[Applause]
good afternoon guys how you all doing
it’s not the biggest financial services
consultancy maybe the best but not the
biggest it is great to be here and it’s
actually true I didn’t actually plan a
specific speech today and look it’s me
it’s great hi
I didn’t plan anything specific today
because I think the whole topic of
creativity and elusiveness the best way
to kind of demonstrate or talk about is
to actually just come up and speak for
those of you don’t actually know me as a
comedian you should because I’m really
famous I have two videos on YouTube
one of them has 86 views and 93 dislikes
no but it’s a it’s always good fun I’m
gonna tell you guys about maybe a bit of
my comedy journey so I am a stand-up
comedian I’m not a guy that tells you no
jokes at a bar I travel and I literally
have that as a hat and a real job and
it’s amazing fun I started my stand-up
comedy journey about three years ago
actually I used to be management
consultant and I remember during my time
as a consultant I was working myself to
death and I got to the point where I had
a sabbatical I needed to take time off
work and then I had a seven month break
from work and in that time I was
thinking well what do I actually want to
do with my life you know what’s my
bucket list and I started to draw up a
whole bunch of stuff and on there was
stand-up comedy and I I guess I wanted
to do it because a lot of my friends and
if you actually have seen me perform a
lot of my comedy style is not about
telling punchlines and jokes
it really is talking about my life and
real experiences and that’s the coolest
thing with comedy you’re finding the
humor and things that you go through
every single day you know things that
are very personal to you so I did my
first open mic night about three years
ago and I’ll tell you why I’m not a shy
person at all but comedy was the first
time where I got super nervous I was
freaked out because I never being judged
before you know I used to be in a band
I used to sing I used to do a lot of
public speaking but you’re not expecting
a specific reaction and that reaction
you know you can tell how good or bad
you are by how audible the audience is
and trust me we’ve all planted bombs as
comedian and we’ve had very very bad
sets and very very good sets every
single comedian out there I can promise
you I remember I went to my first open
mic night and I actually told my first
joke and it hit and people started
laughing and having never done comedy
before I didn’t know that one of the key
things was to just shut up and let
people laugh so I started to tell me I
was like no I’ve got another joke so I
started to talk over them and over them
and the owner of the comedy club came up
to me at the end of a show and he said
you’ve got some funny stuff but can you
can you do something next time when you
come back for your next show and you
tell a joke just pause right just pause
let the audience laugh so I was like
cool so I came back the next week told
my first joke no one laughs and I was
just pausing pausing I look like the
most arrogant comedian in the world but
but it’s the comedy process like what
can I tell you about comedy comedy is
just like any art form there’s a
creativity in it comedians you
constantly have to write to think of new
things it’s very different to music
right um I went to see sting live in
concert I’ve just revealed mymusictaste
but sting I went to the see singing I
love sting I grew up on that kind of
stuff I’m a 80s 90s young music fan and
and you know I was there and sting
started playing all his new music and
I’m like I don’t like this crap and then
he played the same songs from 30 years
ago that I’ve heard you know 3,000 times
and the whole audience is going
ballistic everyone’s going crazy there’s
a comedian if you tell a joke twice
people like you suck man I heard that
before and it’s true so you constantly
are pressured to write I remember
actually when I first started comedy you
build up a rolodex of material right
it’s all the stuff that you go and
deliver and it’s stuff you pull out of
your pocket and that’s your jokes and I
remember I was doing a show and there
was this this crew of Indians that came
to one of my shows and listened to
stories about my mom
and they’re like body I’d I love the
joke you know so they brought back they
brought back their friends and came back
the next week and and I was like okay
well I recognize these guys
so I’m gonna change up the material now
do another seven minutes then they came
back the third week and I was like right
I’ve got to do a different seven minutes
then I used up my fall twenty minutes
cuz I was only about six months into
comedy then they wrote me a message
saying we’re gonna come back again next
week and I was like stop coming back
there’s so much pressure on me so I
swear to god I went to get a foot
massage before my comedy show and I just
started writing my next seven minutes
and the massage lady’s leukemia guy was
