Table of contents
1.1 What is "Tao"? What is a "device"?
1.3 The power of the 10-year plan
1.3.2 Advisory Income Statement
3.1.1 Knowledge structure of consultants
3.1.2 Knowledge Landscape of NetSuite
3.2.1 The knowledge ladder of consultants
3.2.2 The training process of consultants
Recently, we were invited to conduct a consultant training for young ERP implementation consultants who have been in the industry for less than 3 years. This training is an experience sharing of the masters, and the relevant content revolves around the cultivation, behavior and growth of consultants.
The following is the speech of the training for your reference, and the reading time is estimated to be 10 minutes.
Hello everyone, my name is Mao Yanzhe, and my English name is Rick. Today I will mainly talk about the topic of "advanced road of ERP consultants" for ERP consultants who have been in the industry for less than 3 years. We will talk about how to be a person and do things Of course, there will also be my personal experience and feelings along the way, so I welcome fellows or young consultants to communicate and discuss more, because I personally enjoy doing it very much. It's about the ERP consultant. In short, I hope that everyone can enjoy being an ERP consultant as much as possible. The job is such a job. When the job comes, how do we do it well.
1. Self-cultivation
1.1 What is "Tao"? What is a "device"?
In fact, my current views on consultants are more inclined to the traditional Chinese views: a consultant who does well must have a good foundation, and this good foundation refers to the Three Views. World outlook, outlook on life, and values, I think the three views are the foundation. If you have a good foundation, the top will not be too bad.
So my point of view is that if you want to be a good consultant, you have to start from the basics. The so-called "Tao" and "vessel" are Chinese things. "Tao" is the bottom, and it is invisible. The so-called "Tao above the metaphysics, and utensils under the metaphysics" means that "Tao" is something that you cannot see or touch, but it is a universal law. It can be understood here as "professionalism". view". And "tool" refers to a person's skills, that is, the skills of a consultant. It is something that you can see. It is something at the level of objects, including my current expression, my appearance, and other aspects. can see. Therefore, being a good consultant is based on what can be seen, but there must be things that he cannot see.
So what are invisible things? For example, have you thought about the meaning of your life? I have done research before, and I also asked the young consultants on the project this question-"The meaning of your life is what do you want to do? What is your goal since you were in college?" In fact, everyone rarely has the opportunity to think about this thing. Does life have meaning? I don't have an answer. Many people say that life is meaningless, and nihilism is a branch in the history of human thought. But you can also choose Nietzsche's superman thought, then what we call the meaning of life is to become a "superego", which is the meaning given to it by you, this is the most fundamental, so you have to find your own answer .
Let's talk about it further, how do you think about work? What is the meaning of work? I think I may have found the answer by now, and you can also think about the meaning of my work carefully. After you have this, you will think about how to define a good consultant? What is a good advisor? Then what do you want to do as a good consultant? If you go further up, there will be career growth planning. Probably when you graduated from university, someone will help you with professional psychological analysis, career planning, and such things, and finally the ability to consult.
Therefore, I think that although we are now training consultant skills and career growth planning, we actually have to answer a question, which is "what is a good consultant and how can I become a good consultant". We always want to have a good result when we do something. I think this is common sense. In the end, you will consider what the value of life is. We are looking for this value in our work. Because I am about to reach the age of knowing the destiny, I have answers to these questions. I hope that I can share some of the following content with you, whether it can inspire you a little bit, and you can find your answer in the future.
First of all, do you know the word "worker"? In fact, this word comes from the Japanese "sushi god" - Ono Jiro. He is a very good sushi maker in Japan. work. Although his shop is not very big, he enjoys making sushi very much. In fact, I am also a "professional", and my pursuit is that one thing, just like him, to do one thing professionally and exclusively. So I will focus on "staff" and talk about how I can enjoy being an ERP consultant. Among them, I will talk about flow, the progress of the ten-year plan, and the professional habits of consultants. And the career ladder, of course, basically everything in this area comes from my personal experience, it must not be completely right.
1.2 The matter of reading
My first question is a survey questionnaire. You can scan it and answer it. There are two questions in total, one is "how many books do you read in a year" and the other is "the name of the book you read recently ".
