Essentials of Management Consulting - Online Course

What Are People Saying About the Course?

What Does the Course Cover?

How Does the Course Work?

What Are the Pre-requisites for the EMC?

Who Teaches the Essentials Course?

Course Text and Support Materials

Course Schedule and Fees

How to Register

Dynamic and interactive, the Essentials of Management Consulting (EMC) course is valuable to management consultants wanting to deliver superior value to their clients, to anyone who is considering becoming a management consultant, and to any member who is pursuing the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designation. It is delivered using Internet-enabled blended learning, so you can take the EMC from the comfort of your home, office or a client site, with no travel costs or inconvenience!

What Are People Saying About the Course?

"I learned a great deal about the consulting process. I saw very clearly where the biggest opportunities for improvement are in my own practice. I also had the unique experience of tracking my own consulting project along with the course. My assignment began a bit before the course started, and I just completed the action plan with the client last night, which was hugely successful, largely due to the skills I have learned. I have recommended the course to others already. This was really a fantastic experience that will benefit both me and my clients throughout my career. Thank you!"
- Theresa MacBeth (a Mac computer user), BOOM Strategy, Kingston, Ontario

"I think the course is directly valuable to my work, particularly in helping to put standards and structure around how I approach and manage client engagements."
- Sheri Critch, Innovapost, Ottawa, Ontario

"Overall I felt that the course was useful to me and that I learned much more than I would have from other courses I looked into. I have already recommended the course to several colleagues who I thought might also benefit from it."
- Geoff Knight, Intrawest, Vancouver, B.C.

"The technical platform for the course was excellent - I really felt that we bonded as a team and worked well together; the technology did not get in the way of that at all. Kudos. Lastly, I had a great team experience, very diverse in terms of expertise and all hard workers. Thanks."
- Caroline Dickens, Export Development Canada, Ottawa, Ontario

"The EMC was my fourth or fifth course in general management consulting but clearly the best. A lot of thought and effort were obviously put into developing & delivering this course."

- M. El-Deeb, Hewlett-Packard, Mississauga, Ontario

"This was tremendous value for money. A huge learning opportunity for a very reasonable price! Very experienced staff and a very professional program a top-notch team delivering a high quality product."

- Judith Arbow, Judith Arbow Consulting, Saint John, New Brunswick

What Does the Course Cover?

The Essentials of Management Consulting course focuses on three core consulting competencies:

1. Helping clients assess their current situation, including the business challenges and opportunities they can address to improve upon the present. \
2. Helping clients develop strategies for growth and development.
3. Helping clients address change management processes while implementing recommendations.

To help you develop your strengths in these areas, the course covers:

1. The five stages of the consulting process and the deliverables associated with each stage.
2. Introduction to consulting tools and techniques used during the various stages of the consulting process especially in Diagnosis and Action Planning.
3. The importance of considering all six functional areas of organization management (Human Resources, Strategic Planning, Finance, Operations, Information Technology, and Marketing) during a consulting assignment.
4. Teamwork using Tuckman's forming, storming, norming, performing (and adjourning) model; including teambuilding tools, techniques and opportunities for both co-located and virtual teamwork activities
5. Client Communications, including simulated milestone presentations and meetings with a client and key written reports associated with the consulting process, and
6. Change and Change Management, including tools and techniques related to assessing change readiness, understanding absorptive capacity and managing change.
   

How Does the Course Work?

We Use A Blended Learning Approach

Using a blended learning approach allows us to use a variety of media to optimize your learning. The course consists of six synchronous (live) Internet-enabled sessions, and regular contact and assignments with your team using an Internet-enabled meeting capability available through the course. In addition, there are assigned readings, pre-recorded on-demand lecturettes and many more additional resources.

We Use a Case Study

Simulation is the most effective way to expose you to the dynamics of the client as well as many other aspects of the management consulting process. So we have organized the course around a case study, in which you and your team actually conduct a client consulting assignment, complete with deliverables and deadlines that are real. We extend the case study concept by providing some simulated interaction with the client in each phase of the consulting process.

We Do Team-Based Learning

Management Consulting is a fast-growing competitive sector at the forefront of the multi-billion dollar knowledge-based services industry. Consultants are increasingly required to work with global consulting teams and to use technology as a major tool to complete assignments. The Essentials course helps you fine-tune your collaborative skills while you acquire the knowledge and techniques needed to deliver superior value to clients.

You will be assigned to a team that works together using Internet-enabled meeting technology and electronic mail to complete the consulting assignment. You will have the opportunity to interact with other consultants, some of whom may consult in different areas of specialization from yours and/or have more or less consulting experience than you. And you will do all of this from the comfort of your home or business office or even from an office at a client site, with no travel costs or inconvenience!

You will be evaluated as a team on the case study deliverables. In addition to contributing to the deliverables, each participant will be expected to achieve 70% or greater on an individual final quiz, complete a 360 degree team feedback and a final course evaluation in order to complete the program.

Warning this course is hard work!

