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My 3 Favourite Things About the CDC Programme

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Saatchi stable. School of Rem Koolhaas. House of Chanel. Capgemini CDC.

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OK, budding consultants in the Consultant Development Community may not be critically acclaimed artists but being creative is a huge part our working life.

Coming from a background in advertising I was prepared to keep my creative juices in their box when I joined. However as the weeks flew by it was increasingly obvious that creativity is an important component of what we do and deliver.

One of our main aims is to work collaboratively with our clients so we must think carefully about how we make the most effective use of their time. Distilling large amounts of information into key messages and digestible diagrams, armed with brown paper, post-it notes, blu-tack and scissors, is an art in itself. These invite clients to fully interact and engage with the material resulting in co-created solutions to add value to their organisation.

Not only do we create tools like this but we also consider how to maximise the space we have by creating environments to obtain the best results from client time. Some sessions also begin with icebreakers which we can be creative with to encourage interaction and help attendees feel at ease.  

These skills are taught and tried at CSW (see Fran’s post) and can also be found in our internal work. Finally, it bubbles over into the CDC socials, for instance, I have to think of a secret santa present for my intake with a budget of £0. Ideas are most welcome!

Lysette is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini Consulting in September 2008.  She is currently working on a Marketing, Sales & Service Service project for a major Governmental department.

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Internal Work - Learning & Development

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An integral part of life within Capgemini's Consultant Development Community involves helping to run one of its nine internal streams.  The nine different streams are: Corporate Social Responsibility; Events; Rapid Action Stream; Business Stream; Recruitment; Learning & Development; Framework; Knowledge; and Internal Marketing.

For the past three months, I have been involved in organising activities for the Learning & Development Stream.  Over the course of the two year graduate programme, there are a wide variety of different formal and informal training/learning opportunities to benefit from; the Learning & Development Stream, is responsible for helping to organise many of these training opportunities, which include formal Academy sessions, computer-based training courses and, the area for which I am personally responsible, informal MySkills sessions.

MySkills are informal one hour sessions that are organised on a fortnightly basis in Capgemini's Wardour Street Office.  Example topics of MySkills sessions include storyboarding (a key consulting technique), Microsoft Excel and Customer Experience Transformation (a service offering provided by our Markets, Sales and Service capability unit).

Getting involved in stream work such as organising MySkills is a great way to develop your own skill set away from a client-facing environment, whilst also adding real value to the Consultant Development Community as a whole.  I am due to rotate onto the Recruitment Stream on 15th December, a very different, but once again rewarding stream to get involved in.  I will keep you updated...

Matthew is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini Consulting in September 2008.  He is currently working on a Strategy project for a major Government Department

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CSW – what’s it all about?

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When you first join the CDC, you will undergo three weeks of training; two weeks in Woking/London and a third week at Consulting Skills Workshop (CSW) in France. CSW gives you an invaluable insight into the Capgemini way of working and equips you with the key consulting skills you need for a client-facing role.

The timetable at CSW is pretty intensive (be prepared for 8am starts!) however, the skills you gain from the course will prove invaluable throughout your consulting career. Here, you will discover the magical world of Brown Papers, RACI Charts, Bi-directional Transformation maps and many other tools we use when working with clients.

CSW is not just about hard work – the week includes a range of team-building exercises and social events. As well as expanding your mind at CSW, also be prepared to expand your waistline – meals are a gastronomic extravaganza and the bar is a great place to let off some steam. For the fitness fanatics out there, Les Fontaines also plays host to a pool, gym and tennis courts.

Personally, one of the best parts of CSW (apart from the four course dinners!) was the chance to get to know colleagues from across Europe. Despite differing business styles and the occasional language barrier, I found there to be a genuine sense of team spirit and willingness to share knowledge and ideas.

CSW is compulsory for all those new to Capgemini Consulting, so if you are accepted onto the CDC, look forward to one of the most rewarding weeks of your life!

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How do we select the right candidates to join the CDC?

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I am a member of the Recruitment Stream within the CDC.  It concentrates on two areas: marketing the CDC scheme to potential candidates; and supporting the selection process to get the right candidates.

Within this stream, I assist in the latter and work to complete a number of deliverables, or agreed nuggets of work that need to be completed by a certain date.  One of the most interesting pieces of work I picked up was to create a case study for which candidates at our assessment centres needed to read and prepare in advance.  This would:

• allow candidates to demonstrate their skills
• score candidates’ competencies which are required for a consultant
• be applicable and relevant as any potential Capgemini project.

It is in challenging situations such as these that CDCers develop their skills in analysing, assessing and presenting information into credible and relevant work.  This work was fascinating to create, form and reform to be a working live assessment tool.

