CDC Blog : Business

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Privacy: The right to be left alone?

Posted At : June 14, 2010 7:37 PM | Posted By : Tim Antos

This blog was written by Robert Ord. Robert is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini in March 2010.

Security, safety and privacy. All words we have come to know and love in our day-to-day lives. You may be picturing long queues at airport scanners or having to remember the multiple passwords you have for internet sites. You may even be thinking of your personal technique for covering your pin entry at the kiosk. Whatever security, safety and privacy mean to you, have you ever given a thought to where your data ends up or who has access to it?

Working in a Capgemini community dealing with Border Management, it is words like these that we are talking about. Having the right information at the right time is critical to maintaining the safety of the population. Border agencies need to know who is arriving and where they are going. They need to know what your interests are to determine if you are a threat to the public. These decisions are based on information generated by you; biometrics, profile, activities and friends to name a few. Given the choice, how far would you allow this information to be shared freely?

The news would tell us that we care about privacy. Facebook recently had to change their whole privacy system to answer demands of the public. The colossal data store in Facebook’s (and others) possession is very commercially valuable. I have to ask myself how much trust I place in organisations like this to guard my data as I overtly guard my pin number. Will they mind if they accidentally let slip who my friends are or my mobile number? Well I would. That is part of my identity, the fundamental backdrop of safety, security and privacy. Our identities in the wrong hands can be a frightening and dangerous force.

It is a similar story for virtually all project teams in the professional services world. We handle sensitive data as a matter of routine and we have an obligation to protect this data. A current topical example is the age of The Cloud and the impact it is having on safety, security and privacy. Applications over the internet open new concerns of how to keep data private and secure. Public/private partnerships have the luxury to discuss privacy and designing a suitable framework. Consultants are called upon to assist with these difficult choices, but even making the decision on who should be invited to such a discussion is difficult to consider; open data sources contain millions of records.

I was very privileged to hear a world expert on this subject during a panel discussion at the recent World Congress of IT 2010. A point he made was to define the Latin routes of privacy: denied something. This could be a key in future personal data protection. I do not always have the option of open discussion in items of social importance, but where I do, I have the option to not give my data in the first place and for my data to be left alone. However, we must all take heed a popular quote, “if you try and protect 100% of everything, you end up protecting nothing”.

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“So what do Management Consultants do exactly?”

Posted At : May 24, 2010 2:03 PM | Posted By : Tim Antos

The blog below was written by Laura Duggen. Laura is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini in March 2010

This is the question that I am almost invariably asked when talking about my job – generally it immediately follows the “So, what do you do?” question. Everyone you speak to knows that management consultants exist but have no real idea why they exist or what use they are, and whilst we are not quite regarded with the same level of suspicion as bankers, nonetheless there are likely to be a few “give them your watch and they’ll tell you the time” type jokes and general mockery. Trying to explain or answer the question is normally ill-advised. In true British fashion, whatever you say will provide further excuse for mocking from your friends. Which is all very well, but it did make me wonder– what is the ‘right’ answer to that question, and why is it that no one seems to know what we do?

I graduated in 2007, and spent some time working in a start up company before working for the water industry for a couple of years and making the decision to join Capgemini. I know why I wanted to be a management consultant; the variety of work and the intellectual challenge, and also why I wanted to join Capgemini specifically; the collaborative approach (a Capgemini term, which roughly translates as the idea of working ‘with’ as opposed to ‘at’ or ‘to’ our clients), and the feeling of cultural fit with the people I’d met. When I joined, I knew that I was going to do three weeks training but did I know precisely what I was going to be doing after that? Honestly, no. I didn’t know where I was going to be working (Scotland as it turned out) or who I would be reporting to, or what my day to day activities would be, but whilst some of my friends shuddered in horror at the very thought, for me it was part of the attraction. I haven’t been a consultant for long, but I have quickly learnt that flexibility, enjoying change and being willing to adapt to whatever comes your way are essential qualities for this job, and ones that are shared by all Capgemini consultants I have met.

