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Why Unconscious Biases Block Diversity in the Workplace

I had the privilege of being invited to a conference earlier this week focused on increasing equality and diversity in the workforce. I never thought to focus on diversity before since I always thought it was common sense to be fair and focus on skills and experience first when hiring.

 When thinking of the word ‘diversity’, gender or racial equality in the workforce often come to mind first. However, accommodating for part-time or remote work is equally important, particularly for working mothers, people with disabilities or those who generally need more flexibility with respect to where they complete work.

While preparing for the conference, I was excited to discover that for Hillgate projects completed to date:

·      44% were completed by women

·      52% were completed by someone from a minority ethnic background

·      78% were completed on a part time basis

·      80% were completed on a fully remote basis

These numbers are higher than average rates, and more closely reflect society in general, as you can see here, here and more generally here.

 There is a clear argument that leveraging technology in the screening process helps to attain better results toward diversity. For example, you can use algorithms to ‘blindly’ screen your first set of options into a list of people who are available with the right skillset, and then test for fit. With a more diverse set of inputs, your final decision is likely to be fairer.

 My biggest surprise at the conference was not that everyone knew and agreed that technology and data can increase fairness, but how difficult it is to implement the practice consistently. The big phrase of the day was, “Having diversity and equality isn’t just right, it also makes good business sense.” [1] What was missing was the actual implementation of equal hiring processes and workplace strategies relying on data and technology.

 Whilst organizations and managers may have the best intentions at heart, often they just don’t know what the options are and where to find them. If you have always recruited from the top schools, you don’t know who is available from an online university. Similarly if you’ve never been surrounded by a diverse set of ethnic backgrounds, you likely don’t know how much you have in common and can learn from each other’s experiences. [2]

 We all have to do what we can to reduce unconscious biases in the workforce; empowering managers with a diverse set of inputs is the first step to improve equality. Therefore I implore you: next time you are looking for help with a permanent or even short term role, be sure to focus only on skills and experiences of the individual. Look at the bigger, broader picture and you’ll be surprised at the additional talent options you might find.

  [1] Just seeing the effect of increasing the participation of women on boards is testament to that.

 [2] Thanks also to Meaghan Rose, Co-Founder and CEO at Rocksbox, who first reminded me to always ignore brand names and look more for how the person can contribute to the organization and vice versa.

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CSR - Not Just a Business Trend

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the belief that business can and should work to better social issues in addition to making money. They should not pursue profits by ignoring the costs to, and impact on, society. 

Culture Trends

While businesses have talked about CSR for many years, it is becoming more of a necessity and strategic priority. Today’s consumers and employees want businesses to be socially responsible. Millennial culture, while flawed and diverse, exhibits (as a whole) more vocalized socially conscious habits than any previous generations. 

Consider the Super Bowl advertisements this year. Fewer ads made us laugh and more made us feel positive. Coke combated bullying, Dove empowered us, and McDonald’s offered to let customers pay with love. It’s no coincidence that these commercials are being run while demand for CSR grows - it’s what people want and businesses need. 

Millennials are bringing these trends into the workplace with them. A study from Deloitte revealed several findings from Millennials: 

55% think businesses can do more to help prevent climate change

75% think businesses can help with wealth inequality

The same survey revealed that Millennials in general see businesses as having a negative impact on the environment and wealth inequality. According to Millennials, business could be doing more socially, setting the stage for a continued increase in CSR initiatives. 

CSR Today

Effective CSR can take many forms, but at the end of the day, CSR should be a commitment relevant to your business - demonstrating your company’s role in helping solve an industry problem. 

For example, Microsoft, a leader in CSR among large corporations, runs a program called YouthSpark, which helps provide opportunities and project grants for students across the globe. Specifically, Microsoft does this to target the opportunity gap among students and provide more opportunities to students who potentially wouldn’t have had it otherwise. 

Another model for good CSR is Phillips Electronics, which is renown for its sustainability. Philips has been pursuing his Ecovision Strategy, which aims to simultaneously reducing the company’s CO2 emissions while also utilizing green energy to produce more environmentally friendly products. The program is similar to many other sustainability plans - help the earth through green technology, help the business by building a reputable, sustainable company. 

Even more directly related to business operations, many entrepreneurs retail ventures, inspired by Toms, have started a trend to “buy one, give one.” This creates consumers who are proud to support and wear the brand, while the company is able to help those in need. 

Contrary to popular belief, CSR doesn’t need to be accompanies by a costly marketing campaign. Establishing your companies brand as committed to social responsibility can be enough to better your reputation and bottom line. 

