Cracked It! How to solve big problems and sell solutions like top strategy consultants
- Downloads：8910
- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2021-08-30 09:52:31
- Update Date：2025-09-06
- Status：finish
- Author：Bernard Garrette
- ISBN：3319893742
- Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
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Summary
Solving complex problems and selling their solutions is critical for personal and organizational success。 For most of us， however， it doesn’t come naturally and we haven’t been taught how to do it well。 Research shows a host of pitfalls trips us up when we try: We’re quick to believe we understand a situation and jump to a flawed solution。 We seek to confirm our hypotheses and ignore conflicting evidence。 We view challenges incompletely through the frameworks we know instead of with a fresh pair of eyes。 And when we communicate our recommendations， we forget our reasoning isn’t obvious to our audience。
How can we do it better？
In Cracked It！， seasoned strategy professors and consultants Bernard Garrette， Corey Phelps and Olivier Sibony present a rigorous and practical four-step approach to overcome these pitfalls。 Building on tried-and-tested （but rarely revealed） methods of top strategy consultants， research in cognitive psychology， and the latest advances in design thinking， they provide a step-by-step process and toolkit that will help readers tackle any challenging business problem。 Using compelling stories and detailed case examples， the authors guide readers through each step in the process: from how to state， structure and then solve problems to how to sell the solutions。
Written in an engaging style by a trio of experts with decades of experience researching， teaching and consulting on complex business problems， this book will be an indispensable manual for anyone interested in creating value by helping their organizations crack the problems that matter most。
How can we do it better？
In Cracked It！， seasoned strategy professors and consultants Bernard Garrette， Corey Phelps and Olivier Sibony present a rigorous and practical four-step approach to overcome these pitfalls。 Building on tried-and-tested （but rarely revealed） methods of top strategy consultants， research in cognitive psychology， and the latest advances in design thinking， they provide a step-by-step process and toolkit that will help readers tackle any challenging business problem。 Using compelling stories and detailed case examples， the authors guide readers through each step in the process: from how to state， structure and then solve problems to how to sell the solutions。
Written in an engaging style by a trio of experts with decades of experience researching， teaching and consulting on complex business problems， this book will be an indispensable manual for anyone interested in creating value by helping their organizations crack the problems that matter most。
Reviews
Sulaiman Alrumaykhani
，
كتاب رائع لمهارة ضروريةمن أفضل ما احتوى عليه الكتاب هو خريطة 4S والتي تعتمد عليها مهارة حل المشكلات حسب المؤلفين。 حيث أنها تشرح مراحل مرور حل المشكلة من مرحلة تحديد المشكلة إلى مرحلة عرض الحلول لمتخذ القرار。 وتحديد أي مسار مناسب لنوع المشكلة。 أعتقد أني سأحتاج للعودة للكتاب أكثر من مرة حتى أتقن هذه المهارة الضرورية。
Christian Sala
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This is a must read for anyone working in a corporate environment。 If I were the CEO of any public company I would gift the book to all my employee together with slide writing and excel courses。 I am always confused on how much training money is spent on “leadership” topics and very little money spent on training what everyone in an organization is doing the whole day: solve problems， analyze data， communicate。 More suited to consultants and corporate employee。 A bit too theoretical for entrepre This is a must read for anyone working in a corporate environment。 If I were the CEO of any public company I would gift the book to all my employee together with slide writing and excel courses。 I am always confused on how much training money is spent on “leadership” topics and very little money spent on training what everyone in an organization is doing the whole day: solve problems， analyze data， communicate。 More suited to consultants and corporate employee。 A bit too theoretical for entrepreneurs and “doers”。 。。。more
Jesse-Joe Stillit
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A good book about consulting that isn't too theoretical and has lots of real-world examples A good book about consulting that isn't too theoretical and has lots of real-world examples 。。。more
James Bond
，
As the book's title goes， after reading this， you should be able to fix up problems as top consultants do。 The "simple" way to get there is to utilize their 4S method - State， Structure， Solve and Sell - which of course is far more complicated and thereby covering a guide of almost 300 pages。So can i solve problems and sell them now as slick consultants？Not really， as the book says， it takes a lot of practice to get there （and prob。 a few re-reads） - "sing TOSCA from the roofs" till you get it t As the book's title goes， after reading this， you should be able to fix up problems as top consultants do。 The "simple" way to get there is to utilize their 4S method - State， Structure， Solve and Sell - which of course is far more complicated and thereby covering a guide of almost 300 pages。So can i solve problems and sell them now as slick consultants？Not really， as the book says， it takes a lot of practice to get there （and prob。 a few re-reads） - "sing TOSCA from the roofs" till you get it they say。 But the book taught me some valuable lessons， especially in stating and structuring the problem。 Considering MECE/ pyramid principle。 Considering if there are industry frameworks， vs。 functional or just good old logics will structure it well。 The last part on 'sell' is also good， though I rather recommend picking up Davina Stanley's book on "so what strategy" to just focus on that。 I did like the emphasis on whether powerpoints are needed at all， or an Amazon style of memos is better （this is a super great approach btw。 which I quickly adopted）More good quotes incl。 Einstein: "If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions。”Which leads me into some less great parts of it。 The book emphasizes far more on stating/structuring than solving （less than 10% of the book is on the latter）。 The 8 degree of analysis for problem solving seems very rushed through in few pages， and never referred to again。The ethos is more per Einstein quote above， where planning the work & solving the problem goes beyond the book。 Then why not rename it to "How to state and structure the problem in a consultancy style"？ Almost 20% of the book is about design thinking path， which for me was easily skipped （observe customer to find creative solutions that works）。 Finally， i even think the TOSCA approach as recommended to state the problem is too complex - it makes such a long and unappetizing problem statement （especially to be tested with hypothesis and issue trees） - that the authors don't really use them fully in their subsequent examples？ To summarize， what I will takeaway from this is the good overall consideration that problem statement and structuring are key parts in solving problems， with some neat methods to consider for it。 This might not be a surprise， but i didn't know the issue was that bad， so its great this is a major emphasis。 Finally the last part on 'selling' is also good。 But otherwise， I wasn't too happy about a few chapters that I didn't feel valuable， and the fact that I don't think the premise of the book holds for me。 。。。more