Since I’ve joined I’ve seen consultants work in project management, communications, stakeholder management, HR, training programmes, website migration and supply chain. I’ve known them working in sewage treatment works, on trading floors, in breweries and with factory production lines. This is naming only a fraction of the roles and environments that you might end up being involved with and the only thing I can say for certain is that you can expect the unexpected!

Hopefully you can start to see the conclusion that I came to. The reason that it’s difficult to answer the question ‘What exactly is it that management consultants do?’ is not because we do nothing, but because we do so many different things. What we do in essence, is provide the expertise, guidance and support that helps our clients address their challenges and deliver value. This is determined by the client, their culture, their organisational structure, their industry, their timescales, their budget and their challenge. It’s as simple, or as complicated, as that. So whilst I’m sure there are many wiser and more experienced people out there who would be able to say this much more eloquently, for now I’ve found my answer – ‘It depends.’

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The variety of opportunities makes consulting a great option for graduates

Posted At : March 5, 2010 5:17 PM | Posted By : David Kunzmann

The blog below was written by James Simpson. James is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini in March 2009.

The opportunity to work across multiple industries and gain experience of different services was one of the main reasons that attracted me to apply for a career as a Management Consultant. For anyone currently going through a similar application process, I can tell you that in my first year at Capgemini Consulting on the CDC programme my expectations have definitely been met in gaining this variety of opportunities.

Since joining, I have had experience of projects in Utilities, Retail, the Education and Health sectors. My assignments have varied from helping to implement operational improvement programmes, designing a new five year strategy for a UK wide health network and supporting the implementation of Government policy through to delivery. In addition, I spent four months on an internal role within the Capgemini Wardour Street offices supporting one of the key Capgemini Account teams supporting their future sales strategies and monthly forecasting budgeting processes.

There is no such thing as a “typical” assignment as a graduate at Capgemini Consulting, but any opportunity you are presented will give you the opportunity for continuous learning and development that will help serve as a fantastic basis for your future career. In my first year I feel I have learnt so much from the people I have worked with and the training I have received. I now also recognise how much more there is still to learn!

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A different way of working

Posted At : February 25, 2010 6:47 PM | Posted By : David Kunzmann

This blog was written by Laurie Edwards. Laurie is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini in September 2008.

The most refreshing thing about my current secondment to Capgemini’s Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE) is the break from traditional patterns of working. The ASE works differently. The thing that people tend to notice when they first walk into the ASE is the physical environment. Moveable walls, which can be written on, fill the space; music is playing; there are plants, books and toys dotted around. The environment, however, is just the face of the ASE. What is really exciting is the work that goes on here. Try asking a room of children how many of them consider themselves to be creative geniuses; then ask the same thing to a group of executives. The ASE principle is that everyone can unlock their creative genius, if only they are given the opportunity and the belief to do it.

Whilst creativity and fun are vital components of the ASE experience, the work that this enables is everything. Event days are long: usually at least eight hours, with minimal breaks, for the participants and much longer for the facilitation team. In a daylong event for fifty people, this translates to about 400 hours of focused work. The process, which underpins the design of each event, ensures that this work is directed most effectively towards the problem in hand.

The first thing I was taught when I joined the ASE team was a definition of facilitation. It is very simple. To facilitate (stemming from the Latin root-word facile) means to make easy. Everything in the ASE is designed to make it as easy as possible for the participants to do the work required to solve the problem in hand. This means that your work as a facilitator could involve clearing away dirty plates after lunch just as much as wrestling with complex design problems during a sponsor meeting. The two are equally important.

Having done a degree course (English and Theatre Studies) that was largely concerned with creativity, I was delighted to find that consulting can involve more than analysis alone. That is not to say the latter is not important. When combining analytic and intellectual rigour with creative insight and the power of group genius, the results can be truly amazing.

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Broad or narrow – follow your own path

Posted At : February 25, 2010 6:42 PM | Posted By : David Kunzmann

This Blog was written by Matthew Ford. Matthew joined Capgemini Consulting in September 2008.

