To make life easier for me and you, I have created a Q&A page here on the KC, where I will be collecting the questions and answers that come in. Have a look – so far questions range from “what business car do you drive” to “what business schools in Europe to consulting firms recruit from preferably?”. And, of course – keep ‘em coming!

Here’s your chance!

I just signed up with this fun service called formspring.me – they provide the form below. You can post your questions anonymously, if you chose to. Answers will be posted on formspring.me/theKC . Of course, I might not be able to answer all questions you have – but hey, try me!

Wishing you all a great holiday season,

Florian

[UPDATE: The posted form did not seem to work, sorry to all who submitted a question here, it did not reach me! Please post it directly at formspring.me/theKC. ]

In this second and -so far- last post on the issue, let’s look at the frivolous side of things – and as requested by reader Sebastian, I’ll look at relations inside your firm as well.

• No getting drunk-drunk.
  Let me state it without evaluating it: In many countries, alcohol is part of socializing. You will most likely end up at a restaurant or a bar with your clients once in a while, especially after you and your team did a good job, of course. At those occasions, people will drink alcohol, and you will, too. Now – remember the last time you had a crazy night out with your friends? Hangover and all? You don’t want this to happen. It is ok to have a few beers, wine, what have you – it might even be noted negatively if you don’t participate and stick to your Evian, especially if your clients are the “hands on manager”-type. But you must not lose control - there’s too much trouble potential, from telling the client that you really hate the images in his office (his wife might have chosen them, or his kid painted them…) to spilling your drink over the client CXO’s Savile Row suit, the possibilities are endless, and none are desirable. Pace yourself, stick to low-alcohol drinks, eat enough beforehand, you know the drill. If you begin to feel buzzed beyond what you know you really have under control, pull the plug - shake hands, say goodbye, go to the hotel. There, it’s a good idea to drink as much water as possible before going to bed, and arranging for a wake-up call. Your client can come in late the next day with a dizzy head – but that is not accepted from people he pays four figures a day.
• NO intimate relations with clients. Never.
  “Don’t screw the crew”, you probably knew that line already. Getting into romantic – or… “temporarily satisfying relations” with a colleague is a potential setup for trouble, especially if you involve across hierarchy levels. This applies to your clients even more so. I admit, I have no first hand experience on that, but my common sense tells me that this is the way to go. Sure, we are hired to make our clients happy – but seriously, thinking about how meticulous clients can get over the smallest errors in our slide decks, imagine what trouble you are in if you hurt their personal feelings. Guys, I am looking at you. Don’t.
• What about relationships in your own firm?
  On to Sebastian’s question. Well – the first statement is already made in the topic above: Intimate relations? Think twice. Then think twice again. Again, I have no first hand experience, so it’s just my two cents on the topic… I wouldn’t risk the possible problems for a short-term thing. Be very sure that both of you can make a clear difference between your personal and your professional relation – even more so when you are on different hierarchy levels and might end up working on the same assignment.
  The same goes for friendships: It is great to get along great with colleagues, but you have to make sure that it does not affect your professional behavior. Be aware of the politics in your firm, and the culture: You don’t want to stand out by being too stiff, or too laid back and chatty either. Applying your common sense goes a long way.
  Last not least: people talk everywhere, and they sure do in consulting as well. I’d be cautious about disclosing too much sensitive personal information quickly… because basically, it is like it always was: Not everyone keeps what you tell them to themself. Only this time, the result might not be limited to your college friends having a laugh on your behalf – it might damage your career.

Have I forgotten something? Any of those topics ring a bell with you? Let us know in the comments!

