Management Consulting Approach to Problem Solving

A little bit about me and my experience

Here I will discuss what you can learn from the course, what will be the order in which I will show you the course

Here I will show you what to do if a blurry image appears

Here I will show you how to find additional resources attached to the coruse like Excel files, presentations, links etc.

Here I will show you how you can find things in Udemy and how you can ask me questions

Before you move to specific tools, frameworks and case studies a few words on the origin of this course.

In the second section I will discuss the main tools that you can use to analyze and solve problems in real life. We will talk about things like: issue tree, bottom-up approach, top-down approach, backward reasoning, 80/20 rule, benchmarking, cost drivers, opportunity tree and many, many more

In this lecture, you will get to know our favorite method for the first rough estimation – the bottom-up method. We give you also 2 examples of Excel calculations and how to use them.

Imagine that you have to estimate the costs of the wedding to help Tomasz plan his wedding. Use for that the bottom-up approach. We will use this case study to see how the bottom-up approach works in practice.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to a previously introduced case study

Top-down is the little brother of bottom-up approach – not used that often but still very useful for re-segmenting the market (niche an low cost strategy)

Imagine that Lukas would like to know how much his colleagues in the other department earn. Use the top-down approach

In this lecture I will show you the solution to previously introduced case study

Le'ts put the top down and bottom-up approach to use. We will have a look at another case study in the next lecture

During this lecture I will show you how on basis of small number of data create a model which will show you how logistics costs are created, on what stage and what is the biggest drivers. This in turn will enable you to apply 80/20 rule

In this lecture we will give you some tips how to approach the case and show you the usage of the proper Excel functions

In this lecture we solve the case with you, show you the outcome, interpret it and give you examples how the results can be presented in terms of Excel and slides

In this lecture I show the backward thinking /induction. This approach enables you to design the whole process, company on the bases of the expected outcome

Try to estimate at what age can Peter retire using his own savings. To estimate the age of retirement use the backward reasoning

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

Now let's try to use the low hanging fruits for business purposes. In the next few lectures we will use the low hanging fruit framework to identify quick wins when it comes to cost reduction. We will have a look at a drugstore chain that wants to reduce it's costs.

However, first we will have to adjust our framework to cost reduction

Enjoy the case study and if you have any questions please let me know

Let’s try to put the backward reasoning to practice. In this case study we will use it to decide what effort has to be done to 10x the current business. A few information about the retailer

• He has currently 100 stores. Each store sales are equal to EUR 2 M

• He wants to 10x the business up to Year 5

• Estimate what LFL growth he must get and how many stores he must open

• Assuming EUR 1 M per store estimate the Capex

• Estimate how many people he has to recruit assuming 6 people per store

In this lecture I will show you how to solve the case shown in the previous lectures 

Backward logic can be used in many situations. Below some of them

• You have a clear goal in the future but not a clear path towards it

• You want to estimate the pace needed to reach the goal

• You want to check the implications for you or your department

• You want to see what are the limitations preventing you from reaching the goal

• You want to see whether the goal is not too ambitious

• You want to see whether the goal does not require too big resources

In many cases you can get high end result from compounding effect in time or by getting small improvements in many areas. In this lecture I will explain the concept

We will also help Ann decide whether it makes sense or not to take the course for fast reading and what could be the benefit of that

Let’s look how the quick win framework looks for savings. We will look at 2 dimensions:

• What is the potential savings we can achieve

• How easy it is to implement it?

We will have thanks to 4 categories of projects that we can consider:

• Cow savings – easy to kill and big

• Elephant – difficult to catch yet big

• Chicken savings – easy to kill yet you need to kill a lot of them not to be hungry

• Bat savings – small and difficult to catch

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

Now let’s have a look at different examples of applying the issue tree. We will look at 4 examples:

1. Logistics for a chicken producer. We will use in the first cases study the issue tree to identify potential problems in the logistics producing meat from chickens

2. Retail. In the second example, we will apply the issue tree to a retail firm

3. FMCG. In the third example, we will apply the issue tree to a firm producing consumer goods

4. John’s flat. In the final example, we will help John improve his apartment

That’s in short. Enjoy the case studies. If you have any questions regarding this method or any other method please let me know. I am always more than happy to help with whatever I can

Here I will show an example of an issue tree in Logistics

Here I will show an example of an issue tree in Retail.

Here I will show an example of an issue tree in FMCG.

Imagine that you would have to create an issue tree for John’s flat. What kind of problem he has and what could be the reasons for that

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

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.

