Management Consulting is a domain, which works in parallel with the organization. It aims to assist organizations in terms of specialist advisory, professional knowledge & skills and implementation support to the clients. Hiring consultants to get industry best practices is quite common.
The value in hiring management consultant’s lies in broadly three (overlapping) areas:
-Expertise – industry or functional expertise
-Best practice
-Excellent analytics skills
Management consulting includes a broad range of activities, and many firms along with their members often define these practices quite differently. These differences may keep on changing depending on the expertise of the consultants and requirement of the organizations.
One of the key signs of good management consulting organization is to get clients off consulting and not on consulting. Few of the key pointers to be considered to bring best management consultants on board are as follows:
Capabilities of diagnosing the problem and making recommendations:
For a firm to achieve its long-term goals, it must address the required focus areas. This is the key area where consultants help to ascertain the goals and takes lead for giving authentic advice and recommendations. The consulting strength in terms of implementing recommendations along with diagnosis is equally important.
Assistance with implementation of recommended solutions:
Going further, while implementing the recommendations on shop floor, it is necessary to engage the real people on the work place. Consulting engagement should not only focus on implementing changes but how it can help to transform the workplace forever. Recommendations coupled with demonstrations and implementation support is an essential element.
Permanently improving organizational effectiveness:
Permanent improvisation is the mark of satisfaction achieved from the consulting intervention. It will gauge the effectiveness of the learning that has taken place, and the success of application as the new process or system is implemented. Consulting solution should track what people are doing differently and how well it is working, because to bring improvement is an easy job than sustenance.
High Return on Investment:
ROI is only one of the most essential elements on the scorecard measures and tracks the chain of impact for a consulting project. Consulting engagements are expected to deliver high return on investment. However, very few consulting outfits commit to assured return on investment. High ROI for the consulting intervention should be key parameter to be considered.
Making Clients Experts:
Finally, with all these points, the consulting engagement should strive to build internal capacity to take the transformation journey forward without the external assistance. It can only happen when appropriate knowledge / skills transfer happens and client teams are equipped with appropriate expertise.
These key pointers should be considered while getting the consulting organizations on board which should lead to improving the organization’s performance. The final aim should be to get clients off consulting and not on consulting.
Written By: Faber Devna Chaturvedi