Boiling The Ocean

Without us realizing it, in some significant ways everyone is becoming a consultant these days. First, the obvious trend line is that the so-called gig economy is exploding, and some forecasts predict that within ten years, freelance workers may represent more than 50% of the U.S. working population. But it's not just that people are becoming their own bosses and building portfolio careers; the actual work style and skill sets that are increasingly prized in the current labor marketplace are mirroring the job description of a modern consultant. Soon, everyone will be asked to work in project-based sprints, spend a stint as part of an international team, collectively solve a set of complex problems ... and then start the whole process again. That is the life of a management consultant, and we believe that a lot more people will work and live like that in the future - whether or not they describe themselves that way. Tune in to this episode for a lively discussion on the future or work, the gig economy, portfol

What if I told you that one set of thinking tools could help you failure your organization and future-proof your career; could I interest you in something like that? The toolkit in question is called Red Teaming, and it’s a powerful set of questions and processes imported from its origins in the military to increasingly widespread use today in business and of course management consulting. You may know this idea from other terms that describe its philosophical approach, from “alternative analysis”, “playing devil’s advocate” or conducting a “pre-mortem.” No matter the name, the concepts that underpin Red Teaming are incredibly valuable - and worth getting to know. Tune in to this episode to learn how to plan for success by anticipating the worst.

You are a brand. Accept it. Whether we like it or not, we all leave distinct impressions on people the second we meet them as well as over the years we’ve known them. That means that you have a brand. We all do. And it follows you around. In a world where we change industries, careers, and geographies more frequently than ever before, jobs and titles are temporary; the only thing that is permanent is your reputation - your brand. The question is: have you tried to intentionally shape it, or has it been a haphazard by-product of your actions today and over the years? Think of the world’s great companies: do they leave their brand image up to chance? In this episode, we look at what we can learn from some of the great ones out there and see how we can apply those principles to "Brand You." In the process, we try to give you actionable tips, tricks, and techniques to be more intentional about the impressions you're leaving behind. Want to know what your brand is? Easy. Just as 5 friends what are the 5 words that

In this episode, we take a hard look at the cult of hyper-efficiency in contemporary capitalism and the impact it has on companies as well as individuals. As consultants, we are often called in to help organizations and people become more "efficient". Usually, that means eliminating lots of things. Many of the biggest management fads of the past few decades reflect this trend: just-in-time management, zero excess inventory, 6 Sigma defect correction, dynamic or surge pricing. But while efficiency may be gained through these exercises, something even more valuable is lost. Companies, like people, need periods of restoration, rest and renewal to operate effectively over the long term. This show discusses how important it is for organizations and individuals to regularly recharge their batteries, build in buffers and breaks, and plan to have intentional slack in the system. This is especially true for people who make up these companies; much as we hate to admit it, we simply aren't machines. But in today's hyper

What do a $2,000 stationary bike, a triple patty burger, and Christmas gift cards have in common? They all represent brilliant business models. In this episode of BTO, we investigate and explore the profit-making formulas for companies as diverse as Peleton, Wendy's, Starbucks and GM, to name but four. In the process, we expose a hidden truth: your favorite company or service is making money on you in ways you probably haven't realized. By looking behind the business model curtain, we hope to arm you with vital information that will make you smarter consumers. After all, uncover the profit drivers in a business or service and you will reveal the incentives behind the people selling you stuff. But this is not just an exercise in exposing the largely unseen forces at play on your pocketbook. We also hope to start a conversation about how you or your company make money and capture more value. So tune in to this episode to tune up your own business model, too!

Entire bookshelves in stores like Barnes & Noble and Indigo groan under the weight of business books on strategy, and every single one of them, we're certain, discusses the merits of "strategy" vs. "execution". Today we lend our two voices to this ongoing debate, and in so doing one of us proposes a bridge between the two: the so-called "strategic cascade". In this episode, we do what we usually attempt with such topics: Ion makes fun of Mike for using consulting jargon, Mike proves Ion wrong by demonstrating the power of the cascade idea, and both of us try to demystify these notions so that you can actually apply them to everyday problems. Tune in to hear if we succeed ...

