Management Consulting

Management consulting is an activity aimed at improvement of the existing forms of management and conduct of business in order to increase efficiency of the company business activities and achievement of desired goal.

Management consulting is a set of services provided by independent (non-member of organization) and professionally trained experts on identification, analysis and resolution of tasks related to formation, reorganization and operation of the company management system.

The main task of management consulting is to help the company’s owner or manager in the diagnosis, analysis and practical solution of management and production problems.

The Main Objectives:

  1. achievement of goals and objectives of the organization;
  2. solution of management and business problems;
  3. discovery and use of new opportunities;
  4. training;
  5. implementation of changes in the work of organization.

If the company needs a fresh look from outside or the business has problems and stands still, one should use the services of a professional management consulting.

There are two principles that must be considered in order to make work with a consulting company more efficient.

The first principle is that the consulting serves as guidelines. Consultant will not be included in your company, get managerial position and solve your problems.

The second principle is the principle of the consultant’s independence, principally technical independence. Often while hiring a consultant, he or she is pointed out what the problem is and where to search for its solution, based on the experience in the company, insight and views on the current situation. This is completely wrong. And the problem itself may be different, and the solution may lie in a completely other plane, where it was not supposed to be.

The consultant, if he or she is a professional, will seek to clarify both the problem and the direction, where the solution may lie. If a person or a company that you hired agrees that the problem is precisely this one and its solution must be sought exactly here, then there are only two variants, why he or she does it. First, he or she has already faced it, and the problem is very similar, simple and, the most important, obvious. Or second, this is not a very good consultant.

Benefits of Management Consulting:

  • integrated and systematic approach;
  • independence of judgments (external consultant, who is not bound by working relations with the company employees, can give more balanced and objective assessment of the situation);
  • formation of professional team for resolution of specific tasks;
  • possibility to be with the management on the same level (personal consulting);
  • expertise of the consultant, who has relevant experience and qualifications;
  • saving of time and resources;
  • possibility to implement formulated recommendations and to monitor further development.

Stages of provision of the management consulting services

Process of consulting in the management consulting consists of five stages:

1. Management consulting starts with an introduction that includes establishment of contact, preliminary diagnostics, which is very important, because without it sometimes it is very hard to understand where the problem is and how to put a task, and sometimes this may lead to errors. Preparation of a proposition, planning of task and conclusion of the contract, all these steps are also included in the first stage.

2. Diagnostics. This stage carries out task analysis, problem analysis, gathering of information and its subsequent investigation. This stage is quite capacious and is very important for an accurate understanding of both problems and goals that you want to achieve with the help of consulting.

3. Action planning. It includes development of solutions, planning of options, preparation of propositions by a consultant and overall planning of implementation of changes.

These three stages in the most points are the basis of consulting services. Client is provided with the report and proposition that serve as guidelines on those changes that can be made in order to reach a solution of the problem (within specific terms, by particular acts, with the help of particular instruments).

If necessary, management consulting services may be used in the extended version.

4. Implementation of changes. Consultant provides technical support and carries out necessary training in order to form a general idea on the changes to be implemented. Certainly, he or she maintains a constant feedback, because during the stage of the changes implementation sometimes can appear resistance for changes not only from the side of organization itself, but also from the highest managerial staff, because in each case the situation is individual.

5. The final stage involves an overall assessment of the project, overall assessment of achieved results and final report.

Therefore, the management consulting is a help in solving of a variety of management problems, while providing it the most important for the Consultant and the Client is to agree on specific goal to be achieved.