really weird because he’s just talking
to himself and smiling and whatever so I
did that I wrote I wrote my new seven
and then I came back and I did it and
it’s always a risk when you write your
new stuff but it did hit and I got a
good reaction I was really happy and
then the Indian guy came out to be the
end Girls buddy what the hell I keep
coming back I want to hear about your
mum you keep pulling your jobs vast of
money waste of time sometimes people do
want to hear it right but then I guess
when you tell jokes one of the things
that I guess you do is once you tell a
particular joke in comedy you call it
you burn it now you burn your material
like I’m sure a lot of you here know
Russell Peters right be a man do the
right thing
he can’t go up and do that show again
you know he’s used that material and
that’s the thing with comedy you go
through and you burn material and any
time you know it’s that trade-off
Russell Peters made a name for himself
because he had that be a man clip that
went viral I think it got you know over
five million YouTube hits and as a comic
you know you you can put some material
out there and it really helps you get
exposure but you know once you do that
you can’t use that material again so
that’s part of the process the other
thing in addition to writing and this is
the thing you must must understand as a
comic is
no one there is no one Universal sense
of humor in the world
okay humor is extremely subjective I’ve
literally been I remember I did a TED
Ted
Hongkong 2015 chat that was amazing 1200
or 500 people in the audience
it was booming it was really really fun
but no matter how many people are
laughing if you pay enough attention you
always see one person in the audience
just going and you need to make sure
that that doesn’t throw you off and the
trick the trick when you do comedy is
you you need to just be at ease with the
fact that not everyone’s gonna like your
sense of humor the trick is to win as
many people over as possible and if you
can do that that’s great the other thing
is you’re only as good as your last
performance right you really need to
stay humble in this business it’s it’s
not something where you know I’m very
very grateful last week I won the Hong
Kong International Comedy Competition
thank you but I’m only as good as my
last show right that’s it and I swear to
gosh every comedian we’ve gone and done
a show and we’ll have like let’s say a
tight eight minutes and you know it
works and everyone will laugh at it then
you go do the same show the next night
and no one laughs and you’re sitting
there saying this is the most painful
job on earth and it is it’s brutal but
if you can ride with that and hold that
together I mean that’s what keeps
inspiring you to be creative especially
when you’re working your room and you
are seeing some people on on side you
have certain themes of material and if
you know things aren’t going the right
way
shut it down go a different course you
know and sometimes bombing is the most
fun you know you see people not laughing
and you’re like wow my mum told me that
joke I need to write new stuff but you
know the other side of it is I do have a
day job right I run a strategy
consulting firm and in many ways the
creative process applies very much in
the same way in my day job as it does in
comedy because of my day job my job I
saw I’m 34 years old
right to run
a strike consulting firm where our
clients are all big banks financial
institutions and generally every person
in the meeting room is 10 to 20 years
older than me I got to be creative
around how I convince them that they
should hire me or my firm to give them
advice about how to run their
organization management consulting is a
very funny profession I remember when I
used to be a management consultant with
one of the big firms before it was you
know if you heard that saying a
consultant is someone that will steal
your watch and then charge you to tell
you the time yeah there’s a lot of
negative stigma around consultants but
it is quite funny because a lot of the
time you actually don’t know the subject
matter I remember one of the incidences
that I ran into is the old firm I worked
out was divided in different practice
groups and I was in the corporate and
institutional banking practice group but
then a project was sold for a big bank
in IT and CRM customer relationship
management strategy to develop the whole
new CRM tool the partners came to me and
said then all of our IT managers are
completely staffed out can you you know
can you lead this project and I was like
I said look I have trouble with Google
and Facebook so this is gonna be a bit
of a disaster and they said don’t worry
you know don’t worry just you have the
lead partner there you do the strategic
thinking around it and we’ll support you
with the technicalities right so we flew
to the client and I remember the first
meeting I was walking with a partner and
we’re walking to the meeting and it was
