Consulting and a Project Management Driven Culture

                            For the past few years I worked as a Supply Chain Consultant within various industries.  My work was primarily focused on supply chain projects such as inventory optimization, source to pay, procurement, network optimization, and distribution.  Each project involved travel on a weekly basis and very long work hours.  Prior to consulting I worked for a few years at Kellogg Co as a Supply Chain Analyst.  Consulting differs a lot from industry jobs since the work revolves around 8-12 week engagements focused on meeting the client’s business needs.  Because of its time sensitive nature, project management becomes an important element in completing the engagements.  Projects require the right project manager to create the proper vision for the scope within the SOW.  I was privy to some very strong project managers and some very weak ones.  The stronger ones were able to effectively lead our teams to deliver the proper business results within the project timeline.  Weaker managers had poor organizational skills and the projects would always be more stressful.  I had the chance to work with strong ones as well as a few weaker managers.  Each was an experience that opened up my eyes to project management ins and outs.

The project would begin with an initial kick off meeting to go over the timeline, scope, team structure, budget, and any unique client requirements.  From there the larger team would be divided into smaller units based on work stream needs.  Each work stream unit would establish its own timeline that was based on meeting the project scope deliverables.  Daily meetings were scheduled to ensure the work stream was effectively managing their time and to address any scope concerns.  Weekly team meetings were established with the project manager to ensure all the work streams combined were running smoothly and to go over any changes.  The project manager played a crucial role in coordinating the team and overseeing the overall project.  They were responsible for managing the client relationship as well as executing the project.  Typically, they were senior managers within our organization and the projects typically involved around 10-15 consultants and senior consultants.  As time progressed, special focus teams were established within our larger organization.  For example, we had a dedicated team for any projects involved within procurement and sourcing.  The team was comprised of subject matter experts and individuals with many years of relevant work and/or consulting experience.  Favoritism and cultural politics were very apparent within some of the dedicated teams as well.  Team fits were important as well since you were essentially living with these co-workers for 8-12 weeks on projects.  It was essential to do extensive networking as a new hire in order to get noticed by the senior managers who ran the client projects especially since not being utilized on a project throughout the year would eventually lead to a job layoff.

Overall, the consulting lifestyle enhanced my project management skills and allowed me to learn more about flexibility and meeting sensitive timelines.