This work deals with Consulting as a professional service / and / or process based on business development. In this case, the work carried out by the Technological Management Consulting Group of the Information and Technological Management Center of Pinar del Río, CIGET to contribute to the local advance of its territory from the Organizational Consulting services is presented.
The article starts from the generalities of the concept of consulting, seen by various authors, as well as an analysis of those aspects that coincide and turns it into a paradigm of being the professional service / and / or leading process that helps companies and other organizations to improve your processes. Subsequently, a description of the immediate environment is made as an antecedent for the subsequent performance of this service in CIGET. Also shown are results derived from research methods to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of consulting services, supported in this case by five basic tools that ensure their functionality and contribution to the development of the institution, the province's business system and society usually.
Introduction
Organizational Consulting (CO) has long been recognized as a highly useful professional service and support for the managers of organizations to identify and define the main problems that affect their institution, and as a result, achieve their purposes or objectives; initially coming from your mission. Having a CO service, part of the recognition of a problem, and therefore plan a series of actions to eradicate or improve them from a correct implementation.
Consulting is seen above all as a method of improving management practices, but it is also seen as a profession itself, "consulting as a method and consulting as a profession are two sides of the same coin" (Kubr, 1994).
CO is practiced in many different ways. These are reflected in the diversity of organizations and the environments in which their own consultants operate, the different approaches to carry it out correspond to the willingness to accept them as valid and will be highly influenced by the perspectives and methods of intervention proposed by internal consultants.
There are numerous definitions of the term "consulting" and its application to organizational situations and problems, some authors declare two basic directions of consulting.
Steele (1975) defines consulting as: “By consulting process I mean any way of providing help on the content, process or structure of a task or a set of tasks, in which the consultant is not effectively responsible for the execution of the itself, but helps those who are »Peter Block (1971) even suggests that« one acts as a consultant whenever it is a matter of modifying or improving a situation, but without having direct control over the execution…
Most of the officers of an organization are actually consultants even if they are not officially designated as such. These and other definitions emphasize the idea that consultants provide help or provide cognitive ability. This is based on the assumption that this help can be provided by people who perform very different jobs. A director or manager of an organization can also act as a consultant, if she decides to advise and help a colleague or even her own subordinates, instead of giving them instructions and orders.
The second approach considers consulting as a special professional service and highlights several characteristics that this service must possess. According to Larry Greiner and Robert Metzger (1983), “Business consulting is an advisory service contracted by and provided to organizations by specially trained and qualified individuals who provide objective and independent assistance to the client organization to expose the management problems, analyze them, recommend solutions to those problems and help, if requested, in the application of solutions. Professional associations of consultants in the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries, as well as individual consulting firms, use similar definitions.
The premise that will be taken into account is that the consultant has as a client the company, which is developed in a given environment, then the basic foundations of the study of organizations and their problems, and how to approach the solution of problems in companies as well as the most commonly used troubleshooting process and techniques.
The primary purpose of the current consultant's action and the approaches used is to intensively and temporarily support organizations to carry out this project and that not all are prepared to execute it with the required quality and efficiency. The consultant then becomes an internal figure within the company to which he provides his services, causing changes in a process of continuous improvement of the processes and their results.
The authors have named this modality in Collaborative or Participatory Consulting (Sherwood (1989), Doyle (1989), Portuondo (1992). This type of consulting tends to set changes so that the solutions that are adopted emerge from the company itself out of conviction of the need and the goodness of such changes, its essence is therefore to create this capacity that is demanded by the companies or organizations to which this service is provided in order to continuously improve its processes and results.
Consulting according to other definitions is considered a service provided by an independent and qualified person or persons in the construction and investigation of problems related to policy, organization, procedures and methods.
As can be seen, there is a close relationship between the concepts indicated above, based on the existence of coinciding points of the consultancy itself. Some of the elements are:
• Consulting seen as an independent professional service
• Consulting as a process as long as it is made up of a logical sequence of tasks.
• It is a service that links theory with practice.
• It has an advisory nature.