In this lecture I will show you how to use in practice 80/20 rule also known as Pareto principal

Remember that the potential reduction in costs depends on 2 elements: potential percentage cost reduction and the cost starting point:

• Potential % cost reduction

• Cost starting point

We will discuss this in this lecture

Imagine that you have to identify quick wins in cost reduction for an international chain of drugstores. We know their cost structure

• A few information about the firm that we will be analyzing

• They have 4 000 stores

• We have their cost structure

• They have send us a list of projects that will help them reduce costs

• Estimate the potential and group them using the quick wins framework

In this lecture we will solve the previously introduced case

The data you have gathered will be used in your business analysis. You can also fill in the slides prepared in the very beginning and modify it if needed

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

Key Performance Indicators are extremely important to understand and manage a business. In this lecture I will show you how this is achieved. In the next lectures I will show You using an exmaple of a cinema company how to apply KPIs in practices

In this lecture I will show you the case you have to solve. As a first step you will have to define the KPIs that matter in the cinema business

In this lecture I will show you the logical structure to the case presented in the previous lecture

Once you are done with the logical structure you should build the analysis in Excel on the basis of it

In this case study you will be asked to define the drivers and KPIs for the marketplace / 2-sided business model

In this lecture I will discuss the KPIs that you should concentrate on in marketplace business model

In this case study you will be asked to define the drivers and KPIs for the SaaS business model

Here I will show you some examples of SaaS businesses. This will help you to understand the nature of the business and define proper drivers and KPIs

In this lecture I will discuss the KPIs that you should concentrate on in SaaS business model

Let’s imagine that you have to define the personal KPIs for Giuseppe that will help him make sure that he is increasing his chances of being happy

Here we will discuss a very useful concept that is used in business and should be also used when making serious long-term decisions the so-called total cost of ownership.

Here we will summarize all the methods we have learnt in this section

Opportunity tree is a tool that you can use to generate new ideas to improve your business by looking at main drivers of your business

If you want to understand well a business you have to be able to identify the cost drivers that shape the business model. In this lecture I will show you how to do that

Let’s imagine that Peter is considering 2 choices: buying an apartment or renting it. Let’s use the total cost of ownership to see what makes sense.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study

As a management consultant or a manager you will quite often have to decide whether to something internally or buy it from 3rd party supplier. In this cases you have to perform make-or-buy analysis. We will discuss this in detail in this section

We are back to Maria. Using previous case study we will try to decide which activities she should delegate using the make-or-buy analysis.

Imagine that you have to analyze for a consulting firm whether it makes sense or not to produce online course devoted to Data Science. In this lecture I will show you a few information about the firm that we will use to pick the optimal solution

In this lecture we will solve previously introduce case study. We will have a look at the make option

In this lecture we will solve previously introduce case study. We will have a look at the buy option and we will compare make and buy options.

In some cases even if it is more expensive to make than to buy it still makes sense to make:

• There is no content on the right level

• Your standard differs from the general standards

• You treat the teaching system also as a standardization tool

• You grow drastically in terms of people

• You want to keep the knowledge to yourself

• There are not specialists in a specific area

• Legal reasons & NDAs

In this section I will discuss more advanced techniques such as: rankings, scenario analysis, representative element analysis, decision tree, OEE, OLE, theory of constraints, Critical Chain and many, many more

Quite often you have options that you want to somehow compare and rank them. Thanks to the ranking you not only give points but you can sort them from the most wanted to the least desired. In this lecture, I will show you how to use rankings and when 

In the next few lectures I will show you how to build rankings in practices. We will have a look at 2 rankings examples.

In the first one we will help Maria pick the ideal boyfriend using a ranking

In the second example we will help a mil producer decide which new product he should develop. Again for that we will use rankings. Enjoy the cases studies and if you have any questions please let me know!

Let’s have a look at milk producer that wants to expand its product range. In this case you will be asked to analyze and find the best candidates for brand expansions. 

In this lecture I will show you how to solve the case shown in the previous lectures.

In this lecture, I will show you how to solve the case shown in the previous lectures.

In the next few lectures, we will use rankings to identify potential targets for M&A.

We will try to help a milk producer that wants to grow via M&A select potential targets. Since he is considering 100 potential targets, we will have to create a ranking.

A few information about the firm

• The firm considers 100 potential targets

• The markets are divided into 10 regions

• The firm wants to consider 4 criteria

• Try to rank all the potential targets