Category: Career Guide

Management consulting is one of the most sought after career by MBA graduates. Management consultants help companies improve their overall performance through a variety of measures.

The role of management consultants include analysing the problems of the organisation, accordingly develop plans to solve them, maximise growth, generate revenue and profit, cut costs and improve the overall business. Consultants and consulting firms use their business acumen to provide focused advice and help firms come out of the red.

Mainly, management consultants are hired to advise companies. Consultant services are not only required in private sector but also in government departments and public sector organisations.

To be management consultants, candidates need to have an aptitude for business development, strategic planning, client handling and working in a team among various others.

Here are some points on why management consulting is a rewarding career choice for an MBA aspirant:

Broad area of expertise

Management consultants have a broad area of expertise. This broad horizon is one of the factors that makes this career attractive and rewarding. They can advise every department of the organisation – marketing, operations, Human Resource, Information Technology and so on. They consult large firms, top multinational clients and so on. Issues could range from improving company profits to assessing problems in current order of work.

Innovation

Another factor that makes management consulting an attractive career is innovation. Consultants have to work on a variety of projects from a variety of industries. In each scenario, consultants have to think of innovative solutions to manage the business successfully. Solutions can range from getting the right team players, or putting the correct strategy in place or setting up a new technology.

Personal development

Management consultants meet new clients, new problems and new industries on a daily basis. This them an immense opportunity to enhance their own profile / CV and develop critical interpersonal skills such as listening, negotiating, team-building, training and so on. Also, consultants constantly travel, thereby exploring a lot in the process.

Specialisations

A management consultant can opt to specialise across a wide range of domains such as sales and marketing, finance, business strategy, operations, human resources, e-commerce, supply-chain, information technology, and so on. Candidates can also choose not to specialise in any category and be general business consultants. However, top management consulting firms tend to hire domain specialists.

Research and development

A lot of research and data analysis goes behind each decision taken by management consultants. Typically, consultants conduct detailed analysis, conduct meetings with clients and client’s employees and prepare business proposals. All these require detailed analysis and innovative thinking.

Remuneration

After graduating from top business schools in India, a management consultant earn anywhere in the range Rs 10 lakh to 20 lakhs. The pay scale and other benefits only gets better with experience.

These are just six of many reasons on why management consulting is a lucrative career. Now let’s take a look at the daily activities of a consultant.

Available Work

It is very difficult to describe the average day of a management consultant. It depends on client and the project. It could involve individual effort or working with a large team. Some of the typical responsibilities include research, data collection, data analysis, client meetings, developing business proposals and so on. Experienced and senior consultants spend more time in formulating solutions, recommendations, managing projects and so on.

The ability to multi-task is extremely crucial in this profile. Candidates should be able to manage a million tasks at one go. Developing a strong network base is also crucial in this profile. Consultants also need to know excel sheet and PowerPoint well. They should be able to make presentations in front of a crowd which can include your team members or unknown clients. Projects can take anywhere from a few weeks to few years.

Here’s a list of top consultancy firms in India (not ranked in any specific order):

The Boston Consulting Group
Bain & Company
Accenture
McKinsey & Company
AT Kearney
Booz & Company
Ernst & Young
KPMG
Deloitte Consulting
Tata Strategic Management Group
IBM
Cognizant
Cap Gemini
Oliver Wyman
PricewaterhouseCoopers

In future, management consulting will further evolve with changing times. As the world of business evolves, so will consultants. Currently, the industry is focusing on industry-relevant specialisations. Eventually, consultants will need to have expertise over a wide range of domains and be constantly updated with the market trends.

However, there’s a flip side to everything. Management consultants are constantly travelling and are always meeting with clients. There’s no particular office hours. Candidates must be flexible with timings and willing to sacrifice. Consultant’s job also means meeting tough deadlines on time, going through immense stress, pressure to perform well and so on.

With the astounding success of Tim Ferris’ 4-hour workweek in 2007, the outsourcing has become a buzz word and more widely employed practice among independent-minded people. While so many people get inspired by the book to outsource everything from their business tasks to routine things in daily life, suddenly the new modern concept of efficiency and intelligent time management comes becomes more widely accepted. We were taught in schools and by our parents that good student and professional employee is the one who knows how to do a wide variety of things and does them. “If you want to do it right, do it yourself” has been a motto of diligence and responsibility for years. At the same time, the business developments of last 50 years or so demonstrates that those companies who learned to intelligently outsource routine, laborious or resource rich tasks, have gained considerable advantage over competitors.

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And here comes the question of education. Is this a domain where outsourcing can bring benefit to a student, or would it still be gravely unethical practice? This is a complex question. Tim Ferris himself admits hiring freelancers and personal assistants to conduct some research on his very book on outsourcing. This in no way means that he is not the author of the book. He had a vision of what needs to be researched, what data collected, what people contacted, what arrangements made, and just hired someone else to do the tedious work while he is doing the creativity, talking and analytics.

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For anyone interested in starting a career related to the management and development of projects, earning a strategic design & management degree is essential when pursuing such a career. Once you have earned this degree, there are a wide range of career opportunities that open up for you. We’ve compiled a list of career paths commonly pursued by recent graduates.

Brand Strategy

Upon earning a degree in strategic design and management, there are a myriad of different careers you can choose to pursue. The first is known as brand strategy. As a brand strategist, you will often work under a marketing team or brand manager as a means of tailoring a specific message for the brand. You will also look over any market research and analysis, as well as the tone of their message. Entry level employees that work as a brand strategist typically start out at over $50,000.

