Know What's Happening in Management Consulting
Know What's Happening in Management Consulting
Management Consulting Pulse
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Daily
Every morning
Weekly
Tuesday recap
Ram Charan unveils AI‑driven manufacturing playbook promising 10% cash‑flow gains
Renowned advisor Ram Charan has released a new manufacturing playbook that leverages AI to generate immediate cash‑flow improvements. He advises CEOs to map the entire value chain, pinpoint cash traps and deploy low‑cost AI tools such as ChatGPT analyses of vendor data, aiming for roughly ten‑percent savings. The framework also calls for aggressive pricing and a reassessment of China‑dependency.
Scalo announced an expanded partnership with Databricks, joining its Consulting and Service Integration Partner Program to bolster its Data & AI practice. The collaboration enables enterprise clients to centralize data on a lakehouse foundation, streamline data flows, and deploy AI models faster. Scalo will leverage Databricks’ Data Intelligence Platform to break silos, modernize legacy systems, and provide real-time streaming and intelligent automation. The move aligns with Scalo’s strategy to grow globally and offer end-to-end software services.
Stop lying in your proposals. It’s literally costing you business. I reviewed an agency proposal last week. They included hourly estimates for every phase. I asked: “Is this the way you’d prefer to do it?” They said no. “Then why is it in your...
The smartest experts I work with can solve anyone's problem... but their own. Case in point? My client Chris Piper is brilliant. He’s helped multiple businesses scale past 8-figures. He even helped Codie Sanchez grow her business from $2M to $10M in...
The Government Digital and Data Profession has introduced a dedicated “digital evaluator” role within its capability framework to embed evaluation directly into agile digital projects. The initiative follows a Treasury‑led review that highlighted shortcomings in how digital programmes are funded,...
Here's something that feels deeply wrong but the data is undeniable. When you write landing page copy at a professional reading level—the kind that sounds polished and sophisticated—it converts at 5.3%. When you simplify that same copy to a 5th-7th grade reading...
Many leaders chase more. I choose better. I thought growth meant more more meetings, more projects, more noise. It looked productive. It wasn’t. When everything matters, nothing does. Results improve when you remove what doesn’t move them. My rule: • Fewer priorities • Fewer meetings • Fewer distractions • Higher standards Simplicity...
Huron Consulting Group reported record third‑quarter 2025 revenues, with RBR reaching $432.4 million, a 16.8% year‑over‑year increase. The Healthcare segment drove growth, posting a 19.9% rise in RBR and expanding operating‑income margin to 30.9%. Adjusted earnings per share climbed 25% to...
“The best way out is always through.” In strategy and leadership, avoidance masquerades as sophistication. We reframe, defer, reorganise—anything to bypass the hard conversation, the failing unit, the flawed assumption. But complexity rarely dissolves when ignored. It compounds. The issues we...
You think doing everything yourself = control. But it actually equals mistakes, delays, and a client experience that is either sloppy , leaves you exhausted or both . You’re losing time, money, and sanity. An OBM who’s in your corner...
24 Hour Business Plan (24HRBP) announced that veteran marketer Mark Coad has joined the firm as a Partner and Senior Advisor. Coad, who has led major agencies such as IPG Mediabrands Australia and OMD, will advise on strategy, leadership, governance...
New randomized experiment shows AI narrows skill gaps. We found this among talent levels at the same job, but this paper looks at education. They find that AI reduces the gap between more & less educated people on a business...
On the ground for the @SAP Analyst Innovation Council meetings. Digging into SAP's strategy moving forward. All discussions under NDA...but looking forward to digging into the details. #CIO #strategy #ERP #AI #HCM #CX #Data https://t.co/pFVziQGjU8
The PTW/PI Book Club launched its first chapter by spotlighting Michael Porter’s three seminal strategy contributions. The piece, drawn from a Harvard Business School “Celebrating Michael Porter” conference, argues Porter saved the strategy academy, bolstered the shift from planning to...
