A day on the job with...

Right now my time is divided between two projects. I start my day at a major luxury goods company interested in redefining its 5-year strategic plan. After reviewing the major historic trends of the brand's stores with Elsa, the consultant I'm working with on this project, we have a meeting with the Head of the network of stores. Together, we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each store and try to determine the key factors contributing to the robust performances of certain stores.

Together, we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each store and try to determine the key factors contributing to the robust performances of certain stores. The Network Head then takes us to one of the stores and explains how the range is put together, the store's top products and operating challenges. Afterwards, we summarize the key points of the meeting with Elsa. This afternoon, we have a meeting with the Head of the brand's ready-to-wear line. Elsa will go alone and keep me informed of the key points of the meeting.

I continue my day by meeting up with Nicolas in the early afternoon. Nicolas is the consultant I'm working with on my second project. Our goal is to help a sporting goods retailer evaluate the performance of its new store concept. Nicolas just got back from 3 days in the field with store managers. We are pleased to note that store performance is largely correlated with the quality of the operational implementation of the store's concept. Together, we are preparing the document we will use to summarize our analyses and recommendations at the next Management Committee meeting.

Elsa spent two and a half hours with the Head of the ready-to-wear line. She now knows the brand's products from A to Z : new products creating the brand's reputation, high-margin products contributing to profitability, end-of-life products, etc. This knowledge will prove very useful during our client meetings in comparing the customer's perception of the products with Management's perception. So we'll end our day by preparing for tomorrow's meetings.

Monday morning in a Paris train station. I board the train where Yves (manager), Jérôme and Jérémie (consultants) are already waiting for me, and we spend the travel time talking about how we spent our weekend.

The project has just hit a new turning point after three very exciting months. Our job is to define the industrial strategy of a major cristallier. We have been working with the client teams to gain a clear understanding of their production process. Based on our in-depth review, we believe the plant can make productivity gains and recommend building on existing capacities and investments in the plant rather than through relocation or sub-contracting.

We arrive on-site at 9.00 a.m. and meet with the CEO and Head of Operations for a presentation of second-half targets to the company's 700 employees.

We then hold a smaller meeting to present our approach and designate the managers of each project with the CEO and Head of Operations. The Head of Operations stresses the importance of our communications and ability to understand the client's needs in order to be approved for the go-live phase.

After lunch, we put on safety goggles and shoes to meet with the Head of Manufacturing, Yannick. He shows us the production lines targeted for performance improvement and we speak with the operators working on the lines.

At 6:00 p.m. we return to our office to work on our presentation for the next day. We have to summarize the major ideas in just a few pages.

We leave for dinner at around 8:00 p.m. We are staying at the client's chateau, one of the historic assets of this longstanding company !

Cleveland, Ohio – Tuesday, July 19th

After spending two and a half weeks criss-crossing the east cost of the United States with the team and meeting with the various market players, we returned to Cleveland to present our preliminary conclusions to our client, a world leader in flooring. This is a high-stakes project. We are reviewing the US subsidiary's entire pricing strategy with the aim of generating significant margin gains in a deteriorated market environment. After the success of the project completed in 7 European countries (Sweden, Poland, England, Spain, Germany, Benelux and France) in just three months, the client is counting on us for the US market.

8:36 a.m. - I meet Alexandra and Fabrice, the team's two consultants, in the hotel lobby. Over a typically American breakfast, we look over the analyses to put the final touches on our presentation. We then leave for the US subsidiary's head office.

1:01 p.m. - We are met by the CEO North America, who leads us into the conference room. The Management Committee is already there. Patrick, the Advancy partner in charge of the project, takes part in the meeting, along with the CEO World on conference call from Paris. I am in charge of the presentation. The tension is palpable; the results we are presenting underscore the poor performance of the sales forces and pricing strategy.
After two hours of talks, having been considerably challenged by the Sales Director, we succeed in convincing the Management Board of the relevance of our arguments and outline the next steps of the project. We now have to expand the scope of the review to the entire country, detail the new target pricing strategy and put it into practice. After the east coast, we have to spend some time on the west coast and the Chicago area, which are the most problematic markets for our client.

2:56 p.m. - We head to the airport for a direct flight to L.A. I take the time during the flight to prepare for our meetings with the largest California distributors and to organize the timetable for the next few days.

6:41 p.m. - We arrive in L.A., rent a US sedan and head to the hotel along the infamous 8-lane L.A. highways.

8:30 p.m. - We go to dinner in one of the city's famous steakhouses to celebrate the successful conclusion of the first part of our assignment.