B7677-001: Strategy Consulting Skills
, May 29 – 8-5:30, Jun 12 – 8-5:30, Jun 26 – 8-5:30, Aug 7 – 8-5:30, master class
Instructor: hitendra wadhwa
This course exposes students to the structured problem-solving and communication skills used in management consulting. The course is organized around the five phases of a typical strategy engagement: scope definition, problem structuring, data gathering and analysis, recommendations development and final presentation. Students get to learn and practice specific consulting tools and principles associated with each of these five phases, such as issue trees, hypothesis-driven problem solving, interview guides, triangulation, pyramid structure and story lines. The course emphasizes hands-on practice and real-time feedback. Formal discussion of consulting tools and skills is supplemented by minicase exercises and consulting cases based on real-life engagements. Working in teams, students get opportunities to practice and hone the skills they are introduced to during the course through in-class presentations and feedback. These skills covered in the course are broadly applicable across business functions and industries, and besides their relevance to management consulting will be valuable to entrepreneurs and managers in the strategy, business-development or marketing-planning aspects of their work.
