{"id":562,"date":"2012-06-15T19:48:10","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T19:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/?p=562"},"modified":"2018-10-13T19:53:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T19:53:42","slug":"types-of-management-consulting-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/blog\/types-of-management-consulting-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"Types of Management Consulting Firms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Consulting<\/p>\n

Companies carefully choose management consulting firms that can ultimately help them resolve their business dilemma. To assess the firms, they take into consideration their structure, the kind of service they offer and the sector where their previous clients belong. Read on and get more details about this.<\/p>\n

For most companies, choosing consultants is like hiring employees. Before they make the final decision, they first identify their needs, list key performance standards and assess the capabilities of management consulting firms. If they need the services on an ongoing basis, they prefer to hire full-time employees. If their concern can be resolved by simply taking on project-based employees, outsourcing critical-minded\u00a0consultants becomes an option.<\/p>\n

All consulting firms aim for business improvement but of course, companies don\u2019t limit their understanding with such vague definition. They dig more details on\u00a0the actual responsibilities of consultants<\/a>. They research on the numerous kinds of consulting services in the market. Should they hire consultants from recognized firms like PWC, Monitor and Bain or must they consider their budget constraints and hire a local consultant instead? In a nutshell, companies must figure out which firm is the most capable and credible to help them find the best solution.<\/p>\n

One way of coming to a decision is to assess management consulting firms based on the category where it belongs. Oxford University Press says that firms can be viewed in three different ways.<\/p>\n

Business Model<\/h2>\n

This establishes the consultant\u2019s type of job, compensation and nature of organization. Pure consultancies like McKinsey and BCG concentrate on consulting work but hybrid firms like Accenture and IBM have just added up consultancy to their services. Generalist firms work on diverse projects while niche groups are more specialized. Small groups, according to statistics, employ about 78% of the consultants but large management consulting firms bring in more income because they dominate the industry.<\/p>\n

Some firms deploy technical contractors to clients to work on their daily operations. An example given was Indian IT consultancies providing skilled manpower to the United States sometime in 2000-2001. Some companies prefer to maintain their own internal consultancy team for cheaper pay but unfortunately, keeping those with high caliber is a concern. Consultants prefer to work for renowned external consulting firms because of their varied projects and promising opportunities.<\/p>\n

Service<\/h2>\n

Consulting firms can be categorized based on their area of concentration. The most popular ones are strategy, information technology, outsourcing and generalist consulting.<\/p>\n

Strategy consulting firms include coming up with a plan for the client to reach a certain business goal or market position. They conduct studies and provide direction on whether or not the company should expand their business, launch a new product or merge two companies. IT consulting firms<\/a> concentrate on how to utilize technology for an organization to get to their vision. It has become popular these years because the application of new IT systems has increased company profit through efficiency savings and quality improvements.<\/p>\n

Outsourcing implies subcontracting business activities to third parties. The last category, generalist consulting, dwells on matters related to business process re-engineering, operations, change management, human resources, and program management.<\/p>\n

Sector<\/h2>\n

This category refers to the clients\u2019 nature of business. Large management consulting firms send a group of consultants to a specific sector so they can gain expertise within a period of time.<\/p>\n

The biggest source of income for consulting firms are financial institutions. In the past years, their projects focused on online-banking, electronic payment and other IT projects.\u00a0Telecom\u00a0and entertainment companies require consultants nowadays to help them maximize their digital assets. Other popular sectors that need consultancy services are the government, consumer businesses and environmental groups. Check this article<\/a> to know the sectors where the\u00a0top ten management consulting firms work for.<\/p>\n

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