CSR going forward

CSR faces two main issues: The first being a belief that the only responsibility of businesses are to stakeholders. The second is that CSR can be construed as a shallow PR stunt. Fortunately, consumers are becoming more concerned with overall stakeholder responsibility and how business influences all aspects of society. 

As Millennials continue to enter the workplace and become active consumers, all businesses will need to be conscientious. Change will be gradual, but all companies should become socially responsible - not only because it is the right thing to do, but also to ensure sustainability and save their own bottom line.    

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What is the Difference Between an Expert and a Consultant?

As COO at Hillgate, and having spent time as an executive at an expert network firm and as a strategy consultant, one of the questions I am frequently asked is how to decide whether a project is more suitable for an expert or for a consultant. Here are some guidelines to help you decide:

 1.    How much of the answer is already known?

Expert networks such as Gerson Lehrman Group and Clarity.fm typically provide consultants by the hour. When you have a good understanding of the answer, they are a good option to test your logical assumptions with someone who has ‘been there, done that and made the mistakes’. An expert is the efficient way to learn the accepted answer.

 If you are still at the hypothesis stage, it may be better to engage a consultant via Hillgate. A 2+ week engagement can provide you with a comprehensive analysis of the market landscape, best practices and options, which you can use to determine how best to innovate and accelerate growth.

 2.    How broad are the topics you are trying to answer?

Experts are best used to answer specific questions. Since you typically engage someone deeply experienced in a very specific area, focus on the expert’s narrow area of expertise.

 If you are looking at a broader set of topics, engage a single consultant with solid generalist training. He or she can combine primary and secondary research and manage the overall analysis so that you can focus on the big picture. Particularly when preparing to make a significant investment (e.g. launch a new product, enter a new market), engaging a consultant to complete diligence can provide a great second opinion and additional insights.

 3.    Do you need advice or hands on help?

This should be the easiest option to decide. Experts provide advice – they answer questions and provide opinions based on their practical experience.

 When you need someone to ‘get their hands dirty‘ and help you do the actual research and analysis, a consultant can be more helpful. They are trained in building the Excel models and creating Powerpoint presentations – enabling you to focus on preparing for the leadership team meeting and the strategic decision-making.

  At the end of the day, all you really need is to the best person to help you deliver on your goals. To achieve that, it is important for you and your advisor to build a strong relationship - and for him/her to relate to your current need. [1]

 [1] Ting Zhang recently conducted an interesting study into how to get an expert to empathise and meet you at the right level of insight. More details here.

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Why Every Business Should Adopt a “Culture of Adaptation”

Businesses Are Too Slow To Adopt New Technologies

Business is changing. Everyday, technology is becoming more relevant for companies to get ahead of their competition. It is no secret that being tech savvy is integral for business today, and yet many companies struggle to keep up with the rapidly changing technology around them. 

A recent study by MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that:

78% of respondents view digital transformation as “critical” to their organizations; 

63% said their business’s pace of technological change was too slow. 

Amazingly, the most frequently cited obstacle to digital transformation is “lack of urgency.” 

So why isn’t everyone rushing to adopt new technology? Why do only 36% of CEO’s have digital transformation included in their company agenda? 

You Do Not Need To Be An Expert To Benefit From Technology

One aspect that makes digital change so difficult is simply the familiarity, or lack thereof. Senior managers understand business practices and studied at business schools, whereas new technologies are often developed and embraced outside the classroom, leaving business managers lagging behind in some respects. 

The rapid pace of change of technology means that managers have to implement with limited direction. Without the guidance of traditional frameworks and resources to help drive implementation, it can be a daunting and risky undertaking. This can create an incentive for managers to wait and take the risk, instead of adapting now. 

Embrace A Culture Of Adaptation

While waiting is not always a bad strategy, it can lead to businesses falling behind competitors that are more willing to take a risk. 

To overcome this, senior managers must cultivate a culture of adaptation, one that embraces change and learns from its own implementation mistakes. One in which senior management takes responsibility to try out and champion new technologies. Having a culture that accepts and recognizes the necessity of change will allow a company to grow and develop with technology and avoid many of the issues that plague slower adapters. 

In the words of MIT’s George Westerman:

 “You need to lead technology. Don’t let it lead you.”  

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Manage Your Career Like a Series of Projects

I met a friend recently who has spent the last few years in the same team at the same firm and had just been promoted…. The dilemma was that, while wanting to be really excited about it, he was finding it hard to motivate himself when that promotion came with the same responsibilities, the same network and the same (but larger) goals within the same team.

