MBA_7_MCG_2021 Management Consultancy in a Global Environment Assignment Sample
A report on a Cafe in Jersey City
(Hudson and Co.)
Introduction
Hudson and Co. are considered to be standing on the waterfront within the rapidity of the evolvement of the district of Harborside in Jersey City. The gastro-pub mammoth 12000 square feet and 300 seats nautical is considered to be embellished within the heart of the prestigious office tower of the Plaza 10. Along with featuring multiple dining options in terms of both indoor as well as outdoor, the entire establishment is considered to be boasting views that are unparalleled regarding the skyline of Manhattan across the Hudson River. Besides the stylish decoration, views that are breathtaking is in availability, along with an atmosphere that is interactive. The selection of cocktail and dining at the Hudson and Co, along with a unique component to the Jersey City of the downtown (McGivern et.al., 2018). Dishes are served by the restaurant with sophistication and yet approachable, along with offering the ability of sharing as well as traditional dining. The paper will indulge in a consultancy plan, which will be delivered to the client ideally.
Description of the firm context
The cafe is considered to be located in Jersey City and is a restaurant that is considered to primarily serving lunch during weekdays, targeting the employees of the area as their predominant base of customers. The main concern of the restaurant is the low sales along with negativity in the profit since the opening in the month of October. As per the explanations given by the owners, they felt that the performance that is disappointing was due to the limitation in both the personnel as well as financial resources, along with the poor luck in terms of the timing. For instance, because of the contractual agreement made with the owner of the building, the restaurant had no other choice but to open in the same month, just a month after the tragedy of 9/11. Though one of the owners did not think that there could be any relation between the tragedy of 9/11 and the lower sales of the restaurant, both the owners believed that the entire depression in the atmosphere was imposing a negative impact over the opening of the restaurant and thus, it was considered to be challenging for capturing the attention of the public. At the same time, there have been various constructions going on around the cafe giving limitation in the ability of attracting consumers during the crucial hours of the business (Sturdy 2017). As soon as there was an improvement in the financial circumstances, both the owners of the restaurant made plans regarding putting up the restaurant in signing that the cafe is seen more by the pedestrians; however, there was almost no improvement in the circumstances.
The sales of the restaurants have been giving discouragement from the opening date of the restaurant to around two years. As per the period of the first three months, around $170 was generated by the restaurant, and far less in the month of April the next year, with frequently less than around $100 in a day. Due to limitations in the resources, the owners indulged themselves in the operations of the cafe with no other staff. Both of the owners were friends for a long time with a shared interest in cooking. The specialty of the 1st owner was soup and the other owner was special for her sandwich. Both of them did the cooking, shopping, cleaning, serving, along with every other task needed for running the restaurant. The restaurant had little promotion regarding the generation of the awareness, along with advertisement in the offerings to the potential consumers.
Consultancy Strategy
Strategy consulting is considered to be the most competitive destination being lucrative for bright graduates; however, is generally misunderstood. Consultants of strategy are considered to be giving advice to organizations on a higher amount of level in an unbiased fashion through the usage of deep knowledge regarding the industry for delivering the results. It is a kind of consulting management that generally implies advising the organization of the highest level. Consultants of strategy are considered to be working across all kinds of industries with the bodies of both private as well as the public sector over a broad range of issues.
Consultants are considered to be generally brought in over the significant decisions that are crucial for the future of the organization for making sure that there is consideration of every single angle. They can involve devoting themselves entirely to the question at hand, whereas the executives are considered to be busy with running the organization in actuality. Deep exercises are also offered by e consultants in a specific industry or a subject including the positioning of the market as well as its restructuring. There is the availability of various occasions when a legal purpose is fulfilled by the consultants. During a specific merger, before the completion of the transaction, it cannot be considered legal regarding the sharing of the information between the organizations (Felch et.al., 2019).
Strategic consulting or management consulting is the specific practice to help organizations in the improvement of performance. Organizations have the ability of drawing upon the services provided by the strategic consultants for various reasons inclusive of gaining external advice, along with accessing the specific expertise of the consultants. As an outcome of the exposure, along with relationships with a vast number of organizations, the consulting organizations are in possession of typical awareness regarding the best practices of the industry. However, the special nature of the circumstances under consideration may have limitations in the ability as well as the appropriateness regarding the transfer inclusive of practices from an organization to another.
The consultations are considered to be providing assistance to the organizations in terms of change management, development regarding the skills of the coaching, analysis, implementation of the technology, development of the strategy, as well as services regarding the operational services in terms of improvement. Consultants of strategy are considered to be bringing their own methodologies of proprietary regarding the frameworks for providing guidance in terms of the problem identification as well as for serving as the basis for recommendations with a specific view to ways that are both efficient as well as effective regarding the performance of the tasks in terms of work (Moradi Afrapoli et.al., 2019).
Strategic consultation is considered to be undergrowth with the rise of management as a unique segment of the study. The first firm providing consultancy in terms of strategy and management was Arthur D. Little Inc., which was founded in the year 1886 as a partnership, along with incorporation in the year 1909. Though the organization a general consultancy in terms of strategy, it was originally specified in technical research. Some of the techniques of consultations are considered to be basic; however, others cannot be considered trivial. The following are the technique of strategic consultation-
Bottom-up Approach
No matter what the organization is doing or optimizing the strategy of the pick-up in a restaurant as well as making estimations in terms of the market for any senior care, the organization is most likely to be using the method in getting a rough estimation over a specialized phenomenon. The technique is considered to be quite simple, a typical user, estimating the consumption regarding the specific products and then by estimating the number of users that can be in possession for getting a rough estimation regarding the size of the market.
