Navigating 2024: Two Years of Reflection back in America as a Consultant

I was at this vegan café a few hours outside of Tokyo last week – there was that yoga studio smell, tonics filled with turmeric cocktails and signups for post-ski onsen sessions. The past 6 months have been a particularly busy period for work travel and growth and this was one of the first moments I was able to completely unplug and process. As I reach my two year mark back in the States, I wanted to reflect on a few ideas looking back as I think ahead in 2024.

My career trajectory, though far from linear, has led me to a comfortable vantage point in my early thirties. It's about leveraging my perspective and toolkit in novel ways. This goes beyond merely 'seeing the bigger picture' or understanding business cycles; it involves self-awareness of my own abilities, coupled with a renewed sense of curiosity that I had lost for a period. I want to unpack four broad thoughts from these two years.

1.????? Connecting the Bigger Picture

At this stage, I’ve worn a few different hats. Speaking first to my role as an equity investor, without realizing it at the time, I was analyzing strategy – a traditional SWAT or competitor matrix as much of my work was fundamental research. In my second hedge fund role, I dabbled on the private side – having late-stage startups pitch me their funding rounds, path to IPO, GTM strategy etc.

As much as I loved watching the market move and run discounted cash flow models, I was eager to ‘see how things worked’. While I was traveling all around Asia at the time, it was observational and, on the ground, – less board rooms and white boards. I saw the final product executed in most instances.

I’ll go do an MBA and land a Consulting job, check. When I got here, I just remember feeling refreshed with my work – the first time in awhile. I was tasked with solving problems and identifying solutions – which contrasted greatly from an evaluative role as an investor. Yes, the powerpoint deck edits got annoying and the corporate jargon deserves several eyerolls, but I felt this immense sense that I was learning, quickly.

I thought back to every product launch or acquisition I priced into a business model and understood the sheer volume of work, time and dedication it took to define and execute on the strategy. It all made a lot more sense.

2.????? The Consulting Toolkit

The second point touches on this aha moment of where things fit together. Professionally, I’ve always considered myself relatively organized. Yet, Consulting has brought that to a new level. I’ve advised on high level hypotheses to develop further into business initiatives and I’ve worked at the most micro levels, from PMO to tactical responses to running a pilot or developing a completely new technology process. This part has been incredibly rewarding and exactly what I was craving before leaving Singapore during my investment years.

It takes time to fully grasp why all of the structure is necessary. The organized folders, the governance structures, ‘aligning’ 15x a day. It all serves a purpose and has given me frameworks to lean on when a problem seems nebulous or opaque to an internal advocate.

3.????? AI, Healthcare, Capitalism: American Destiny Inequality

More than the philosophical meandering of my thoughts above, I’ve learned a few real things as well. Nearly all of my client work has focused on digital transformation in the consumer/retail space as an extension of my investment focus.

I’ve gained an appreciation for the American healthcare system and AI applications for the bulk of my work to date as an extension of these verticals.

Without diving into the specifics of these learnings, I wanted to tease out the broader, perhaps esoteric ideas I’ve been pondering for awhile.

Job loss through AI and restructuring

We call it ‘FTE Reduction’ or ‘Resource Consolidation’ to numb the idea that numbers in a spreadsheet are people’s lives – often those that make a fraction in compensation. When a Consultant comes in, there’s good reason for anxiety and apprehension. There’s a reason we try to dress to the client and keep the dialogue open when visiting employees.

I gave a talk a few months back on the merit of upskilling vs. headcount reduction (that’s another tactful synonym*). I’m not advocating an Andrew Yang universal income, nor implying the faux pax Hillary Clinton made when she suggested coal miners in West Virginia learn how to code.

Yet, I think about the application on AI in terms of job assistants and the reduction of manual work. The 20th century saw a shift from the Industrial Revolution to transform the U.S. economy into a service oriented nation. The late 20th century and early 21st century saw an offshoring of low-skilled service and manufacturing work to emerging markets. My belief is that the 21st century will usher in an age of connection despite the dissonance we claim with the digital divide. I say that in the sense that we focus on the important parts of work.

The utopian delusion will bring about a joy for work – doctors spending time to connect with patients rather than manual filling of documents. Yes, there will be uprisings that foment division and populist movements on the back of unemployment – and in times of a saturated economy, friction costs and a general lethargy from overqualified white-collar employees will be valid. I see a future where it doesn’t have to be this way.

National incentives in consumer health

Another idea I’ve been framing lately has been the socioeconomic divide in healthcare and nutrition. I often talk about this theme in my writing. I grew up outside of Appalachia in a rural community where Kraft Mac n’ Cheese and Marlboro Reds comprised the food pyramid for most. How do we incentivize people to passively concern themselves with their health? Isn’t that sentence a paradox in itself? Is it financial incentive, is it cheap Ozempic syringes?

I’ve had to think through ideas on payor contributions and ways to ensure patients receive and take their medication efficiently. What’s profitable and what creates lifelong customer value? The balance of an acutely capitalistic healthcare structure, bespoke to America, has fascinated me after years abroad. I didn’t even know what an HSA was until two years ago. It’s a personal obsession of mine – running distance races, frequenting fitness class and maintaining a strict vegan diet most of the time. I’ve had a history of cancer in my family and I see the insidious harm at both a micro and societal level.

On the nutrition side, do we lobby consumer companies? That was my mission as an investor in the activist moments. I recall arguing with C-Suite of a billion dollar fast food company on the merits of price to nutrition trade-off. People enjoy unhealthy food that tastes good in excess. What if we rethink the problem and slowly guide the market towards reduction of harm? Can we hack the medical piece of the equation with computational biology and precision medicine? Are doctors or patients putting in the work? I see a future where it’s both.

4.????? Managing and Selling

Lastly, I’ve become comfortable in my skin to take on the role of leading an engagement as a manager for a project. Pivoting from a position of influence to a client-oriented role was a big shift pre and post-MBA.

While I’ve managed people for many years, it took me some time to learn how to manage up, down, horizontally, etc. As an investor, you develop relationships to elicit information. I had heuristics to tease out information; avoiding yes or no questions to advance a conversation, starting a conversation off with personal reference points to make the other party at ease.?

Though I still do these things as a Consultant, information is usually much more forthcoming as a private transaction to solve an issue. The skill comes down to deciding what and how to organize that information, but also to drive and embed ideas – to assign work, to know when to back off and how granular to go with those reporting to me. At the end of the day, managing that relationship ensures everyone is on the same page. Forgive the business jargon, but that means we avoid the fire drills or asymmetry of information from how a project is perceived by senior management; both internally and with the client.

What I’ve enjoyed more in the past 6 months or so has actually been the business development piece – learning why and how to structure and sell work. What roles ensure success and how to bring all parties to the table around an idea. I was able to not only sell a strategy, but to see my ideas get executed at scale by senior management with a client. I knew how to assign the data analysis piece, where to push on bringing the right people into the conversation, and when to defer on something I didn’t know. How can we best leverage third party vendors and partners to move an idea forward? How can we organize roles and responsibilities through several organizations?

Oftentimes in advisory roles, a lot of the groundwork is demonstrating the value add. Afterall, this is a service job and you can stumble through a strategy. Yet, without the instructions, the board game becomes chaos. ?

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I’m looking forward to a fruitful year – one where I make conscious efforts to grow and to work towards my strengths and find ways around weaknesses. I’m looking to build, to learn, and to reignite the spark I had two years back. It’s an exciting time and I feel a sense of eagerness – to continue to learn about AI, healthcare, the consumer, and to develop my ability to lead and grow business.

Until the next update, best of luck to all in 2024 ?: )

Michael

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