Some might say that this reaction is a function of the millennial generation and the trend for job hopping.  Others will say that a growing economy and buoyant job market will always result in discontent amongst employees.

I think there’s a more fundamental reminder here – regardless of generation and economic health.  

Every role has approximately a two year shelf life [1]. After that period, unless you’ve significantly changed your responsibilities, you will likely have learned all you are going to. As soon as you do, it’s time to move on: be that laterally internally, externally or going back to education/retraining.

This trend is a good thing for everyone – it keeps top performers excited and motivated and provides their leaders with go-getters who can help the team sustain growth and innovation.  It follows that managers should embrace this cycle and help those performers to find the next challenge.

The answer is to consider your career as an ongoing set of projects – designed to be short, fulfilling and high energy. As soon as you’re feeling too comfortable, it’s time to leave the ‘client’ (current team) and move onto the next challenge and growth opportunity. [2]

 Organisations have a duty to every employee to keep them excited to perform at the top of their game. Every employer should remember that the better the performer, the faster they will become restless; the biggest managerial challenge will be keeping those employees you need most excited and engaged. As an employee, if you find that everything you wanted happened (you got the promotion, you got the bonus, you have respect from your peers, leaders and team) and you still aren’t excited to go in, think about the challenge of your work. 

If you’re no longer learning and growing, it’s time to shake things up.

 Notes:

[1] Based on our research, it typically takes six months to completely settle into a new role, as you build networks, adjust to the new responsibilities and learn how to perform the basic position. Over the following year, high performers will take the time to make a difference – accelerating growth, innovating and demonstrating their ambition. The last six months are typically used to finalise the case for promotion and/or through the hunt for the next challenge. Of course, should the firm, department or function stay the same, then this timeframe may be reduced dramatically.

[2] One of the biggest things we hear at Hillgate is that our consultants love learning new things. They value the opportunity to be back in the frame of ramping up fast, adapting and learning rapidly to help our clients find the right solution.

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Three Hacks for Better Projects

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Millennials, Marketing, and Office Change

By the year 2030, Millennials will make up 70% of the workforce. Like any generation, they come with their own unique perspectives and upbringing. Millennials also have the radically different experience of being raised in the digital age. While most Millennials are yet to enter the workforce, the generation’s growth is hastening digitization and change across all industries.

As a Millennial myself, I can vouch that we are a digital generation and are enraptured by personal relations. A recent Boston Consulting Group survey found that Millennials “engage more with brands than older consumers.” As Millennials have become pulled to social media and the Internet, they have forced businesses to do the same in order to garner loyalty. Brands must now personify themselves and connect with Millennials as consumers. In the food industry, Pancheros and Chipotle have taken to twitter, where they share their culture and personality with consumers in the hopes of increasing loyalty. This engagement is paramount to Millennials who have come to expect individual attention from brands.

Marketing isn’t the only place Millennials are making an impact. In the office, Millennials carry a number of different ideals with them. Arguably the most striking difference between Millennials and prior generations is the trend of “job-hopping.” Millennials stay at and plan on staying at future jobs for smaller lengths of time than any generation before them. According to a survey by Business Insider, “26% of Millennials…said that workers should only be expected to stay in a job a year or less before looking for a new position.” The cause, according to most studies, is that Millennials value fulfillment from work more than other generations. Additionally, they express a stronger desire for career advancement. Quite simply, we want work to be a positive aspect of life, not a means to an end. 

So what does this all mean? From my perspective, companies cannot ignore the impact Millennials have and must make adjustments. While not all Millennials will desire the same values - each organization must decide what values are most relevant to their own success - two trends are highly apparent. In marketing, companies must leverage social media to create a two-way relationship between the brand and Millennials. In the office, workplace flexibility and attention to culture are quickly becoming paramount in order to attract and retain Millennials.

The change Millennials are spurring makes me wonder - what impact will Generation Z bring?  

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How do you set up a micro-consulting project?

Here at Hillgate, we love to speak with start-ups, small businesses and medium sized companies who tell us how excited they are to finally gain access to the brightest strategic minds across the globe.

Since Andrew’s post on what consulting means, we’ve had many conversations with people who are new to micro-consulting and aren’t sure how to set up the project. Benchmarking other projects is always helpful – and you can see some example projects on our Projects page.