This is another in-betweenisode, where we play around with the format and topic a bit. Today’s show is all about books - why we love them, which ones we love, and what constitutes a great book in our minds. For fellow word nerds, you will be heaven. For those of you who don’t like to read… better skip this one then. But maybe our lively (yes, really!) discussion on the power of the written word might just tempt you back to the temple of books…

Don’t go changin’… unless you have to, that is. Today we tackle the particularly trendy concept of reinvention. Companies do it (Netflix has done it, twice) in part to survive. Management consultants (like Mike!) do it often to thrive. And cool people like you, our listeners, should be considering it, too; as we like to say, think of reinvention as robot insurance. On this show, we discuss the merits of reinventing your organization or yourself, and we share a 6 step framework (we're consultants; of course we have a framework!) for how to make it happen. A lot of people are intimidated by the prospect of reinventing their careers, and understandably so. Disrupting one's life is no easy task. Our position is since we’re all going to have to do it, so we might as well learn the how now ...

This is going to be another experiment for us, though not like our previous in-betweenisodes. Remember those TV shows that teased a dramatic turn with “A very special “Joanie loves Chachi?” This is that show. We’re going to delve into a topic that people rarely talk about… but they probably think about all the time (or should). We ask: what is success, and how should we define it? You may wonder what this has to do with consulting. Fair point. What we would say is that a lot of consulting is built on a premise of success: consultants promise to make your company or organization “successful”. Consultants themselves are pretty universally seen as being successful, as having “made it” by virtue of working at one of these highly respected firms and earning big bucks. But beneath that polished veneer, do consultants help companies succeed? Are consultants successes themselves? And for everyone else, what does all of this teach us about how we should define success for ourselves? Along the way, we debate the trappi

Most people fear negotiation almost as much as they fear public speaking - and apparently, they fear giving speeches more than they fear dying, so that’s saying something! Entire business models are built around avoiding negotiations, like Carmax in the US. But negotiation is not rocket science. It’s all about adopting the right frame of mind and incorporating some key tips and tricks. In this episode, we demystify some jargon (what is BATNA, and do I have to take antibiotics if I have it??), challenge some popular misconceptions about negotiation (no, you shouldn't aim for "Win-Win") and offer our top 3 tactics for instantly improving your haggling skills. Of course, listening to our 25-minute podcast won’t turn you into an FBI hostage negotiator overnight, but it should make you more confident for your next discussion with your kids about doing their homework, and even perhaps your push for a pay raise. So tune in to Negotiation Bootcamp...

​Normally, we apply the consultant’s toolkit to everyday life ​and problems. Today, we’ll be flipping the script: we talk about everyday life with a consultant - namely, our friendly neighborhood superhero Mike. Think of this as an X-Ray into the management consultant's mind - but it's far more interesting than that sounds! ​I​n this episode, these are just some of the things Mike gets grilled about​...​​ 1. ​His misadventures​: before finance, law and consulting​,​ with a gig that is far​ more​ interesting​ as a bounc​er​ in a New Mexico bar!​ 2. ​What he thinks his superpower is​. 3. His favorite question to ask a prospective hire​.​ 4. Does he use 2 x 2 matrices at home? Does he talk to his children about their competitive advantage? Does he assign chores with a Gantt chart or just with an excel spreadsheet?​ 5. ​The one thing that he believes in that most others think is insane​.​ ​6. ​The one book he's given most as a gift​. 7. ​If he could invite three people to dinner - across time and space - who woul

As you may have noticed, we like to challenge conventional wisdom here at BTO. Today, we explore the notion of expertise and discuss the limits of specialized knowledge. Now to be clear, we don’t mean to suggest that you don’t want an expert when someone is performing neurosurgery on you. It’s just that the idea of expertise has to evolve in the modern era. Expertise is perishable. As an asset, it depreciates more quickly now than ever before. How much of what you learned in high school and university is still relevant to your work today? Thought so. Us too. Expertise ain’t what it used to be. It’s more fragile but thankfully it’s also more easily achieved. In fact, it’s never been easier to become an expert in something. We have access to the world’s information in our pockets, some of the best professors and programs on the internet - often for free - and new fields and job titles are being invented all around us. So there are exciting opportunities but also risks - and we’ll try to explore them all, as w