We can see the statistical charts, most of which are below 10 books, 20% are between 10-30 books, and only 1 place for 30-50 books. Do you know how many books the Jews read in a year on average? More than 50 books, so Bill Gates and the others will make a book list every year, because he is Jewish, and Jews pay attention to culture, and they are the most in this number. Then let's take a look at a book you have read recently, it will be very interesting, such as "Advanced Financial Management", "New Standard Japanese", "The Art of Communication", "Java from Entry to Mastery", "Things of the Ming Dynasty" " There are many such as "Speak Well", "Journey of the Soul", "Mencius", etc., which are in line with the norms of Chinese people. They are all very good. In fact, what I just talked about is the foundation. The things on the "Tao" are often a kind of nutrition in the various books you read, so we usually read a book on a project and ask the project team members to share it. They are all very good books in my opinion. For example, we have read "Trusted Consultant" and "McKinsey Method" on the project before, which are similar to books such as consulting and project management for foreigners. Every week when we do the project summary, there will also be a small unit dedicated to sharing the reading experience with you. I personally think this is very important, so I will share a book with you today, this book is called "Heart Flow".
Let me first give you a brief introduction to this book. Its author is from Hungary, Mihaly Csiksenmihalai. He has been teaching in the United States until his retirement. There are many branches of psychology, including positive psychology, and he is the originator of positive psychology. He mentioned a case of a very bad old factory on the rust belt of the United States, where all the people were decadent, but there was one person he was very happy with, the old gentleman, who was almost retired. He is different from others. He is familiar with every machine in the factory. He can talk to the machine. When others have any problems or the machine is broken, he can always find him. He can always solve it. Their family also lived in an ordinary house, but when he returned home and turned on the lights, their house was like a park, just like what we call a paradise. Because he made sprinklers on the big lawn at home and added lights, which is very dreamy. He was very curious, why did such a person appear? He must be happy, he must be happy. In the factory, he is very respected, and when he returns home, he is also very good. The neighbors think he is a magical figure. Of course, he also talked about this kind of character a lot. In fact, there is a respondent to this kind of character in China called "Paoding Jieniu". Every time Paoding kills a cow, he is also very happy. Mihari also learned from this story in China. Get inspired. So he wondered why some people are so happy when they work, and he is OK if you don't give him money.
Of course, I have met one person who is really OK without giving money. This is a real thing. I met an old gentleman before, he is the enlightener of China's ERP industry, Professor Zhou Yuqing, who used to teach information management at Tianjin University, they wrote a book called "ERP Principles and Application Tutorial". I ran into him during a meeting in Tianjin, and he said, "My addiction is that I am willing to give lectures, just about ERP, and it's okay if I don't give money." He just has this addiction, and he enjoys it very much. So if you think about these people, when they do these things, they actually reached a state called "flow state". The state of being unable to extricate oneself in the beautiful music, completely forgetting oneself.
This is a very interesting phenomenon, that is, even if you are doing a very ordinary job, you will forget yourself and concentrate on it. Why? He wrote this book, so if you have the opportunity, you can take this book and read it to broaden your knowledge.
1.3 The power of the 10-year plan
Ten-year plan, where did I get the word in the first place? That's right, Roland Berger had a general manager who studied in Germany. Before that, he was Guan Peisheng of Deutsche Bank, and later he joined a consulting company. He just said a word, he said that Germans have a deep-rooted idea: People pay too much attention to the importance of one-year plans, while ignoring the importance of ten-year plans. This is the strength of those invisible champion companies in Germany, that is, many generations are doing a very small thing, just making springs and screws, but their industry is so good. So China is now turning around to learn this thing, which is the "artisan spirit". It was a very big stimulus for me at the time. It happened when I was in Nanjing. I remember that in 2002 and 2003 I bought a CD on Zhujiang Road. It was his lecture, and then I came back to watch it. It had a very, very big impact on me.
This may be at our age, tell me that one thing is to make a ten-year plan, which works for me but is too far away for you, I just want to tell you that the ten-year plan is really effective. Because only after making a ten-year plan, you can see some sustained results. I'm a stupid person, so the things I admire are actually those very old-fashioned things, that is, hard-working and fighting, which are traditional Chinese things. The result is what I now enjoy doing and know a lot about because of the time. This is a real thing. I made my own ten-year plan in 2003. I said that I would become an ERP expert from 2003 to 2013; In one year, I will become a scholar; after two or three years, I will become a fermented scholar in the future. Because a scholar is a lifelong career. The difference between an expert and a scholar I mentioned in a previous blog. Experts transfer knowledge and do not involve value-added or value-added. Learned functions are handed over to customers, while scholars can solve problems creatively. , this is the difference. Let it take its course, quantitative change leads to qualitative change, this is such a process, so I have been following this plan since then, and it is very effective.