• You always work FOR them.
  Even if you achieve your results in strong collaboration WITH them – which is for sure my preferred way of doing consulting – you are still hired as an external advisor. This distance is important to keep perspective. Quarterly results have improved while you were there? Great! Still, it was “your quarterly results”, not “our quarterly results”. Clients achieve results through our help, but THEY achieve them.
• Never disclose internal information or talk bad about your firm.
  It should be clear that you don’t disclose internal information about your firm to the client. This would destroy your reputation, just as if you disclosed sensitive information from another client – they’d have to assume you will go telling their secrets to someone else as well.
  On top of that, never bad-mouth your firm. You might be angry about your staffing manager because he put you on an assignment in Siberia or loathing the “coffee” in your home office: That is no matter for chit-chat with the client. It is normal to have some things to criticize about your own company – but you don’t do it publicly. It discredits you and the firm… and incidentally, the client you are yapping to about the bad coffee just started thinking why exactly he was paying so much money for such a crappy consulting firm. Keep a positive note when they ask you about your firm. You are an ambassador, act responsibly. If you can’t, this should really get you thinking if you are working for the right firm.
• “Sie” or “Du” / “Tom” or “Mr. Hanks”.
  Although you normally always start out with addressing your clients formally, there might come a point where they offer you to “just call me Tom”, and in non-English languages, that most of the time goes in hand with addressing them informally as well.
  Should you do it? General rule of thumb: No. Decline respectfully, thanking your client, and tell him that after the project is over, you’d be glad to do so. It keeps you on the safe side.
  If you consider it nonetheless -and there is no rule in your firm against that-, be very aware of the culture of your client company and the country you are working in. Don’t do under any circumstance in companies where the informal address signals personal friendship. That could well jeopardize your credibility as an objective and facts-driven advisor.

Alright, enough for now. In part two, I’ll talk about three more things that are real no-no’s in dealing with your clients.

What are your thoughts on those points? War-stories to share? Let us know in the comments!

Most of you will have noticed this little phenomenon called “twitter”… and apart from my personal account, the KC has now joined as well. You can follow it under twitter.com/the_KC

I’ll be posting updates about new articles, the occasional consulting-related link and maybe a question to the audience once in a while. It will be a fairly low-frequency thing, so don’t be afraid that you’ll be spammed.

BTW, how dou you like that “KC” logo thing?

I’m speaking consultanese all the time - it’s just the virus that goes with the job. There is nothing you can do about it, really – even if in the first weeks you think “boy, my colleagues are nice people, but what are they TALKING about?!”… give it a months, two max, and you’ll make the same impact on innocent bystanders, too.
Just to remind you – and to give those bystanders an opportunity to understand what their consultant says,

here’s 10 random consulting sentences, translated to human (with the occasional tongue in cheek):

1. “We’ll need to challenge the action title on this slide and sharpen the two-by-two.”
   We’ll need to critically look over the one-sentence title of this PowerPoint slide which should sum up the main message of the slide. Also, the two-by-two matrix still contains too much text / isn’t well defined enough, that needs to be taken care of, too.
2. “That’s a great idea, let’s put it on the parking lot!”
   Your idea might actually be great, but it doesn’t fit the scope (topic, time or both) of this meeting. Let’s write it down so that it doesn’t get lost but does not cause us to get off-target, either.
3. “The client’s CEO decided to have the steering committee on Monday.”
   Cancel your plans for the weekend, you’ll be working in the changes we discuss on Friday.
4. “As soon as I get the deck back from graphics, I’ll send it to you.”
   When our graphic designers finished formatting the PowerPoint presentation, I’ll send it to you.
5. “The VP will make sure that the project is continually aligned with the key stakeholders”
   Our Vice President (or sometimes: Partner) will discuss the project status with the people at the client who a) pay for the project and determine its direction or b) have the power to sink the project and thus have a say, too.
   
6. (on the phone) “Hello? Oh, hi, thanks for calling! I’m a bit busy right now, can I call you later? OK, great. Bye!”
   Hi Darling! I am so glad you called, I missed you all day! Listen, I am still at the office with colleagues and client employees in the room, so I can’t really talk right now. I know, I know, it is already 11pm… I’ll call you back as soon as I get to the hotel, I promise! Yeah, I love you too, sweetheart. Bye!
7. “Greg, I just wanted to check with you if you got my email regarding your input for the key deliverable that is coming up?”
   Hey, I know I can’t force you because I am just a consultant, but I need your input or at least a heads up on the email that I know for sure you got two days ago, because everyone else already replied. I have to put together the presentation for the next big meeting, and we’ll both look stupid if that doesn’t work out – so PLEASE take a minute to at least look at it!
   
