capstone assessment- consulting plan and analysis

Background and Purpose

This Capstone assessment builds from the previous assessment. In Assessment 1, you developed your position within the consulting industry, defined one of your consulting services, and developed a proposal for how you plan to work with a client on a project. In this assessment, you are taking a broader view and looking at how you plan to operate within the consulting industry over the next 12-months as a consultant. You are required to develop a plan to attract, maintain and grow clients to work within your business.
To develop a consulting plan, first, you need to decide on the perspective and role that you want to take (internal vs external, generalist vs specialist). While not compulsory, it is advised that your role be consistent with Assessments 1.

The consulting plan considers your position within the consulting industry, your value proposition, the types of clients and projects you are seeking, the length of projects and how you will manage these various projects. Consider how many projects you are likely to seek in a year given that there is the lead-up time before commencing the project and the follow-up/debriefing time following the end of a project.

There is an expectation that the consulting plan includes information on how you envisage you will attract business, strategies for surviving the first year, networking strategies, operational strategies, and strategies for managing business relationships all of which you will find information in Modules 2-10. The consulting plan should also include frameworks, templates and the selected consulting processes and project management plan, systems and billing and other requirements necessary to be successful in the consulting industry. These strategies, processes and systems should be justified (and referenced). After reading your consulting plan, the reader should understand how you plan to successfully conduct your business within the consulting industry for at least the next twelve months.

Requirements

Format: Written report- 3000 words (plus 10% allowance excluding executive summary and references)
Note: All written assessments should be submitted as Word files (.docx) (Word is available from your AIB Office 365 account).

To start we recommend you methodically look back at Modules 1-10. When looking back consider the industry, what you are offering, your value proposition and where you fit within the industry over at least a twelve-month period. Consider the type of relationships you want to build with your potential clients and critically analyse the information in all the Modules in relation to your goals, value proposition and these relationships. Carefully select the elements from the Modules that resonate with how you plan to run your business, taking into consideration the various consulting frameworks, processes, billing and systems you want to utilise and implement in your business. Identity, which aspects from each of the Modules you plan to use and then organise them in a way that makes sense for your consulting plan narrative.

Provide a rationale for each of your choices. Use references as the evidence in your rationale to support your decisions/strategies used within the plan.

• In terms of structure, presentation and style, you are required to follow the AIB’s standard report format. The body of your report should cover the followings:
  • After clearly stating your perspective and role you that you have taken in this assessment, you provide a contextual background to the consulting business that you are developing a plan for. You might use a context map as a useful tool to review the context of your consulting business.
  • Using a value proposition canvas, develop your value proposition for the consulting business that you are planning to run.
  • Define the services that you plan to offer over the next 12-months as a consultant and identify your target clients.
  • Develop a networking plan and discuss your marketing and networking strategies.
  • Identify, discuss and justify the consulting models and the frameworks that you are likely to use for offering your services.
  • Develop and justify a business relationship portfolio plan and devise the relevant strategies for each segment of clients.
  • Describe systems, processes and templates that you will put into place.
  • Discuss the key financial and legal considerations for starting your consulting business.
  • Discuss how you plan to grow your business.
• Use the AIB-preferred Microsoft Word settings (see AIB Style Guide).
• Use author-date style referencing (which includes in-text citations and a reference list), see AIB Style Guide.
• Reference lists for AIB assessments normally contain the following number of relevant references from different sources: 6–12 (for MBA assessments).
• All references must be from credible sources such as books, industry-related journals, and recent academic articles.
• Your grade will be adversely affected if your assessment contains no/poor citations and/or reference list and if your assessment word length is beyond the allowed tolerance level (see Assessment Policy available on AIB website).

Grading criteria and feedback

Your assessment will be marked according to the following grading criteria:

• Criterion 1: The consulting plan’s context, scope and objectives, and the value proposition canvas. (20%)
• Criterion 2: Understanding and effective application of consulting plan concepts/tools/ templates. (35%)
• Criterion 3: Analysis and evaluation when creating the components of the consulting plan. (20%)
• Criterion 4: Research and apply established theories and concepts to develop the component of the business consulting plan and support analysis and evaluation. (15%)
• Criterion 5: Communication, structure and referencing. (10%)