{"id":594,"date":"2012-05-25T22:03:59","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T22:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/?p=594"},"modified":"2018-10-13T22:06:21","modified_gmt":"2018-10-13T22:06:21","slug":"what-management-consultants-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/blog\/what-management-consultants-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Management Consultants Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-280 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/experienced-consultant.jpg\" alt=\"experienced consultant\" width=\"683\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/experienced-consultant.jpg 683w, https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/experienced-consultant-300x119.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">What are management consultants hired for? Does their presence mean the executives are incapable of resolving their own issues and analyzing their own systems? Why are consulting teams hired for hundreds of thousands of dollars\u00a0for a list of recommendations? Read this article and understand their role in organizations.<\/p>\n<h2>What Exactly Do Consultants Do?<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The consultants offer industry knowledge and specific solutions through their skills and expertise. They are mainly concerned with the operations, management, strategies and structure of an organization. They often assist and support organizational leaders in identifying options, making key corporate decisions, generating recommendations, implementing objective solutions and providing additional resources. They are often sought for sound advice with the primary aim of improving client\u2019s business performance, maximizing profits and accelerating growth.<\/p>\n<h2>What Does a Typical Workday Look Like for a Management Consultant?<\/h2>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A typical workday for a management consultant is often varied as the consultancy jobs are project-based. Certain projects may be based in one site alone or across several locations. Also, a consultancy job may vary in length of service depending on the firm, client demands and consultancy type. Consultants can also either work as individuals or as a team.<\/p>\n<p>For neophyte consultants, tasks often involve:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Formulating a research plan, carrying out the research and data collection<\/li>\n<li>Analysis and interpretation of the collected data<\/li>\n<li>Using frameworks<\/li>\n<li>Facilitating workshops and running focus groups<\/li>\n<li>Interviewing management staff, employees and stakeholders<\/li>\n<li>Preparing business presentations and proposals<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On the other hand, senior consultants are adept at:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Identifying issues and forming hypotheses<\/li>\n<li>Leading projects and programs<\/li>\n<li>Formulating and carrying out solutions as well as recommendations<\/li>\n<li>Managing a team of analysts<\/li>\n<li>Ensuring client needs and expectations are met<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>Consultants also have their own issues. The most prevalent is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/blog\/management-consulting-work-life-balance\/\">how to maintain a work-life balance<\/a>. Many consultants are so busy with their work, that they carefully plan how they spend their spare time.<\/div>\n<h2>What Can Consultants Bring to the Organization?<\/h2>\n<p>Management consultants are hired to help organizations improve their performance. This is possible because of the following:<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Competencies and Expertise<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Consultants have undergone rigid recruitment process. They went through resume screening and testing. They have undergone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/guides\/case_interview_frameworks\/\">intensive review of consulting case frameworks<\/a> to do better in the interview rounds. No one is hired without being able to prove he or she has the knowledge, skills, abilities, experience and commitment to do any kind of management consulting job. Apart from this, their functional expertise in a particular area such as technology, human resources, virtual management, etc. makes them credible enough to advise top management on what needs to be done.<\/p>\n<h3>Wealth of Experience<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Consultants also bring with them the best practices they have observed in their previous projects. Their relationships and interactions with clients from different business sectors back them up in readily identifying areas for improvement and in determining applicable, effective solutions. Consultants can instantly do system benchmarking for the client based on their rich experience.<\/p>\n<h3>Objectivity<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Consultants look into processes and routine activities of client employees with careful analysis. Further, because there are no personal strings attached between the consulting firm and the client, consultants can come up with unbiased proposals based on numerical data, research studies and gathered facts. It\u2019s not difficult for them to propose heartbreaking layoffs or salary adjustment.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Do Management Consultants Sometimes Get Criticized?<\/h2>\n<p>Management consulting also get a slice of criticism from the people around them. These usually spring from any of the three factors explained below.<strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Fear<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The mere presence of consultants in the company trigger fear among employees. Company officers get insecure because it would appear they\u2019re not working hard enough to find solutions to their own problems or to recommend strategies for system improvement. The rank and file employees get scared of the possibilities of manpower downsizing and employment termination. Some are apprehensive because management consultants might reveal proprietary secrets. Others feel unready for any kind of organizational change they will bring to the company.<\/p>\n<h3>Expensive Professional Fee<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A project from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/blog\/top-10-management-consulting-firms\/\">top tier consulting firms<\/a> such as McKinsey, Bain, Booz and BCG\u00a0costs several hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. Senior consultants easily charge clients a four-digit fee an hour for their services.\u00a0On top of this, consultants enjoy other benefits such as free travel expenses, medical insurance and other allowances. These perks are definitely a great cut off the client\u2019s budget. Hence, many question if hiring them is worth it.<\/p>\n<h3>Impractical Solutions<\/h3>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Another reason why management consultants are often criticized is because of their lack of implementation of their recommendations. Sometimes their short stay in the company doesn\u2019t provide them with a possibility of implementing their solution. As a result, critics say that consulting recommendations are not always practical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are management consultants hired for? Does their presence mean the executives are incapable of resolving their own issues and analyzing their own systems? Why are consulting teams hired for hundreds of thousands of dollars\u00a0for a list of recommendations? Read this article and understand their role in organizations. What Exactly Do Consultants Do? The consultants [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[146,243,236,983,78,32,259,985,961,1705,1339,34,234,74,28,1704,1333,1702,1703,1701],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.consultingfact.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}