Backward Reasoning
In several cases, there can be end results and there is a requirement of seeing the ways in which the effort can be put in setting the actions for the achievement of the desired results. For specific exercises, the backward logic can be of use. It is considered to be perfect regarding the estimation of the ways in which their organization have to save for buying something in 5 years time, the number of stores that are needed to be opened for getting to set the level of the EBITDA, the number of visitors to the site there has to be in possession in achieving a specific level in terms of revenues from advertisements, etc (McGivern et.al., 2018).
Issue Tree
The specific technique is considered to be of heavy use by the consultants specifically when there is almost no knowledge over the area as well as the industry. The area can be listed, along with guessing the problems, as well as a description of the assessment that can help in proving the right as well as the wrong guesses.
Low Hanging fruits
Strategic consultants are considered to be looking for things that can be achieved with ease, along with bringing a huge impact and this is known as the hanging fruits. The things are considered to be having the highest priorities when it comes to making implementations. A single way of impressing the bunch of the senior managers is by showing them a simple amount of frameworks. The specific technique can be both old and simple but is considered to be a method that very efficient.
KPIs and drivers of Business
Every complicated mechanism has the possibility of being broken down into simple 3 to 5 drivers. If there is a measurement of the drivers, in specific ways that can be controlled in terms of mechanism. This is the reason behind the quietness of the strategic consultants spending time at the beginning of the described appropriate business drivers for special mechanism, along with coming up with ways to the measurements of the KPIs (Abdelkafi et.al., 2018). If there is knowledge of the business drivers behind the special mechanism, then there can be the measurement of them as well as in trying to make claims that can be actually understood and may be managed as well.
Benchmarks
If there is no measurement, then there cannot be any management, this is the golden rule in terms of management. This is the reason people go for KPIs and dry to describe them for all the businesses individually. However, even the cleverest KPIs are considered to be described if the appropriate level of KPIs cannot be described. This is the reason, strategic consultants are in possession of benchmarks, preferably on the basis of the best practices in a certain industry. The reason why jobs are given to the consultants is the specific claims in having knowledge regarding the benchmarks for certain industries (Lonsdale et.al., 2017).
Resources
As per assumptions, there must be little expertise that cannot be provided to the customers or the clients in exchange for free, along with knowledge regarding the process of understanding the process of consultation. The most visible segment regarding the service offered by numerous consultants is the model on which the entire work is considered to be based. The consultant shall generally start by trying to have understood the perspective of the clients; along with seeking the expansion of the specific perspectives through the usage of the theory as well as experience (Bodrožić et.al., 2020).
Hence, there can be a requirement of information over the models that are theoretically used by the consultants that are taken into consideration. Moreover, regardless of the kind of model regarding the process of the consultation, the models may be of use initially as the models of the desired state in the direction of the intervention that might be in hope for having a lead along with forming a basis regarding the tools of analytics, or the questionnaires for training. Furthermore, more than one model can be offered by the consultants, and others may include professing a range of models that are chosen for suiting the circumstances.
Timeline
The firms of consultation are considered to be having around six roles from an entry-level to the partner. Moving from a single position to the next position is considered to be typically taking 1 year to 3 years. Thus, making a partner for around 10 years can depend on the level of starting, along speeding for promotions. With moving the ladder up, the role will also get changed.
Target
The operating model of target is involved in the description of the desired state regarding the operating model of the organization. When working over the model of operations, it is considered to be described as the model. The target will help in converting the strategy ideas into the plans of operations.
Deliverables and Risks
The deliverable is considered to be the final product regarding the phase of consultation as well as the project. It is considered to be coming from various kinds; however, for some specific consultants, it is generally PowerPoint. The PowerPoint presentations are generally taken into consideration as deliverables (Rao et.al., 2020).
There can be risks that are considered to be varying on the basis of the area of practice; however, there is an availability of issues that can threaten the consultants across every industry. Risks that are in common for the strategic consultation are-
- Trouble can be spelled by unhappy customers
- Breaches in the data leading to the expense of more money
- Stability in the income and predictability in the markets can never be guaranteed
- Do not try to get blindsided by the creep of the scope
Conclusion
Though one of the owners did not think that there could be any relation between the tragedy of 9/11 and the lower sales of the restaurant, both the owners believed that the entire depression in the atmosphere was imposing a negative impact over the opening of the restaurant and thus, it was considered to be challenging for capturing the attention of the public. At the same time, there have been various constructions going on around the cafe giving limitations in the ability to attract consumers during the crucial hours of the business. Strategic consulting or management consulting is the specific practice to help organizations in the improvement of performance. Organizations have the ability to draw upon the services provided by the strategic consultants for various reasons inclusive of gaining external advice, along with accessing the specific expertise of the consultants. As an outcome of the exposure, along with relationships with a vast number of organizations, the consulting organizations own typical awareness regarding the best practices of the industry.
A Self-Reflection Report
As per my knowledge and experience, the activities regarding the development of the business are considered to be getting extended across various departments inclusive of marketing, sales, management in terms of the project, product management, as well as vendor management. Negotiations, networking, partnerships, along with making efforts in terms of cost-savings having involvement. All the activities and the departments are considered to be driven by along with the alignment of the goals of business development.
Reference
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Bodrožić, Z. and Adler, P.S., 2018. The evolution of management models: A neo-Schumpeterian theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 63(1), pp.85-129.
Felch, V., Asdecker, B. and Sucky, E., 2019. Maturity models in the age of Industry 4.0–Do the available models correspond to the needs of business practice?.
Klarberg, N., 2020. Management Concepts: a Qualitative Study of Management Consultancy.
Lonsdale, C., Hoque, K., Kirkpatrick, I. and Sanderson, J., 2017. Knowing the price of everything? Exploring the impact of increased procurement professional involvement on management consultancy purchasing. Industrial Marketing Management, 65, pp.157-167.
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