• The consultant does not direct the entity, area or activity in which he carries out his work.
• It is not accidental, but causal (part of a solid preparation of the consultant and the analysis of concrete facts.)
• Consulting is aimed at solving a problem.
The current work of a consultant is not an easy task, since many companies resist the hiring of specialized services and that are accompanied by a conceptual lack of knowledge on the part of the factors that have decision-making in their hands. The consultant is an agent of change, he is a mediator between what exists, not fully functional and what should exist for a better operation. This implies the transfer of knowledge, Know How and the training of company personnel, implicitly or explicitly.
1. Current situation
The present stage of development at the national and international level is marked by various changes and roles that organizations have had to assume. The changes in their social orders are aimed at creating new services and products, which largely generate growth, not only within the institution, but to enhance the improvement of those end customers, to whom it is intended a certain activity.
In this sense, reference is made to those organizations that, in a period of time, fulfilled an objective and while the environmental conditions were undergoing changes, they had to reform their work through the implementation of new products and services. In the case that refers us, we will approach Organizational Consulting as a means and at the same time an end to achieve certain purposes inside and outside the organization.
There is no need to delve into, or immerse yourself in, international settings, although without a doubt, the growing and changing situation of this one influences directly and indirectly the changes that are assumed in the country. The national scenario is rich and complicated enough to discuss the topic of consulting as a process and / or service. Sometimes companies work, and strive to obtain optimal results, but when analyzing them, we realize that they do not meet their strategic objectives. Given this situation, there may be various causes, but as main ones we can point out: resistance to change and assuming the interference of third parties in the internal work of a company. Gaining culture and organizational awareness about it is key to carrying out business consulting.
At the moment the country is immersed in a process of change, which in the long term will pay a higher level of sustainable development, which will also allow an efficient use of human potential, a high competitiveness in traditional productions and the development of new productions of goods and services with high added value.
The process states that it is necessary to strengthen the institutional framework, prioritize growth, export diversification and import substitution; When designing support programs, strategies must be devised that contribute to these objectives.
The Economic Guidelines Project also refers to: the search for alternative financing sources to stop the process of decapitalization of the country's industry and productive infrastructure; increase labor productivity; Sustained increase and diversification of exports of goods and services, as well as granting greater powers, within the framework of the plan, to companies, and effectively promoting the initiative of the territories to promote their economic development in a sustainable way.
What are we going to do to get closer to at least part of these guidelines and successfully pay the country's economy. On what foundations of the company must we lean to stimulate and assume the change, already inevitable. What strategies are we going to follow to fulfill such purposes? These are some of the questions that employers must ask themselves to carry out the improvement of the Economic Model of our country.
Let us remember that we are in a world where intangibles are increasingly valuable; information and knowledge are concepts that mark the contemporary era and are the basis in the ways of doing of organizations.
In this sense, technological innovation on products and services is being stimulated; and a business system that manages quality is demanded. On the other hand, we have the Business Improvement process, whose principle is to design and implement a Direction and Management System that responds to the interests of our society, generating products and services based on their needs in quantity and quality.
In the corresponding case, we are going to describe in a very general way the situation of the companies in Pinar del Río, applying diagnosis and observation as elementary methods as part of the professional practice of the consulting activity of CIGET.
1. Companies are immersed in the Business Improvement process, even when we are below 50%. This indicates that those involved in this process have or should have a Management System independently or integrated, which is a new trend to follow.
2. Companies are immersed in a new period of transformation, conditioned by the current situation in the country reflected in the Draft Guidelines for Economic and Social Policy.
3. There is little development of the business sector in the industrial sphere and biotechnology in the territory, which limits the greater scope of consulting services.
4. Some companies are mixed or corporations and we do not know their operation in depth. Well, they are not sufficiently related to the immediate environment, that is, that of the province, and they do not see the need to contract the territory's consulting service.
5. Companies have specialists who can carry out these activities, but lack adequate training, the time required, and do not have all the necessary tools to guide these processes.