I came into contact with ERP almost in 2002, and then started to set up this idea in 2003. I remember it very clearly. Until 2010, which is the seventh year of this ten-year plan, I knew that I was right ERP draws a circle, I can understand. It will take a lot of time, from 03 years to seven years later, so I think the ten-year plan sounds far away, so if you make this vow, how can you do it? There are the following points:
1.3.1 Three provinces a day
What is three provinces a day? The three provinces a day are not the three provinces a day of the ancients, but the three provinces a day are the three provinces a day in our family. I now have two children, a daughter who is 15 and a son who is 11, and I train the little ones a lot. What do I mean by three provinces a day? Before going to bed every night, ask yourself a few things: first, ask yourself, who did you help today? Second, what did you learn today? Third, what did you create today? His answer basically just stays at the first step and it's gone. He will say which child I helped open the door today, and this is the case every day. I will talk about the second thing later. What have you learned? Then he told me about it, and I said no problem and I will talk about the third one tomorrow. These three questions are from low to high, from easy to difficult. After I invented this, I only did it for two months, and I couldn’t do it anymore, that is, you have to write like a diary every day. It’s actually very difficult, but if you do this, in time, you can do Going down will definitely pay off, no doubt. So if you think it makes sense, you can give it a try and ask yourself. This is a daily accumulation, and every day you die, the merits are not worth donating.
1.3.2 Advisory Income Statement
The second point, and a term I coined, is called the Advisory P&L. You are a knowledge worker, the consultant is the knowledge worker, and the consulting firm is the knowledge institution. So what do you earn? We must figure this out. For example, I often find that I may not make any money for a day, but I receive a new project, which is not the industry I used to work in, so I am so happy, I think I made a lot of money today. Therefore, receiving a new project is earning money, and of course encountering difficulties is also earning money. Because I have basically been in NetSuite for so many years, I have touched it all over the place, and there are not many problems that can really stump me. So when I encountered this difficult problem today, I thought "Come on, I have swept my blind spot again", because I am in the period of checking for doubts and filling in omissions. But you are different, you are all in the "structural period" now, you are laying the foundation, you have a lot of vacant space, but I actually have very little vacant space. So when you encounter bad things, think about it, you are actually getting an opportunity, and it makes sense to encounter difficulties.
1.3.3 stage subject
When you ask questions every day and every item, you will do the project after you finish it. What are stage subjects? Each of our projects and consultants have their own projects to do, because the advantage of doing projects is that you can study a matter in stages, and study this matter very deeply. Then it can be used purely. We have done things related to Landed Cost, financial statements, and fair value before.
Therefore, these three points are my own things, and I can tell you that it is very useful from my own experience. It is very, very useful to do it every day, every project, and every stage. Only after this, through the accumulation of time, after ten years, we will really change a lot.
2. Behavior
Next, we will share some behaviors, that is, professional habits. These are some things that consultants usually do. Some of them may be overlooked by you, but there are indeed stories from customers, and we have also encountered them. point. Let me divide it into several parts. The first part is collaboration, which means doing things together; How to do it? What are the dos and don'ts of your Word document; the last one is time management.
2.1 Collaboration
The first desktop refers to your own Windows Desktop. You can think about it, when we were in a meeting, I found that many people would spread the entire desktop and put a lot of folders. Anyway, I am confused, and everyone is also confused, but he said that I am very efficient, isn't that right? For him personally, the efficiency is higher. But another problem is about collaboration. If you ask someone to find a file on his desktop, it is completely impossible. So why do the Japanese say 5S (referring to tidying up, rectifying, sweeping, cleanliness and literacy)? It has many deep reasons, one of which is collaboration. When someone went to his work station to find a drawing, if he didn't clearly mark which one was the architectural drawing and which one was the electrical drawing, how would others find it? This is actually the result of some rules, so everyone should remember that a really good consultant should be very clear about cleaning up the desktop.
