhibit towards a recommended change and the cues that consultants need to pick in understanding the fear and assumptions. 
The process can be broken down into 3 steps,


1. Picking cues from the client and managing team
2. Rephrase the problem and repeat the same in a different language
3. Be and effective listener and address the primary concerns of the client




Chapter 10 focuses on learning the business model of client and related issues. Also using tools and concepts that would speak about his problem, enabling the consultants to give a sort out plan for them to narrate to the client.

Anuj Thakur Consulting Skills 9th Oct 2011

Consulting is all about giving advice or showing the way for e.g. if someone ask us the way to a particular place and we tell him the same then it is his choice or decision to follow that advice from me or not. Consultants navigate the client to his arrival point from the departure by showing him the way regarding the same.

Anil Sir explained why the first meeting with the client is very important because in consulting first impression is the last impression stands very tall so Consultants should dress up in a very professional way and should take care of how they walk, talk present and even how and what they eat.

Consultants

·          should have high resilience so that they can be patient listener

·          should be very mindful so that they can understand what their client is really talking about  

·          should have good communication

·          should have done all the research regarding the client and its industry

·          should be able to structure the interaction and the way the formal discussion takes place

These qualities are a must because these are the prerequisite to become a good and a professional consultant since lack of any one of these can lead the engagement with the client to all new problems. Anil Sir also told about the 5very important question which a good consultant should ask the client

1.        What are we trying to do?

2.        How will we know that we are successful?

3.        What would go wrong?

4.        What counter measure do we take responsibility for?

5.        Who, how often, when, where is the review process?

These questions guide the Consultant to understand the issues its clients are facing.

Role reversal is the way in which consultants understand the issues or the problems Client is facing but they are not able to understand by getting into their shoes and vice versa. We all were divided in groups of 8 participants and were asked by Anil Sir to practice this exercise and discuss all the possible solutions to the live scenario faced by him in one of his assignment.  Relationship building is very important part of consulting which help consultants to break the ice and help to deliver the best results.

There are three types of consulting

1.        Working as an expert

2.        Working for client

3.        Working with client

Anil sir explained that working with the client is the best way to follow since it gives the Client confidence and understanding that the consultant is very much interested and involved in the assignment.