STK4TEGY

BOOK REVIEW

MANA GEMEIV T COIVSUL TINGt
A COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE JNDUSTR Y

Sugata Biswas and Beryl Twitchell
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1999 ($34.95)

Reviewed by John Quay

Management Consulting: A Complete Guide to ihe Industry is a very useful compilation for

students considering consulting careers. It contains an overview of the industry (drawing
largely on the Kennedy Information Research Group); some thoughts about the nature of
consulting work and lifestyle; ? I pages contributed by consultants from firms in the private,
public and nonprofit sectors; advice on planning your consulting career, writing resumes,

getting through the screening process and negotiating optimum compensation agreements; and

finally some very useful appendices including 59 pages of "cases" used by firms to test
applicants'roblem solving abilities, and 15 "frameworks" for handling these cases —e.g.,
using Porter's five forces industry analysis, BCG's growth-share matrix, SWOT (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, threats), etc.

Sprinkled throughout the book are lots of good tips and ideas. for example, "consultants need
to differentiate between what clients are asking for and what they truly need." Or, "certain

people are just not built for the work and lifestyle of a consultant. Only those that can thrive,
under the pressure of hard work, can perform multiple tasks simultaneously, can cope with
ambiguity and uncertainty, and can remain calm and collected when stressed or tired will be

able to maintain a positive perspective on consulting and stick with it." And, in an interview
situation even simple questions "are actually invitations for you to provide a richer, more

impressive description of your skills and abilities." This advice is followed by a list of
commonly asked questions to practice on, such as, "What are your three greatest
achievements?" and,?How would you describe your ideal job?" For good measure, the

. authors also include a sample interviewer's evaluation form showing the performance factors,

traits and skills on which they rate applicants. In short, the book offers students the full array

of "to dos" when approaching firms for a consulting position. Even the appendices cover a
broad spectrum of cases ranging from brain teasers (why are manhole covers round?) to
pricing (how is the retail price of a bottle of red wine determined?).

As a former recruiter of consultants, I have a few suggestions. The book could be improved
by some examples of successful letters and resumes. The authors give general advice (e.g.,
don't make it too long or too short) but annotated examples would be more helpful. Also, in

connection with negotiating a better compensation package, they provide charts and numbers

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for calculating the applicant's best deal, but offer no examples of letters or discussions
showing how to conduct these negotiations without alienating the offeror or blowing the
opportunity.

Finally, this book is about "big consulting." The contributors-a plurality from Harvard- are
with big firms. Their presentations are puff pieces for their practices. Engagements are
usually several hundred thousand to several million dollars in size. Consultants work in teams
on assigned pieces of the project. And while some consultants will rise to the top to become
multi-millionaires, many won'. Instead they will find the life bureaucratic, highly political
and very pressured. Fortunately, there are many small firms and sole proprietorships which
still offer some flavor of the early days where individual consultants developed creative and
collaborative relationships with client CEOs. For their clients, these smaller firms can do
reasonably well with jobs under $50,000 or $ 100,000-engagements which most big firms
don't bother with.

Reproduced by permission from The Journal of Management Consulting, Volume l0, bhimbcr
4, November l999.

Mr. John Quay heads the management consulting firm, Quay Associates, since t976. His
clients included Coopers 6'i Lybrand, Arthur Young, GE, New York Times, and a wide variety
of other large corporate and non-profit organizations. His prior work experience includes
executive poshions in personnel management at General Electric, Curtiss-tVright, and
American Airlines. Mr. Quay graduated Pom Princeton University and Union Theological
Seniinary. He is also a Cemified Management Consultant. He is an active SCORE the (Senior
Core Of Retired Executives) member. One of his responsibilities under this program is
grading reports from students who conduct consulting engagements in their local
conmiunities as part of the Small Business Institute program.

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