Here are the 10 steps to a great micro-consulting project:

1. List out all the questions you need to answer

What are the pertinent topics that the project must address? This can be anything, from how to double sales to how to prepare a compelling business plan and financial model.

 2. Bucket your questions into functional themes

Examples of themes include due diligence, market research and strategy. Depending on how diverse your questions are, separate them into different projects in order to work with the most relevant consultant for each.

3. Determine the project’s timeline

This is a function of (realistically) when you need the answer and how long it should take to do a good job. To understand how long the project will take, prioritize the must-haves from the nice-to-haves and benchmark against similar projects. You can later work with the consultant to refine the timeline and ensure that your project goals are met. If you do have some flexibility in the timing, that can help broaden your consultant options.

4. Write the project brief

The more specific your brief, the more consultants can accurately self-select. Focus the brief on: (i) your key questions, (ii) the deliverables you’d like to receive and (iii) any other must-have skills or experiences. It’s really important to be as detailed as possible here; this also helps you to objectively identify the great fit applicants.

 5. Define the budget

This is the often the hardest part. If in doubt, benchmark against similar projects. At Hillgate, we also provide recommended daily rates, based on other projects, to help you calculate an appropriate daily rate or fixed fee within your available budget.

6. Post the project

Now you’ve shared all the details, it’s the consultants’ turn to wow you with their applications!

7. Review applications

An excellent application will answer the questions you have posed thoughtfully and with sufficient detail to give you a sense of how they might interact with you on the project. Through reviewing alongside resumes, determine who has the right mix of skills, experience and passion to work alongside you. At this point, separate consultants into interviewees, back up consultants (in case you need a second round of interviews) and decline those who aren’t quite the perfect fit with feedback.

 8. Complete interviews

Choose 2-3 preferred applicants to interview and use the interview as an opportunity to fill in any blanks in the application and to compare approaches and styles.  You should end this step with enough insight to be able to choose someone who you’d like to work with and who is genuinely excited by your project.

 9. Finalise project details and sign contract

Once you’ve chosen your preferred consultant, agree the final price and scope.  Then sign the contracts and get working with your preferred consultant!

 10. Provide feedback

During and at the end of the project, be sure to share feedback.  The consultant will often have ideas for what else might be helpful to consider and, in our experience, they are always open to feedback too.

Finally, if in any doubt, ask us: we can help you structure the project and find the perfect consultant. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] or sign up at Hillgate for more.

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Machine learning is eating the world

With the advent of the Internet and businesses moving online, there has been an explosion in the scale and complexity of data that organizations are able to capture. Attempts to understand and extract value from this data have created the relatively new field of Data Science. Already changing the way decisions are made in fields such as marketing, public policy and business best practices, data science is an increasingly important tool for businesses as they become more data-driven.

This is a guest post from Angie Ma, organizer of the London Data Science Meetup and co-founder at ASI. She kindly agreed to give us an overview of one of the key components of data science; machine learning. I found it really informative and wanted to share it.

Data science is making big concrete waves in the business world. There have been reports after reports looking at the competitive advantage analytics bring to business; 2x likely to be in the top quartile of financial performance within their industry (Bain&Company 2013), strong link between financial performance and effective use of big data (the Economist Intelligence Unit 2012), expect data equity to reach £40.7 billion by 2017 (Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd 2014) to name just a few. What is more, any of the technologies under data science such as in-memory analytics, big data, natural language processing have all surpassed the peak of inflated expectations in the Gartner hype cycle and are moving towards productivity. 

When we talk about data science, people often think it's synonymous with machine learning. This isn't true - data science spans the spectrum from hacking to visualisation - but there's no denying that some of the most exciting advances are coming from developments in machine learning. 

At its core, machine learning is a subfield of computer science that deals with systems that can learn from data, rather than follow explicitly programmed instructions. This can be subdivided into a multitude of categories, but you'll often here people talk about three: supervised learning, unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning. Understanding the differences between these three is relatively easy, but important to get a feel for the machine learning landscape. 

In supervised learning, the goal of the program is to learn a general rule to map inputs to outputs, from a series of examples given by the 'supervisor'. Spam filters, like those on Gmail (probably) use supervised learning. 

In contrast, unsupervised learning tries to extract hidden patterns in the data. Essentially the model must learn the structure of the data on its own, by finding clusters in the variables. This is often used in genetics data. 

Finally, reinforcement learning is used to reach a goal in a dynamic environment. The obvious application for this is self-driving cars. 

