Eric P. Butts

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Businesss Traveler Toolkit – Genius Scan

Fancy version

This post is for anyone who finds him or herself traveling for business and occasionally has to scramble to find a vanishing receipt when it’s time to submit expense reports to get reimbursed. I didn’t think I was going to have to write this post, but after coming across several colleagues who were missing this information, many more senior than myself, I realized it was my duty to spread the gospel that is Genius Scan (Genius Scan + if you’re feeling fancy).

So what is Genius Scan? It’s a handy app, available both on iPhone and Android  operating systems, where you can use your camera as a scanner and then push the scanned image in PDF or JPEG format to wherever the appropriate destination may be. If you want the free ad-supported version, then you’ll be moving your files from your phone to your PC via email, which is fine. I did that for a while myself, but if you’re willing to break the bank for $2.99, you can get a few “cloud” storage type of options that make this process more efficient where you can upload your scans directly from the app. So far, I’ve been using Dropbox for this purpose, and I must say, that feature alone was worth the price of the app for me.  Genius Scan is also compatible with Evernote, Box, and Google Drive (formerly known as Google Docs). But wait! There’s more! Genius Scan+ also has the ability to print to an Airplay printer if you’re craving a hard copy for your archives. I’ve never used that feature but it has a certain “cool factor” to be able to print from your phone.

Genius Scan is a business traveler’s dream come true. It takes me 1.3 seconds or less to snap a picture, and then I never have to worry about the receipt again. I was first introduced to this app when I was working at a client that informed our team it wanted receipts for all expenses if we wanted to be reimbursed for our expenses while traveling. When I say everything, I mean absolutely EVERYTHING, including the $1.45 muffin I got into the habit of eating every morning (chocolate in case you’re wondering). This took me from a per diem I could use at my discretion and an average of 2 receipts per week (hotel and parking my car at the airport) that I needed to track to no per diem and roughly 15 receipts per week. You could call it an administrative nightmare – multiply all of that by 2 for a given pay period, and the odds of losing a receipt or forgetting to ask for one at some point is not all that unlikely. Now I realize the cost of a muffin or cup of coffee isn’t going to break the bank, but that’s not the point. Even if you remember to collect receipts from every place you decide to have a snack while you’re on the road, it’s still annoying to carry all of that paper around and key in all of those transactions to get reimbursed. It’s still not an ideal use of time to get the expense reports ready, but life is much simpler having this app at my disposal.

Lastly, I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t point that according to Genius Scan, this app has more than 2 million users, which is a bit peculiar to me since in a room full of 10-12 people that travel all the time with receipts on top of receipts, I’m the only one that had the app. I felt embarrassed for them. I hope you’re part of the 2 million already, but if you’re not, do yourself a favor and avoid the unnecessary shame.  You’ll thank me later.

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3 Things You Need to Know That Will Make You Reconsider Management Consulting

People tend to cite two well-documented reasons, namely travel and the hours, as the reason he or she decided not to pursue a career in consulting. In fact, the travel was the only reason I didn’t want to pursue consulting coming out of undergraduate school.  It’s interesting to see how one’s perspective can change with additional work experience and emotional maturity, but I digress…

Travel and what sometimes feels like endless hours in the office are perfectly valid reasons to focus your job search elsewhere, but if you are undaunted by that challenge, there are three lesser talked about things you have to be prepared to take on once you become a consultant. 

1. Status Meetings
Most corporate jobs require some degree of sitting through meetings which may not be the most relevant to you (read: boring, inefficient, etc.). What you will find in management consulting is that the frequency of meetings you need to attend, some of which undoubtedly will be less relevant to you than others,  multiplies by roughly tenfold. The main culprit to blame for this is the status meeting.

In a business where the stakes can be so high, as in career making or breaking, it is crucial to CYA, as we say in the business, and one way in which this is done is the status meeting. These checkpoints allow everyone the opportunity to understand the progress of the project and if there are any concerns that need to be escalated. To put it simply, this is how you manage expectations through the project so that there are no surprises (e.g. missed deadlines) later on. In some cases you will have a status meeting for a status meeting to prepare for an executive status meeting.

