Management Consulting Productivity Hacks
- Description
- Curriculum
- FAQ
- Reviews
What is the aim of this course?
Management consultants are brutally efficient. They not only are taught to do their work fast but also are very good at selecting the right issues. I know it from first-hand experience as I spent my first 5 years in this hostile environment of top consulting companies. Yes, we worked sometimes 10-15 hours a day; 6-7 days a week but we managed with a small team to do in 3 months what the whole company was not able to do in years. Management consultants’ efficiency stems from 3 things: good organization, efficiency in daily activities, and extremely good skills in picking the right topics. I think that those skills are crucial and I will teach how to acquire them.
In this course, I will show you how to do the right things fast and efficiently so you can enjoy fully your work and life (depending on what are your priorities 😉 .
This course is based on my 15 years of experience as a consultant in top consulting firms and as a Board Member responsible for strategy, performance improvement, and turn-arounds in the biggest firms from Retail, FMCG, SMG, B2B, and services sectors that I worked for. I have carried out or supervised over 90 different performance improvement projects in different industries that generated a total of 2 billion in additional EBITDA. On the basis of what you will find in this course, I have trained in person over 100 consultants, business analysts, and managers who now are Partners in PE and VC funds, Investment Directors and Business Analysts in PE and VC, Operational Directors, COO, CRO, CEO, Directors in Consulting Companies, Board Members, etc. On top of that my courses on Udemy were already taken by more than 224 000 students including people working in EY, McKinsey, Walmart, Booz Allen Hamilton, Adidas, Naspers, Alvarez & Marsal, PwC, Dell, Walgreens, Orange, and many others.
I teach through case studies, so you will have a lot of lectures showing examples of analyses, and tools that we use. To every lecture, you will find attached (in additional resources) the Excels as well as additional presentations, and materials shown in the lectures so as a part of this course you will also get a library of ready-made analyses that can, with certain modifications, be applied by you or your team in your work.
I do not like to overcomplicate things so in every lecture I will be quite straightforward. In every lecture, I described a different hack and I gave examples of how to use it, especially in services such as consulting. To every lecture, you will find attached (in additional resources) many useful files: examples shown in the lecture, further suggestions, exercises, etc. If you don’t find something that you need let me know – I will try to prepare something and I will add it to the course
In the course, I use 6 main frameworks: the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle), lean manufacturing, the theory of constraints, getting things done, the critical chain method, and lean startup.
Why have I decided to create this course?
The companies I have worked with so far as a Board Member (I am usually the Chief Restructuring Officer, and VP responsible for Strategy and Development) still have huge problems with productivity on 3 levels: personal efficiency of team members, the general efficiency of the whole team (you can have efficient people that create an inefficient team), selection of topics/tasks/projects.
I have always tried to coach them and increase productivity but on-the-job training is not enough and it is always limited to people you have contact with. To go further and to have a bigger impact you need materials that you can refer people to when they are in need. Therefore, I decided to create this course. Since I work not only with mature companies but also with startups I have tested the material also on them. It proved very handy in making sure that the startups are improving their productivity.
In what way will you benefit from this course?
The course is a practical, step-by-step guide loaded with tons of, tricks, hints, and examples that will significantly improve your productivity and improve the quality of your choices. There is little theory – mainly examples, a lot of tips from my own experience as well as other notable examples worth mentioning. Our intention is that thanks to the course you will know:
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How to set priorities on tasks and projects?
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How to select the right things to concentrate on, on daily basis
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How to do much faster tasks and minimize the burden of boring tasks that everybody is faced with.
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How to avoid doing many things altogether
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How to increase team efficiency
You can also ask me any question either through the discussion mode or by messaging me directly.
I will produce the necessary content.
How the course is organized?
The course is divided into the following sections:
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Introduction. We begin with a little introduction to the course.
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How to do the right things. In the second section, we go through ways you can use to decide what to do and what NOT to do. I will show you how to avoid common mistakes.
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How to work faster. In the next 3 sections, I will show you how to do faster the tasks or avoid doing them altogether. These sections will have the most useful productivity hacks that you can apply to make sure that your personal productivity jumps significantly. Some of them, after modification, can be applied to the whole team.
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Team efficiency – general rules. In this section, I will show you how to apply the productivity hacks from the previous section to the team. I will also show productivity hacks for the boss.
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Other things worth checking. In the last section, I will share with you additional resources that will show you how to use productivity hacks to learn faster and manage your career.
