What Does Management Consulting Do?
Management Consulting is a complex and involved career. It starts with an expertise or special talent. Expertise with a product, process, technology, and/or industry. Nearly every industry needs Management Consultants to move to the next generation of technology or to address a major concern.
Management Consulting about all aspects of a company such as finances, business operations, manufacturing, major hardware and software investments are a few examples. Typically, a company does not have a core competency in these areas since they are only engaged at a specific time and place.
Management Consultants are Trusted Partners with companies and their executives. Nobody can be an expert on everything a business does, so deploying an expert or a team of experts when and how they are needed is very cost effective. Examples can range widely.
Example 1: An insurance company (Client) wanted to expand into the virtual market and provide web-based services. The majority of employees and executives were used to the model of in-person sales with quotas and paper processing (Current State). The new model (Future State) was to be more Marketing focused driving traffic to a website, electronic documents, and potentially random policy revenue. Designing the future process, including all the legal and financial requirements, documentation, signature capture, etc. was the first stage. Assisting the company getting regulatory approvals and certifications to be able to serve the public in this manner was a second stage. Developing all the technology, working with software companies, testing the new software and process, including how to market this new service, were the next stage. Training all the employees and agents on the new process was the following stage. Note: all of the above stages, although very critical to the process, were not the core competencies of the Client nor was maintaining the employees for these specific projects.
Example 2: A Computer company that was expanding into the PC market was getting major complaints and very low customer service ratings.
Example 3: A Banking company wanted to integrate three different acquisition’s Customer Service platforms and employees.
Example 4: A Hardware company wanted to upgrade their Data and Customer Service Centers, worldwide.
Example 5: An Oil and Gas Company wanted to evaluate their business processes to increase productivity
Example 6: A Pharmaceutical Company wanted to evaluate their research process to reduce their time to market which mean reducing the time to conduct product trials.