Stream work is internal work that sits along external client or project commitments and allows me to hone my consulting skills within Capgemini.  Working on internal pieces of work helps to develop confidence when working on future client sites.  It gives the opportunity for CDCers to work in other areas of the company which they have an interest in.

As the ‘milkround’ is in full swing, the recruitment stream has also been travelling the length and breadth of the country, showcasing Capgemini and the graduate programmes offered.  More to follow soon.

Justin has been in the CDC for 9 months, and works on a placement at the Acceleration Solutions Environment.

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Starting a New Project.......

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After four months on my previous project it was time to move on, and last Monday I found myself walking into a shiny office in central London. New role, new client, new location and that familiar sense of excitement and trepidation as you walk into an entirely alien working environment for the first time.

Starting a new project is always a challenge, as no matter how well you might have performed on your previous role, you have a whole new set of colleagues and client team members to prove yourself to. Initially this is to be done whilst also frantically trying to get to grips with the project and the environment. Access to the building? Sorted. New company email address? Up and running. Learning 101 new acronyms? Getting there. The ability to print? Check. The ability to actually find the printer you’ve been sending documents to? Sometimes easier said than done.

Aside from the formal aspects, you also have to begin to understand the nuances and quirks of the office, from the dress code and hot desk policy, to the un-written rules about whether you’re allowed to use the milk in the fridge and whether those biscuits really are for everybody. Being caught using the director’s carton of semi-skimmed is certainly one way of getting yourself known on your first day!

Granted, that the prospect of possibly having to start a new role in different companies on a semi regular basis might bring on palpitations in some people, but for me personally, the opportunity to keep challenging myself in different roles is one of the fundamental reasons why I chose a career in consulting. And the CDC with its emphasis on training and development and the desire for you to experience a broad range of projects means that you can find yourself moving onto a new role every 3-6 months. This means that unlike other graduate schemes you are not pigeon holed on arrival, as you are given the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ as you gain experience across a wide range of companies, organisations, sectors and roles. As well as allowing you to develop a comprehensive range of consulting skills, it also means that you are able to make a more informed choice when the time comes to decide which part of the business you want to specialise in. Reading about change management or IT implementation is one thing, but having real and tangible experiences of different types of projects will enable you to make more educated decisions, as you navigate your career down the path most suited to your needs.

So how is the new project going I hear you ask? Very well thank you very much. I’m working in a sector I’ve always wanted to work in, for a client who is really appreciative of the work we are doing and the value we adding. Yes, the learning curve at times has been steep, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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So you think you want to be a management consultant? Free advice – don’t miss it!

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In the current climate, where the threat of global meltdown looms large over our heads, choosing the right job in the right place is essential to ensure that you put yourself on the right footing to start your career.

But how do you choose this? There are so many different options available. Graduate Fairs at universities are a brilliant way to get a feel for what your potential employer might be like. This is also something I cannot recommend highly enough – you should always know what you are letting yourself in for and no two companies are the same.

Talking to people who are part of the graduate schemes you want to apply for will afford you honest opinion about all aspects of the work and give you a real insight into what the company is really like. A company may look incredible on paper but the reality is not at all what you expected.  You must manage your own expectations and find out as much as you can for yourself – this will also increase your chances of success by allowing you to choose the right place in the first instance.

I would urge all undergraduates to visit fairs that are attended by companies they have an interest in.  This is your free opportunity to understand more about the job and also to gain hints and tips on the interview process.

Check out the fairs that Capgemini will be at – it will be worth your while; you can meet people who are on the graduate scheme and the graduate recruitment manager, making connections with these people will be helpful to you and your being proactive will stand you in good stead if you decide to follow through with an application.  It is also an opportunity to understand the company’s stance ahead of the credit crunch that we sit on the cusp of – I don’t know about you but I would want to know that a company I am going to join is stable and prepared for the challenges ahead.

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The Pareto Principle and the CDC

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80/20, as Yaro Starak writes, is not a scary statistic but something that you should be employing in your daily life. It is also a very useful rule to use in the consulting world to help you become a savvy consultant.

So you’ve heard about how internal work provides an opportunity to try new things in an environment that lends itself to experimentation, but the relationship can be used both ways. This is where the 80/20 rule can come into play! Avoiding re-inventing the wheel is one of the most efficient ways to maximise your potential. You should always make sure you are spending as much time as possible on work that is interesting and new and not spending hours on writing out tables when you can use an existing one as a template!

Working in the ASE affords you access to so many techniques, ideas and ways of working that you very quickly find yourself using its ideologies in your everyday work, quite often without even realising you are doing it. With the rapid changes that happen you quickly learn to utilise existing materials to ensure you do not duplicate work. If you did in this environment you spend long hours trying to get everything done!

It is such a unique environment to work in – changing on a daily basis both mentally and physically – depending upon what events are happening. Responding to the changes can be disorientating at first – walking in to find all the walls have moved and your desk space is not where you left it – but liberating when you are used to it.

