Consulting Confessional: Keep it Simple

CMCE’s Consulting Confessional allows you to share, anonymously, those things that you did that, given a second chance, you might have done differently, and what you might have learned as a result.

This month’s example is a cautionary tale of the risks of trying to be too clever.

Early in my consulting career I was asked to write a proposal for a market analysis project. I developed what I thought was a clever but quite complicated approach for modelling the market for the product in question. 

When I stood up to present our methodology to the potential client, my mind went blank. I could not remember the key step on which the modelling approach was based. I improvised, but it must have been unconvincing and my lack of confidence in what I was saying must have been evident. We did not win the project.

I’ve since learnt that the golden rule for modelling is to keep it as simple as possible. Apart from any problems in remembering the approach, every additional step is likely to require making assumptions which may themselves be questionable.

If you’d like to confess to a mistake in your otherwise-spotless consulting career, send your confessions to The Newsletter Editor info@cmce.org.uk. All submissions will be treated in strictest confidence.