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Intro Management Consulting

Week 4 Prompt

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TEAM CHALLENGE #2

Foundations Capstone

Skill Badges: Industry Analysis, Project Management, Research Skills, Project Planning

Card Description (10-15words): This weekly challenge will require you to work as a team and utilize all of the skills you’ve practiced the previous three weeks

Prompt:

Most engagements begin with a formal “kickoff meeting,” which brings together every member of both the client and consulting teams. The kickoff meeting can be anywhere from a couple of hours to a full-day workshop, but regardless of length it generally contains (at a minimum) the following elements:

An introduction of the team members, including their prior relevant experience

A review of the project charter, which outlines the scope of the project and details final deliverables

A review of the project timeline, which includes important meetings, due dates, dependencies, and other milestones

A discussion of proposed project management guidelines, including status update templates, RACI matrices, and key points of communication

An initial data request

A review of preliminary research to ensure both sides are aligned on key facts concerning the client company, its industry, and the project focus

Your client from week 2, Bespoke Spokes, is a regional bicycle shop that prides itself on providing best-in-class customer service to its “cycling family.” Bespoke Spokes has had difficulty growing over the past 2-3 years and—impressed by your analytics work in week 2—have hired your team for 8 weeks to help them improve growth potential, as well as explore potential mergers & acquisitions (M&A) strategies. The kickoff meeting has been scheduled for next Monday morning, so your team has one week to prepare all of the necessary materials for this important meeting.

Additionally, the client (your mentor) has agreed to meet with you for a 30 minute call this week. Please set up a meeting time with your client and prepare and send an interview outline to them at least 24 hours before your call. Use this interview to clarify project objectives, learn more about the company’s current ideas, get an “insider’s” opinion of the industry, or anything else you think would be appropriate to discuss before a project begins!

Guidelines:

As a team (or by yourself), collaborate on initial research on the bicycle industry. Split up the work on a strategic overview, which includes key trends, typical business models, and competitors.

Create an 8-10 page slide deck deliverable to be used for your kickoff meeting with Bespoke Spokes (your mentor). The following table outlines recommended roles and corresponding slides:

Note - if you have fewer than 4 people in your team, you can either take on additional responsibilities or just choose the role you most prefer. Similarly, if you’re working by yourself, you can either take on additional responsibilities or choose the role you’re most interested in.

Role

Suggested Actions/Slides

Engagement Manager

Team introductions Project charter Presentation summary

Project Manager

Project timeline RACI Matrix

Data Analyst

A data request (ie, what information would you like to see?) Analytics insights and takeaways from week 2 exercises (What insights can you take away?)

Research Analyst

Complete a strategic industry overview of the bicycle industry, including key trends, and an overview of competitors

There are no rows in this table

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2. Set up a call with your mentor to present your slide deck.

Details:

Follow the guidelines mentioned in the prompt to create a presentation deck of 8-10 slides.|

Save this as a PDF and upload the file to complete your submission.|

Upload your slide deck to submit! Only one member in your group needs to submit for it to count for everyone.

Resources

Engagement Manager:

Asana - Project Charters⁠

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Project Manager:

Google Sheets - Gantt Chart Template⁠

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Project Manager:

CIO - The RACI Matrix⁠

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Data Analyst:

Towards Data Science - So What? (See the first part for a good summary)⁠

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Research Analyst:

Corporate Finance Institute - Industry Analysis⁠

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Research Analyst:

Hubspot - Competitive Analysis⁠

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