My point here is adaptability – you have to be ready to adapt to every situation and able to draw on your previous experience to make the most of it. The CDC community is brilliant at this. While we have great tools in place to allow us to store and share our knowledge the network of CDCers is a regular and effective first port of call when you are looking for a solution or advice about how to approach something that is new to you. When you start a new role and are asked questions that may seem daunting you can bet that someone else has also been in the same situation and will help you with what you are facing.

This definitely makes the CDC brighter altogether.

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You Can't Manage Time, It Just Is

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“You can't manage time, it just is. So "time management" is a mislabeled problem, which has little chance of being an effective approach. What you really manage is your activity during time, and defining outcomes and physical actions required is the core process required to manage what you do.” David Allen, Productivity Consultant and author of; “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity” and “Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life”

Following on from my last entry on the topic of time management I have reached a new level of curiosity in how to manage my time, though as David notes above, I am not actually managing my time but the activities I choose to complete in that time.

I have recently started a new role in the Accelerated Solutions Environment, or ASE for short. This is at the heart of Capgemini’s brand and truly embodies our strap line of ‘Together Free your Energies’. The ASE is about brining together the right people, at the right time, and in the right environment in order to help the client achieve their goal. This could be in the form of an issue they are having problems solving, future planning for their business or reducing the time a given process takes. An ASE can be used in many situations and no 2 ASE’s are ever the same.

Working as part of the ‘Krew’ (the K stands for ‘knowledge’) who support events held in this environment is varied, busy and very enjoyable. It also often involves working quite long hours either during events or in preparation for them, with little time to stop and chew the cud. This makes managing your time and commitments a step harder as being unavailable for a whole day has many implications when you need to attend calls for other areas you may be supporting.

To survive in this business you need to be on the ball to pre-empt these situations and ensure the right people know your constraints and also to be able to free up suitable time for the highest priority activities. This is not an easy task and it is not a skill you can learn overnight! It is an art form and the most important part of it is being able to effectively prioritise. Making sure you tackle the most important things in a day. One useful tool for doing this is MoSCoW, this is a prioritisation and planning tool, list your tasks into the following order: Must, Should, Could, Want, then execute in that order. This will help you to complete the most important actions you have to achieve in a day.

But becoming a master time lord is not easy and it can take work. I think it is always important to reach out to those around you who can advise you how best to use your time, but you cannot always expect to get it right – sometimes you may need to work a little longer or strike from your tasks something that is just not going to be achieved. Always be realistic and you will sleep better at night knowing that you did everything you needed to before the end of your working day.

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How to Market a New CDC Intake

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I have been in the CDC now for nearly 19 months. During this time I have rotated through various streams for internal work – Recruitment, Knowledge Management, Events – and I now find myself in new territory again with the Internal Marketing stream. One of the great things about the CDC is the variety – being able to rotate through the different streams of internal work allows you to develop many different skills, work with different stakeholders and get to know all of your peers. All of these points are central to the CDC and the way that it works.

Our management team often form the basis of the stakeholders we are working for and with and as such are able to vary their management styles to enable us to experience different responses we may encounter on client site. I cannot stress how important this experience is – to be prepared for all different client situations but to do so in an environment that allows you to truly explore what it is like, this is invaluable.
Internal Marketing has a particularly high contact with the stakeholders. This is especially important during the month prior to and also following a new CDC intake joining the company. We received 26 new CDCers on Monday 8 September and internal marketing plays a significant role in marketing these individuals to the rest of Capgemini. The objective of marketing them is three fold:

• Introduce
• Profile
• Resource

While the new intake goes through their paces on a two week induction course the IM stream introduces them to the company. We do this using pictures of them and sound bites about them, this is the first time their profiles are publicised and so it is essential we use the correct information because one aim is to attract project managers who will resource these individuals onto their projects. We use as many mediums as possible to gain exposure to the largest audience – not everyone responds to information in the same format!
This is the biggest challenge we face – how do you engage people in new and interesting ways every six months when there is a new intake of people? This September we have created photo cubes with pictures and information to encourage people to engage with the information in a very different way to the traditional electronic slide pack. These cubes work alongside electronic initiatives, such as presentations, and paper initiatives, such as posters, but they allow a level of personal involvement that is not possible with an email or a poster. The cubes are intimate and innovative in an industrial form, thus embodying Capgemini’s thought leadership on i3 transformation (you can read about this on the website).

The beauty of the CDC is the number of ideas – weird, whacky and wonderful – that can be found in this dynamic group of people. Ideas that can be tailored to their audience for maximum impact, campaigns that will be remembered and new CDCers who will be greeted by their new colleagues who already feel like they already know them.

But what will the IM stream create in March 2009 for the next intake? Watch this space.

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