with the head of IT chief technology
officer 15 Enterprise architects I don’t
even know what these things were and
right before we go in the partner gets a
call and he’s like yeah yeah oh okay
hold on hey Ben I gotta take this can
you start the meeting without me
excuse me I said absolutely not because
yeah you know your stuff you know your
stuff so he put me in that room and I
just made sure I delayed all the
introductions as long as possible very
nice to me two hours my business card
again nice to meet you
went around the table and I was with one
of my consultants with me who also
didn’t know anything about this subject
I mean so we’re sitting there and the
first thing is look Ben it’s really good
to have you here for this project we
know you’ve got a lot of experience in
this area
but before we before we go and look at
the CRM strategy for this for this Bank
can you just give us your 30,000 foot
view on some of the key data
architecture issues here are at this
Bank what yeah and I literally I
literally creativity right thinking on
your feet these are the tricks of a
management consultant sometimes so I
said well data architecture is a very
big term you know I can I gotta like to
you about it you know for hours why
don’t you be a bit more specific and
focus on something that maybe I can give
you some tangible you know a tangible
advice so then he starts talking and the
second he starts talking I lean over to
my consultant and I said give me the
clients presentation so he hands over
the client document and as he’s talking
and just nodding yep yep yep and I’m
flicking through all the pages just
trying to grab it anything and
eventually I see this thing murex 4.1 so
he finishes off his sentence and I go
all right so for example your murex
platform and he goes there and I said I
imagine you’re operating a four point
one and he goes yeah that’s right I go
have you thought about have you thought
about upgrading to a full point and he’s
like 4.2 okay yeah
[Applause]
one of the guys in the room was like
that’s what I said wow this is like
disco lighting he says this is great one
of the guys is like this is what I said
and I go really well you keep going with
what you’re saying
I literally just worked this room for an
hour just people constantly making
statements and me repeating that
statement as a great idea yeah I agree
with Tim that’s good John excellent
point of view he came up to me and said
mate brilliant you’re a genius
I can’t wait can’t wait to work with you
it’s it’s a funny process as a
consultant but when I set up my own firm
you know I didn’t want to create just
another strategic consultancy you know I
wanted to create something that was
different
obviously we’re brand new and I needed
to think of what was fundamentally
different about the way we do things and
I think there is a lot of negative
stigma because the model all the way
that consultant works in my view many
times is broken you know it’s broken if
you look at one of the things that
consultants do they do what’s called
hypothesis hypothesis LED inductive
reasoning you guys know what that is
they say a hypothesis and then they’re
like we should hire me to prove what I
just told you so basically it’s an
upfront conclusion and I think that
process is quite flawed when’s the last
time you went to the doctor and I’m in
he’s like Ben I think you’ve got in a
very insist and I’m like what and he
goes well even hire me and I’ll run
through some stuff to prove it no I
don’t think it works like that at all
just like you go to a doctor you’ll tell
the doctor some of your symptoms there’s
a Diagnostics process and they go and
investigate that specifically and once
they have the facts then they can give
you a remedy or a cure and that’s the
way I look at what my firm does it’s
fact-based deductive reasoning I also
think the whole process of consulting is
very flawed all right and if you look at
something like can I just get a show of
hands who’s interested in strategy or
management consulting career yeah not
after my chat I can’t even see any hands
I didn’t even know
this question I’m blind up here and I’m
sure there’s someone in the audience
going you have basically the big
strategic consultancies you McKinsey’s
Bains all of that one thing that I
realize is going in and telling a firm
what to do just like this is what you
should do is not really the best way to
do it maybe you need to sit down with
them and discuss with them in a workshop
what they want first oh great so I said
well why don’t we offer workshops next
one then we can do strat consulting
after that because we understand what
they want a little bit more what’s after
that they need to get a sign-off they
need to get something approved for an
internal business case or we can do that
too we’ve got the tools to do that we’ll
do that for you
next one they need to execute it they
have their internal team running that
we’ll throw some extra bodies at it make
sure that things get done how do you
