Management Consulting

The course develops a valuable set of core consulting skills and provides a rich appreciation of modern management consulting of value to both prospective management consultants and to other business students who expect to engage and work with management consultants during their future career.  The course complements the Business Practicum elective in which students have the opportunity to apply consulting skills in a real consulting engagement with a local company.  In a typical session, the first hour will be an overview lecture on the Topic, or a discussion of the assigned Readings.  A short ‘Industry interlude’ will cover aspects of the history and structure of the management consulting industry, including ethics, professional qualifications and recruitment practices.  The final ninety minutes will be spent on an assigned “caselet” (a short-form case) based on a real management consulting engagement.  Caselets will cover commercial organizations in China and overseas, as well as consulting interventions in not-for-profits and the Public Sector. Students will be placed into groups and each group will be asked to practice specific consulting skills and roles, with opportunities for each student to plan a consulting engagement, facilitate discussions with clients, and lead a consulting team.