You will be able also to download many additional resources
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Examples in Excel, Word, PowerPoint
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Presentation of slides shown in the course
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Links to additional presentations and movies
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Links to books worth reading
At the end of my course, students will be able to…
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Set priorities
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Select the right things to concentrate on
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Do much faster tasks
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Avoid doing many things altogether
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Increase the efficiency of your team
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1
IntroductionIn this section I will show you what this course will be about
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2
How to deal with Blurry image
Here I will show you what to do if a blurry image appears
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3
How to reach additional resources
Here I will show you how to find additional resources attached to the coruse like Excel files, presentations, links etc.
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4
How to find information and ask questions
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5
Why it is important to know what to do?
In this lecture I will show you why it makes so much sense to be very good in selecting the topics on which you should concentrate.
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6
See the forest first and then the trees
In this lecture I will explain you why you should not concentrate too much on details at least at first. I will also show you ways to avoid it. I will also do an example to show you how to apply these principles in practice
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7
Simple math in decision making
In this lecture I will explain you why you should not concentrate too much on details at least at first. I will also show you ways to avoid it. I will also do an example to show you how to apply these principles in practice
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8
Issue tree - intro
Issue tree is a simple yet powerful concept used in consulting for structuring discussion and picking the right topics to concentrate on. In this lecture I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example
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9
Issue tree - example of application in consulting project in logistics
Issue tree is a simple yet powerful concept used in consulting for structuring discussion and picking the right topics to concentrate on. In this lecture I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example. Here I show how to use it in practice on a consulting project
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10
Issue tree – Retail
In this lecture I will show you another example of an issue tree. This time it will be for retail
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Low hanging fruits
In this lecture we will talk briefly about applying the low hanging fruits in practice. I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example
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12
Applying 80/20 rule in practice
In this lecture I will show you how to use in practice 80/20 rule also known as Pareto principal
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13
Set SMART goals
Goals are good as long as they are SMART. In this lecture we will talk briefly about applying this useful concept in practice. I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example: some of them general and one specific for consulting
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14
Priorities
Without setting the right priorites to tasks you may end-up concentrating on the wrong things.In this lecture we will discuss the ways in which you can set priorities to tasks that you have to perform. At the end I will apply them in an example to show you the difference in outcome
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15
Benchmarks
In this lecture I will discuss the role of external and internal benchmarks. They are a powerful help in business and will help you boost your productivity yet have to be used with caution. At the end I will apply them in an example to show you the difference in outcomes.
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16
Create to-do lists
The To-do list – highly popularized by David Allen in Getting things done is a great tool to make sure that you do the right things at a fast pace. In this lecture, we will talk briefly about applying them in practice. I will show you the principles of using it, types of a to-do list as well as a practical example, including the one I am using.
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17
Use the right tools and master them
By using the right tools you can drastically improve your productivity. In this lecture, I will talk about how to get and use the right tools in practice. I will show you as well a practical example
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18
Remove bottlenecks
Bottlenecks are one of the biggest threats in making faster meaningful work. In this lecture I will explain briefly what it is and how to find it. I will show you as well as practical examples
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19
Avoid multitasking
Multitasking is pure evil and should be avoided. In this lecture I will show you how to do it and it will give you. At the end there will be a practical example
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20
Avoid emails
People think that sending emails is an effective way to move things forward. The problem with them is they introduce iterative communication that can cause a lot of noise and wreck havoc. In this lecture I will show you how to do it and it will give you. At the end there will be a practical example. In this lecture I will teach you how to avoid emails in practice
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21
Create universal structure of folders
Standard folder structure is important tool to save time and introduce order. I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical exampl
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22
Talk and write in a simple, clear and coherent way
In this lecture I show you the importance of writting in a clear and coherent manner that will help you get things done faster. You will also waste less time on writing things that nobody reads
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23
Standardize everything
A lot of things are repetitive. Therefore, it makes sense to standardize everything. In this lecture, we will show to do it in practice.
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Create templates
The next step after you created standards is to create templates. In this lecture, I will explain how to do it in practice
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25
Example of standards and templates for Excel analysis
Here I show you templates of excel analysis
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26
Create modules
For some things, standards cannot be applied straightforward. You need to introduce modules to move forward. I will show you in this lecture how to implement it in practice.
