The Consulting Industry
Readings: Wickham, Chapter 1 - Management consulting in context and how it adds value
● Managerial Functions:
- Planning
- Organising
- Staffing
- Directing
- Controlling
● Managerial Roles:
The figurehead The spokesperson
The leader The entrepreneur
The liaison The disturbance handler
The monitor The resource allocator
The disseminator The negotiator
● The five primary types of consultant– management role interaction: supplementing,
complementing, differentiating, integrating, and enhancing
1) Supplementing: involves the consultant adding to the existing skill profile to increase its
capability but not alter its overall shape.
2) Complementing: occurs when the organisation realises it has a deficiency in its profile of
management roles which the consultant can fill.
3) Differentiating: involves the consultant helping the client business to differentiate its
management roles and allow managers to specialise.
4) Integrating: involves the consultant helping the client business to reorganise its
management roles and build a new set of manager relationships and responsibilities.
5) Enhancing: involves the consultant helping the client management team improve the
effectiveness of their overall management role profile.
● The responsibilities of the management consultant
- Economic Responsibilities
- Legal Responsibilities
- Moral Responsibilities
- Discretionary Responsibilities
● Types of Clients
- Contact clients: approach the consultant and propose the consultant addresses a problem
or issue on behalf of the organisation.
, - Intermediate clients: members of the organisation who become involved in the consulting
project; will work with the consultant and provide information, attending meetings and
influencing the way the project unfolds
- Primary clients: who have identified the problem or issue the consultant has been called
in to address and who will be most immediately affected by it
- Unwitting clients: are members of the organisation who will be affected by the
intervention of the consultant; do not initiate the project and have no direct or formal
control over it; they are not aware that they will be affected by the project
- Indirect clients: members of the organisation who will be affected by the intervention of
the consultant and who are aware that they will be affected
- Ultimate clients: the total community, those stakeholders who will be affected by the
consultant’s intervention; include members of the organisation and/or members of the
organisations which come into contact with the client organisation
● Modes of Consulting
The management consultant
must therefore constantly ask
three fundamental questions:
1) What can I offer the client
business that will enhance its
performance and help it
achieve its objectives?
2) Why will my contribution
be more valuable than that
which existing managers, and
potential recruits, can
contribute?
3) How can I communicate to
the client business that what I
offer is valuable?
● Why do businesses fail?
→ Business model
→ Business planning and performance
Readings: Wickham, Chapter 1 - Management consulting in context and how it adds value
● Managerial Functions:
- Planning
- Organising
- Staffing
- Directing
- Controlling
● Managerial Roles:
The figurehead The spokesperson
The leader The entrepreneur
The liaison The disturbance handler
The monitor The resource allocator
The disseminator The negotiator
● The five primary types of consultant– management role interaction: supplementing,
complementing, differentiating, integrating, and enhancing
1) Supplementing: involves the consultant adding to the existing skill profile to increase its
capability but not alter its overall shape.
2) Complementing: occurs when the organisation realises it has a deficiency in its profile of
management roles which the consultant can fill.
3) Differentiating: involves the consultant helping the client business to differentiate its
management roles and allow managers to specialise.
4) Integrating: involves the consultant helping the client business to reorganise its
management roles and build a new set of manager relationships and responsibilities.
5) Enhancing: involves the consultant helping the client management team improve the
effectiveness of their overall management role profile.
● The responsibilities of the management consultant
- Economic Responsibilities
- Legal Responsibilities
- Moral Responsibilities
- Discretionary Responsibilities
● Types of Clients
- Contact clients: approach the consultant and propose the consultant addresses a problem
or issue on behalf of the organisation.
, - Intermediate clients: members of the organisation who become involved in the consulting
project; will work with the consultant and provide information, attending meetings and
influencing the way the project unfolds
- Primary clients: who have identified the problem or issue the consultant has been called
in to address and who will be most immediately affected by it
- Unwitting clients: are members of the organisation who will be affected by the
intervention of the consultant; do not initiate the project and have no direct or formal
control over it; they are not aware that they will be affected by the project
- Indirect clients: members of the organisation who will be affected by the intervention of
the consultant and who are aware that they will be affected
- Ultimate clients: the total community, those stakeholders who will be affected by the
consultant’s intervention; include members of the organisation and/or members of the
organisations which come into contact with the client organisation
● Modes of Consulting
The management consultant
must therefore constantly ask
three fundamental questions:
1) What can I offer the client
business that will enhance its
performance and help it
achieve its objectives?
2) Why will my contribution
be more valuable than that
which existing managers, and
potential recruits, can
contribute?
3) How can I communicate to
the client business that what I
offer is valuable?
● Why do businesses fail?
→ Business model
→ Business planning and performance