Of course, in real world projects - like IBM Watson - many different types of algorithms are used. This range of abilities lets the Mayo Clinic put Watson to work matching patients with clinical trial and the New York Genome Centre use the same tool for cancer research. Other machine learning projects include everything from babysitting robots to identifying birds.

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Friends and family: the only place to start networking

Networking in any role is imperative

The ability to have conversations can help you learn of opportunities, meet contacts for fund raising and even find your next best buddy. Despite learning how to network as children in the playground, for some inexplicable reason we grow into adults who are afraid to network. 

During the Mad Men era, networking was a form of sales. Power lunches leveraged deals and the next introduction was just another warm lead. In its purest form, this is the ultimate goal: who wouldn’t want to have the confidence to walk up to a stranger, tell them that you want their business and go back to the office with a cheque or promise of commitment!

Most of us don’t have that skill. There are hundreds of advice pages from where you can learn how to network effectively (see here and here for some ideas). The majority of advice includes preparing carefully, attending conferences, using LinkedIn and shares best practices for follow up. 

In my experience, those are all great and with lots of practice, you can learn to be a natural. These steps don’t really help you when you’re dropped into a networking situation unexpectedly. So what to do?

Friends and family are the real goldmine

How many times have you actually talked to your friends and family? Not gossip, sports or discussion on Downton Abbey, but real thought-provoking conversation. Try it. 

On Saturday, I learnt about how many poor income households in Africa still use charcoal for fuel (insane!) and met someone who is trying to launch a cool start up but is struggling to find project opportunities (and cashflow) outside of her full time job; she learnt about Hillgate and how many of our top strategy consultants are facing exactly that challenge.

I have lost track of the number of gold nuggets I have gotten from engaging in a broad conversation about work and interests – you learn something, make new friends and never know where the conversation might lead.

Ultimately, networking comes down to being able to engage people. In this ultra-connected world, it can be hard to navigate through to the connections that will provide value. So next time you chat in the locker room, meet that friend of a friend who always joins your gig dates or go to a dinner party, have a real conversation – at the least, it’ll give you another interesting stat to share when discussing your next project.

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Consulting- what does it actually mean?

The term consulting is one of the more commonly used terms in today’s business world. Yet it is still rather opaque. It seems that everybody has his or her own definition. It is even more complicated in the UK where “doctors” are often referred to as consultants!

There are many topics that can be helpful in demystifying consulting.  In this post, I will focus on why businesses typically hire consultants.

Businesses hire consultants because they need one of the following:

Outside perspective

Extra bandwidth

Niche or functional skills

  Outside perspective

Many times consultants are brought in to provide an “objective” analysis of a situation. The main goal here is to have someone with a fresh perspective analyze the situation to provide solutions that the current team may be unable to provide.

  Extra bandwidth

At other times, consultants are brought in to support a team as extra arms and legs. The goal is clear (and well understood): finish the project more quickly, often against a tight deadline. There usually isn’t much need to provide anything other than the same (or better) high-quality work that the client would have achieved by completing the project him/herself.

  Niche or functional skills

The last common reason to hire a consultant is to fill a very specific skill. This is often a functional skill that the company doesn’t have in-house and/or may not need long-term. It can also be geographic or industry-related knowledge or experience that the company lacks. The main outcome here is to help the company get up to speed on a particular area asap.

  In addition, there are two types of consultants you can hire:

Expert

Intellectual horsepower

  The Expert

The expert is usually a more senior person with significant experience, often in one industry, location and function. This profile usually has 15+ years of professional experience and will work with senior members of the management team to answer discrete questions facing the company, based on their professional experience. For example, if a company is expanding into a new geographic market, it might want to work with a former regulator from that country to better understand the nuances of regulation in said country. The work is more advisory than operational and often is a simple as having an hour-long phone call with the expert.

  Intellectual horsepower

The other common reason to hire people is to get significant intellectual horsepower.  In these situations, the client is looking to hand a “challenge” off to this person and let them solve it.  These projects usually require significant research and analysis, which are great matches for the skillset provided by a younger consultant. An example is when a company is looking to refine its pricing strategy after an initial launch into the market. There might be three months worth of data about customers’ buying habits, service requirements and competitive landscape. The consultant will take this information in order to segment and customize pricing strategies for multiple segments.

  I hope that this provides some insight into how and why companies might hire consultants. Using this framework can help companies identify what they need and help freelance consultants the market their services appropriately. 

