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Week 1


At the beginning, I would like to briefly explain why I chose Business Consultancy as a module during my exchange semester at LJMU.


During my studies, I was often asked the question in which area I would like to work later and I still cannot clearly define it. On the one hand, I enjoy working with numbers and logical contexts. On the other hand, I like to give presentations and social contacts during work are very important to me. I would like to work in an international context and love to travel and have often lived in other European countries for several months. Based on these points, I have often been recommended to look at the area of management consulting, especially in the M&A or financial advisory area. I think this would fit very well and I will also do an internship in the future. The course is intended to give me a deeper insight into the work as a consultant to broaden my previous knowledge as well as to make it easier to decide on, for example, my field of study in the Master's programme.

Last week in the lecture we mainly dealt with the types of management consultancies that exist and what is meant by Process Consultancy. I found this general introduction very helpful at the beginning to separate terminologies and create a basis. I therefore really liked watching the two introduction videos as well.

Subsequently, the EDOPIE model was introduced. Although I learned the steps of classical project planning several times during my studies, the model differs drastically in some specific phases. Above all, the agreement of all parties to the conditions and the recording of all points in a jointly agreed contract, I have so far never consciously seen defined as a phase. However, I think that this should be a high priority and therefore find the model's approach very exciting. I am curious to see whether the phases can be so clearly separated from each other. In my experience, these often overlap and therefore the DOPI phases should be seen as a cycle. For example, diagnoses lead to options, but often these lead to new diagnoses, which in turn enable new options. Therefore, I think it might be very difficult to go through these phases stringently. I am eager to observe this in practice and think the model provides a very exciting approach and creates a framework.

We also talked about the three-level questioning method in the lecture. I didn't know this approach yet, because I got to know and used the Laddering method in university until now. So I'm already excited to try this method out and see which one I like better or if I can combine these two.

In the seminar, I found it very good that we should describe ourselves on file cards. I find it very interesting and important to be aware of one's strengths and weaknesses, as well as to know how one prefers to work in a team and which skills one brings along. I hope that these will be taken into account in the team-building process so that teams with different personalities can meet and team members can complement each other.

Picture Source: www.helpiewp.com/knowledge-base-examples/[01/10/2019; 10 pm]

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