If you’ve ever read an article in The Economist or watched CNBC, chances are you heard the term “best practices”. Is this yet another example of useless consultant jargon, or is there something to be learned from how the best companies do certain things that are critical to their business? In this episode, Mike and Ion unpack this idea and translate the underlying concept into everyday life. Along the way, we’ll explore both the value but also the limits of best practices when applied to organizations and people. After all, just because you know why Amazon is successful and its CEO Jeff Bezos is rich doesn’t mean that you can copy their formula for success.

Consulting firms are infamous for asking crazy, brain-teasing questions as part of their rigorous interview and election process. Today we tackle the dreaded consulting case study and explore what they’re really testing. Then we broaden the conversation to discuss the power of a well-posed query, concluding with some of our favorite questions. We find ourselves agreeing with the great Albert Einstein, who noted sagely: "The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution."

Today we tackle a linchpin concept of business strategy: the USP, or unique selling proposition. We prefer to refer to it as your “unique super power”, and McDonald’s might call it their “special sauce”. Whatever the label, the basic idea is that companies become known in the marketplace for that one thing they (presumably) do better than anyone else. That’s their USP. In this episode, we explore that idea and apply it, as we like to do, to real life. It all starts by asking a simple question: what is Batman’s super power? You’ll have to tune in to find out…

There is an old joke that consultants ask to borrow your watch before telling you what time it is. That’s a bit unfair, but we don’t shy away from confronting (and in some cases, confirming) the perceptions that swirl around the management consulting industry. Today we tackle the topic of whether (short answer: yes!) and how (more nuanced) consultants add value to their clients. We’ll also discuss why our cognitive blind spots and the increasing complexity of work and life have led Ion to believe that everyone can benefit from having a strategic advisor. After all, if even Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen - the Mother of Dragons! - needs a Tyrion Lannister in her life, you probably need one, too.

Consultants are famous for their penchant to use fancy words when perfectly good ones would seem to do just fine. Today, we demystify many of management consulting's expressions, as well as identify some of our favorites. We’ll also talk about the idea of lingo in general, and share our preferred jargon from other industries - because some insider argot is actually worth using.

We named this podcast after an expression in management consulting circles for over-analyzing a problem. You’ll sometimes hear a consultant say, “team, let’s not boil the ocean on this one. There’s got to be a simpler way to get at the core issue here …” In this podcast, we apply the management consultant’s toolkit to everyday problems - those we face in our jobs but just as many from real life. We’ll talk about how to use consulting models on parenting to playing beer league hockey - and everything in between. That’s the headline. This is the backstory. Mike and Ion have known each other since 2010. About 2 years ago, we fell into the habit of having what we called Walk and Talks to grab lunch and think through some of the thorny issues we were facing personally and professionally. This wasn’t such a crazy idea after all - we discovered that there is an expression in Latin that described what we do: solvitur ambulando (in walking it will be solved)”. How cool is that? We were like Stoic philosophers, only w

Decision-making may be the single most critical skill we need to have a successful career and life. From the little choices we make (should I go to the gym after work?) to those that can sometimes define our lives (should we move to London?), our trajectory is nothing more than the sum total of our decisions and their results. Isn’t it amazing, though, that we never get any instruction in school or even from our parents as to how to make decisions? Sure, Mom and Dad give us values, which should certainly influence us. But do they - or does anyone - teach us how to make good choices? We learn how to drive a car (a skill that may no longer be necessary soon) yet we’re never taught how to decide (a skill that will always be necessary). This episode is meant to start a conversation on this critical skill. We’ve been studying decision-making for years and in this edition, we’ll discuss how consulting firms address this issue, identify one critical habit to build and sketch out one surefire way to make more infor

We almost called this episode condiments and complements, because condiments are an example of complements (try saying that three times quickly!). Today’s episode is all about what iPhone apps, hot dogs and buns have in common - and why you shouldn’t confuse this concept with what you should be telling your best friend after that fabulous dinner they cooked for you last night.