The definition of business consulting can be framed as follows: it is a service to which owners, company directors and public officials can resort if they feel the need for help or advice in solving various problems and in implementing continuous improvement processes.
The fundamental objective of professional consulting is to provide viable recommendations and implement appropriate measures to increase the productivity and competitiveness of companies.
In the United States of America there are more than 7000 business consulting firms and in Mexico every day the services of companies engaged in consulting are hired more.
The figures are relatively lower in Europe, but in the United Kingdom and in many other European countries, the growth of consulting has been very remarkable in the last 25 years.
In developed countries, large, medium, and even small companies frequently employ the services of professional consultants.
In some countries, small businesses have government-subsidized consulting services as part of small business development.
The most important characteristics of business consulting are the following:
- Consulting is an independent service, characterized by the experience and impartiality of the consultant.
- His role is to act as an advisor, with responsibility for the quality and integrity of his advice.
- Consulting is a service that provides professional knowledge and skills to solve practical problems.
- Consulting does not provide miracle solutions. It would be a mistake to suppose that once a consultant has been hired, the difficulties disappear.
- Consulting is a difficult job based on the analysis of concrete facts and the search for original and feasible solutions.
- The consultancy must give tangible, concrete, specific and consistent results in terms of time and cost.
- The company should see the hiring of a good consultancy as an investment and not as an expense in terms of what it will earn from it.
- The nature of the consultancy requires that all situations be seen in the perspective of future opportunities.
- Change is the raison d'être of consulting, changes that improve the performance of companies and at the same time, make the work of staff more interesting and satisfactory.
- The professional consultant must be closely related to the design, dissemination and knowledge of the new systems, methods and techniques of management, administration and operation.
- The consultant must act as a promoter of change and ensure the maximum participation of the client in everything he does, so that final success is achieved with the effort of both.
- The cooperation between the client and the consultant is as important to the final result as the quality and consistency of the advice given by the group of consultants.
Most entrepreneurs have different problems in the administration and operation of their company, also most of the time they know that they need to do something, but they do not know exactly what and how, so it is advisable to approach expert consultants in business development.
There are several ways to provide consulting, among which are:
- Solve a specific need or problem.
The hiring of an external service occurs when the employer defines a need or has a specific problem, but does not have the staff or the time to solve it and seeks specialists to help him.
- Diagnostic assistance.
The businessman needs diagnostic assistance when he detects the symptoms of the disease, but he does not know how to diagnose the cause of the problems and hires experts to review the company and discover the areas or processes that limit its proper operation.
- Implement or improve systems and processes.
Specialists are also hired when you want to implement new systems or processes or improve existing ones. You can correct a situation that has deteriorated, or improve a situation, or create a totally new situation.
- Professional general consulting.
The company requires professional multidisciplinary consulting, when the entrepreneur does not know what kind of help is required but detects that things are not going as planned.
Other reasons why companies call a consultant are:
- The members of the company have workshop blindness due to their involvement in the daily operation, due to their established customs and habits and cannot find the true origin of the problem and propose novel and feasible solutions.
- They do not have people capable of dealing with a certain problem with the same probability of success as a specialist.
- The company requires to implement continuous improvement processes, reengineering, certain management techniques and / or use advanced technologies.
- Develop and / or streamline management, administration, operation and control systems and processes.
• Adjust organizational structures.
- Plan the launch of new products
- Determine training needs.
- Solve financial problems.
- Efficient use of resources in general.
- Implement evaluation and monitoring methodologies.
- Develop a culture of total quality.
• Propose new development strategies.
The benefits of hiring professional consultants can be summarized as:
- Take advantage of their ability to solve correction, improvement and creation problems.
- Receive intensive help on a temporary basis.
- Obtain an impartial and innovative point of view in solving problems.
- Facilitate access and adaptation to new technologies, markets and challenges.
- Use measurement criteria and instruments to determine management styles, typical forms of team operation, philosophy and corporate mission, the degree to which the areas are intertwined and diagnose systems and processes.
- Define the weaknesses and strengths of the company, the forces of resistance and change inside and outside, the way it operates as a system and the appropriate criteria to achieve its corporate and financial health.
- Establish a program for the implementation of solutions and continuous improvement processes and, in some cases, put the suggested solutions into practice.
- Use experts who have special knowledge and skills.
- Lower costs and increase return on investment.
To avoid misinterpretations regarding the scope of the consultancy, those responsible for contracting the service must decide how far they want the group of consultants to go.
It is important that the client and the consultants define precisely the areas, processes and indicators that are to be improved, the limits of the intervention and at what stage the group of consultants should withdraw.
Today, the most competitive companies are necessarily knowledge-intensive companies and permanently train their collaborators at all levels.
Consulting can play a very important role as a trigger for the economic and social development of companies and countries.
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Jack Fleitman:
www.ciemsa.mx professional consultants
@jackkmex