The second thing is the file naming rules . Many new consultants don't know what the file naming rules are. When writing code, we know that there is a hump principle in Java Script when naming, that is, the first letter is small, the next letter is an uppercase letter, and a lowercase letter is added. This is a basic rule. In NetSuite, when we do naming, we use underscore first and then edit. This is a rule. Similarly, we also have rules when we make documents. I don’t know if you guys do this. Let me talk about the principle first. Anyway, we all have such a naming principle for my project, and I will directly tell customers our naming principle in the project charter. The first paragraph is the document. Name, which means what I am doing, and make it clear. For example, this is the XX project BRD document 1.0, which is the first paragraph; the second paragraph is the year, month, and day; the third paragraph is the abbreviation of the author's name, so it is Such a thing was formed. In this way, when I see the document, I know at a glance what the document is about. This is a very effective way of naming. If you don't follow this rule, you can try it according to this rule. I think it is still very effective.
For example, in a previous project, the name "PaaS Feedback 20170515 RM", RM is the abbreviation of Rick Mao, and I knew what it was used for when I saw this file. It is an analysis feedback. Because we have too many documents, we can effectively manage documents in this way, so as to prevent you from searching randomly, and saving time means reducing waste. Because I have another head that studies lean implementation, the biggest one in lean production is to reduce waste, that is, everything we do is to save trouble and improve efficiency.
The third is the organization of folders . The organization of folders is similar to the naming of documents. It is one of your folders. You have done so many projects. How is the content in your folders distributed? Is it classified according to the project phase, or according to what category? There is also an emphasis here, and my habit is that I will put the implementation process in a separate folder, and then mark it with 01 in order according to the stages of the implementation process.
The fourth is the document format . Here is a scenario, for example, a customer asks you to send him a BRD document, and then when you send this document, what format will you choose to send it to him, in Word format or in PDF format? Maybe many of us subconsciously choose PDF format to hand in homework. So what is my answer? Give both. what is the reason? Because the Word document is messy when it is opened with a mobile phone at some point, but the PDF is not messy. Because collaboration itself is empathy, you have to consider how he would do it under his circumstances. At this time, I will give him both. The purpose is to ensure that the PDF format is not messed up after the mobile phone is opened, and he can continue to edit the Word document later, and he can do the next thing first, so this is a detailed place, based on the consideration of collaboration.
The other one is a very basic thing, which is also covered in various psychology. What is your favorite word? is my own name. In some occasions, when we say a certain person's name, the other person will be very happy, because everyone likes to be noticed, and it is very important to remember other people's names . For example, I often train Vicky. She used to be a Chinese teacher. She usually has no problem remembering children’s names. So when we were working on a project, I joked about doing a test. After the meeting, you repeat everyone's name again next to each other, she can do it, and everyone is very happy when the customer nods. Remember, people love their own names best. He feels respected when you can call his name. In such an environment, when you want to do a project, he will help you. It is also a basic skill of being a human being, which is very simple. It is said that Premier Zhou Enlai is very good at this point, that is, everyone feels flattered to be remembered after seeing his name once, but this is a kind of professionalism, and the same is true for consultants. I believe you can do it too.
Always be 15 minutes early , I think this is the basic ethics.
Then, notice that there is one thing that many people fail to do. For example, when a new project is Kick Off, remember to send the "How to Use Remote Conference Software Instructions" before the meeting . In China, we use Tencent Meeting in most cases. Who do you think can’t use it? But there are warehouse managers for some projects who have never been used because they don't need them. So remember to send such a document before the first meeting, and don't think that others will already use it.
These are the points that involve small details in collaboration. It is very important to make others feel that doing things with you is smooth and that all aspects are considered. All these points have stories behind them, and they are all real things that I have experienced personally. I have tasted the sweetness or learned lessons from them, so I share them here with you.
2.2 Communication
Then, let's talk about communication. The order of communication , for example, if I need to make an appointment with someone, such as asking a financial manager or someone to go to a meeting, or ask a question, my order of communication is to send text messages first. If within a few minutes or a long time of the text message, I feel that he should reply but he doesn't reply, then I know there may be some reason for him. At this time, I may ignore it first, or I think that after a period of time, I will send another email; if it doesn't work in the end, I will call, this is my personal style. This is an order of communication.
