Between different consulting firms and practices, the job responsibilities and experience levels of engagement managers vary widely, but there is one characteristic of the position that I like because it captures the essence of management consulting better than do characteristics of other typical consulting positions (e.g., principal, partner, director, associate, manager). By understanding the central function of "engagement management", one can better understand the essence of management consulting.

First saw this post at Virginia Postrel's site. The originally referenced post is by her other half, Dr. Steven Postrel here. Dr. Postrel writes:

My wife is quoted in a recent U.S. News and World Report feature on credit cards where she talks about a quirky aspect of consumer behavior:

Sort of as a follow-on to the post about project management and b-schools, I thought that I would post something (a bit one-sided) about the use of Microsoft Project in management consulting projects. I dislike the tool and sometimes even discourage the use of the tool by consultants running projects. Here's some reasons why:

Note: I was motivated to write the following post based on interacting with a few ex-military people in the UK and getting a sense of their notions of loyalty in business. In the late-80s, I took a college course on...

A post for a Friday. Some things I really like about music are how different styles, multiple levels of thinking, team dynamics, international influence, art, classics, and musical influences and heroes play key roles. As much time as I focus...

I am often asked by new consultants to describe some of the tangible instruments (as separate from methodologies like Five Forces, SWOT, 3-4Cs/STP/4Ps, Growth Share Matrix, etc.) that folks should become familiar with as core to practicing management consulting. Based...

Independent consulting life can be an enviable position to be in. After leaving the consulting industry for a period of time, I returned to consulting life as an independent (for a little over a year). The pros of independent consulting...

Close to two years ago (in February 2005) I wrote an original post that noted a dearth of blogs by traditional management consulting firms. Six months after that post, I wrote an update where I happened to run across a...

McKinsey alum Paola Bonomo commented here (thanks, Paola) and points us to a wiki of McKinseyite and McKinsey alum blogs. To set some context, I noticed that she writes in an earlier post:... many of my eBay colleagues and former...