STRATEGY

CONSULTANTS’ TOOLKIT
SELLING YOUR IDEAS WITH POWERFUL CHARTS
Introduction
• In order to communicate complex business ideas and
recommendations, a presentation needs to be clear, concise, and
easily understood
• Strategy consultants do that by telling a story, most commonly
through presentations
• These presentations are normally data-driven and chart-centric
• But making data easy to understand is HARD
• This presentation will highlight the charts and visuals that top
consulting firms and corporate strategists use to make their
strategic insights clear and understood

2
Dividing up the Market
80% of revenue comes from the 5 • Many business presentations start with a
largest verticals. review of the current “status quo”
Agriculture, Mining and Construction 1%
• So it is common to ask: How do I divide
$3,304M
the client’s market or how to I categorize
Healthcare 4%
Transporation 4% my client's revenues or costs?
Utilities 5% • A simple single 100% stacked bar is a
Services 7%
good way to categorize markets, revenues
Retail 9%
or costs.
Communications 9% • Make sure the categories are
“MECE”—Mutually Exclusive and
Manufacturing 19% Collectively Exhaustive.
• If there are more than 10 categories,
group some together or group the
Public Sector 20%
smaller ones in “Other.”
• In all slides with charts, include a tag
Financial Services 22% line to present the key message, like
the one to the left.
Revenue by Vertical

3
Drilling Down
• Once you have an overall sense of the market, you will often
want to ‘drill down’ into the details for a specific market,
competitor or expense category.
• Charts are easiest to understand when you have 5-7 categories.
• Drilling down allows you to explode a specific category one
more level.

4
 Drilling Down—
Exploding a Category
Revenue by Vertical
$3,304M $464M
100%
Other Verticals $464M

80 Services $248M Healthcare $116M

Retail $303M
Communications $292M
60
Manufacturing $617M Transporation $144M
40
Public Sector $651M

20 Utilities $167M
Financial Services $730M
0
Vertical Markets Other Verticals

If there are more than 10 categories that are important or there’s one key category that you
want to subdivide, use a second bar to ‘explode’ a category from the first bar. Use color to
further highlight a key category.
5
Drilling Down with Multiple Charts
FY 2012 National Expenditures FY 2012 Eastern Regional Expenditures
General liability
Allocated USSA expenses USAA Alpine and participant Other
staff and race accident insurance USSA-provided
support 264 premiums 354 services 148
Direct regional expenses 1,620

1,186

Coaches' Ski US Ski General

education Racing Team USSA
administration Magazine pipeline admin
1,186 126 77 dev. 136
915 costs 81
824

Regional staff Coaches education 42

602 481
operations
and
development
187
Other services 35

434 434
313 343
Payments to FIS
on behalf of regions 44
Western Rocky/Central Eastern Championships,
NDS, and race
supplies 126

Use multiple charts on one slide to divide a measure along a key dimension. In this case, we have expenses by region on the
left. The horizontal stacked bars on the right provide the detail for the measure. In this case, we have expenses broken out in
the largest region.
Source: http://media.ussa.org/Public/Communications/2013/McKinseyStudy.pdf
6
Adding More Measures
• So far, we’ve looked at one key measure along a single
dimension
• For example, revenue by vertical market or expenses by region.
• Add a second measure to examine both number of customers
and total customer revenue by region or vertical market
• Add a second dimension to examine revenue by region and
vertical market in the same chart.
• You can even add a third dimension to examine sales compared
to both price and performance.

7
Dividing the Market
With Two Measures
Estimated
Revenue
111,602 3,304 per Customer
100%
Other Verticals 10,231
Other Verticals 464 $45K

80 Services 23,655 Services 248 $10K

Retail 303 $28K
Retail 10,951 Communications 292 $10K
60
Manufacturing 617 $46K
Communications 27,893
40
Public Sector 651 $42K
Manufacturing 13,396
20
Public Sector 15,404
Financial Services 730 $72K
Financial Services 10,072
0
Number of Customers Total Revenue in $ Million

One measure is often not enough. You can use two bars for related measures. In
this example, the financial services vertical has high revenue relative to the number
of customers and the chart highlights a potentially profitable sector.
8
 Dividing the Market Along
Two Dimensions
Revenue by Region and Vertical

