What kind of consultant should i be

Another approach is to view the process as a sequence of phases—entry, contracting, diagnosis, data collection, feedback, implementation, and so on. However, these phases are usually less discrete than most consultants admit. Facilitating client learning—that is, teaching clients how to resolve similar problems in the future.

The lower-numbered purposes are better understood and practiced and are also more requested by clients. Many consultants, however, aspire to a higher stage on the pyramid than most of their engagements achieve. Purposes 1 through 5 are generally considered legitimate functions, though some controversy surrounds purpose 5. Management consultants are less likely to address purposes 6 through 8 explicitly, and their clients are not as likely to request them.

But leading firms and their clients are beginning to approach lower-numbered purposes in ways that involve the other goals as well. Goals 6 through 8 are best considered by-products of earlier purposes, not additional objectives that become relevant only when the other purposes have been achieved.

They are essential to effective consulting even if not recognized as explicit goals when the engagement begins. Moving up the pyramid toward more ambitious purposes requires increasing sophistication and skill in the processes of consulting and in managing the consultant-client relationship. But reputable consultants do not usually try to prolong engagements or enlarge their scope.

As the need arises, both parties may agree to move to other goals. 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. And consultants frequently blame clients for not having enough sense to do what is obviously needed. Operations consultants look at the systems that clients use to reach their goals and work to enhance their efficiency.

They assess all levels of operations including production, sales, distribution and customer service. They are interested in how processes can be refined in terms of costs, time, staff involved and steps required, to best meet targets. Strategy consulting and operations consulting are closely linked. Strategy consultants focus on long term goals whereas operations consultants evaluate the behind-the-scenes structures that enable fulfilment of these goals.

Many leading firms offer both of these services. Example: Using the same client as above, an operations consultant might work with the retail client to improve their production costs, which ultimately allows the client to sell products at a cheaper rate, making them more competitive. This may involve providing information and advice on investment strategies, tax issues and how to manage the everyday expenses of the business. Financial consulting also covers insurance advice and saving strategies.

Oliver Wyman are well known for their financial consulting services, although they do offer services in other areas too. This type of consulting could be the perfect match for those of you with a finance, economics or business degree under your belt. Example: The retail client has now expanded globally. They seek the advice of a financial consultant to better understand the international market and provide advice on tax laws they need to be aware of.

Consulting work in this area is called many things: tech consulting, IT advisory, business technology services or IT consulting. With hacking highly prevalent in current times, IT consultants are increasingly being called upon to ensure there are no security breaches and sensitive information is kept confidential. Campus events Seminars Business Courses Workshops. Consulting Industry. Working as a consultant. What is consulting? What is a consultant? What does a consultant do?

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