Shuan
，
Very solid book on problem solving。 A very good book on problem solving。 The authors presented a structured framework for defining a problem， analyzing a problem， and ideating a solution。 They also shared tips on presenting the solution to stakeholders。 I find this book extremely useful。 It is written in a slightly textbook like manner， which makes me feel a little dry at times。 Nevertheless， highly recommended read。 I wish I read this earlier！
Hannamari
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A really good， well-structured guide into some of the basic tools and practices taught to new management consultants in intro courses， namely:- defining the problem to be solved- three modes of problem solving: hypothesis-driven， issue（-tree）-driven and design thinking- navigating between the three modes- presenting findings （a。k。a。 how to build slides）I do believe this is a great intro to new problem-solvers and also has some interesting ideas and details for seasoned ones。 The strength of the A really good， well-structured guide into some of the basic tools and practices taught to new management consultants in intro courses， namely:- defining the problem to be solved- three modes of problem solving: hypothesis-driven， issue（-tree）-driven and design thinking- navigating between the three modes- presenting findings （a。k。a。 how to build slides）I do believe this is a great intro to new problem-solvers and also has some interesting ideas and details for seasoned ones。 The strength of the book lies in the traditional management consulting domain （e。g。 hypotheses， issue trees， building slideware）， but it also contained a surprisingly good intro to basic design thinking methods。 。。。more
Sahil
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Really well written。 Super interesting cases with great insights。 Highly recommended for people who wish to improve their consulting and problem solving skills。
Maximiliano Calderon
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Beautiful book in this topic。 The mix of authors between academics and actual consultants paid off， bringing to life a balanced book including a practical and theoretical approach。 It is fairly comprehensive in how it covers the different topics and I really loved the fact they introduced design thinking as an alternate method to the more dry consulting method。 The one-page chapter summaries are also great。 Reading this book is definitely a no-regrets。
Mohammad
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A must read for all aspiring and established managers and consultants。
د。أمجد الجنباز
，
الكتاب الأروع والأهم على الإطلاق في طريقة حل المشكلات。 كنت أبحث عن هكذا كتاب لأكثر من ٥ سنوات، وكثفت بحثي عن كتاب مشابه في آخر سنة، ثم وجدته صدفة قرأته مرة، وسأعيده عدة مرات أخرى。 وسأعود له كل مدة。 وسأنصح به أي شخص يعتمد عمله على حل المشكلات。
Suhrob
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Pretty good， pragmatic overview of basic McKinsey methodology。Nothing terribly knew （though I did not know that they started to peddle Design Thinking too。。。 people like it so let's give it to them）。But well organized， to the point and pragmatic！ Pretty good， pragmatic overview of basic McKinsey methodology。Nothing terribly knew （though I did not know that they started to peddle Design Thinking too。。。 people like it so let's give it to them）。But well organized， to the point and pragmatic！ 。。。more
Biminator
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Essential business problem solving book
Lucas Coelho
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This book feels like peaking behind the curtain in a feel processes， good flow of how information and methods are presented。 I just felt design needed a bit more exploration there， being a designer myself， but I understand it’s not the focus here。 Will work perfectly as a manual。
Marks54
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This is an ambitious textbook effort to train students to be problem solvers in the style of the big consulting firms。 The authors are an interesting mix that do not seem tied into the typical paths for the business trade books。 It is a good effort on a first read and might actually be useful， although that will take some time to see。Many of these efforts move quickly into the content of some line of research and practice or another - mergers and acquisitions， specific industries， high tech， new This is an ambitious textbook effort to train students to be problem solvers in the style of the big consulting firms。 The authors are an interesting mix that do not seem tied into the typical paths for the business trade books。 It is a good effort on a first read and might actually be useful， although that will take some time to see。Many of these efforts move quickly into the content of some line of research and practice or another - mergers and acquisitions， specific industries， high tech， new ventures。 When that happens it becomes hard to focus on what a particular consultant needs to do in a situation to make an impact and matters get lost in the details of the subject。 The key is often how the analyst/consultant links to the problem to have some effect。 It is hard to do well and easy to run afoul of the stereotypes。 Watch the movie Toni Erdmann for a hilarious take on the business。The authors do a nice job of outlining a reasonable process， explaining it， and working through the details in a variety of situations。 It rings true， or at least plausible。 The writing style of good and the references and support material seems OK， although I need to field test it more。It is much better than most business trades。 。。。more
Denis Romanovsky
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Not perfect， but greatThough this book is not perfect， but it does deliver on complex problem solving。 It provides a clear framework， structure and reasoning。 Easy to understand case studies and real life examples。 Very good diagrams indeed！ Highly recommended to those who wants to consult， or just practice problem solving everyday in their life。
Asma Saleh
，