The next point is quite interesting, it is about the use of WeChat emoticons . There was a young consultant in the project team before. In the project team, we like to see him send messages the most, because he sends cute gestures. After reading this kind of emoji, everyone feels very relaxed. Everyone feels very nervous when working on projects. Many projects are stuck on time and Deadline. There will be problems that need to be solved quickly, but his emoji will make us feel "Oh, life can actually be less stressful." . In fact, the underlying logic belongs to psychology, but some people in life are naturally applying it. Of course he is very cute, but I can't use it like this, it has something to do with my age, if I post this picture, it will make others feel out of place, but you can. So this is what I said, your communication skills in communication are that kind of energy, that kind of feeling. Basically I'm very old school, I'll just post the first few emojis like thumbs up and smiley faces. I can't learn this thing, but you can do it, you can try it, it is very effective. This is used to adjust the atmosphere. You will find that doing the project is actually very interesting. In fact, it is like playing a game. Everyone is happy to get things done.
The order of email recipients is an old-fashioned method, that is, when you encounter a financial manager, IT manager, financial director or someone with a job title in this email group, what do you do when you send an email? rank? The easiest way to do this is alphabetically. Because sometimes you can't rank the IT manager or the financial manager first, which is something that some people care about. So the easiest and most mature method for everyone is to write clearly in the project charter that emails are sent in alphabetical order. Although this is a small place, sometimes in the company, the reason why you can't handle the project may be because there is a problem between IT and finance. If you show your status, it will appear that you are close or distant. Very troublesome. There is a principle of consulting companies that "don't get involved in this kind of problem within the client company, otherwise you will die very seriously." Because you don't know the reason, he may not sign for you. Therefore, for this point that Chinese people are particularly concerned about, you need to pay attention to the order of emails.
In addition, there is a problem of the main send and the CC. Generally, in order to avoid putting several people on the main send, then you only put one in the main send, and the purpose of the copy is to indicate the person who knows the email. What.
2.3 Document Management
Next, I will talk about how to do PPT in the document. If you expand it, this is a special course, but here I will only talk about a few key points.
The first is the issue of font size . Our font size is strictly regulated. We use size 28, and the font size below 28 is below. Everyone thinks Oracle’s PPT is very beautiful, because it has been polished too much, and the font size and font have been required. It looks more formal and regular when it is opened by customers. . What's the problem if it's not the same? If the company has a new project manager, he doesn't know the specific standards, so he follows his previous set. If the customer sees that it is different, there will be problems. Therefore, basically our projects are all fixed templates.
The second point is to remember that PPT must have page numbers . What is the reason? The reason is that when you present a project phase report, there may be an audience who will want you to go back to the previous page or the previous page. If there is no page number, you will not know which page to choose. But if there are page numbers he can say "please go back to page 30", which is why there are page numbers.
Next is the principle of no more than 40 words that has been mentioned repeatedly . So you can see that my PPT basically abides by this principle. I will not have large paragraphs of text, unless it is said that I must have large paragraphs of text, which must be read carefully by everyone, so our PPT is basically a picture with multiple words. few.
The other is to use templates , and use the company's templates to specify everything.
Finally, the company’s customer logo . The customer’s logo is actually the same as what we just said about calling the other party’s name. If you add the customer’s logo to your PPT, it will make our customers feel respected.
When using Word, also remember that there are a few things to pay attention to.
The first is the automated directory , because the advantage of the automated directory is that there will be a directory tree on the left side of the document, which you can click.
The following document end mark is sometimes a mistake that everyone will make. Strictly speaking, when your document ends, there should be the following four words: "End of document", which means the end of the entire text. It is very interesting. , that is, we had a project before. After submitting the project plan, the IT manager of the other party said "Hey, you graduated from Jiaotong University" because he said that our documents are the same as the requirements of Jiaotong University. The whole style is more regular. There are all the first, last, and last things, which is an academic style.
There is another point that everyone must not know, that is, has your detailed information been changed after one of your Word documents was sent to the other party? Because our Word documents are left by our predecessors, we will use them directly as templates. But your template may have time and text for other items on it. Many people don't know this, but some people will notice it, so these are some very small skills. It is these small skills that can make a difference and make customers feel different.
2.4 Time Management
Let's talk about another question about the project log. Do you make a check list every day? It's what you do every day. If you do it all, this is a good behavior, it will bring you some unexpected results, this result is actually time value.