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27
Shelf management
In this lecture I will show you how to take advantage of periods of lower activitie
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28
Avoid iteration
As you saw in the example of email exchange iteration is one of the worst things that absorbs preposterous amount of time and prolongs all activities. Iteration is not only taking a lot of time of all people involved but also does not let you go forward fast enough.In this lecture I will show you how to avoid it in pratice
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29
Guess and prepare ahead
By preparing ahead you can avoid iteration and save a lot of time. In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice
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30
Get rid of unused things
We are very fast to acquire, buy and collect because even if we do not use it know at some point (usually very distant in the future) specific thing may prove to be lifesaving. Most often, the staff we collect we do not use more than once (80/20 rules come into play. In this lecture I will show you how to get rid of unused things it in practice
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Deadlines
We will talk on the importance of deadlines, types of deadlines and how to set them
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Know your customers
Whatever you do is for some sort of customers – your boss, your girlfriend / Boyfriend, other departments who use what you do. Therefore, you have to identify and understand your customer. In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice
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33
Be your customer
As I have mentioned previously customers are all the people to whom you deliver whatever you do. In consulting when you are business analyst your customers would be the customer of the company for whom you do the project but also associate or project manager supervising your work. If you are also doing some knowledge base generation then you may have as a customer additionally the Partner responsible for this area. It makes a lot of sense to become your customer. This will help you even further understand how to communicate properly and what will give you biggest results. In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice
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34
Master your field
At some point being a jack of all trades is not enough. You have to choose some sort of specialization. It may change over the course of years as your role will change but consciously define it and execute it.
First of all, you have to define the fields in which you want to excel. Then you have to diagnose yourself how good you are and set the target level. This will be the starting point of your development and mastering fields that will make a difference for you. . In this lecture I will show you how to do it in practice
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35
1 piece flow
1 piece flow is a concept from lean manufacturing very useful also at normal work. In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice
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36
Smart batching
Smart Batching is a concept from lean manufacturing very useful also at normal work. In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice
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37
Automation
Automation is the Holly Grail not of consultants but basically of everybody. You want you work to be done hopefully without your presence but all the praise to go to your name :) In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice
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38
Delegate
At some point, all of the tips I have mentioned will be not enough if you want to really scale up what you do. For this, you will need to delegate some work and I will show you when and how to do it properly.
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39
Zero defect rule
Zero defect rules is not about making zero mistakes. It is about finding mistakes as soon as possible and eliminating them. In this lecture I will show what it is and how to use it in practice
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40
Introduction to team efficiency
In this section, I will show you how to 10x your team efficiency
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41
Why manager should not work?
Your work as a Project Manager is totally different than the work of a business analyst or consultant. A good project manager doesn’t work directly. He manages people and relations
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42
Introduction to creating ideal team members
If you want to have an effective team you should know what you want and implement it. The first step is to create the profile of an ideal team member.
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Values
Consulting is teamwork so you have to define what values you want your team to follow. This is crucial as it will be something that will be the basis for the team culture. In this lecture, I will show my values that provide a good ground for managing properly the consulting project.
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Profile of the team member
As we discuss previously you want to turn inexperienced graduates into seasoned consultants. This gives you greater chances of success during the project. Therefore, you have to define the profile of an ideal consultant and set your team members on the course to achieve this level. In this lecture, I will also show you the profile I have defined for an ideal team member.
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45
Structure for cooperation - Set and use the same standards, templates and ready
If you want the team to work as one efficient body you have to facilitate communication between them. This means especially that you should set standards, and create templates and modules so that you create similar end-products.
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Why team members have to constantly improve
You have to make your team constantly improve to get a self-improving machine for work. In this lecture, we will discuss how to achieve it.
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How to teach your team members
In this lecture, I will show you how you can teach your team members efficiently
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48
Introduction to managing the team efficiently
Once you have set the rules and standards it’s time to make sure that the team works efficiently. In the next lecture, I will talk about a few concepts that are very useful in managing a team. I will also give you an example from managing a team during a consulting project
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Critical Chain
One of the biggest problems for efficiency is the so-called Parkinson’s Law – Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. People when asked to evaluate the time certain things will take build-in buffers. One of the ways to deal with it is the so-called Critical chain. Here I will show you what it is
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50
How to manage your team - example from managing a consulting project?
In this lecture, we will discuss the tools and ways in which you should manage your team. I will also show you what your daily schedule should look like
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51
Managing the team in practice
Here I will show you an example of managing a team in practice. I will use a team of project managers for this example
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52
Introduction to identifying and dealing with bottlenecks in teams
One of the biggest problems in team management is the problem with too narrow specialization and bottlenecks. In this lecture and the next one, I will talk about ways how to deal with them.
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53
Removing bottlenecks
Bottlenecks are one of the biggest threats to making faster meaningful work. In this lecture, I will explain briefly what it is and how to find it. I will show you as well as practical examples.
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54
Collect knowledge
You have to use all the strengths of your team and at the same time find a way to capture them into something more tangible. That is why it is important to have a system to collect knowledge from your team.