I really wish I was joking about this. I guess you can say the number of status and review meetings required is directly correlated with the importance of the meeting at the end of that cycle. In my previous example, that would be the executive meeting (clearly very important!).

2. Extreme Scrutiny
Everyone associates consultants with a high price tag. With that price tag comes even higher expectations and with those expectations comes still higher levels of scrutiny. If you take offense to people double- and triple-checking your work, it is something you will either learn to embrace or you will find yourself looking for other employment.  It makes sense if you stop to think about it – if YOU were paying hundreds of thousands our millions of dollars for a service or product, wouldn’t you want to be sure the numbers were run correctly and the analysis was spot on?

When this scrutiny is applied internally, you should think of it more as a collaborative exercise and less of a result of some sort of distrust. Specifically, if your manager, peer, or direct report can catch a typo or mistake in the analysis, it can be corrected before losing credibility with the client. Just to be clear, increased client credibility => more projects won by your firm => more $ paid to you.

3. Lots of Listening
A few months ago I read the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and one of the principles of this book is listening to understand. What this means is you actually have to HEAR what people are saying to you. It’s not about listening  so that you can respond and/or share the latest widget is that you have to sell.  It’s about genuinely feeling the underlying

In a lot of ways, consultants are like business therapists, so if you don’t want to hear people talk about their problems, regardless of how irrational or unreasonable the people may be at times, then a different long-term career path might be a better fit.

I say long-term because even if you’re not strong in any of the three areas above AND you don’t want to travel AND you don’t want to work unpredictable hours, people can push through anything for a set period of time. Just know what you’re getting into and plan accordingly.

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What’s a Typical Day in Management Consulting?

Typical Day in Consulting

Here is another question that a lot of people thinking about going into consulting ask: what is a typical day in management consulting? First, let me say that there isn’t really a typical day, client, or project. Everyday there is a good chance you will find yourself doing something that you weren’t expecting. I’ll give you a recent example:  one of our senior partners was initially only going to participate in a client meeting via phone on a limited basis, and next thing we know she tells us she is flying into Boston to speak with the client in person, so we (i.e. I) needed to make sure the partner was fully prepped on the work we are doing at the client and the vision going forward. It wasn’t something I had planned for, but it was something that needed to be done.

You begin each with a certain list of things you want to accomplish but flexibility and the ability to prioritize will become your two new best friends. Just make sure you understand the big picture of your assignment so that you can prioritize correctly, and if you don’t have a firm grasp on the big picture then you should ask.Trust me – it’s better to get it right up front than to have someone asking you later on why you didn’t you clarify things.

With respect to typical clients (the people in this case, not the company), you may find yourself specializing in a particular industry, but there is no predicting the types of personalities you will encounter at a given company.  Truth be told,  the same applies internally to the colleagues you will work with on your project teams. While you may try to work again with people you gel with on future assignments, there are always some different players that come into the picture and change the chemistry of the team.  The change doesn’t have to be good or bad, per se. It’s just different and takes some time to adjust.
  
Each project, even when performing the same type of work, has different challenges that you will face, particularly company culture. The culture goes beyond the individual personalities that I referenced in the previous paragraph. Culture speaks to how business operate as a whole in dealing with both external parties (customers) and internal parties (employees) and how the business responds in the face of change. The change piece is the one you have to really monitor. Just because your previously client was able to do something in 10 weeks that does not mean this client can do it in the same amount of time.

The underlying reasons for the difference in change uptake can vary. It may be as simple as resources are constrained and you need to extend your timeline as a result (i.e. you have to understand what % people are dedicated to a project as they are still responsible for their “day job”) or something complex such as being fearful that their jobs will be rendered obsolete. The bottom line here is to work with your direct client contact to understand the environment you’re working in and the most efficient and effective ways to get things done.