You can choose what I did on any day within 17 years, because I kept a diary for 7 years, and in a certain career, a master said that the benefits of keeping a diary will affect the things I do every day. very clear. In fact, every day seems unimportant, but if you look at it ten or fifteen years later, it will be very scary. This is a record of a very good career for us. So paper records and electronic records are both possible, so I think this is also a point in time management. For example, like Vicky and I, we have been using Huawei’s ink screen notebooks to record since last year. Basically, I will write down what I do every day and the results. It is the same as Excel records or handwriting. The truth, so this way is also part of time management. It just so happens that I can also show you how the master’s past time has passed. In the table, on June 14 and 13, 2008, I went to Chengdu for business training and then returned to Shanghai. This is the case. You don’t feel it when you memorize it bit by bit, but after you accumulate it over time, “Wow, I did so many things in the past”, it’s like looking at pictures of children when they were young.
3. Growing up
The following is about the three abilities. We are talking about the three abilities of consultants or professionals, and growth is also the process of ability cultivation. The first is the conceptual ability at the bottom, the professional ability at the top, and the communication ability at the end. Students who study management should know this. In fact, the work we do is also based on these three abilities. The shaping of these three abilities, some people's abilities are brought from the mother's womb, for example, his communication ability is innate. But some people are more introverted. Among the consultants, there are quite a few introverted consultants. So in fact, sometimes for consultants, this training will become very useful. This is not just your professional training, it will actually affect your life.
First explain the conceptual ability , which can actually be translated into strategic ability, that is, whether there is a direction and focus in doing things. I think this kind of ability is related to a person's talent. Some people may be a little bit to the right in the middle. He is born with a direction, while some people can't find the focus. But the acquisition of conceptual ability is actually related to time, so new consultants often do not focus on things, so they may be on the left and then gradually move to the right. Then what we call vocational training is actually to let you go from being unfocused to having direction, which requires training.
The second is professional ability . Professional ability means that blacksmiths know how to forge iron, doctors know how to open knives, and veteran farmers who grow vegetables know how to grow vegetables very well. This is what we call "what to do." , is professionalization and specialization. At the beginning, everyone was a novice, and then slowly and gradually walked to the survey site.
I think the top communication skills can be trained a little bit, but talent is very important. There are some people who are better off leaving me alone and not messing with me. And other people are naturally willing to get along with him. For example, according to the occupations in the company, accountants are in one position, while sales are in another position. This is their professional personality that determines their difference. We mainly talk about conceptual ability and professional ability, and communication ability needs training, so we won't say more.
3.1 Conceptual ability
First of all, let me talk about conceptual ability. Conceptual ability is the training of conceptual ability with direction and focus. In fact, I think it is time, which is the accumulation of knowledge and experience in the time dimension. Master, he knows what to do. And now as new consultants, what we want to do is how to accumulate quickly and more efficiently, so I call it "knowledge + experience".
3.1.1 Knowledge structure of consultants
So how should we construct our knowledge and experience? Knowledge is something in books, and experience is what you get out of practice. After these two things are combined, it becomes your knowledge structure. Let me show you the knowledge structure of a consultant. It is the structure standing in your own head. You are what you see, that's what it means.
This is a time slice, which is the knowledge structure of the manufacturing industry that a consultant built in his head in the sixth year.
In the first year, an entry-level new consultant was told by his master, "If you want to study manufacturing informatization, you need to start from several aspects. You need to start with what it can bring to the enterprise? Then its software What is the function of informatization? What is the theoretical basis of economics and management behind it? What are the common problems of informatization? What is industry research?" and so on. In fact, there will be some small theoretical branches under each point. For example, in terms of software functions, it is actually a daily module learning, moving forward one by one. In terms of management benefits, it may be some management articles you read; in terms of industry research, it may be that we contact a project and do a project research; other things are common problems, such as the two accounting issues in finance, value-added tax issues, etc. Then, in terms of management and economic theory, why informatization is needed, the inevitability of informatization and the role of informatization in enterprise development, determine what can be done by informatization and what can be done by management reform.
As time goes by, every year after that, some new theories will be added on the basis of the previous ones, so the new frontier of knowledge in his head is constantly expanding, such as adding some new ones to industry research. In terms of industry knowledge, advanced manufacturing, best practices, ROI input-output analysis, financial training, and corporate innovation are added to the manufacturing theory.
