Consulting
Consulting firms often provide advice on major matters such as mergers and acquisitions.
Each year management
consultants in the United
Perhaps a more useful way of analyzing the process is to consider its purposes; clarity about goals certainly influences an engagement’s success. Here are consulting’s eight fundamental objectives, arranged hierarchically.
Providing information to a client
Solving a client’s problems
Making recommendations based on the diagnosis
What Do Consultants Do?
Assessment of Symptoms: Consultants define the problem.
Diagnosis: Consultants collect and analyze data.
Prescription: Consultants recommend a course of action.
Bedside Manner: Consultants gain consensus among the client’s leadership team.
Follow-up care: Consultants help implement recommendations, if necessary.
Providing Information
Perhaps the most common reason for seeking assistance is to obtain information.
Solving Problems
Managers often give consultants difficult problems to solve.
Management Consultants
Much of management consultants’ value lies in their expertise as diagnosticians.