Perhaps the most common reason for seeking assistance is to obtain information. Compiling it may involve attitude surveys, cost studies, feasibility studies, market surveys, or analyses of the competitive structure of an industry or business. Or the company may be unable to spare the time and resources to develop the data internally. Often information is all a client wants. But the information a client needs sometimes differs from what the consultant is asked to furnish.
One CEO requested a study of whether each vice president generated enough work to have his own secretary. Many clients have never thought about that. In any case, no outsider can supply useful findings unless he or she understands why the information is sought and how it will be used. Consultants should also determine what relevant information is already on hand. Seemingly impertinent questions from both sides should not be cause for offense—they can be highly productive.
Moreover, professionals have a responsibility to explore the underlying needs of their clients. Managers often give consultants difficult problems to solve. For example, a client might wish to know whether to make or buy a component, acquire or divest a line of business, or change a marketing strategy. Or management may ask how to restructure the organization to be able to adapt more readily to change; which financial policies to adopt; or what the most practical solution is for a problem in compensation, morale, efficiency, internal communication, control, management succession, or whatever.
Seeking solutions to problems of this sort is certainly a legitimate function. But the consultant also has a professional responsibility to ask whether the problem as posed is what most needs solving. Very often the client needs help most in defining the real issue; indeed, some authorities argue that executives who can accurately determine the roots of their troubles do not need management consultants at all.
To do so, he or she might ask:. Suppose the problem is presented as low morale and poor performance in the hourly work force. The consultant who buys this definition on faith might spend a lot of time studying symptoms without ever uncovering causes. On the other hand, a consultant who too quickly rejects this way of describing the problem will end a potentially useful consulting process before it begins.
As the two parties work together, the problem may be redefined. Thus, a useful consulting process involves working with the problem as defined by the client in such a way that more useful definitions emerge naturally as the engagement proceeds.
Nevertheless, the process by which an accurate diagnosis is formed sometimes strains the consultant-client relationship, since managers are often fearful of uncovering difficult situations for which they might be blamed.
Competent diagnosis requires more than an examination of the external environment, the technology and economics of the business, and the behavior of nonmanagerial members of the organization.
The consultant must also ask why executives made certain choices that now appear to be mistakes or ignored certain factors that now seem important. Although the need for independent diagnosis is often cited as a reason for using outsiders, drawing members of the client organization into the diagnostic process makes good sense. They, not us, must do the detail work.
While this is going on, we talk with the CEO every day for an hour or two about the issues that are surfacing, and we meet with the chairman once a week. We get some sense of the skills of the key people—what they can do and how they work.
When we emerge with strategic and organizational recommendations, they are usually well accepted because they have been thoroughly tested. Top firms, therefore, establish such mechanisms as joint consultant-client task forces to work on data analysis and other parts of the diagnostic process.
As the process continues, managers naturally begin to implement corrective action without having to wait for formal recommendations. The engagement characteristically concludes with a written report or oral presentation that summarizes what the consultant has learned and that recommends in some detail what the client should do.
Firms devote a great deal of effort to designing their reports so that the information and analysis are clearly presented and the recommendations are convincingly related to the diagnosis on which they are based. Many people would probably say that the purpose of the engagement is fulfilled when the professional presents a consistent, logical action plan of steps designed to improve the diagnosed problem.
The consultant recommends, and the client decides whether and how to implement. Though it may sound like a sensible division of labor, this setup is in many ways simplistic and unsatisfactory. For example, a nationalized public utility in a developing country struggled for years to improve efficiency through tighter financial control of decentralized operations.
According to the CEO, this advice ignored big stumbling blocks—civil service regulations, employment conditions, and relations with state and local governments. This sort of thing happens more often than management consultants like to admit, and not only in developing countries.
In cases like these, each side blames the other. Especially true for small to mid-size companies, owners and senior management normally have invested significant time, energy, and resources into their companies.
Consultants, having fresh eyes, can often spot the true issues holding companies back relatively quickly. Furthermore, family-held businesses often suffer from their relationship dynamics such that it can be difficult for the family members themselves to speak openly and honestly about problems dragging the company down.
A neutral and objective consultant will be able to speak openly about these problems without fear of reprisals. Consultants from these firms have reach in the global market, and have the capacity to help a business scale up at a local, regional or global level, while most large consulting firms have vast client networks in a variety of geographies and business domains, all of whom can potentially offer support.
This can be a major boost to businesses scaling up across industries, borders or markets. Beyond the immediate fees paid to the consultant, organisations deploying external expertise for individual projects do not incur overhead costs, such as providing benefits, or even having to supply a computer and a workspace. In addition, once a project is completed, consultants can be retired, meaning that an organisation no longer incurs costs.
In comparison, when hiring a permanent member of staff, companies will need to pay their salary all year long, while if an organisation hands a permanent contract to someone who turns out not to be a good fit, it can be an expensive and exhausting process to have to remove them, and start again. A link has been sent to your email.
Click on the link to confirm your request. If you have not received the confirmation e-mail, please also check your spam folder. Part of Consultancy. Annually, thousands of experienced professionals also choose to enter the consultancy branch, or to enter by working for a firm as an experienced consultant or independent advisor.
What causes the trend? If professionals are posed the question what they expect from a career in consulting, their answers will vary greatly. Whatever the case, there are enough conceivable reasons why a job in the consultancy branch can be an attractive option for newly graduates as well as experiences talent.
Below follows an overview of possible reasons for a career in consulting:. Client-oriented service Professionals seeking to work on projects orienting servicing the client will find a good fit within the consultancy branch. As a consultant, much time is spent working for, and with, clients by, for instance, advising on strategic issues or lending support for an implementation trajectory.
Particularly this client-oriented aspect — to achieve concrete results for the client — attracts many professionals to a job as consultant. Multifaceted and intellectual Professionals who resist repetitive tasks and much rather find intellectually challenging responsibilities will find working as consultant greatly fulfilling.
Consultants are constantly warped into a new environment — if not a new branch, then a new field of operation or new client. Working in teams and carrying responsibility Consultants are expected to operate well in teams and to work with like-minded, hard working and ambitious professionals. Clients are often consulted by a team of consultants, depending on the type of project.
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