Leadership Consequences: Why Leaders Think Three Moves Ahead. How can you see and seize new opportunities https://t.co/I1wYvHSfzO #leadership #commonsenseleadership #innovation https://t.co/cWXUpl0zPz
https://t.co/YCt9g8aLZ2 When the game changes, copying what looks “advanced” is usually the wrong move. Advantage doesn’t disappear — it moves. Toward accountability, proximity, and scaling humanity instead of automating it away. #strategy #innovation #leadership #outthinker @TMobile @BestBuy @Starbucks @HarvardBiz
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge surveyed 30 veteran directors—half Black and 40% women—who collectively serve on boards valued at $18 trillion. The research shows that while board diversity promises richer problem‑solving, many committees lack psychological safety, limiting the impact of varied...
Airbnb says a third of its customer support is now handled by #AI in the US and Canada. (TechCrunch) #JVGpost https://t.co/944r0JiVne https://t.co/wPKkdmHAmF
“20 ChatGPT prompts to boost your productivity.” Useful? Yes. Transformational? Only if used correctly. Here’s the nuance most prompt collections miss 👇 1️⃣ Prompts don’t create productivity — systems do GTD, Pomodoro, Eisenhower, Ivy Lee… These frameworks worked before AI....
The article introduces the "Invite Input" habit, a core element of the Synergystack™ Team Development System, to combat Fear of Speaking Up (FOSU) in organizations. It outlines five practical steps—signaling safety, making specific asks, asking early, building input infrastructure, and...
My take: MCP increasingly looking like a pre-agentic, pre-runtime view of how AI integrates with systems. It assumes AI needs standardized, reflective tool discovery at run time. But we now see it doesn’t. It can just read the code, schemas, and...
Open-weight models are no longer chasing proprietary AI. They’re drafting behind it at full speed. The performance gap likely closes for good by 2027 as optimization + fine-tuning outpace frontier scaling. CIO warning: Don’t lock strategy to model leaders. The advantage is...
Small and mid‑size brands are losing cash flow when inventory induction time— the period between arrival at a fulfillment center and being sale‑ready—gets stretched. Delays lock capital, force costly expedited freight, and can miss seasonal demand, squeezing margins. A hybrid...
Why do so many organizations report AI adoption, yet see limited returns? New data suggests it’s not just execution. Fear of becoming less relevant, or even replaced, leads employees to “use” AI without truly embracing it. The real shift? Treat AI...
Prediction is not just a human trait; it’s the foundation of AI. As we harness artificial intelligence, we’re tapping into our natural ability to foresee patterns and trends. Leaders who understand this can leverage AI to their advantage and drive smarter decisions. In...
In this episode, host Dave Stachowiak talks with Lily Zheng, a strategist and author on systemic fairness, about why most Americans actually support diversity (82% in surveys) despite a perception that opinions are split. Zheng explains why typical DEI initiatives—single...
AI is enabling innovation with new possibilities and also driving operational improvements across all roles. My hunch is that in the longer term, the operational gains will be adopted by most businesses and not be a true differentiator. While it's vital to...
If you can’t explain your P&L in 5 minutes, you’re not a boss—you’re a passenger. Managing money isn’t about complex spreadsheets; it’s about control. The 5-Step Survival Plan: Track Everything: Know exactly where every cent goes. Find the Levers: Focus on the...
The article argues that great ideas rarely succeed on merit alone and must be backed by strategic use of power. Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer defines power as the ability to get things done in contested situations and outlines three forms—hard,...
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.” Attitude isn’t mood. It’s the repeated stance you take under pressure. In leadership, small acts of avoidance—dodging hard conversations, tolerating mediocrity, deferring tough decisions—don’t stay tactical. They compound. What begins as convenience hardens into...
If everyone has the same AI, AI isn’t the advantage. Clarity is. Who are you to your customers? : #AI #Strategy #Leadership #Business #Innovation https://t.co/JZtALylZ7J
🚨 ANALYST TAKE: OpenAI just partnered with the very management consulting firms AI is supposed to replace. Here’s why this is NOT really a contradiction. It’s actually one of the key endgames of enterprise AI. Thread 🧵👇 https://t.co/wTKfR4kW6t
Not one CIO we are talking to is vibe coding a replacement to $NOW or $SAP or $ORCL or other critical business apps. It simply isn’t happening and it won’t. 👀 This doesn’t mean AI isn’t disrupting some software, but this...