In the sixth year, what we call a "knowledge structure" is formed. In fact, this thing is simple and not simple, it is accumulation, each of its circles is actually the continuous accumulation of the articles you read every day, systematic project summaries, etc. After a few years, it will become large-scale. This is the friend of time, why do we say that we should be friends of time? That's why. After ten years, what kind of scale will you have in your head and what will your knowledge structure look like? These are such things. So, let me show you the NetSuite knowledge landscape.
3.1.2 Knowledge Landscape of NetSuite
This is a blog I posted two days ago, and it took me 8 years to form this thing. Because our company is going to do training programs, then I have to show the consultants what the final result in your head looks like. Therefore, I will display the content of NetSuite in a tree structure, which we call "NetSuite function tree", which has a total of 3 layers.
It may be in the project, because I count it as 8 years, and I can almost complete such content. Everyone may be new to it, and you may only be in a small piece. For example, let me give you an example. From the perspective of NetSuite's overall functions, we divide it into data analysis, CRM, financial management, HR, manufacturing, platform development, PSA project management, quality, sales, and SCM modules. Another example is finance, which we divide into basic finance, advanced billing, advanced finance, and advanced revenue management. In terms of basic finance, we can distinguish general ledger, accounts receivable and payable, write-offs, direct connection between American banks and enterprises, etc. You can go to the website to open it when you have time. What do I mean by showing you today? If you want to achieve the level of a full-featured consultant, it is actually a tree structure formed in your brain. Of course, every knowledge point is kung fu.
In fact, I started to contact NetSuite in 2015, so it has been basically 8 years now. Because I had no access to the bank-enterprise direct connection in the American project, then I had this opportunity to complete the knowledge coverage of this piece of content, so all the functional points formed a closed loop on this American project. If you are interested in this industry and enjoy this thing very much, it is actually time. There is an old consultant who has done this, so it goes without saying that you can’t do it, you can definitely do it.
The advantage of conceptual ability is that I know where there are pitfalls when working on projects, and I can avoid them if I know where there are pitfalls. If a new project manager comes in, although he has no problems with project management and control, but he is not familiar with the software itself, there may be problems. For example, in one of our previous projects, there was a small function called Grid Order. It seemed to meet the requirements, but the actual performance was not enough to support the real use of customers. Later, we felt that it was a pitfall, so we did not use the system directly. native functionality. At this time, it is necessary to use development as a substitute to bypass this pit, and then the project will not fail. And if you are not familiar with the product, and then do not know the possible risks of this function, then this project will be very difficult. Of course, this cannot be done in a hurry, it depends on time and experience. Therefore, it is very difficult to develop conceptual skills. It takes time, and you can really brew interesting flavors like eight-year-old or ten-year-old wine.
3.2 Professional ability
Professional skills are relatively easy to obtain, and this does not take so much time. Let me talk about my personal feelings first.
Because we just mentioned a framework as big as NetSuite, how to learn it? The first one is that when you get started, a master will give you an introductory training, and then there is a big framework to let you know how NetSuite works. This is very important. Build the scale first, and then go to the finer details, so as to avoid studying one module in detail as soon as it comes up.
Then there's the second point. Because NetSuite is a financial-based software, when you have been in contact with the system for three months or half a year, you actually have to give yourself a test. You run through its entire process, such as the Order to Cash process. Write down the general ledger impact generated in one step. Whether it is a consultant on the financial side or a consultant on the supply chain side, understanding this thing will benefit you a lot. Because you have grasped the core of NetSuite, you know its general ledger impact, and you know which things cannot be affected.
The other is to write down any difficulties encountered in the project, whether as a topic or as a small note. I now keep writing a blog every week. In fact, it will be very difficult when I first write twenty or thirty articles. I don’t know what I will write next week, and I can’t think of what to write. Later, I found a way, that is, as long as a client asks me a question or a young consultant asks me a question on a project, I will dig deeper into the topic and write it out. This is a method. When you encounter a problem, study it thoroughly, it is best to write an article, and the accumulation will be very powerful.
After one and a half to two years, you can systematically look at the complete system functions, because everyone has already done the scattered functions in the project. The missing-trapping tool is NetSuite's Consultant Certification Course. But it will take a while to read this thing completely. After reading it, you will find that there are many things that you didn't know before.
The knowledge sharing meeting is aimed at myself. We used to do a sharing meeting every month. The last mentioned blogging and reading blogs are also my personal work habits.