8. “Let’s make sure that our arguments on this point are MECE.”
   Let’s make sure that our arguments on this point are Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive – not overlapping and covering the whole range of options.
9. “Good morning! How was your weekend?”
   I woke up at 5am to take the first flight, then took an hour to get here. I have only had two coffees yet, and the first emails have started pouring in at 8am sharp. But that is none of your concern, and I am professional enough to not let you notice any of that. Instead, let’s go to the kitchen together, I’ll have a much-needed third coffee, and you tell me about the hiking trip you took.
10. “We have to leverage synergies ASAP to deliver on the PMI.”
    In the Post Merger Integration of these two companies, we have to find areas in which they currently overlap or complement each other to either save money or generate more revenue as soon as possible to make it a success.

What is your favourite consultanese buzzword-phrase? Tell us in the comments!

Onboard rollers (or trolleys, or the things with wheels to lug behind you)

• Size matters.
  Be sure to buy one that does comply both with your local and international carryon-luggage size standards. The “gold standard” of business travel is to not check in any luggage, which gets you more time before and after the flight, as well as the certainty that your luggage always is where you are – not a 100% sure thing if you check a bag in, especially when you are checking it in late. Thus: Be ready to take it on board, and have it at the size that allows it.
• Flexibility is good.
  Many soft-shell suitcases have an option to expand through a zipper that goes all the way round. That comes in extremely helpful when you find yourself lugging back more than you brought. Be aware, though, that you might not be able to take the suitcase as carry-on once it is expanded. For the same reason, hard-shell suitcases are as much a curse as they are a blessing for their sturdiness. Cramming in a bit more into them just does not work as well.
• Colors?
  All consultants’ suitcases are black, or so they say. I have seen the sporadic blue, silver, even red – and really, it does not matter that much, as long as the thing does not look like you are going on a band camp instead of a consulting project. Of course, you subject yourself to some sneers from colleagues when you go colorful – but there is one big benefit: Should you check in your luggage once in a while (which I, see above, don’t recommend as best option, but I do it, too, on occasion), it is way easier to spot and retrieve at the baggage claim.
• How much to spend?
  The sky is the limit when it comes to suitcases. The top-line brands I see lugged around airports the most are Rimowa (their aluminium suitcases, though they have started producing hard-shell plastic suitcases in recent years as well, which are still quite expensive) and Tumi. Now, my mum always said “we are not rich enough to buy cheap stuff”, meaning that there is no use in buying stuff that breaks in an instant and needs to be replaced often. On the other hand, one of those top-notch trolleys sets you back about EUR 500… here’s what I did: I got myself a simple black soft-shell trolley, the cheapest one that was expandable. It set me back EUR 30. After one year of heavy use, it is slowly starting to show signs of wear, but so far it is still going strong… at this rate, I could go for way over a decade before a Tumi would pay off. Go figure… bottom line: Of course you want your trolley to look good, but it gets thrown around all the time anyway, so don’t go too fancy, keep your eyes on the functional side. Don’t buy it in a supermarket but go to a shop that is specialized in suitcases, bags etc. – they will be able to tell you the difference between “cheap and rubbish” and “cheap but works for a good while”.

