THE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY

Introduction

The rich and the most powerful person or company needs a bit of proper and correct advice from the experts regarding their day to day activities and for effective decision making. Biblical kings had Prophets, Chandragupta Maurya had Chanakya, Persian Sultans had Viziers as their advisers and they helped their kings emerge in their own way. Organizations that had specialized advisers did not emerge until relatively late in the industrial age. Due to the increase in demand for products and services, the companies were forced to drive in a large number of employees and these employees had absolutely no clue about the organization and its operations. During this time and situation the specialized advisers' opinions are required because they are ones who are filled with experience and have knowledge of the new techniques which automatically improves the productivity of organisation. The first recognized management consulting firm was setup in the year 1890 by Arthur D. Little, which was initially specializing in the field of technical research and later building a specialism in what became to be known as "Management Engineering". In the same way, the first management consultancy to serve both industry and government clients was Booz Allen Hamilton, founded in 1914. Management Consultancy A management consultancy is a service offered by the company through professionals who are employed to help organisations improve there efficiency and performance. Consultancy offers the choice of varied assignments, the ability to choose interesting work, and the flexibility (within our limits) of deciding when and where to work.

"The provision to management of objective advice and assistance relating to the strategy, structure, management and operations of an organisation in pursuit of its long-term purposes and objectives. Such assistance may include the identification of options with recommendations; the provision of an additional resource; and/or the implementation of solutions." A definition of management consultancy from the Institute of Consulting.

Management Consultant

A management consultant provides external advice for organisations that require specialist expertise or an objective outside perspective on their business. Consultancy involves the identification and assessment of a problem or the analysis of a specific area of an organisation, and reporting the key findings to the authorized person which in turn allows them in the formulation of recommendations given by the consultants for improvement of the business.

Consultants are commonly called in for improving efficiency and productivity of the business activities, change of management (if required), providing effective information technology and long-term planning projects.

Range/Scope of Management Consultant

As a consultant, in your career, you will gain a range of experiences –this is definitely a key attraction to many graduates considering consultancy as their career. As your experience grows, you will become more specialized, which enables you to work in areas you find most interesting and rewarding.

Consultants specialize because of the wide variety of management activities. The various such specializations have been divided into different areas by the Institute of Consulting into the following:

Business strategy

This involves long-range planning, the restructuring of a company’s overall structure, justification of services and products, and a general business appraisal of the company.

Manufacturing and business services This enables us to keep an eye on the entire layout of a production department, production control arrangements, productivity and incentive schemes, or quality control problems.

Financial and management controls Financial and management controls include the installation of budgetary control systems, along with the profit planning or capital and revenue budgeting, office reconstitution, and administrative arrangements.

Human resources This work focuses majorly on advising on activities such as personnel policy, investing time in manpower planning, enrichment of the job, evaluation of job and also maintaining a really good rapport with other industry's HR managers.

Marketing involves research and forecasting the business, training the company's sales force, and the organisation of retail and wholesale outlets.

Environmental management

The management of urban and regional development planning, cost-benefit along with social analysis studies which includes physical, economic, ecological and sociological studies for the improvement of quality in the company lifestyle.

Quality management

The Quality management includes the setting of policy and strategy, this involves customer satisfaction, measurement of performance, managing the people and processes. This includes various ISO standards like: ISO 9001:2015 (QMS), ISO 14001:2015 (EMS), ISO 20000-1:2018 (SMS) etc and the implementation of preferred standards depends on the companies and their requirements. Consultants play a major role in making the companies implement what is best for them among the various available standards.

Information technology

IT consultant’s work includes providing information required to the needy people, the provision of software, systems analysis and design, computer feasibility studies, helping people in implementing computer applications and making computer hardware evaluations.

Conclusion A part from all the above mentioned things, a consultant’s job is to advise a company on improvements that could be made to its business. However, the scope of work in consultancy is varied and consultants now a days can be found in almost all kinds of business sector. This variety of work ensures that a career in consultancy provides diverse and interesting opportunities to any hardworking graduate. Given today’s technology, the only thing constant in business is change. One can only expect the unexpected. We at Infimind Institute of Management Consultancy can help your company identify potential challenges and obstacles. We will work with you, hand-in-hand, and help achieve your goals and create a better future, all at the most affordable prices.