Apple returned $106.1 billion to shareholders. While its competitors collectively committed $500 billion+ to AI infrastructure. Sometimes the most strategic AI decision is knowing when not to build. Source: https://t.co/KNtNLIRTOQ
The AI efficiency gap: Why the C-Suite and the front line are living in different worlds by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/oDC8OKpx4r @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Leadership #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology #TechNews #Sales #Marketing #Culture #Strategy https://t.co/ACegbrqNxG
Pilot purgatory is where AI ROI goes to die. 💀 Break the cycle. Learn what the 5% of successful CIOs are doing differently in 2026. Full episode: https://t.co/dJs86sTyRD #CXOtalk #AIValue #CIO https://t.co/n8dG53BcbS
“Some #procurement change initiatives end up applying a Rolls-Royce solution to a mini-car problem, resulting in the high risk of ineffectiveness.” 🔗 https://t.co/6TgpmcYe7z #purchasing #supplychain https://t.co/k9MI9F8Iuj
Question for your next meeting: "What's the binding constraint on our AI projects right now, and is it the same constraint we assumed six months ago? If the answer has changed and our budget allocation hasn't, we have a problem." What would your...
US consulting firms are on track for their fastest growth since the post-COVID boom, with 90% of clients saying they plan to hire consultants to help implement AI https://t.co/NIBF3wa0ti [Reg Req] #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology #Tech #TechNews https://t.co/y20KMT7T8E
Sam Altman admitted some companies are "AI washing", blaming layoffs on AI that would've happened anyway, while warning real displacement is coming https://t.co/Jgwyq4EIrm #ArtificialIntelligence #Innovation #Technology #Tech #TechNews https://t.co/ajaCzbeWya
The AI ROI is Real, But Are CIOs Ready? Insights from Lenovo’s 2026 Playbook by @Timothy_Hughes https://t.co/EMAEj0YnH9 @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #artificalintelligence #ArtificialInteligence #Technology #Innovation #Tech #TechNews #Leadership #Cloud #CloudComputing #SaaS
Hot take: The most valuable skill in 2026 is not prompt engineering. It is critical thinking. Claude 3 Opus tops out at 70% on causal reasoning. LLM accuracy drops as data gets fresher. The humans who never outsourced their judgment? They are now...
96% of developers don't trust AI code: Here's a step toward the fix “To scale, a “blueprint” is needed that treats autonomous code with the same (or greater) level of scrutiny as human-written code” https://t.co/vPV2dkst8U #ResponsibleAI #AIGovernance https://t.co/6nrJMYXYir
Organisations should evaluate vulnerabilities across multiple tiers, ranging from high-level strategic planning, operational & process risks to frontline execution. By integrating theoretical lessons with practical, data-driven frameworks, the resources outlined in this newsletter aim to enhance operational resilience, ensure regulatory compliance,...
Strategy isn’t theory. It’s how you use what you have to survive today and win tomorrow. #Strategy #Leadership #Business #StrategicThinking #FutureOfWork https://t.co/s5GHVg0CRu
People on this site systematically overestimate the speed at which companies can deeply adopt AI & underestimate the impact of AI’s jagged abilities in limiting AI’s utility in the short run. Work will certainly start to change but companies have a...
4 ways to inject new entrepreneurial energy into your organization, using AI as a catalyst. via @forbes https://t.co/3mNojgxEHQ
What are the top 5% of successful gen AI user companies doing differently? The common denominator is that they are mastering the art & science of customizing AI to their businesses, while fostering partnerships versus go-it-alone approaches. https://t.co/xoEhkT5gvf @ZDNET
Embarking on an S/4HANA journey? Ensure it's business-led. If your team needs guidance, bring in a trusted advisor to help manage your system integrator and unlock full value. #S4HANA #SAP #ProjectManagement https://t.co/ZoG8PY0yNO
Salesforce is now bridging four domains at once: Salesforce Implementation (CRM) Databricks (data lake) Agentforce (AI agents) Data 360 (data platform) The platform wars are not about features. They are about who owns the most connected node in your stack.
#TimTalk - How do leaders balance acceptance with accountability and performance? with Mau Espinosa https://t.co/l8JyxhLE7I via @DLAIgnite #SocialSelling #DigitalSelling #Sales #Leadership #Culture #Motivation #Marketing #Success #Entrepreneur #Management https://t.co/j41Z3fekyv