Laptop bags

• Company-issued laptops often come with very simple (read: useless) bags, though you might get lucky and fetch a bigger, sturdier and more useful specimen. If not: Store it in the attic so that you can give it back when leaving the company some time in the future.
• Wheels or no wheels, that is the question!
  There are split opinions about that one. Many consultants prefer the no-wheels briefcase look. If you do, too, be aware that those things get heavy – the regular firms’ laptops are not the slimmest models available, and you basically carry a whole office in that bag, which adds up quickly. That puts strain on arms and shoulders. If you go for a model with wheels, that problem almost disappears, but you’ll have to deal with a slightly less polished look.
• Fabric or leather?
  Here, looks actually count for more, and even fashion comes into play. Leather bags have a nicer look to them – IMHO – but are also more susceptible to scratches and stains (even water is kind of evil…). Plus, they cost a whole lot more (compare the prices of Tumi bags in nylon and leather, for example). Fabric (most often found: ballistic nylon) still looks good – when it is black. Did you hear me? BLACK. Brown leather might be acceptable, but nylon: BLACK! It is more scratch- and stain resistant, but wears out eventually, as well. Just make sure that the bag is really suitable for showing up at the client site with. Simple but elegant is what you should look for.
• How big should it be?
  Big enough to put your essentials in, and not bigger… but there are varying opinions on what “essentials” are. For me, that includes an umbrella, a book for leisure and my sunglasses, for example. The basic rule is: You will pack this thing until it is full. Thus, the bigger you go, the more stuff you carry. Of course, again, it should in no case go above carry-on regulations, but it is hard to find a laptop bag that is so huge. It makes sense to first determine what you want to carry on the road and then go find a bag where it all fits in comfortably. As with trolleys, some laptop bags come with an extension zipper – they come in handy.
• What should it have?
  A padded compartment for your laptop. Space enough for letter/A4-sized stacks of documents – if the bag has a frame that keeps itself in shape, that avoids crumpling. Apart from a space for documents, go for more smaller pockets to help you organize your stuff. In my bag (which is not optimal, but I had it when starting the job and it suits me reasonably well) there is a dedicated place for everything I carry, which makes a a quick check when packing on Sunday much easier. If it has no wheels, make sure it has a shoulder strap. They look stupid when worn over a suit, sure, and they crinkle it, sure, but at least you have a hand free when you need it. Plus, go for one that has a slip-through pouch/strap in the back, so you can attach it to the handle of your trolley. If it has wheels, make sure that the handle is long enough for you to walk upright with it.
• How much to spend?
  In contrast to trolleys, unfortunately, cheap laptop bags don’t do you no good. They tend to look as cheap as they are, lack intelligent compartment/pocket design and fall apart quickly. If you spend, spend on the laptop bag instead of the trolley first. Of course, you can go spend big money here – even a small Tumi sets you back around EUR 350 – but in the price range of about EUR 100, things start to make sense.

That’s it for travel gear – you should be all set and ready to hit the road now!

Are you interested in getting a full run-down of what I carry in my mobile office, aka my laptop bag? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll put together a tour for a future part of this series.

This is the third post in the “Consulting 101″ series, dedicated to give an overview of the first steps into consulting – from having scored an offer to the first time on the job. You can find the other articles, “You got the offer, now what?” here, and  “Shopping for the first day – clothing” here.

I set up a dedicated page for the talk, where you can find the slides as well as notes, useful links etc. on the topics touched, at killerconsultant.com/talk.

Like what you see?
I’m up for requests to share some insight with your organization – just shoot me an email to contact@killerconsultant.com .

To add to the excitement, slideshare.net (where I uploaded the slides) liked my presentation so much that they featured me on their homepage – w00t!

[UPDATE: There have been incredibly good and information-packed contributions in the comments to this post - go check them out!]

You signed your contract, you hopefully took a good vacation, maybe you even moved to a new town – now you are getting ready to become a consultant. Awesome!

Of course, by now, you have the consultants’ lifestyle all figured out… and you decide it’s time to go shopping to get the right gear for your newly found life on the road. This post and the next one should give you some input on what to get, what to spend money on, and what you can safely put on your “someday/maybe” list. Let’s start it off with clothing.