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Lessons to build a community of peers

For those of you who haven’t seen it, there’s a Hacker News Meetup talk by Joel Spolsky, co-Founder and CEO of StackExchange.  It’s an interesting view of how to grow a successful community; here are the lessons we’re applying:

Repelling non-customers is as important as attracting customers

Growing the user base by numbers rather than targeted growth can result in having as many loyal, revenue-generating, supportive customers as there are critical, misunderstood and short-term customers.  Any community needs to feel like there is a definition and common link in order for users to remain engaged and to ultimately achieve a manageable customer acquisition cost and high retention rate. 

Amazon attracts those looking for the best price; eBay attracts bargain hunters. At the same time, they keep the site simple, make the product self-service, push recommendations, ask for you to contribute – those small but important features repel non-customers.

Strategy consulting firms attract hard working smart minds who want to maximize their learning; investment banks attract those who want to work on great deals and see tangible ROI.  Both of these come with long hours, an expectation that you do whatever needs to be done to maintain client satisfaction and periods of intense travel, which repels many applicants.

Care and curate to ensure high quality

First impressions matter; a solution that is not consistent and cared for is treated the same by users.  On the other hand, a carefully managed solution that reacts quickly to limit irrelevant content and shows a certain standard can result in a self-managed and self-regulating community.

Wikipedia is self-managed by the community and there is a quality expectation associated with any new content added.  Each member of the community feels accountable because the early curation, removal of content and feedback led to these expectations. In comparison, check out some of the threads on Yahoo’s Answers forum….

In the business world, performance management is key.  Providing constructive, timely feedback takes time and effort on both sides, but is invaluable to maintain and improve quality.

Benefit the community as a whole

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  Individuals are important; the impact that the collective can have is even greater when those individuals work together. This was the most powerful takeaway for us – because while every individual interaction matters, what’s key is the overarching goal.  The ability for us to give all companies access to the brightest strategic minds.  The ability to give consultants access to relevant projects and enable them to control their career and progression. 

That’s what matters to us and that’s the community we’re focused on developing and benefitting.

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How to identify a great developer

Identifying a great developer is hard! Demand for developers is ridiculously high, which, while awesome for the community, gives rise to plenty of mediocre developers. As a startup, we need to be hiring the best talent possible, so separating the wheat from the chaff is incredibly important.

I propose the following (opinionated) template for hiring a great developer.

Note: If you’re a non-techie reading this and looking to hire a developer, you will need a technical co-founder or advisor. There is no other way!

What do you need?

First things first, you need to identify the profile of your ideal candidate. Do you need an expert in UX and front-end development? Will they be architecting a new back-end system? Are you drowning in your data and need someone to save you?

Once you’ve decided this, you need to decide what level of responsibility they will have.  If you already have someone on the team that can help and guide, you probably want to be looking for someone with 1-2 years of software development experience that can grow into the role. If this person needs to drive the direction of the technology from day 1, then spend the money and get someone with relevant expertise and experience.

Do they have strong fundamentals?

I’m a bit of a snob on this, but having strong CS fundamentals (specifically data structures and algorithms) is incredibly important to me. Being comfortable with these allows for far more creative and versatile solutions. Your interview process should include some component of testing for these skills. There’s plenty of information available on how to do well at these types of interviews, so there really are no excuses.

Can you afford them?

I like to have preliminary discussions on a candidate’s salary expectation early on in the interview process (usually after proving strong CS fundamentals). My reasoning for this is that there is no point wasting time on the rest of the process if there is a massive gap in expectations. Most startups aren’t able to compete with the big tech or finance firms on base salary, but will give higher responsibility and say in the direction of the technology and company. It is important to highlight this.

Get them to write code

If you are hiring someone who’s main responsibility is to produce high quality code, you probably want to see what they can do. I like to follow the Treehouse model of doing a dry run with a candidate to find out what it would be like if they were hired. The key points here are:

It’s a real project – it will get deployed to production when finished.

Should take 10-20 hours – big enough to require real thought but not so big it is a massive burden on the candidate.

It’s not on the critical path for the company.

It requires coordination – this gives you a feel for their communication skills.

Can they operate independently?

The best people I‘ve worked with are the ones that take requirements and an existing code base, and come to a solution by themselves. That’s not to say they don’t talk to anyone about the problem, but they have the initiative to own the task and the drive to gets things done.

Also, they need to be incredibly good at using Google!

Do they love technology?

Leaders in technology love technology. Innovators in technology love technology. I want anyone I hire to be an innovator and a (future) leader in technology. Having the breadth of knowledge that caring about technology gives you, provides you with a much richer collection of tools to solve the harder problems.

