Business Transformation Consulting

Catalog description

This course provides an understanding of key issues, concepts, and methodologies associated with business transformation and management consulting. It introduces students to the professional services industry, industry best practices, and a variety of client contexts where advisory services are needed. Additionally, students will learn common consulting methods and how to apply them in client organizations. A consulting-oriented solution development lifecycle is used as the organizing framework of the course. The primary phases of this framework include: client qualification/validation, problem identification, data gathering, requirements definition, project planning, solution design, solution development, solution implementation, and client relationship management. Students will learn to how to identify and define organization problems, highlight pain points, map work flows, explore business models, investigate strategic alignment, develop recommendations, present business cases, and prototype solutions. The course will also enable students to learn how to advise clients and present key points and recommendations in a direct, clear, and compelling manner. The course objective is to provide students with consultative methods, skills, and tools essential to facilitating organizational change. It is designed around real-world problems and projects involving organizational assessment, solution development, and implementation planning. Students will be assigned to a consulting team. Each consulting team will be assigned to work with a corporate client to address a real-world business problem. Students will learn how to work proactively with key stakeholders to identify and understand the choices, risks, and benefits of particular solution alternatives, prepare project proposals, develop a plan to support the needed changes, and assess the effectiveness of business transformation efforts. Depending on the project, the recommended solution may be prototyped or fully developed during the course.