Clothing
I am so sorry, but this is written from a man’s perspective, so I’ll talk about ties and stuff… if any consultant girls are up to add some female touch here, let me know in the comments! Being dressed well is part of the job, so you should pay attention to your wardrobe. When starting out, it’s all about the basics - you can still go fancy later on. The general aim is to be well-dressed, but still blending in within all sorts of corporate environments.

• Suits:
  Go for darker colors, though it does not need to be all black. Dark grey works always, dark blue most of the time. Pinstripes? Might work. No patterned stuff, no shiny red-carpet tux… you get the idea? Plus, single colored dark suits work with the widest variety of shirts. Two suits are minimum, three are better. Don’t be guided by the brand – no one can see that, anyway – but rather look for the best fitting suits that you can find. Honestly: The most expensive suit is worth nothing if it does not sit on your shoulders right. Go for wool, avoid linen and synthetic fabrics like the plague. The former wrinkles like hell, the latter looks cheap and gets smelly faster than you can draw that last-minute waterfall chart.
• Shirts:
  Plain colors preferred. White is a no-brainer, light blues are a charm as well. Stripes are alright, but they narrow down your choice of Suit-Shirt-Tie combinations drastically. Go for collars that sit comfortably, especially if you are not used to wearing a shirt for extended periods of time. Those of you who had the pleasure of a “the collar is so tight I almost choke myself when swallowing” day at work know what I mean. Go for pure cotton. Iron-free shirts aren’t really, anyway, and most often you buy that label with a high percentage of synthetic fiber, which most of the time makes the fabric harsher against the skin. Again, brand names do not really matter, though shirts from H&M, Zara etc. tend to wear out rather quickly. But so does BOSS, for that matter… No button-downs, that might be too casual in a few places. When it comes to the cuffs, the opinions are split. Of course, the traditional cuff with cufflinks does look swell… but they always, always, always rattle on your laptop when you are chewing away on the PowerpExcel. Simple buttoned cuffs don’t. Your choice. Get at least 7 shirts, 10 are better, and chances are you already have a few that are suitable anyway.
• Shoes:
  Simple and black gets you the furthest. Leather, obviously. I do wear brown shoes at work, as well, but that doesn’t fly with some clients (or employers)… so black is your safest bet. Go for classic cuts – you’ll be wearing them a lot, and you don’t want to be known as “Mr. Fancyfeet”, right? Get some shoes that are comfortable to walk in. If possible, get two pairs and change them daily. It will make them last a lot longer. Plus, especially with shoes, learn to take good care of them (see also “treat your ties and shoes with respect”).
• Ties:
  Silk ties are the preferred option. For me personally, the tie is where I can get some color in the game, but you shouldn’t go too flashy. Simple stripes and patterns or plain colors – god forbid you wear that Micky-Mouse tie to work that you got as a christmas gift when you were 12! I know, you love it… but this is not the place. When you keep your suits and shirts in plain colors each, matching a tie to your outfit is really easy. My personal role is to have two parts striped, max – but it might be better to go with the “1 striped part max” rule. I mean… you know what they say about men in general and their sense for fashion? Just play it safe, that’s all I’m saying.
• Socks:
  Black black black black black black black. No patterns. Did I mention BLACK? OK, you got it. If you want to decrease stress, buy them in bulk, so that you can put together any two black socks you get out of the washing machine. Some might argue that only calf-high socks are the real deal…if you are comfortable in them, go ahead. They should, in any case, be long enough to avoid showing pale consultant-skin when the pants rise up.
• Belt:
  Matching the shoes. Simple buckle. This is not the time to wear a fashion statement around your waist (or slogans, for that matter. Which reminds me, I should wear my “use your brain” belt this weekend ). ‘Nuff said.
• Underwear:
  Are you kidding me? C’mon!

In the next post, I’ll cover some essential gear that will make your life on the road a whole lot easier.

This is the second post in the “Consulting 101″ series, dedicated to give an overview of the first steps into consulting – from having scored an offer to the first time on the job. You can find the first post, “You got the offer, now what?” here.