Oh! You probably want to make sure you enjoy spending time with them. Most weeks, you’ll see them more than your friends and family.

If you think you’re a great developer, check out our job postings or drop us a note and let’s talk ;)

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Why the CFA will never replace the MBA

I recently saw an article in the FT about whether the CFA is the new MBA or could replace it. The answer is no. 

These two "certifications" do completely different things. The CFA is meant to deepen your understanding of finance. It goes an inch wide and a mile deep. Each level takes a few weeks/months to complete, usually while working. 

An MBA covers every functional area in business and gives the student a basic, fundamental understanding of each. The student then chooses two or three subjects to dive deeper into. Most programs are two years (some are 15 months), giving a candidate the opportunity to really immerse himself or herself full time into learning. In addition, MBA candidates get other invaluable skills such as networking and presenting that are vital to a successful career.

I think both "certifications" are valuable, but they prepare you for very different roles. A CFA is only relevant to certain portions of finance and helps you be a better specialist. An MBA prepares you to be an executive (eventually).

Many people think you need a CFA to succeed in finance, but plenty of people at the top of finance never did a CFA or even worked in a frontline role. Jamie Dimon is well known for not having worked in "banking" roles except as an executive. Lloyd Blankfein went to law school prior to working his way up at Goldman. They are incredibly smart guys who have learned what they needed to along way, but their main function is to manage huge, complex organizations. It is not to calculate WACC on the spot.

 I'd be so bold as to say that once you become a manager at any company the value of your CFA decreases. At the same time your MBA is growing in value as you have to manage people and work with/manage multiple functional areas like operations and marketing.

A CFA prepares you to be a solider. An MBA prepares you to be a leader. And that to me is why the CFA will never replace an MBA. 

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What is micro-consulting?

We often get asked what it is that Hillgate actually provides and why we think micro-consulting is the future of consulting.  Micro-consulting is a short burst of work that is focused on a specific topic, priced to your budget and is delivered and acted upon quickly.  We think of it as an easy means to supplement your team with specific expertise or intellectual horsepower.

How have managerial responsibilities changed?

For many years, large consulting firms helped their customers by managing all of the strategic planning.  This was incredibly helpful when companies tended to focus on maintaining market share and slowly, steadily, growing the product and customer base – there was limited time to spend on planning.  In those times, consulting services were almost exclusively available to the largest companies who could afford to spend millions every two years developing a new five-year strategy.

Globalization, increased managerial sophistication, and a focus on data mean that company management teams are now more informed and agile.  They are constantly adapting to innovate and remain ahead of the competition – and managers in small, medium and large organisations spend increasing portions of their time strategizing how to increase profits.  

  Why do managers prefer micro-consulting?

The nature of the consulting services most valuable to management teams has evolved. Managers will likely have 1-2 specific areas where they have knowledge/skill gaps or insufficient in-house resource to figure out the solution (e.g. researching market entry strategy to a new region, performing data analysis on customer purchasing habits, or benchmarking global best practices).  This is what micro-consulting is designed to provide – and as a result it’s becoming increasingly affordable for any company to benefit from these strategic minds. 

We see the future of consulting as providing short bursts of specific work that can be delivered in weeks and supplements your existing thinking.  There’s no need for 100 page Powerpoint decks that are used as a doorstop (I wish I was joking, I have seen one of my decks in that position because budget priorities changed) and, often, there’s no need for a fully-fledged consulting team.  What companies need instead is 1 or 2 smart people who can work with management to collect and digest the data into a short summary.  Two weeks instead of two months; costing thousands rather than millions; and implemented within weeks rather than months/years/never.

  Traditional consulting: Large teams; Longer timeframe; High budget impact

Micro-consulting: Small team/individual; Immediate timeframe; Lower budget impact

I know we’re excited to help make consulting services affordable, actionable and available – hope you’re ready to join us!

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For more about Hillgate, see these earlier posts about why we founded Hillgate and how we’re leveraging technology to build the platform.

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Why technology is central to Hillgate

Last time Andrew wrote about why we founded Hillgate. I want to now talk about why technology is central to what we do at Hillgate and how we’re using it to connect companies of any size with strategic business minds.

Technology has a history of disrupting established industries. AirBnb has completely changed how people find holiday accommodation, Uber is causing all sorts of grief to taxi drivers, and Kickstarter is providing fresh options for getting new (sometimes strange) products funded.