track it they have a finance team to
basically look through management
reports usually it’s done very poorly we
can create that for you too how do you
communicate it to your staff you have
town halls you have your regulators you
have people you need to tell your
strategy to we can create that – and how
do you monetize it it’s basically how do
you sell it how do you basically go to
your clients with your pitch and deliver
something valuable to them again we can
do that – and it took me six months to
think through this process to create
what was called an end-to-end value
chain of consulting services so
basically a one-stop shop solution I can
promise you going through that kind of
process the creative process it
basically it’s something that you know
if you’re waiting around for some
creativity to hit you don’t you know
creativity you really got to push for it
you know and it doesn’t come to you it
the most logical times some of the best
moves or things that have ever happened
to me in my life have happened when I’m
my lowest or when things are the most
difficult when I started this firm I had
no idea what I was gonna do and again if
I go back to the kind of things that I
was looking at why does the world need
one more consulting firm my value
proposition when I created the first
slides was terrible but after a while
you think through and you say this is
why this is why the world needs one more
and that’s a creative process that you
go through from start to end look I mean
I think most people here are university
students and you know you’ve got amazing
things in front of you what I can tell
you right now is I never ever ever
expected what where my life is now to
have been exactly where it is my family
motto
and I a hundred percent stand by it is
nothing succeeds as planned nothing and
it’s all good to have a vision I agree
it’s all good to have goals but don’t
think 10-15 years ahead you know try and
think every day what do you basically
want to do and I have a lot of students
like a lot of people and even executives
reach out and say you know can I get
some career advice you know what’s your
best career advice to me and I say just
this three things the Holy Trinity in a
career a lot of people go for money a
lot of people go for money that’s the
biggest mistake in the world I was in
jobs where I got paid a lot of money but
I can promise you I wasn’t happy I
worked with people and got paid a lot of
money I can promise you they were not
happy the most important things I can
tell you there’s two things one do what
you like do what you like find what you
really like like I love stand up I love
it and the fact that I get paid to tour
around and do shows that is phenomenal
and I keep reminding myself gosh you’re
lucky you’re really lucky second one do
what you’re good at
now this one is where you need a bit
more honest self-reflection
there are some people like I want to be
a comedian and like don’t don’t don’t do
that
of course there are things you can learn
okay there are things you can get better
at if you put your mind to it they said
of course but find your niches of
strength find something that you’re good
at doing you know my brother he is a
swimming coach he used to be a model
yeah and then after that he he basically
represented Hong Kong he was one of the
fastest swimmers in Hong Kong rep rank
hundred in the world and then he set up
his swim coaching business he’s very
strong at that my father was a composer
he’s very talented musically minded
that’s what he did his whole life and
you know what if you’re good at
something then most of the time you’ll
like it
all right you’ll love it and if you love
something you’re tend to be better at it
and I promise you if you get those two
things right
you’ll be the master of what you do you
can start to charge money for it and
that’s when money comes in money will
come right but don’t think about that as
your first port of call my brother
actually I’m running out of time my
brother has he has a very funny job
because when he coaches kids he he works
with little children right and little
kids I tell you what they’re pretty well
they’re pretty crazy and he came home
one day and I don’t have these kind of
stories in my job and he said there’s
this just true story he said there’s
this little girl band there’s this his
name’s Jonathan there’s this little
four-year-old girl and I’m coaching her
down in the pool and her father’s in the
next lane just doing laps and she said
Jonathan and he’s like yes she goes I
know the F word he’s like Oh
four-year-old so he’s like you mean like
fun and she goes no fuck he’s like you
shouldn’t say that you know that’s a
naughty word you your daddy will smack
your bottom she goes no teacher Jonathan
he’ll smash your bottom guys you have
been a really wonderful crowd today I am
out of time but thank you so much for
having me and my name is Ben Quinlan
enjoy the rest of the afternoon
[Applause]
good afternoon guys how you all doing