Looking back to a little over two and a half years ago when I was in the final year of my degree, the task of finding the right graduate job seemed unbelievably daunting. With graduate brochures piled high and subscriptions to student forums aplenty, I started the unenviable task of blanket applications to tens of companies across numerous industries – a few investment banks here, a couple of accountancies there, and a selection of consultancies thrown in as well…why not! To be completely honest, at twenty-one years’ old, with a history degree to complete (not to mention a dissertation to write!), I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do as a career. Despite completing an internship in accountancy, I was yet to find my ‘dream job’ and was hoping something would jump out at me. Luckily it did…

In September 2007 I attended an assessment centre at Capgemini Consulting. The promise – “a challenging, varied, entrepreneurial graduate scheme with the opportunity to work across various areas of the business”; two and a half years on and one big decision later I can safely say that the reality is exactly that. My goal was to find a job that is exciting, stimulating, stretching and also fun. That one assessment day in September 2007 answered all such questions and confirmed to me exactly what career was right for me…Management Consulting at Capgemini. What was my main reasoning behind this? The variety…

As you can see on the website, the graduate scheme is a broad programme that enables new graduate joiners (called Associate Consultants) to work on projects and experience life across all areas of the business including Strategy and Transformation, Supply Chain, Marketing, Sales and Service, Finance and Employee Transformation, and Technology Transformation. In addition to this, these projects can span a variety of sectors such as Financial Services, Energy, Utilities and Chemicals, Consumer Products and Retail, and Government & Public Sector. For people like me who have little prior functional or sector experience, such variety is a great opportunity to find what excites you and where your skills lie. Having taken advantage of this variety and developed a range of skills, after fifteen months I realised that Strategy & Transformation is the area that I am suited to most and have since transitioned to that business unit.

There are other graduates, however, who have prior experience, a related degree or a passion for a particular business area; for these people there is a slightly different graduate track that can be followed. All new graduates join the graduate programme together, follow the same training curriculum and have the opportunity to work on the same wide variety of project. The only difference is that ‘content-focussed’ graduates are aligned more closely to a business area from an earlier stage. This does not restrict them from working across other areas of the business; it simply helps to develop a greater degree of specialism earlier on.

So how would I sum up the best thing about Capgemini Consulting’s graduate programme? As mentioned already…the variety. Broad or narrow, experienced or not, there are a wide range of opportunities available for people from all backgrounds at Capgemini Consulting. My only advice is to follow your own path and find out which one is best for you!

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“Don’t you just do IT consulting?”

Posted At : February 20, 2009 5:52 PM | Posted By : Matthew Ford

“One of the world’s largest information technology, management consulting, outsourcing and professional services companies”, claims Wikipedia.

“An implementation-focused management consulting and Information Technology services group”, states our own website.

In response to one of the questions I’m repeatedly asked – “Don’t you just do IT consulting?” – the answer is simply, well, no…

As mentioned in the previous blog, many of the projects undertaken by Capgemini do have an IT or technology focus. This could involve designing the process requirements for a new ERP system for instance or helping to manage a client’s transition to a new intranet system. However, having just recently completed my second project since joining in September 2008, I can safely say that at Capgemini Consulting, we work on a wide variety of different types of project, ranging from designing a new business strategy for a Government Department to implementing a large-scale transformation programme for a major utilities company.

Capgemini Consulting’s major service offering is end-to-end transformation consulting – from strategy to execution – which is extremely different from just IT consulting. The skills required to be a good consultant at Capgemini Consulting include strong analytical, interpretation, presentation and inter-personal skills, not, as some people believe, knowledge of IT systems or enterprise applications. My academic background, for instance is in History, not Computer Sciences.

So for all those people out there whose technology skills, like my own, don’t stretch much further than PowerPoint and Excel, Capgemini Consulting is an ideal place to start your management consulting career. If you want to work in a challenging, cutting edge (and also fun) environment, then a career in consulting at Capgemini could be just for you…

Matthew is an Associate Consultant who joined Capgemini Consulting in September 2008. He is currently working on an Analysis & Design project for a major transportation company.

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