A key criterion for technology to be able to disrupt an industry is to consider the basic job to be done and then design a better user experience centered on achieving that job. Often, this can be accomplished through access to superior data, increased transparency, and improved business processes.

The strategy consulting model is broken

Strategy consulting is an industry that has traditionally been opaque, with unclear pricing, and typically only accessible for those with significant budgets. As an alternative, people have relied heavily on personal networks and word of mouth.

At Hillgate, we believe that now is the perfect time to apply technology to democratize strategic consulting.

For starters, technology has the power to provide consulting with an unheard level of transparency. Moving the process online makes it simple to record and review agreed deliverables, share with key stakeholders, and generally reduce ambiguity.

Technology’s global reach

Online platforms also benefit from being global. This can be especially impactful for emerging / frontier markets. Take mobile payments as an example. Across Europe and the US, there has been slow adoption of mobile payment options. In developing countries, such as Kenya, this has been completely different. As a result of lacking the necessary infrastructure to support legacy payment and banking systems, new companies such as M-Pesa have created innovative new mobile payment platforms. M-Pesa now has a quarter of the Kenya’s economy flowing through their system.

Trust can also be major concern in any new technology adoption. The transparency of the online process and standard terms and conditions help alleviate that concern. Furthermore, customers are becoming increasingly comfortable with online marketplaces. They buy and sell on eBay, they freelance on oDesk, and they find love on eHarmony.

Taking the consulting culture online

Platforms for low skilled freelance jobs are thriving, as are platforms for software developers, designers, and data scientists.

A key point here is that software development and data science are highly skilled and require clear project deliverables. The existence and success of these platforms shows the demand for skilled freelancers and that results can be delivered.

Similarly, strategy consulting is highly skilled with clear project deliverables. Missing from existing platforms are an appreciation for what strategy consulting projects require, the highly skilled consultants capable of completing them, and an understanding of the rigorous expectations of top consultants. They do not understand, for instance, what pricing strategy, market analysis, or customer segmentation are, nor do they create a community that “gets” the consultants or companies. Our aim at Hillgate is to build a platform that encapsulates these qualities.

In summary, with the benefits that technology can bring to consulting and the increasing comfort customers have with doing business online, this is the perfect time for the next technology disruption.

[projecthillgate]

Why we founded Hillgate

This is a question that I get asked a lot, so I thought I’d share my answer with a larger audience. The answer is quite simple: to solve a problem I faced in my previous role. Prior to founding Hillgate I worked as a Director of Strategy and Market Development for EMEA at Capital IQ. We were a nascent business in the EMEA market, so much of my job focused on creating go-to-market strategies for new industries, functions, and geographies. In addition, we were tasked with creating thought leadership to increase our visibility in the region. This required a significant amount of market research and data analysis on both cyclical and ad-hoc bases.

  For a number of reasons, there was often a strain to our collective bandwidth or a request outside our spheres of knowledge. And while we did the best we could, I knew we could do better with targeted outside help. Sometimes it was someone who could help out with data analysis and creating presentations. Other times it was someone who had specific knowledge of a geography, industry, language, etc.

  I needed a smart, seasoned professional to whom I could easily farm-out a project or components of a workstream. However, I found the options lackluster. I couldn’t afford to bring in a brand-name consulting firm (nor were we important enough for them to “lend” a resource to us). Searching LinkedIn was laborious and virtually impossible to ensure quality. Working with HR/recruitment firms was hard because they didn’t “get” my need.

  Since I knew the skills I wanted, I preferred to retain control over the process. As a result, Hillgate was created as the online destination for company managers looking to source smart, strategic people quickly and transparently.

  Since our launch, we’ve seen a similar challenge among companies of all sizes. Large firms are looking for ways to decrease their expenditures without sacrificing quality. Medium-sized companies often lack consistent quality across their ranks and are looking for strategic minds to help (without breaking the bank). Fast-growing startups are tasked with growing into markets they don’t know at all or have time to get smart on. And this isn’t just within strategy departments or a few industries. It is in departments as diverse as business development, finance and corporate development, marketing and international markets.

  Need someone to help you understand your customer segments and create a more dynamic pricing strategy? Check. Looking for someone to support your due diligence for a month? Check. Wondering how you’re going to create go to market strategies for 3-4 geographies in the next two months? We’ve got you covered.

  We think such a dynamic, flexible model has major positive implications for managers and companies in much the same way that Amazon helped customers get the best price or airline deregulation democratized air travel. No longer will managers have to decide between bad choices or let tasks go un(der)-accomplished.