it’s not the biggest financial services
consultancy maybe the best but not the
biggest it is great to be here and it’s
actually true I didn’t actually plan a
specific speech today and look it’s me
it’s great hi
I didn’t plan anything specific today
because I think the whole topic of
creativity and elusiveness the best way
to kind of demonstrate or talk about is
to actually just come up and speak for
those of you don’t actually know me as a
comedian you should because I’m really
famous I have two videos on YouTube
one of them has 86 views and 93 dislikes
no but it’s a it’s always good fun I’m
gonna tell you guys about maybe a bit of
my comedy journey so I am a stand-up
comedian I’m not a guy that tells you no
jokes at a bar I travel and I literally
have that as a hat and a real job and
it’s amazing fun I started my stand-up
comedy journey about three years ago
actually I used to be management
consultant and I remember during my time
as a consultant I was working myself to
death and I got to the point where I had
a sabbatical I needed to take time off
work and then I had a seven month break
from work and in that time I was
thinking well what do I actually want to
do with my life you know what’s my
bucket list and I started to draw up a
whole bunch of stuff and on there was
stand-up comedy and I I guess I wanted
to do it because a lot of my friends and
if you actually have seen me perform a
lot of my comedy style is not about
telling punchlines and jokes
it really is talking about my life and
real experiences and that’s the coolest
thing with comedy you’re finding the
humor and things that you go through
every single day you know things that
are very personal to you so I did my
first open mic night about three years
ago and I’ll tell you why I’m not a shy
person at all but comedy was the first
time where I got super nervous I was
freaked out because I never being judged
before you know I used to be in a band
I used to sing I used to do a lot of
public speaking but you’re not expecting
a specific reaction and that reaction
you know you can tell how good or bad
you are by how audible the audience is
and trust me we’ve all planted bombs as
comedian and we’ve had very very bad
sets and very very good sets every
single comedian out there I can promise
you I remember I went to my first open
mic night and I actually told my first
joke and it hit and people started
laughing and having never done comedy
before I didn’t know that one of the key
things was to just shut up and let
people laugh so I started to tell me I
was like no I’ve got another joke so I
started to talk over them and over them
and the owner of the comedy club came up
to me at the end of a show and he said
you’ve got some funny stuff but can you
can you do something next time when you
come back for your next show and you
tell a joke just pause right just pause
let the audience laugh so I was like
cool so I came back the next week told
my first joke no one laughs and I was
just pausing pausing I look like the
most arrogant comedian in the world but
but it’s the comedy process like what
can I tell you about comedy comedy is
just like any art form there’s a
creativity in it comedians you
constantly have to write to think of new
things it’s very different to music
right um I went to see sting live in
concert I’ve just revealed mymusictaste
but sting I went to the see singing I
love sting I grew up on that kind of
stuff I’m a 80s 90s young music fan and
and you know I was there and sting
started playing all his new music and
I’m like I don’t like this crap and then
he played the same songs from 30 years
ago that I’ve heard you know 3,000 times
and the whole audience is going
ballistic everyone’s going crazy there’s
a comedian if you tell a joke twice
people like you suck man I heard that
before and it’s true so you constantly
are pressured to write I remember
actually when I first started comedy you
build up a rolodex of material right
it’s all the stuff that you go and
deliver and it’s stuff you pull out of
your pocket and that’s your jokes and I
remember I was doing a show and there
was this this crew of Indians that came
to one of my shows and listened to
stories about my mom
and they’re like body I’d I love the
joke you know so they brought back they
brought back their friends and came back
the next week and and I was like okay
well I recognize these guys
so I’m gonna change up the material now
do another seven minutes then they came
back the third week and I was like right
I’ve got to do a different seven minutes
then I used up my fall twenty minutes
cuz I was only about six months into
comedy then they wrote me a message
saying we’re gonna come back again next
week and I was like stop coming back
there’s so much pressure on me so I
swear to god I went to get a foot
massage before my comedy show and I just
started writing my next seven minutes
and the massage lady’s leukemia guy was
really weird because he’s just talking
