The business of consulting.
Auteur | Sethi, Aradhna |
Fonction | Business |
Is business consulting an age-old profession or a hyped-up passing trend? What is consulting all about? Swiss News finds out more.
Money makes the world go round--an obvious adage for all industries today. Be it a fashion house, an IT-based firm, a manufacturing company or a financial institution--every organisation today has its lot of business consultants, in-house and external, hustling about to make the bucks. And consultancy is normally defined by the cost. The higher the consultants' charge per hour, higher is the perceived value or vice versa. The motivational mantra for business consultants: 'a big buck for the company and a huge cut for me'. Their qualifications: mostly MBA. Their intention: to cut the best deals for their companies.
Simply stated, business consultancy is all about using the inherent strengths of ally business to reach its goals in the most visible manner. And that means defining a strategy that underscores the core strengths of the business while addressing the competition and needs of the customer.
Types of consulting
Once looked upon as a soft skill, consulting is now measured in terms of how a recommended strategy or vision affects the company. And it can broadly be divided into four types:
* Strategic consulting: these consultants help other companies define a vision and strategies to achieve that vision. Companies with expertise in this area are McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and Bain.
* Strategy and change consulting or change management: these serve companies where the vision has been defined and certain components of the strategy have to be partly defined and implemented.
* Integrators and solution management: here the vision and strategy exist and, in order to realise the strategy, certain processes--such as IT-integration, for instance--have to be fulfilled. Players in this area include Accenture, IBM and Cap Gemini.
* Outsourcing: this is the fourth category where the management of basic administrative or IT systems are outsourced. Off-shore companies include Tata Consulting Services, Wipro, Infosys and Satyam
New forays
More recently, communications and image consulting is...
Pour continuer la lecture
SOLLICITEZ VOTRE ESSAICOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.