$1,031M $976M $820M $477M Total = 3,304

100%
Other 13% Other 12% Other 12%
Other 20%
Services 4%
Services 8%
80 Services 11% Retail 9%
Services 5%
Retail 9%
Retail 10% Retail 9% Communications
Communications 6% 13%
Communications 8% Communications 11%
60
Manufacturing 14%
Manufacturing 16%
Manufacturing 24%
40 Public Sector 23%
Public Sector 16%
Public Sector
Public Sector 17% 27%
20
Financial Services 27% Financial Services 28%
Financial Services 15% Financial
Services 13%
0
USA & Canada Europe Asia Pacific Rest of World

If you need to look at two dimensions in depth, the Marimekko chart allows you turn multiple
charts into a single graphic. Keep the number of categories for each dimension under 10 and
make sure they are MECE. Again, use color to highlight opportunities.
9
Adding a 3rd Dimension—Price, Performance and
Sales
MSRP

$30,000

Taurus
49,886
C-Max
25,000 23,040

Fusion Mustang
181,668 48,879

20,000

Focus
151,549
15,000
Fiesta
45,831 50,000
Units
Sold
10,000
100 150 200 250 300 350

Horsepower
Use a bubble chart to compare your products to each other or to competitor products with respect to price and a key
performance dimension. Price is on the Y axis. A key product characteristic (e.g., horsepower, size, efficiency) is on the X
axis. The bubble size captures sales in units or dollars. The chart can help identify opportunities for new products or pricing
changes.
10
Moving On To Trends
• We’ve looked at one dimension and multiple dimensions, but
our first few charts still only provided a snapshot of a single
point in time, which as noted is where you will often start your
story.
• However your story might next move on to illustrate trends
over time and this gets harder to illustrate in most chart types,
particularly when you have multiple dimensions.

11
 Tracking Trends Over Time
Revenue in $M Total Growth Year1-4 +0.36%
CAGR
Year1-4
$4,000M
Agriculture,Mining and
Agriculture,Mining and Construction $40M Agriculture,Mining and
Agriculture,Mining and
Construction $39M $3,468M Construction $37M
Construction $36M
$3,293M $3,305M -1.74%
Healthcare $120M
Transportation $3,230M
Healthcare $113M Healthcare $116M 0.88%
Transportation $154M Healthcare $113M
Transportation Transportation -0.46%
3,000 Utilities $173M
$146M
Utilities $163M $141M $144M
Utilities $167M 0.81%
Services $258M Utilities $162M
Services $243M Services $243M Services $248M 0.68%
Retail $321M
Retail $307M Retail $298M Retail $303M -0.44%
Communications
Communications Communications Communications
$304M 0.69%
2,000 $286M $286M $292M
Manufacturing
Manufacturing Manufacturing Manufacturing
$666M -0.90%
$634M $613M $617M

Public Sector $621M Public Sector $657M Public Sector $651M 1.59%
1,000 Public Sector $627M

Financial Services Financial Services Financial Services Financial Services

$775M -0.50%
$741M $711M $730M

0
Year1 Year2 Year3 Year4

One solution is the multiple stacked bar chart, which shows growth in each category. Note we
have also included a CAGR column to the right to show annual growth in each category plus
total growth in year 1 to 4 across the top.

12
 Showing Mix Change Over Time
% of Revenue from Each
Vertical Year1-4
Agriculture,Mining andConstruction 1.2% Agriculture,Mining andConstruction 1.1%
$3,293M $3,305M
100%
Healthcare 3.4% Healthcare 3.5%
Transportation 4.4% Transportation 4.4%
Utilities 4.9% Utilities 5.1%
Services 7.4% Services 7.5%
80
Retail 9.3% Retail 9.2%

Communications 8.7% Communications 8.8%

60

Manufacturing 19.3% Manufacturing 18.7%

40

Public Sector 18.9% Public Sector 19.7%

20

Financial Services 22.5% Financial Services 22.1%

0
Year1 Year4

The 100% stacked bar we used before for two related measures, can also be used as
it is shown above to show product or revenue mix changes over time. The
comparison lines highlight individual changes. Include start and end year or all years
in the chart. Use highlight colors to focus on large percentage gains or losses.
13
And Projections?
• Projections are a variation of trends.
• However, it can be useful to use slightly different charts to keep
your presentation livelier and hence more compelling.