to himself and smiling and whatever so I
did that I wrote I wrote my new seven
and then I came back and I did it and
it’s always a risk when you write your
new stuff but it did hit and I got a
good reaction I was really happy and
then the Indian guy came out to be the
end Girls buddy what the hell I keep
coming back I want to hear about your
mum you keep pulling your jobs vast of
money waste of time sometimes people do
want to hear it right but then I guess
when you tell jokes one of the things
that I guess you do is once you tell a
particular joke in comedy you call it
you burn it now you burn your material
like I’m sure a lot of you here know
Russell Peters right be a man do the
right thing
he can’t go up and do that show again
you know he’s used that material and
that’s the thing with comedy you go
through and you burn material and any
time you know it’s that trade-off
Russell Peters made a name for himself
because he had that be a man clip that
went viral I think it got you know over
five million YouTube hits and as a comic
you know you you can put some material
out there and it really helps you get
exposure but you know once you do that
you can’t use that material again so
that’s part of the process the other
thing in addition to writing and this is
the thing you must must understand as a
comic is
no one there is no one Universal sense
of humor in the world
okay humor is extremely subjective I’ve
literally been I remember I did a TED
Ted
Hongkong 2015 chat that was amazing 1200
or 500 people in the audience
it was booming it was really really fun
but no matter how many people are
laughing if you pay enough attention you
always see one person in the audience
just going and you need to make sure
that that doesn’t throw you off and the
trick the trick when you do comedy is
you you need to just be at ease with the
fact that not everyone’s gonna like your
sense of humor the trick is to win as
many people over as possible and if you
can do that that’s great the other thing
is you’re only as good as your last
performance right you really need to
stay humble in this business it’s it’s
not something where you know I’m very
very grateful last week I won the Hong
Kong International Comedy Competition
thank you but I’m only as good as my
last show right that’s it and I swear to
gosh every comedian we’ve gone and done
a show and we’ll have like let’s say a
tight eight minutes and you know it
works and everyone will laugh at it then
you go do the same show the next night
and no one laughs and you’re sitting
there saying this is the most painful
job on earth and it is it’s brutal but
if you can ride with that and hold that
together I mean that’s what keeps
inspiring you to be creative especially
when you’re working your room and you
are seeing some people on on side you
have certain themes of material and if
you know things aren’t going the right
way
shut it down go a different course you
know and sometimes bombing is the most
fun you know you see people not laughing
and you’re like wow my mum told me that
joke I need to write new stuff but you
know the other side of it is I do have a
day job right I run a strategy
consulting firm and in many ways the
creative process applies very much in
the same way in my day job as it does in
comedy because of my day job my job I
saw I’m 34 years old
right to run
a strike consulting firm where our
clients are all big banks financial
institutions and generally every person
in the meeting room is 10 to 20 years
older than me I got to be creative
around how I convince them that they
should hire me or my firm to give them
advice about how to run their
organization management consulting is a
very funny profession I remember when I
used to be a management consultant with
one of the big firms before it was you
know if you heard that saying a
consultant is someone that will steal
your watch and then charge you to tell
you the time yeah there’s a lot of
negative stigma around consultants but
it is quite funny because a lot of the
time you actually don’t know the subject
matter I remember one of the incidences
that I ran into is the old firm I worked
out was divided in different practice
groups and I was in the corporate and
institutional banking practice group but
then a project was sold for a big bank
in IT and CRM customer relationship
management strategy to develop the whole
new CRM tool the partners came to me and
said then all of our IT managers are
completely staffed out can you you know
can you lead this project and I was like
I said look I have trouble with Google
and Facebook so this is gonna be a bit
of a disaster and they said don’t worry
you know don’t worry just you have the
lead partner there you do the strategic
thinking around it and we’ll support you
with the technicalities right so we flew
to the client and I remember the first
meeting I was walking with a partner and
we’re walking to the meeting and it was
with the head of IT chief technology