Any more specific questions on a “typical day” just let me know in the comments.

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3 Tips For Students Transitioning to Management Consulting

I am frequently asked what advice I would give students looking to get into consulting.  My answer remains the same whether the student is in undergraduate school or business school. The first thing you have to remember is obtaining a job is more about the people interaction than anything else, unless you work in a highly technical field. The people emphasis is exponentially more important in consulting.
In fact, you will likely hear people talk about how this is a “people business” at least 600 times as you go through the process of pursuing a consulting opportunity. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should also warn you that the people aspect becomes the primary way of managing your career once you join a consulting firm. If people do not want to work with you, it doesn’t matter where you went to school or how smart you are – your stint in consulting will be short-lived if you don’t understand how to manage and navigate people.

That being said, let me explain a few of the key ways you can show your saavy in effectively handling people and their different personalities. Some of these may seem like a “nice to have,” but these behaviors need to be the baseline for you to even have a chance to be considered as a viable candidate.

1. Show Up

Always Show Up

If there is a firm that you are serious about pursuing you need to show up at every event.  Every time a firm visits campus or has a job fair, you need to be there.  If there is a coffee chat or some other off-site activity, you need to be there.  If they offer some sort of mentor or buddy program, you need to sign up for that, too.  I think you can see a pattern here.  There are several reasons why you need to do this.

First, it gives you a chance to meet people that work at the firm, and the more positive impressions you can make, the better.  Please not that it’s not just the senior partners that will influence your fate.  Think about it this way, if you were choosing between two comparable people on paper for a job opening and you already knew you enjoyed being around one of the two people, which one would YOU choose for the job?

Reason for the “airport test”

When I was interviewing for my current position, I had multiple people explain to me the importance of the “airport test.” This is when an interviewer is imply looking to determine if they would want to be stuck in an airport with a candidate. Sounds simple, but this test is the reason that many people don’t receive consulting offers form their target firms. I can’t emphasize enough that if you are not able to connect with people around you, establishing credibility as a potential consultant will be impossible.

Secondly, so many people apply to consulting firms every year but don’t show the right level of follow-through. Simply by showing up to every event and putting a face to your name, you can differentiate yourself from many peers pursuing the same positions.

This is a “gimme.” Please don’t mess this up.

2. Be a Problem Solver

Always have a solution

 Consultants are professional problem solvers. Clients hire us because their problems were too challenging to solve on their own.  If you can demonstrate that you already have a history of strategizing and executing solutions/plans then you’re already ahead of the game. For, example, let’s say you organized a fundraiser from conception to execution in order to reach a specific monetary goal. This shows me two things: 1) you have a vision and 2) you know how to follow-through on that vision to achieve the desired outcome.  These two skills are invaluable to a consultant.


3. Speak With Confidence
Everyone recruiting for consulting positions assumes that the way you speak to him/her is the way you will speak to a client. Clients hire consultants to be experts who can resolve complex issues. The last thing a client wants to feel is that you don’t even believe in what you’re doing.  If you have a well thought-out perspective based on facts, you should deliver it with confidence. Don’t get nervous about the “right” answer as there is rarely a single solution to address a particular issue. If the client (or interviewer) disagrees with your conclusion you be comfortable explaining your assumptions and collaborate to come up with a suitable approach to reach the desired outcome.  If you come undone or fold every time a suggestion of yours is challenged, you will come off as indecisive, or worse, not knowledgeable. Many times, a question really is just to make sure your points are understood, not to imply that you done something incorrectly.

Focusing on these three points will get you a long in obtaining that consulting offer that many people strive for. Feel free to add other good advice from your experience or more specific questions on making this transition in the comments.

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4 Little Known Things Management Consultants Obsess Over

I’ve been in Management Consulting for going on three years now, and it’s a different world than what I experienced after spending the first 7 years of corporate life working in industry.  There are many “important” differences deserving of the spotlight, but for this post I’m going to share the secrets on what we consultants talk about on a regular basis. A consultant’s life revolves around a handful of things that you might not expect.
To be honest, the frequency with which these things come up in conversations borders on the ridiculous.