14
 Projected Growth Versus
Market Size
Projected Growth Rate Year1-4

3.0%

2.5%
2.3%

2.0

1.5%

Average Growth 1.3%

1.1%
1.0
0.8%

0.5%
0.4%

0.0
Financial Services Communications Other Public Sector Retail Manufacturing
Services

Market Size $120M $40M $90M $160M $140M $70M $200M

Like the Marimekko, the Bar-Mekko shows two dimensions, for example market growth and market
size. The bar widths are proportional to the value in the data row.
15
 Estimate the Impact of
Proposed Changes
Projected Profit

$370M
$8M $363M
360
$14M

350

$15M $341M
340

330
$12M

320
$314M

310

300
Year1 Profit Projected Financial Year2 Profit Projected Manufacuring Year3 Profit
Growth Services Growth Campaign
Campaign

Or you can show the impact of proposed changes in a Cascade chart. Start with current state,
add a bar for each change and use multiple total bars to show changes over multiple years.
16
And “Non-Numeric” Data?
• Some data you will want to use to communicate your story may
not lend itself to being expressed in numbers as easily.
• But with some creativity, data can often be re-imagined as a
chart that is far clearer than mere numbers.

17
Displaying Customer Feedback
Q: What is your overall satisfaction with the company?
(1-10; 10 = very satisfied) Commentary

Average: 8.4

“If I don't see a lot of returns here in purchasing, if there are no

headaches, and if teachers keep going back to the supplier, it's a
10 as far as I'm concerned.”

“I give them a 10 because we have an excellent contact, Shirley.

She is there anytime we need something. She helps us stay in our
price range and accomplish what we set out to do. You don't get
that kind of service anymore. It makes people want to go back and
spend more money. She makes us feel like we're #1.”

“They have excellent customer service. When we were just starting

up, they helped us select equipment, cleared up some delivery
issues, and even came over and helped us open boxes. That was
invaluable to us.”

“Well, they are definitely cheaper than other suppliers, but that's
both in price and product quality. It doesn't do us any good to have
to return half of what we purchased.”

0 2 4 6 8 10

Overall Customer Satisfaction

For example, use a ½ page horizontal stacked bar to show customer feedback. You can show the
distribution of answers for a specific question or the answers on several questions and then use the right
half of the slide to display key quotes.
18
Summarizing Findings in a Table
Figure
Skiing Swimming Gymnastics Cycling Fencing
Skating
21 of 120 31 of 102
US Medals (18%) (30%)
6 of 42 (14%) 2 of 12 (17%) 4 of 55 (7%) 1 of 30 (3%)

Multi-sport

Club sport

NCAA sport

$30M
Total $24M $18M $13M $12M
Revenue, $M $5M

353K
Membership, 173K
125K 71K
‘000s 40K 20K

Revenue per $604

member, $pp $144 $163 $262
$85 $76

Tables are great for comparing business units along a set of dimensions. Use check boxes or Harvey Balls
(stoplights) to show whether the dimension (e.g., NCAA sport) applies to the business (e.g., skiing). Add simple
bar charts to mix qualitative and quantitative data in the same table.
Source: http://media.ussa.org/Public/Communications/2013/McKinseyStudy.pdf
19
Plan Your Engagement
With a Gantt Chart
Month1 Month2 Month3 Month4
Task
W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11W12 W13W14W15 W16

Design
• Meet with users
• Write document
Build
• Code
• Integrate
QA
• Internal Test
• User Test
Reviews

Use a simple one slide Gantt chart to communicate your project plan to your clients. Multiple level tasks allow
you to show project details. Add milestones for key meetings or review points.
20
More Presentation Examples

• Bain & Company

• M&A Report 2020
• Global Diamond Industry Report 2017
• Achieving Operational Excellence at University of California Berkeley
• Boston Consulting Group
• Luxury Global Consumer Insights
• Economic Impact of the Media Industry in New York City
• Corporate Ventures in Sweden
• McKinsey & Company
• The Future of Healthcare
• US Postal Service Future Business Model
• Electricity Efficiency in the UK
21
Get Mekko Graphics
• Mekko Graphics is available as an annual
subscription and you can try the software FREE for
30 days.
– It is the perfect opportunity to try before you buy
– You can license for a single person or your entire
organization
– Download your free trial

22