This course represents a significant commitment to learning equivalent to a second year graduate MBA course in depth and amount of material covered. Successful participants have reported a minimum effort of 3-5 hours per week on reading and applying themselves to work on deliverables in addition to weekly team meetings and the instructor course sessions.

Aside from individual effort, the course revolves around application of learnings almost exclusively through teamwork. As a team you will work through the five stages of the consulting process working on a simulated assignment which requires a series of significant consulting deliverables. Your ability to work participatively and constructively in a team with an unfamiliar group of other consultants (who will all have their own ideas on how to complete the tasks in front of you) will be a large determinant of your learning success and enjoyment of this program.

If you are prepared to work hard, you will succeed and be rewarded. Past participants have confirmed the old adage: "You get out of something what you put in to it".

What Are the Pre-requisites for the EMC?

You must have access to and working knowledge of standard Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and the Internet.

We use Cisco WebEx Business Suite 27 (WBS27) for the online meetings. WebEx supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX and AIX Operating Systems. For a complete list of system requirements for your Operating System, please visit the following website:
http://support.webex.com/support/system-requirements.html?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=SystemRequirementsHome

In order to participate fully in the WebEx online meetings, you will need a computer headset with a boom microphone to be able to both hear and talk, just as conveniently as you would in a regular class. If you do not already own one, you can purchase one from most computer stores for about $25. Get it prior to your first class!

You will need to complete approximately three to five hours of work prior to the first class with the instructor; this includes setting up the software on your computer, taking two recorded Internet-enabled classes, reading the prescribed materials, and initiating interaction with your fellow team members.

Who Teaches the Essentials Course?

Kevin Schwenker, FCMC, principal of Schwenker & Associates, has been active in the fields of human resources development, strategic planning and marketing as a management consultant for over 20 years. He has led a wide range of multi-faceted consulting projects locally, nationally and internationally, for private, public and not for profit sector clients. He holds an MA (specializing in International Development Administration) from Dalhousie University, Halifax, and a Combined Honours BA in Economics and Political Science from Carleton University, Ottawa.

Kevin is a past-President of the Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Atlantic Canada, and has completed two terms on the national Board of the profession. He has international teaching and facilitation experience and is a part-time instructor in the CMC-Canada approved MBA in Management Consulting Program at Saint Mary's University in Halifax. Kevin also sits on the Academic Council of SMOT, a private post secondary management academy in Chennai, India where he will begin teaching the Essentials Program in September 2008. He has taught introductory courses for the CMC designation since 1996, and has taught the Comprehensive Exam Preparatory Workshop across Canada every fall on behalf of the profession since 2002.

Course Text and Support Materials

EMC Course Reader (2007), compiled by Kevin Schwenker, FCMC, can be ordered from CMC-Canada. The Course Reader is non-refundable.

In addition, you will be using many of the techniques in the Diagnosis and Action Planning Phases that are outlined in Memory Jogger II. If you don't already own this very handy pocket guide, it is available in Canada from Books for Business at 1 (800) 668-9372, and from www.amazon.ca, and from the publisher, www.goalqpc.com.

Course Schedule - Instructor-led Sessions

*This session only will be held on a Friday instead of a Monday.

**This session only will be held on a Wednesday instead of a Monday.

Note that the six two-hour instructor-led sessions are held during the day, generally first thing in the morning, over the lunch hour or at the end of the day, depending on your time zone. Please reserve the entire day until your time has been determined. In addition, weekly internet-enabled meetings (approximately 90 minutes long) will be scheduled for your team at times convenient to your team, usually outside of regular business hours.

Course Fees

Please note that course payment is due upon registration. Shortly after you have registered, you will receive an email with the Welcome Package that will provide you with the details of the components of the course (sessions, readings, deliverables) so that you can schedule them into your calendar. Course fees are fully non-refundable once you have received the Welcome Package. Substitutions are accepted with appropriate fee adjustment. Course deferral to a future date is subject to a $200 (plus tax) set-up fee. All cancellations, substitutions or deferrals must be received in writing.

The Course Reader is fully non-refundable.

If you are interested in paying by installments, contact Suzie Fernandes at sfernandes@cmc-canada.ca. Please note that the course must be paid in full prior to the start of the first class.

How to Register

Online: Members - remember to login to receive the member rate!

Click here to register for EMC38 (starting September 13, 2010).

By Cheque: Make cheque payable to CMC-Canada. Please identify on the front of the cheque the event for which you are registering (example: EMC38).Mail cheque to CMC-Canada, 4 King Street West, Suite 815, Toronto, Ontario M5H 1B6.

If you have any further questions about the course, please contact Helene Theberge, Manager, Certification at htheberge@cmc-canada.ca or 1-800-268-1148/416-860-1515 ext. 3.

This course is open to both members and non-members. If pursuing the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) designation, this course is required for the Entry Stream.

Candidates who are approved for the Experienced or Executive Streams receive exemptions from this course. We do, however, recommend that all candidates take the Essentials of Management Consulting course as a refresher and as preparation for the interview process. For details on applying for the Experienced or Executive Steams, click here.