Product Strategy

This job role centers around being able to assess a multitude of aspects about the products that the employer is attempting to place on the market. When doing this, you will take a look at all of the possible products and decide which ones are actually worth selling and might be in demand, as well as to what type of customers to market these products to. It is also up to a product strategist to identify the prices that these products should likely be sold for. You will often be tasked with collecting and gathering market data to back up all of your findings. Potential salaries can range anywhere from over $33,000 to well over $100,000.

Design Strategy

Anyone that has graduated with a degree in strategic design and management will be able to start a career as a design strategist as well. A design strategist will often work with creative directors and brand strategists to develop a core strategy for design projects. This covers development and concepting and requires the employee in this role to ensure strategic success. The average salary for this career path is around $100,000.

Design Research

Working in a career in design research entails a large variety of job duties, including working with clients to create products, services and experiences designed solely around what works best for that specific company and what will earn them the most profits and revenue. A design researcher will lead a group in market research and must be able to assess the social, cultural and emotional needs of potential customers. Afterwards, a design researcher will need to link their findings with the overall market strategy. Average salary for this role is just above $60,000.

Entrepreneurship

It’s also possible to use the knowledge you’ve gained through this degree to focus on entrepreneurship, which is ideally suited to someone with this degree type, as starting your own business will require the development of business and marketing models. While a small business owner can make any amount of money, the average salary in the U.S. is close to $60,000.

Project Management

When starting a career in project management, you will typically act as the manager that oversees the tracking, development and implementation of certain projects, usually short-term ones. It is up to you to map out the beginning, ending and end goals for the project before it is set to begin. You will routinely work with senior management and other staff in order to meet these goals. The average salary of a project manager is close to $100,000.

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Customer care representatives or call center employees play a vital role in establishing a company’s reputation. They do so by becoming the voice and face of the company by handling inquiries, requests, and many other duties that encompass the job profile. According to the BLS, this domain is expected to grow at a rate of 15% in the next 5 years.

Individuals prefer to work in a call center for quick money and instant experience. Jobs in BPO’s like Convergys are considered highly lucrative because of the market standing of the company.

Before we go any further and delve into the nitty-gritties of what makes a customer care representative stronger, it’s imperative to throw some light on his organizational role and responsibilities.

Basically call center employees need to:

Process returns and exchanges
Answer questions about services and products
Do cashiering at times
Handle customer complaints
Resolve service issues and refer customers to higher management
Have an in-depth knowledge about the company’s procedures and policies along with the services and goods that are offered
Answer phone calls efficiently
Make payment arrangements with clients and customers
Explain company policies to update customer accounts and track lost shipments
Work the night shift whenever required
Chat online with customers
Respond to mail enquiries, and interact with customers through social media portals like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Work in the outbound department and contact customers to give new information

This is but a glimpse of what the job profile truly entails. The work is difficult as it takes a massive chunk out of your daily 24hrs. With constantly changing shifts, duties, and absolutely no free weekends, call center employees have their work cut out for them.

Social obligations become scarce with time and the workplace becomes your humble abode. It is but logical to think that since you are stationed in a building for hours on end – making and taking calls – you might as well devise strategies to improve productivity and stay on top of things. The way you engage at work, address customer issues, and collaborate with colleagues could impact the productivity of the call center as a whole.

Call center employees work in several capacities so they might address this topic differently. However, here are some key productivity-boosters which could come handy to all:

Figure Out your Flaws

Ask your quality analyst to brief you about your performance and identify any recurring trends.
If you have failing or low scores in a particular category, ask the manager to give you tips on how to improve.
If poor communication skills are holding you back, take coaching classes immediately.
Based on the results of the trend analysis conducted by the QA, identify the cause of your performance issues.

Create a Plan of Action

Once you have identified your flaws, fabricate a plan of action to eradicate them as soon as possible.
Work with your supervisor to glean information about available resources and easy avenues.
Enroll in up-training or additional training sessions to upgrade your professional and communication skills.
Request job aides or reference materials for quick perusal.
Interact with an outstanding colleague to understand the proper way of handling interactions.

Request Feedback

A good employee not only takes criticism constructively, but requests prompt feedback for personal and professional growth.
If you feel you are struggling to perform, ask your manager to give some extra attention.
Express your specific needs to get the best possible help from the management.

Take Stock

Score and measure the performance on every call.
Keep a database of every call – when it came, how much time it took to answer, who answered it, how long it lasted, the category of the call, and to whom it was transferred.
Use tools like LogMyCalls or HyperQuality to score calls.

Stay Focused

Know the requirements of the company by heart.
Ensure that you hit targets while creating an environment for self-development.
Combine the extrinsic and intrinsic motivational techniques to inspire people rather than shun them.

Learn to Segment

Start segmenting customers by improving the routing of your IVR options so as to match the right agent with the right customer.
Do so to enhance customer satisfaction as he will now speak to a skilled agent who can best answer his queries.
Segmenting will give you time to address more pressing tasks.

Sharing is Caring

In the event of a good call, hold a group discussion so that everyone can listen to it.
This will motivate others to demonstrate the same performance, while upgrading your credibility at work.
Create criteria’s that define a good call. This will ensure smooth categorization, thereby saving time and augmenting the productivity of the company.

Leverage Idle Time

Finish the “off-phone tasks” in less than 3 minutes.
If you feel stressed, request to take short breaks so as to breathe easy.
Eat a snack or take a walk to boost productivity.

Conclusion

The key to performance in a call center is motivation and training. Metrics, however, define the level of success. A call center employee needs to ensure the highest level of customer satisfaction. In order to achieve this benchmark he needs to be in complete control of his faculties to guarantee increased success.

By encompassing the aforementioned boosters in your daily schedule, I am sure you will achieve the pinnacle of success by upgrading your productivity to the best possible level.