officer 15 Enterprise architects I don’t
even know what these things were and
right before we go in the partner gets a
call and he’s like yeah yeah oh okay
hold on hey Ben I gotta take this can
you start the meeting without me
excuse me I said absolutely not because
yeah you know your stuff you know your
stuff so he put me in that room and I
just made sure I delayed all the
introductions as long as possible very
nice to me two hours my business card
again nice to meet you
went around the table and I was with one
of my consultants with me who also
didn’t know anything about this subject
I mean so we’re sitting there and the
first thing is look Ben it’s really good
to have you here for this project we
know you’ve got a lot of experience in
this area
but before we before we go and look at
the CRM strategy for this for this Bank
can you just give us your 30,000 foot
view on some of the key data
architecture issues here are at this
Bank what yeah and I literally I
literally creativity right thinking on
your feet these are the tricks of a
management consultant sometimes so I
said well data architecture is a very
big term you know I can I gotta like to
you about it you know for hours why
don’t you be a bit more specific and
focus on something that maybe I can give
you some tangible you know a tangible
advice so then he starts talking and the
second he starts talking I lean over to
my consultant and I said give me the
clients presentation so he hands over
the client document and as he’s talking
and just nodding yep yep yep and I’m
flicking through all the pages just
trying to grab it anything and
eventually I see this thing murex 4.1 so
he finishes off his sentence and I go
all right so for example your murex
platform and he goes there and I said I
imagine you’re operating a four point
one and he goes yeah that’s right I go
have you thought about have you thought
about upgrading to a full point and he’s
like 4.2 okay yeah
[Applause]
one of the guys in the room was like
that’s what I said wow this is like
disco lighting he says this is great one
of the guys is like this is what I said
and I go really well you keep going with
what you’re saying
I literally just worked this room for an
hour just people constantly making
statements and me repeating that
statement as a great idea yeah I agree
with Tim that’s good John excellent
point of view he came up to me and said
mate brilliant you’re a genius
I can’t wait can’t wait to work with you
it’s it’s a funny process as a
consultant but when I set up my own firm
you know I didn’t want to create just
another strategic consultancy you know I
wanted to create something that was
different
obviously we’re brand new and I needed
to think of what was fundamentally
different about the way we do things and
I think there is a lot of negative
stigma because the model all the way
that consultant works in my view many
times is broken you know it’s broken if
you look at one of the things that
consultants do they do what’s called
hypothesis hypothesis LED inductive
reasoning you guys know what that is
they say a hypothesis and then they’re
like we should hire me to prove what I
just told you so basically it’s an
upfront conclusion and I think that
process is quite flawed when’s the last
time you went to the doctor and I’m in
he’s like Ben I think you’ve got in a
very insist and I’m like what and he
goes well even hire me and I’ll run
through some stuff to prove it no I
don’t think it works like that at all
just like you go to a doctor you’ll tell
the doctor some of your symptoms there’s
a Diagnostics process and they go and
investigate that specifically and once
they have the facts then they can give
you a remedy or a cure and that’s the
way I look at what my firm does it’s
fact-based deductive reasoning I also
think the whole process of consulting is
very flawed all right and if you look at
something like can I just get a show of
hands who’s interested in strategy or
management consulting career yeah not
after my chat I can’t even see any hands
I didn’t even know
this question I’m blind up here and I’m
sure there’s someone in the audience
going you have basically the big
strategic consultancies you McKinsey’s
Bains all of that one thing that I
realize is going in and telling a firm
what to do just like this is what you
should do is not really the best way to
do it maybe you need to sit down with
them and discuss with them in a workshop
what they want first oh great so I said
well why don’t we offer workshops next
one then we can do strat consulting
after that because we understand what
they want a little bit more what’s after
that they need to get a sign-off they
need to get something approved for an
internal business case or we can do that
too we’ve got the tools to do that we’ll
do that for you
next one they need to execute it they
have their internal team running that
we’ll throw some extra bodies at it make
sure that things get done how do you
track it they have a finance team to
