What do a $2,000 stationary bike, a triple patty burger, and Christmas gift cards have in common? They all represent brilliant business models. In this episode of BTO, we investigate and explore the profit-making formulas for companies as diverse as Peleton, Wendy's, Starbucks and GM, to name but four. In the process, we expose a hidden truth: your favorite company or service is making money on you in ways you probably haven't realized. By looking behind the business model curtain, we hope to...

Entire bookshelves in stores like Barnes & Noble and Indigo groan under the weight of business books on strategy, and every single one of them, we're certain, discusses the merits of "strategy" vs. "execution". Today we lend our two voices to this ongoing debate, and in so doing one of us proposes a bridge between the two: the so-called "strategic cascade". In this episode, we do what we usually attempt with such topics: Ion makes fun of Mike for using consulting jargon, Mike proves Ion...

This is another in-betweenisode, where we play around with the format and topic a bit. Today’s show is all about books - why we love them, which ones we love, and what constitutes a great book in our minds. For fellow word nerds, you will be heaven. For those of you who don’t like to read… better skip this one then. But maybe our lively (yes, really!) discussion on the power of the written word might just tempt you back to the temple of books…

Don’t go changin’… unless you have to, that is. Today we tackle the particularly trendy concept of reinvention. Companies do it (Netflix has done it, twice) in part to survive. Management consultants (like Mike!) do it often to thrive. And cool people like you, our listeners, should be considering it, too; as we like to say, think of reinvention as robot insurance. On this show, we discuss the merits of reinventing your organization or yourself, and we share a 6 step framework (we're...

This is going to be another experiment for us, though not like our previous in-betweenisodes. Remember those TV shows that teased a dramatic turn with “A very special “Joanie loves Chachi?” This is that show. We’re going to delve into a topic that people rarely talk about… but they probably think about all the time (or should). We ask: what is success, and how should we define it? You may wonder what this has to do with consulting. Fair point. What we would say is that a lot of consulting is...

Most people fear negotiation almost as much as they fear public speaking - and apparently, they fear giving speeches more than they fear dying, so that’s saying something! Entire business models are built around avoiding negotiations, like Carmax in the US. But negotiation is not rocket science. It’s all about adopting the right frame of mind and incorporating some key tips and tricks. In this episode, we demystify some jargon (what is BATNA, and do I have to take antibiotics if I have it??),...

​Normally, we apply the consultant’s toolkit to everyday life ​and problems. Today, we’ll be flipping the script: we talk about everyday life with a consultant - namely, our friendly neighborhood superhero Mike. Think of this as an X-Ray into the management consultant's mind - but it's far more interesting than that sounds! ​I​n this episode, these are just some of the things Mike gets grilled about​...​​ 1. ​His misadventures​: before finance, law and consulting​,​ with a gig that is far​...

As you may have noticed, we like to challenge conventional wisdom here at BTO. Today, we explore the notion of expertise and discuss the limits of specialized knowledge. Now to be clear, we don’t mean to suggest that you don’t want an expert when someone is performing neurosurgery on you. It’s just that the idea of expertise has to evolve in the modern era. Expertise is perishable. As an asset, it depreciates more quickly now than ever before. How much of what you learned in high school and...

If you’ve ever read an article in The Economist or watched CNBC, chances are you heard the term “best practices”. Is this yet another example of useless consultant jargon, or is there something to be learned from how the best companies do certain things that are critical to their business? In this episode, Mike and Ion unpack this idea and translate the underlying concept into everyday life. Along the way, we’ll explore both the value but also the limits of best practices when applied to...

Consulting firms are infamous for asking crazy, brain-teasing questions as part of their rigorous interview and election process. Today we tackle the dreaded consulting case study and explore what they’re really testing. Then we broaden the conversation to discuss the power of a well-posed query, concluding with some of our favorite questions. We find ourselves agreeing with the great Albert Einstein, who noted sagely: "The mere formulation of a problem is far more essential than its solution."

Today we tackle a linchpin concept of business strategy: the USP, or unique selling proposition. We prefer to refer to it as your “unique super power”, and McDonald’s might call it their “special sauce”. Whatever the label, the basic idea is that companies become known in the marketplace for that one thing they (presumably) do better than anyone else. That’s their USP. In this episode, we explore that idea and apply it, as we like to do, to real life. It all starts by asking a simple...

There is an old joke that consultants ask to borrow your watch before telling you what time it is. That’s a bit unfair, but we don’t shy away from confronting (and in some cases, confirming) the perceptions that swirl around the management consulting industry. Today we tackle the topic of whether (short answer: yes!) and how (more nuanced) consultants add value to their clients. We’ll also discuss why our cognitive blind spots and the increasing complexity of work and life have led Ion to...

Consultants are famous for their penchant to use fancy words when perfectly good ones would seem to do just fine. Today, we demystify many of management consulting's expressions, as well as identify some of our favorites. We’ll also talk about the idea of lingo in general, and share our preferred jargon from other industries - because some insider argot is actually worth using.

We named this podcast after an expression in management consulting circles for over-analyzing a problem. You’ll sometimes hear a consultant say, “team, let’s not boil the ocean on this one. There’s got to be a simpler way to get at the core issue here …” In this podcast, we apply the management consultant’s toolkit to everyday problems - those we face in our jobs but just as many from real life. We’ll talk about how to use consulting models on parenting to playing beer league hockey - and...

Decision-making may be the single most critical skill we need to have a successful career and life. From the little choices we make (should I go to the gym after work?) to those that can sometimes define our lives (should we move to London?), our trajectory is nothing more than the sum total of our decisions and their results. Isn’t it amazing, though, that we never get any instruction in school or even from our parents as to how to make decisions? Sure, Mom and Dad give us values, which...

We almost called this episode condiments and complements, because condiments are an example of complements (try saying that three times quickly!). Today’s episode is all about what iPhone apps, hot dogs and buns have in common - and why you shouldn’t confuse this concept with what you should be telling your best friend after that fabulous dinner they cooked for you last night.

Frameworks are rules of thumb or mental models that simplify our complex world. They're essential parts of the consultant's toolkit - like a wrench to a plumber (we don't anything about plumbing, but you get the idea). In this episode, Mike and Ion discuss and dissect their personal BFFs - The 2 x 2 Matrix and The FedEx Question - then describe how to apply them to your job, business, and life.

How to use design principles to address work and life questions. Mike goes over the basics of Design Thinking while Ion attempts to "design" happiness.

Consultants travel. A lot. Here are our Top 10 Travel Hacks. Mike shares his 5 best McKinsey-honed tips for making the most of a flight and Ion provides his time-tested tricks for feeling first class - even when you're stuck in coach.

Innovation Best Practices and other strategies to think unconventionally. Mike breaks down how consultants teach innovation and Ion describes his method for spurring creativity - a habit he calls perpendicular thinking.

Consultants are nerds. At least we are … but we own it. Here’s our Top 10 Work Hacks - a collection of cool tools, apps and at least 1 activity for you consider adopting in 2018.

Ah. The New Year. Some of you out there have no doubt dutifully written down your New Year’s Resolutions (cards on the table: we used to do these. all. the. time!). What we’ll be talking about today is, in some ways, the organizational equivalent of those resolutions - strategic plans. Don’t get us wrong: we’re both big fans of them - as we are, in general, about the process of making resolutions (more on that later). But in an increasingly volatile world, strategic plans may turn out to be...