Throughout my degree course (management science) and now in the Business Strategy module for the ACA qualification, I am having to learn endless models devised by people such as Porter, Mintzberg et al.I was just wondering, are models such as Porter's 5 forces, Stakeholder Mapping, PESTLE, Value chain analysis, Ansoff's Growth Matrix, Balanced Scorecard, the 4Cs of pricing and the 7Ps of the marketing mix actually used within consulting? Or are they just the domain of business schools and cash cows (sorry couldn't help myself) for the likes of Michael Porter who make millions touring universities lecturing on their models?There seem to be an awful lot of models, many of which are common sense, just they have been given a catchy name and drawn to resemble an anvil

I have used Porter's models (5 forces, value chain etc.) frequently over the last few years. Yes, they are mainly based on common sense (which is probably why they are useful), but are handy as frameworks to think through various different aspects and present analysis and conclusions.You can, however, cope perfectly well without most frameworks.