basically look through management
reports usually it’s done very poorly we
can create that for you too how do you
communicate it to your staff you have
town halls you have your regulators you
have people you need to tell your
strategy to we can create that – and how
do you monetize it it’s basically how do
you sell it how do you basically go to
your clients with your pitch and deliver
something valuable to them again we can
do that – and it took me six months to
think through this process to create
what was called an end-to-end value
chain of consulting services so
basically a one-stop shop solution I can
promise you going through that kind of
process the creative process it
basically it’s something that you know
if you’re waiting around for some
creativity to hit you don’t you know
creativity you really got to push for it
you know and it doesn’t come to you it
the most logical times some of the best
moves or things that have ever happened
to me in my life have happened when I’m
my lowest or when things are the most
difficult when I started this firm I had
no idea what I was gonna do and again if
I go back to the kind of things that I
was looking at why does the world need
one more consulting firm my value
proposition when I created the first
slides was terrible but after a while
you think through and you say this is
why this is why the world needs one more
and that’s a creative process that you
go through from start to end look I mean
I think most people here are university
students and you know you’ve got amazing
things in front of you what I can tell
you right now is I never ever ever
expected what where my life is now to
have been exactly where it is my family
motto
and I a hundred percent stand by it is
nothing succeeds as planned nothing and
it’s all good to have a vision I agree
it’s all good to have goals but don’t
think 10-15 years ahead you know try and
think every day what do you basically
want to do and I have a lot of students
like a lot of people and even executives
reach out and say you know can I get
some career advice you know what’s your
best career advice to me and I say just
this three things the Holy Trinity in a
career a lot of people go for money a
lot of people go for money that’s the
biggest mistake in the world I was in
jobs where I got paid a lot of money but
I can promise you I wasn’t happy I
worked with people and got paid a lot of
money I can promise you they were not
happy the most important things I can
tell you there’s two things one do what
you like do what you like find what you
really like like I love stand up I love
it and the fact that I get paid to tour
around and do shows that is phenomenal
and I keep reminding myself gosh you’re
lucky you’re really lucky second one do
what you’re good at
now this one is where you need a bit
more honest self-reflection
there are some people like I want to be
a comedian and like don’t don’t don’t do
that
of course there are things you can learn
okay there are things you can get better
at if you put your mind to it they said
of course but find your niches of
strength find something that you’re good
at doing you know my brother he is a
swimming coach he used to be a model
yeah and then after that he he basically
represented Hong Kong he was one of the
fastest swimmers in Hong Kong rep rank
hundred in the world and then he set up
his swim coaching business he’s very
strong at that my father was a composer
he’s very talented musically minded
that’s what he did his whole life and
you know what if you’re good at
something then most of the time you’ll
like it
all right you’ll love it and if you love
something you’re tend to be better at it
and I promise you if you get those two
things right
you’ll be the master of what you do you
can start to charge money for it and
that’s when money comes in money will
come right but don’t think about that as
your first port of call my brother
actually I’m running out of time my
brother has he has a very funny job
because when he coaches kids he he works
with little children right and little
kids I tell you what they’re pretty well
they’re pretty crazy and he came home
one day and I don’t have these kind of
stories in my job and he said there’s
this just true story he said there’s
this little girl band there’s this his
name’s Jonathan there’s this little
four-year-old girl and I’m coaching her
down in the pool and her father’s in the
next lane just doing laps and she said
Jonathan and he’s like yes she goes I
know the F word he’s like Oh
four-year-old so he’s like you mean like
fun and she goes no fuck he’s like you
shouldn’t say that you know that’s a
naughty word you your daddy will smack
your bottom she goes no teacher Jonathan
he’ll smash your bottom guys you have
been a really wonderful crowd today I am
out of time but thank you so much for
having me and my name is Ben Quinlan
enjoy the rest of the afternoon
[Applause]
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