Clever Consulting Company

By,
Vrushank Raut
Milind Thakur
Swapnil Wagh
Rahul Satpute
Overview
• Established in October 2000 by four business school finance faculty
• Niche market proposition was to leverage a deep repository of
academic credibility and functional expertise
• Began operating with 4 partners, 4 consultants (MBAs), 3 analysts
(recent graduates) & 1 person providing admin & secretarial support
• First 18 months added three pilot projects and transformation into
larger projects
• No expansion in capacity but more and more utilization of the existing
resource base
Overview
• No expansion in capacity but more utilization of the existing resource
• Revenue growth of 55% and 65% in last two years
• Lack of clear managerial direction and conflicts led to 17% growth
next year
• Recruitment and training/promotion became difficult, and plans for
systemic project knowledge capture postponed
• Eventually founding partners left one by one leaving one
• This lead to clear direction and growth of 93% and 113% in next years
• Firm has currently Grey matter assignments
 Grey Matter, Grey Hair & Procedure Assignments
P – Partners C – Consultants A – Analyst

P P P

C C C

A A A
Grey Matter Assignments: Grey Hair Assignments: Procedure Assignments:
This type of work is This type of work This type of work usually
typically unique and is similar to previous involves well-recognized
requires a considerable assignments, therefore and familiar problems. The
amount of innovative and the firm can apply/trade-on solution (method) is often
creative input. There is experience. highly standardized. There
a low ratio of analysts to There is a larger ratio of is a high ratio of analysts to
partners. analysts to partners. partners.
Line of Fit Model
Market Line of Fit Market Line of Fit
Requirement Requirement
C D
F

E
A

Operational Resource Capability Operational Resource Capability

The Managing Partner trying to maintain this fit, however, not sure about nature of the market to pursue and
the type of operational structures needed to support this ambition.
Alternatives with CCC

• Option A – Refocus on the issue and business origin

• Option B – Identify on your strength and build on it

• Option C – Expand the business

Option A
• Focusing on consultants and ‘grey matter’ type assignments can lead
to experience, knowledge that is difficult to copy

• At the same time, there is a risk of employees moving out and

diminishing the firm’s competitive advantage

• Firm can be creative, flexible and responsive to dynamic market

requirements, but can also lead confusion (leadership crisis)

• Firm is not entirely independent (university was parent)

Option A (Continued…)
• There is need of changing the structure of the organization as analyst
to partner ratio is very low

• Need to focus on leadership as none of the partner is firmly

established as leader
Option B
• The initial proposition of leveraging academic credibility and functional
expertise in order to get a niche position worked so this strength should be
worked on

• Commitment and creativity is focus area as initially it drove growth

• Benefits of academic knowledge and incremental capability development

over years of experience

• Discussion can be generated around internal barriers

• Also discussion about the innovations in future

Option C
• Dealing with more clients and hiring relatively low-cost analysts who deploy
standardized methodologies
• This will transform organization into ‘Procedure Assignment’

• Also, procedural innovations could be done by competitors that are bigger and
better established in this market and can compete on price

• Start the operations initiatives that floundered

• Start recruiting to restructure the organization to make it ‘Procedure Assignment’

• Start training, promotion and development for capturing project knowledge

Platt Gregory Framework
Performance Objective Option A Option B Option C

Quality Remains same Improves Remains same

Flexibility Remains same Remains same Increases

(Type of services
offered)
Speed Remains same Remains same Increases
(Turn Around Time)
Cost Might change Might change Reduces

So focus on option B and option C.

Thank You
 Operations Strategy Process

Fit
• There can be two approaches for better fit,
A. What the market wants and then develop operations resources to supply

B. Understand what operations resources and processes are particularly good at their
capabilities and find a market that values

• All companies have markets, but not all companies have operations capabilities
worth developing, so go for option B
 Sustainability
• Achieving fit over time
• There are two ways for it,
• being able to maintain the same balance over time, no matter what happens
in the environment or within the company
• maintaining fit while actively changing (presumably improving) the balance
• So option C

Risk
• Risk is any significant deviation from the line of fit
• Two types of risk
• Pure risks involve events that can produce only loss to the company
• Speculative risks relate to events that could hold potential for loss or gain
• Risk is when there is high complexity for that process needs to be
mastered so develop strength, so option B