6. Most companies demand Management Systems to comply with the strategies outlined by their governing bodies, without being aware of the importance of hiring consulting services in obtaining better results.
In general, the aforementioned points constitute an antecedent for working to strengthen the province's business sector and achieve better positioning and recognition in the national and international market.
The center recently carried out a survey of 25 companies prioritized by the Science and Technology Unit of the Territorial Delegation of CITMA and the Government, with the aim of knowing the usability of the services and products offered by the center, as well as capturing new needs for information and organizational advice, to strengthen our Offer Agenda.
The results, even when not all the companies participated, were notorious for drawing up a strategy based on their improvement, and contributing to local development.
The ways of doing of companies of any format are fundamentally based on the development of strategies and systems that respond to a form of management that shows the path they want to walk. It is on this subject that the consulting services of CIGET Pinar del Río become a cornerstone in the conduct of business projects for the improvement of the sector's processes. In this way and based on the results presented above, CIGET offers its services and specifically those of consulting, relying on the following elements:
• Draw up an immediate strategy to eradicate the negative aspects and work on strengthening the positive aspects, which are ultimately what strengthen us in the business market of the territory. (includes promotional and dissemination actions).
• It is recommended to continue improving the most demanded services supported by the required quality standards.
• Rethink the design of a new institutional product that identifies us as a leading institution for local companies.
• Resume the training activity with more power, as it is a key tool in the dissemination of knowledge.
2. The Center for Information and Technological Management, CIGET. General characteristics.
The Information and Technological Management Center of Pinar del Río (CIGET) emerged on December 23, 1977, as a Multisectoral Center for Scientific and Technical Information (CMICT), so the main objective was to organize and process the information funds and the provision of these services.
Currently CIGET is an interface entity subordinate to the Institute of Scientific and Technological Information (IDICT), of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), which has as a social commission the provision of specialized services in Information, Consulting in Technological management and Industrial Property, to favor decision-making, problem solving and the performance of organizations.
Below is the CIGET First Level Process Map, Pinar del Río, which groups the main strategic processes, the Key or Operational processes and the support processes.
The scenario in which CIGET operates, faces various challenges, especially in the competitive environment, where the Centers of Higher Education, the Research Institutes and the Bodies of the Central State Administration, the R&D Groups of the Companies in Improvement and Municipal University Centers (CUM) play an essential role in local advancement. The center has identified its main current clients, which in the last 5 years has increased and many of the identified potential clients have become real, due to the demands of the environment, the quality of the services and products offered, as well as the policy of communication developed by the institution.
2.1 The portfolio of general products and services
• Consulting and Advisory in: Strategic Design, Project Management, Organizational Diagnosis, Effective Communication, Specialized Information Searches, Design of Technological Innovation Systems, Industrial Property and Environment, Occupational Health and Safety, Human Capital, Quality, among others.
• Training: The center has accumulated experience in the execution of national and international training activities, in various subjects, which today are a priority in any organization.
• Event organization.
• Execution of scientific-technical projects.
• Editorial activity. The entity publishes the Digital Avances Magazine, which is accredited as the Scientific and Technological Magazine of the Republic of Cuba, as well as other publications aimed at the business sector.
To materialize this portfolio of products and services, it has a human capital of 23 workers, university graduates, in its entirety. Six hold a Master of Science degree, 2 are in the Master's completion phase and 1 holds the category of Doctor of Science. Human Resources comply with an extensive Training Plan that responds to the quality of improvement and the dissemination and development of knowledge. 52% of these have been executing products and services for more than five years.
3. Consulting as a process in CIGET. Technological Management Department.
The consulting process is a joint activity of the consultant and the client aimed at solving a specific problem and applying the desired changes in the client's organization. This process has a beginning (the relationship is established, based on the customer's demand for the service and the work begins) and an end, which marks the completion of the service, as established in the initial contracts (the departure of the consultant). Between these two extremes, the process can be subdivided into several basic phases, which induces the consultant and the client to be systematic and methodical and move from one phase to another and from one operation to another, following a logical and temporal sequence. For this the consultant must gather a series of capacities that in this case we will summarize in two dimensions:
• A technical dimension linked to the nature of the organization's management or problem faced by the client and the way in which this problem can be analyzed and solved.
