I'm interested in consulting, in so far as it can be a very powerful tool when used properly (it's not right for all occassions, and a lot of people are not right for consulting!). So I was pretty excited to be doing a subject at QUT this semester call Information Systems Consulting. The lecturer, Greg Timbrell, is definately one of my preferred lecturers as he seems to draw on his experience as a consultant, the different roles and skills required in consulting and keep it entertaining.

One of the other things which I appreciate about the subject is that it is actually one that you experience learning, rather than remembering. It's the same reason i enjoyed (and did fairly well at) Australian Business Week, and why I was looking forward to Shell Gourami. The culmination of the semester was a full day workshop last saturday. 1 client team, 5 consultant teams, and a Request for Proposal (RFP) for an email system migration. The cool thing was that jsut like in real life while the technical specs had to be there, the marketing, presentation, organisational fit/benefits etc were counted. So for a reletively technologically limited IT graduate, this was a subject where the link from IT to the real world could be demonstrated.

Fortuantely the marketing materials were all pretty much done when I developed the Sales Support Materials for AIESEC Australia last year (and then ripped off in a number of other countries... imitation is the highest form of flattery). Anyway, our group ended up with an average score of 95% which beat the rest of the teams in our group by 10%. Also good knowing many of the students int he subejct are postgrad!

So here's the An, Trent, Richard, Marty and the best consulting organisation in the world, Flash Consulting!

Labels: Brett Gibson, Consulting, QUT