3.2.1 The knowledge ladder of consultants
I think the learning process of a mature consultant will undergo substantial changes in the future. I think three points will become very important for the training and growth of consultants.
The first point is the stage of cognition , let me explain it, because it is a bit theoretical. In fact, what we do is done in the process of practice. For example, many of our consultants will look at the software when there is no project in the company, but you may get bored after watching it for a week, and you will feel that it is meaningless. . Only when you are in the project, the customer challenges you, and the customer gives you a problem, you will quickly add the corresponding function. At this time, you will find that you grow very fast, and this is the reason. Because there are small steps and small steps, you only understand a small part at the beginning, and then gradually understand a large part. This is the stage of cognition.
Then this matter needs to be based on practice . As just mentioned, you will encounter difficulties and challenges in practice, and then supplement your knowledge. This is a cyclic process. This is the natural attribute of developing a consultant, he needs to learn in the process of practice.
And for you, the new change now is that there is AI . I tried AI things when the craze started a few months ago, because its advantage is that after you give it a big article, it can quickly summarize it for you, or if you don’t understand a word, It has an explanation right away. I used to use Baidu, but the information it gives is too complicated. After you use AI, the information it will give you will be very accurate. So I recently started to learn something called Apache camel in Java, because I am not familiar with programming and the Apache platform, but I tried it because I know that AI will definitely help me, The effect is very good. So from the perspective of the future, ordinary consultants will definitely be eliminated. Because after the people of Party A are blessed by AI, their knowledge level is no worse than that of ordinary consultants, which is a very big change. Because we are knowledge workers, and consulting companies are knowledge institutions, but AI has a strong ability to learn knowledge, and it will change careers, so the IT personnel who will become Party A will have a higher level than you. Therefore, the future model will form super consultants. Super consultants are qualified consultants who can solve many problems with the blessing of AI. This is a general direction, so your current direction must be super consultants. How super-consultants and AI are blessed, you can practice now, this thing is different every day, but the best way is to combine it with your work now. Through my experience, I have observed that it is very powerful. For example, when I asked it about a certain module of NetSuite, it was not very clear, but it will know when I ask it again in two days. Because everyone is asking and training it, everyone must pay attention to this very new thing. I can only say that I feel this very strongly, whether it is a threat or a help, you can feel it yourself.
So in the future, we need to recognize the stages of our cognition, and then find problems in practice, and use AI to help us form an update of the knowledge ladder.
3.2.2 The training process of consultants
From the perspective of the growth of consultants, if we want to grow, we must recognize the stages. This is what our company thinks the whole process should look like if we start training a consultant from scratch.
At the beginning, we can do some basic data preparation, configure roles, meeting minutes, and basic reports. Then you have to finish the Foundation course, as well as data migration, Saved Search, Reporting, centers and roles. With the growth ladder, he can specialize in a certain module in the second year and complete the user manual of the corresponding module, which can be written according to SuiteAnswer or by himself. At this time, he can focus on the entire core business and financial process, such as Order to The whole process of Cash, Vendor to Bill takes one and a half to two years. In the third year, you can do development and design documents, and it will also involve advanced functional modules, which are difficult modules in NetSuite, such as multi-company, revenue and production, as well as development design and project management. Basically, this is the path . In fact, there is nothing for everyone to surpass. According to this time, I think that in three years, consultants can become teachers. Basically, in three years, you can stand alone, so don’t rush.
Regarding the NetSuite Consultant Certification Course, it has also been revised recently. It was originally called LCS (Learning Cloud Service), and now it has been changed to MyLearn. There will be a variety of learning courses in it, and it has been divided into categories and done very well and well. Some courses were originally not in Chinese, and some Chinese courses were added later.
From the perspective of the entire course system, there are courses for functional consultants, such as the basic functions of modules, workflow, financial management, consultant certification, and development courses. You can systematically spend one or two months to study it within one and a half to two years, which will be very helpful.
postscript
Today, I shared the experience and feelings of an ERP master who has been in the industry for more than 20 years, and also talked about my personal thoughts and thoughts on the growth of young ERP consultants. If the working process of a consultant is to practice on things, then every day's work is also the learning and repeated sharpening of the three abilities. If you die every day, your merits will not be donated. This is to encourage you and me.
If you have any questions about NetSuite, welcome to talk. My email: [email protected]