Leslie Pratch on Assessing and Developing Leaders

By Leslie Pratch

When I was getting my M.B.A., I outlined what I considered most useful to digest the curriculum and to help classmates preparing to interview for consulting firms. Nearly a decade later, I realize these notes may be helpful to first- and second-year M.B.A. students at Chicago Booth (or elsewhere) who are boning up for interviews with consulting firms. I offer them freely and if they are helpful, encourage your use of them, especially if you are pursuing a leadership position in a consulting firm.

Supply Chain Management

Here are seven principles of excellent supply chain management (supply chain is from suppliers’ suppliers to customers’ customers):

Principle 1. Segment customers based on the service needs of distinct groups and adapt the supply chain to serve these segments profitably.

Principle 2. Customize the logistics network to the service requirements and profitability of customer segments.

Principle 3. Listen to market signals and align demand planning accordingly across the supply chain, ensuring consistent forecasts and optimal resource allocation.

Principle 4. Differentiate product closer to the customer and speed conversion across the supply chain. The hardware manufacturer who solved the problem by determining the point at which a standard bracket turned into multiple SKUs. This point came when the bracket had to be packaged 16 ways to meet particular customer requirements. The manufacturer further concluded that overall demand for these brackets is relatively stable and easy to forecast, while demand for the 16 SKUs is much more volatile. The solution: Make brackets in the factory but package them at the distribution center, within the customer order cycle.

The key to just-in-time product differentiation is to locate the leverage point in the manufacturing process where the product is unalterably configured to meet a single requirement and to assess options, such as postponement, modularized design, or modification of manufacturing processes, that can increase flexibility. In addition, manufacturers must challenge cycle times: Can the leverage point be pushed closer to actual demand to maximize flexibility in responding to emerging customer demand?

Principle 5. Manage sources of supply strategically to reduce the total cost of owning materials and services.

Although manufacturers should place high demands on suppliers, they should also realize that partners must share the goal of reducing costs across the supply chain in order to lower prices in the marketplace and enhance margins. The logical extension of this thinking is gain-sharing arrangements to reward everyone who contributes to the greater profitability.

Principle 6. Develop a supply chain wide technology strategy that supports multiple levels of decision-making and gives a clear view of the flow of products, services, and information.

For the short term, the system must be able to handle the day to day transactions and electronic commerce across the supply chain and thus help align supply and demand by sharing information on orders and daily scheduling.

From a mid-term perspective, the system must facilitate planning and decision-making, supporting the demand and shipment planning and master production scheduling needed to allocate resources efficiently.

To add long-term value, the system must enable strategic analysis by providing tools, such as an integrated network model, that synthesize data for use in high-level what-if scenario planning to help managers evaluate plants, distribution centers, suppliers, and third-party service alternatives.

Principle 7. Adopt a channel-spanning performance measures to gauge collective success in reaching the end user effectively and efficiently.

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Leslie Pratch, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with an M.B.A. in Strategy and Finance and a B.A. in Religion from Williams College. She works with boards of directors and private equity investors to select and develop executives. She can be reached at (312) 464-7919 or email her at leslie@pratchco.com or visit www.pratchco.com.

By Leslie Pratch

When I was getting my M.B.A., I outlined what I considered most useful to digest the curriculum and to help my classmates preparing to interview for consulting firms. Nearly a decade later, I realize these notes may be helpful to first- and second-year M.B.A. students at Chicago Booth (and elsewhere) who are boning up for interviews with consulting firms. I offer them freely and if they are helpful, encourage your use of them, especially if you are pursuing a leadership position in a consulting firm.

Analytical Marketing Methods

(1) Conjoint Analysis:  Assess the importance to consumers of a wide variety of product attributes by having consumers evaluate a few products that represent various mixtures of those attributes.

(2) Factor Analysis:  Summarize many product variables with a few key factors (e.g., “moist,” “smooth,” “goes down easy,” and other factors may move together when customers evaluate food products, so instead of having three attributes, we combine them into one factor, say, “Easy to eat.” We can then compare products on this one factor).

(3) Cluster analysis:  Used to group products or consumers by like characteristics, such as factors identified via factor analysis.

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Leslie Pratch, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with an M.B.A. in Strategy and Finance and a B.A. in Religion from Williams College. She works with boards of directors and private equity investors to select and develop executives. She can be reached at (312) 464-7919 or email her at leslie@pratchco.com or visit www.pratchco.com.

By Leslie Pratch

When I was getting my M.B.A., I outlined what I considered most useful to digest the curriculum and to help my classmates preparing to interview for consulting firms. Nearly a decade later, I realize these notes may be helpful to first- and second-year M.B.A. students at Chicago Booth (and elsewhere) who are boning up for interviews with consulting firms. I offer them freely and if they are helpful, encourage your use of them, especially if you are pursuing a leadership position in a consulting firm.

(1) When there are few sellers, monopoly-like pricing can be maintained if the short-term discount rate is low –Folk Theorem

(2) Firm 1 raises price; Firm 2 can follow one period later. Will it? If it doesn’t, Firm 1 will drop price and both firms will be worse off. For Firm 2, the question is how valuable is an extra period of extraordinary profits relative to perpetuity of better but not extraordinary profits? If discount rates are low, it will follow price increase; but if discount rates are high?