• A human dimension, that is, the relationship between the consultant and the client and how the members of the client organization react to changes and can help plan and implement them.
The Center's Technology Management Department is in charge of providing the services and products derived from the consulting process / service. It adheres to the quality policy of the center, which is based on: designing and implementing a Quality Management System that allows satisfying and exceeding the expectations of its clients, with highly qualified professionals committed to providing scientific information services- technical and consulting, with the highest level of accuracy, currency and precision.
Its vision is to be recognized as a competitive Technology Management Group (GGT) that offers consulting services, framed in solutions that are tailored to customer requirements, expanding the range of services and market coverage.
It is valid to emphasize the importance that the GGT attaches to the training activity. Not only for the members of the group, but also for the real and potential clients identified.
3.1 Stages or phases of Consulting, CIGET
Services
• Strategic Design
• Proyect Management
• Organizational Diagnostics
• Design of Management Systems (Quality, Environment, Innovation, Human Capital, Occupational Safety and Health, Communication, Technological Surveillance System and Intellectual Property).
• Consulting for the Organization of Events
• Market Studies
• Information Analysis
• Advice & commercial positioning
• Risk analysis
• Capacity studies.
• Training System for Companies.
• Trend analysis.
products
• Web-page design
• Training portfolio
• Business newsletter the consultant.
3.3. Current customers
• Design of the Center's Development Strategy: prepared to achieve the proposed objectives, based on compliance with its efficient and effective execution.
• Design of the Communication System Applied to Information and Technological Management in the CIGET of Pinar del Río (CAIGET): tool that facilitates the communication-informational relationship of the CIGET with the publics to which its activity is oriented, to carry out a efficient information management and technological management.
• Quality System Design: it is supported by international quality standards, ISO 9000 and is implemented through the Quality Fixed Asset Spaces.
• Training System for companies: according to the training needs of companies, in order to enhance the development of their human capital, with a direct impact on the optimal results of the work.
• Design of the center's Products and Services portfolio: based on a new corporate image.
Conclusions
It is no less true that consultants exist and will exist since their services satisfy needs and there are clients who demand them. The Consultancy represents a form of assistance to the organizations of the territory in the economic and productive aspects, in order to activate scientific-technical progress through the transfer of the consultant's experiences and professional knowledge. Similarly, it is the result of scientific research in the sphere of the organization of production, work, management, selection in optimal decision-making.
The consultancy carried out by the Department of Technological Management of Pinar del Río, regardless of the limitations associated with its hiring and the culture of the entrepreneurs regarding this service, is an essential entity that affects the progress of the organizations that contract the service, since The premise of the center is to ensure and guide the entities to solve existing problems and contribute to the fulfillment of the objectives proposed by them, which are linked to import substitution, food production and energy saving, responding to policies established by the territory and the country.
In another sense, it can be concluded that the professionals who provide this service have the skills required to accurately disseminate and put their knowledge into practice. The consultant in general must be competent, work with organization and discipline, be ethical and make use of the time required in each problem. Be patient to listen to the arguments of the consulting staff and efficiently carry the service to its final stage.
Organizational consulting is associated with obtaining satisfactory results, the growth of productions, and the strengthening of the incentive, relying on technological innovation, quality, human potential and other resources that are taxed for this purpose. An end that becomes a desired state for companies in the province of Pinar del Río and the Cuban business system in general.
Bibliography
• VI Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba: Guidelines for the Party's Economic and Social Policy and The Revolution. April 2011.
• Drucker, Peter: Fundamental Writings. Management, volume 2, 2002.
• Luís F Álvarez López Monograph.
• Role of organizational consulting in change management in a company.
• Consultancies in Confiabilidade e Assuntos Correlatos: www.reliasoft.com.br/consulting.
• Pinto, Deise: Consulting as a Professional alternative at: http://www.wikilearning.com/, October 29, 2006.
