BPS 6360.

501– Management and Organizational

Consulting
Spring 2009

Padmakumar Nair, Ph.D., Dr.Eng., MBA

Day and Time: Mondays and Wednesday; 5.30 to 6.45 PM
Place: SOM 2.117
Instructor: Padmakumar Nair, SOM 4.208
Guest Professors: Pankaj Asundi, Steve Redwood, Jerry Hoag and Jeff Hicks
Telephone: 972-883-6264
Email: padmakumar.nair@utdallas.edu

Office hours: 4.30 to 5.30 PM on Mondays or by appointment

Recommended Readings:
1. The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig, Free Press (2007)
2. True Professionalism by David H. Maister, Free Press (2000)
Cases and Readings: Readings can be downloaded from the library website (go to eJournals:
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/resources/journals.htm )

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course will provide required theoretical background in the content and process areas
of Management Consulting to help you become a scholarly practitioner in the area of
Organizational and Strategy consulting. In addition, this course will help you develop skills to apply
well-developed theories in the areas of Strategy, Organizational Behavior and Learning &
Knowledge Creation to real world situations. Special attention will be given to bridge the theory
versus practice gap in the practice of management consulting.

More than 90% of the class time will be devoted to in-class activities, role-plays or
company visits. There will also be several in-depth discussions around interesting readings. I will
try to find experienced consultants to talk with students and answer questions related to practical
aspects of management consulting. There will be two assigned books for this course. Other
readings could be obtained from our Library eJournals database.

Prerequisite: OB 6301 and BPS 6310 or consent of the instructor

COURSE OBJECTIVES
The course has multiple objectives that include the following:
1. To develop a context centered mindset for helping clients.
2. To understand the importance of balancing between the “expert-centered” and “context-centered”
approaches.
 3. To develop skills in using your ability to co-create knowledge to come-up with practical and
innovative solutions, together with your clients, to actual problems those are being experienced by
today’s organizations.
4. To understand the challenges of knowledge transfer / co-creation in client-consultant interactions.

Achieving the Objectives

You will be required to complete several activities in order to achieve the identified objectives:

1. Contribute to in-class discussions of cases and readings by exhibiting (a) an

understanding and articulate analysis of the information presented and (b) skills in the
prerequisite course areas required for registration.
2. There will be readings and role-plays to practice the concepts and ideas discussed in the
class.
3. Attendance is required at all class sessions to fully make use of and participate in all class
discussions. That being said, I recognize that, at times, professional and personal
emergencies may arise which may prevent one from attending class.

Overview of the Assignments

In the first day of the class seven (6) groups with 6 members in each will be formed for the group
assignments. Please “self-select” into your groups. Please do not rely too much on the Internet for
your research. Spend some time in the library—there are greater opportunities for insightful
reflection and reading!

Assignment-1a Real Life Consulting with ACCOR / Ericsson / IRMAT

The purpose of this assignment is to develop Consulting skills (both process and content skills),
which are essential part of general management.

Project 1: Ericsson
Ericsson Order Fulfillment Data Entry Optimization
Ms. Kathy Viruet
Email: Katherine.viruet@ericsson.com
Phone: 972 583 5280

Project 2: Ericsson
Ericsson Work Authorization Process Optimization
Mr. Bruce Barlow
Email: Bruce.barlow@ericsson.com
Phone: 972 583 3252

Project 3: Accor North America

Marketing Online Académie (Training)  
Mr. Allen Krom
akrom@accor-na.com
972-360-5496
Project 4: Accor North America
Employment Branding
Teresa Epperson, Senior Director HR
tepperson@accor-na.com
972-360-2675

Project 5: Accor North America

Quality & Business Planning Project
Christophe Julliard, VP, Quality and Business Planning
julliard_christophe@accor-na.com
972-360-5478

Project 6: IRMAT
Business Education Quality in India
Padmakumar Nair
padmakumar@irmat.org
972-883-6264

Assignment-1b: Consulting final presentation

At the end of the semester all the groups will make a presentation based on key recommendations
to your clients.
Assignment 2: Individual Reflection Paper (about 1500 words)
You should write about the project. The following questions should be discussed in your reflection
paper:
1. What did I learn?
i. Consulting process
ii. Content
2. How did the project go?
3. Would I approach this differently if I am given one more opportunity to do a similar
project?
4. Overall feeling about the success of the project

Reflection paper is due on 27th April

GRADING
The grades in the activities in which you will be participating will be combined to determine your
final course grade. Please note that items 1 and 2 below will be multiplied with a peer evaluation
multiplier* to get your effective grade. The relative weights are as follows:
1. Class Participation (Mini cases) 20%
2. Consulting assignment + Final presentation 70%
3. Individual Reflection on the Consulting Project 10%
Total 100%
 Week/Day Course Content
Week 1 COURSE OVERVIEW / EXPECTATIONS / OBJECTIVES
Jan. 12 Introduction to consulting Projects
Jan. 14 Main consulting assignment

Week 2 MLK day --- No class

Jan. 19
Week 2 Main consulting assignment
Jan. 21
Week 3 Challenges facing the current model of MC
Jan. 26 Consulting from a Change and Project Management Perspective
(Murata case)
Jan. 28 Main consulting assignment
Week 4 SCQA model and problem framing
Feb. 02 Creating a World Class University -- case
Feb. 04 Main consulting assignment
Week 5 Android:To Be or Not To Be -- case
Feb. 09
Feb. 11 Main consulting assignment
Week 6 Energy for America -- case
Feb. 16
Feb. 18 Main Consulting Project
Week 7 Exploration of consulting opportunities
Feb. 23 Jerry Hoag
Feb. 25 Main Consulting Project
Week 8 Healthy America -- case
March 02
March 04 Main Consulting Project
Week 9 Main Consulting Project Presentations
March 09
March 11 Main Consulting Project
Week 10 Spring Break---No class
March 16 & 18
Week 11 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
March 23
March 25 Main Consulting Project
Week 12 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
March 30
April 01 Main Consulting Project
Week 13 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
April 06 Revisiting Murata case
April 08 Main Consulting Project
Week 14 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
April 13 Revisiting Murata case
April 15 Main Consulting Project
Week 15 Reflection
April 20
April 22 Main Consulting Project
Week 16 Last class
April 27 & 29 2008 FINAL PRESENTATIONS [in-class or in-company]

* Peer Evaluations (to be completed at the end of the final class meeting)

All group members are expected to do their fair share of work on the assignments. Fortunately, in about 85 to 90 percent of the
groups this is not the case. Unfortunately, that leaves (historically) approximately 10-15 percent of the groups in which inequities
occur. Since I do not know which groups have such a problem, I will use peer evaluations for all groups. For such a system to work,
everyone must be honest and fair. First, if a group member(s) is making only a nominal contribution and/or is overly difficult to work
with, the other group member(s) may expel them/her/him from the group and this individual must complete the assignment
individually within two weeks after the due date. Second, all groups members should assign a certain points to themselves and to
other group members based on the following three dimensions:

1. Contribution (this includes data collection and time spend on constructive discussions)
2. Command over the subject matter
3. Team work

A final grade-multiplier will calculated based on the total points every individual gets from self and other group members.

EXAMPLE: You should start with a total point of 100 x (number of members in the group). If your group has 8 members, start with
800 points. Distribute 800 points to your group based on the above three dimensions. If a person gets 100 each from every other
member including herself, then her grade-multiplier will be 1 (800/800 = 1). If another person gets a total of 780, then his grade-
multiplier will be 0.975 (780/800 = 0.975). If your total point is 900, then your grade-multiplier will be 1.125 (900/800 = 1.125).