In other words, Firm 2 can go for profits: High, Low, Low, Low . . . or profits; Medium, Medium, Medium, Medium if it matches. Which set of cash flow is greater depends on the discount rate. The higher the discount, the more attractive is the former.

(2) Whether an oligopoly can maintain a monopoly-like price depends on communication and coordination and understanding between the players. These depend on:

(a) Market concentration

(b) Speed with which price changes are detected, which depends on a number of factors.

(c) Prices should be set based upon the value created for the purchaser of the product. Value can be created by revenue increases or cost decreases that result from using the product. For pricing technological innovations, look not only at the direct purchaser’s situation, but also at how the innovation increases revenue or decreases cost in other downstream parts of the value chain.

(d) Prices, however, are constrained by the value / price offered by competitors and substitutes and also by their behavior (i.e., competitors and substitutes may bid away any economic profits). In a competitive case, competition ensures that the product seller does not capture all the value created by the product.

(d) In the absence of competitors a producer is a monopolist and maximizes profits by raising prices / restricting output.

(e) Producers can have some monopoly pricing power if their product is differentiated. Commodity producers have no pricing power.

(f) Producers should try to price discriminate by segmenting the market and raising the price for segments with inelastic demand (e.g., business travelers) and lowering prices for segments with elastic demand (e.g., vacationers).

(g) Prices should be varied to react to fluctuations in demand.

(h) A long-term view should be considered when pricing a new product or changing prices in reaction to demand fluctuations

(i) For new products consider network synergies (sell the handle cheap in order to sell the blades) and other loss leader approaches.

(j) For price changes in reaction to demand fluctuations, consumer good will may be important.

(k) Pricing policy should be consistent with desired image and brand.

(l) If you don’t price discriminate, you have to make a choice between appealing to all or many segments at a moderate price or to one or a few segments at a higher price. Multiple the size of the segments by the (price less the variable costs) for each scenario and see which is larger.

(3) Pricing Rivalry

(a) Market concentration.

(b) Lumpiness of orders.

(c) Availability of sales transaction information.

(d) NUMBER AND SIZE OF BUYERS.

(e) Volatility of demand and cost conditions.

(f) Asymmetries among firms (different costs or quality levels).

(g) Multi-market contact.

(4) Time Based Competition

(a) Capability to minimize time in innovation, marketing, production, and logistics is an increasingly important driver of competitive advantage.

(5) Framework for Competitive Advantage

(a) Relative Differentiation.

→ Relative value created

(b) Relative Cost Structure.

→ Firm’s profitability

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Leslie Pratch, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with an M.B.A. in Strategy and Finance and a B.A. in Religion from Williams College. She works with boards of directors and private equity investors to select and develop executives. She can be reached at (312) 464-7919 or email her at leslie@pratchco.com or visit www.pratchco.com.

By Leslie Pratch

When I was getting my M.B.A., I outlined what I considered most useful to digest the curriculum and to help classmates who were preparing to interview for consulting firms. Nearly a decade later, I realize these notes may be helpful to first- and second-year M.B.A. students at Chicago Booth or elsewhere who are boning up for interviews with consulting firms. I offer them freely and if they are helpful, encourage your use of them, especially if you are pursuing a leadership position in a consulting firm.

New Product Development Process

(1) Deductive process:

(a) Opportunity identification—identify growing / profitable / vulnerable markets that we have capabilities to serve

(b) Design

(c) Engineering / Advertising / Marketing

(d) Testing

(e) Introduction

(f) Production / Marketing / Distribution

(g) Life-cycle management

(2) Production

(a) Remember the 4 P’s (see post of May 31, 2010)

(b) Inductive culture / environment / incentives / organizational vehicles (e.g., ParcPlace spin-offs, multiple “idea” buyers at 3M) feeds deductive process.

(3) Forecasting Market Penetration

(a) Sales in each period = (some probability) * (number of people who haven’t bought yet) = (Pt)* (Total market size – people who have already bought) = (Pt) * (m-Yt-1)

(b) Penetration gets greater as more and more people adopt the product, that is = (initial probability of adoption) + some dispersion factor) * (% of people already buyers) = (Po) + [q[(Yt – 1)/m]

(c) Initial probability of adoption depends on the number of innovator-customers in the product category (HIGH: COMPUTERS; LOW: EXPERIMENTAL prescription drugs)

(d) Dispersion factor is going to be high for some products (e.g., internet in mid-90’s and other products that demand a “network” of users), and low for other products (e.g., Glide dental floss and other products that are individual, private, and non-image oriented).

The magnitude of these two factors will effect your initial and ongoing pricing decisions.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Leslie Pratch, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist with an M.B.A. in Strategy and Finance and a B.A. in Religion from Williams College. She works with boards of directors and private equity investors to select and develop executives. She can be reached at (312) 464-7919 or email her at leslie@pratchco.com or visit www.pratchco.com.