You would think that after a few years doing this that people would find something else to talk about, but that is not the case. If you are lucky enough to standout in one of these areas, you will definitely earn the respect of your peers.

1. Computer Bags
One of the first things I learned after getting into this job where travel is the rule rather than the exception is that nobody EVER uses the firm-issued computer bag. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I’ve met a lot of people on this job and I can remember only one person that was still using the bag they were given at orientation.

While not using the default bag as your mobile office is of the highest importance, it is a not decision that should be rushed and taken lightly. Judgements inevitably will be made based on the bag that you choose.  For example, the first manager I worked for in consulting opted for the Swiss Army backpack. This says “function over style” to everyone with whom he comes into contact. Basic yet durable. And if I had to choose a colleague that I thought would give me the best chance to live in a “survival situation” it would be that guy simple because of the bag he choose.  In my mind Swiss Army = Eagle Scout = most likely to know what to do stranded on a deserted island. To quote Charles Barkley, “I may be wrong, but I doubt it.”

Very Professional

On the other hand, you have the type that goes with the brown leather briefcase that must be carried by hand.  This says, “I want people to look at this bag and know how professional I am.” The brown color seems to be just to draw attention but to be fair, this may be what’s fashionable these days. As for the briefcase style, when you’re on the move this much, why else would you choose a big requiring you to have a hand occupied at all times. Not practical at all and results if you asking people if they can help hold or carry things way more often than you should… You can make your own conclusions.

I personally chose the Briggs & Riley bag below. The backpack design allows me to be hands-free, and distributes weight across more of the body, which must be good for the back. I haven’t seen the research on this, but I’m sure it’s out there…  This particular bag is TSA friendly (quick-release butterfly flap so that I don’t have to remove my laptop from the bag for the x-ray), which is a big win when you’re going through airport security twice a week.  So if the “very professional” guy wants to claim this is juvenile, I’m ok with that, because I’m not the one that will be paying outlandish chiropractor bills down the road.

Before
After (a few trips across the pond later…)
2. Hotel Points

3000 SPG Points in one shot is nothing to sneeze at

Most people don’t stay in hotels often enough to even notice the hotel points you accumulate and the various offers that hotels make in order to improve their position in a highly competitive market. That being said, believe me when I tell you that consultants take their hotel points very seriously. This is how are able to go on vacation at a reasonable cost and somewhat rationalize being away from our families an absurd amount of time.

To give you an idea of how real this is, I worked with a guy who would check-out of his hotel every night and check into another hotel within the same group of hotels to accrue more “stays” and accelerate his progress to the highest hotel status.

There’s not much worse than the feeling I get when I find there is a double points promotion that I missed, while my colleagues are basking in the glory of double or triple rewards points.

Luckily, I know how to play the game much better now, which basically just means I have to read every single email that comes through from SPG, but it’s worth it.

3. Frequent Flyer Miles
Consultants love frequent flyer miles almost as much as they love hotel points. The thing with frequent flyer miles it that airlines don’t negotiate, and depending on where you live, you don’t have much say which airline you’re flying on in the first place. Still, will I throw it out there that I just got 3 tickets to LA for nothing and still have more miles left than I can do anything with at the moment or how I got upgraded to first class this morning? Absolutely.

Frequent flyer miles are battle scars for consultants – I worked with a Senior Manager that had over 1 million miles remaining. That’s what I call battle tested.

4. The Holy Grail
Anyone who travels knows that the worst part of the travel is getting through security. This little gem is a new development in airline security and essentially allows you to walk right through the airport because you’re the man (or woman).

TSA Pre can be found right now in only 16 airports, and even then it is only with select participating airlines.  Once you have this on your resume, you can officially say you’ve “made it” as a consultant.