Why Hire A Management Consulting Firm?
The phrase management consulting firm strikes many business owners as somewhat non-descriptive and can often be interpreted as an individual consultant or a group of consultants with no particular specialization. After all, the term “consultant” is often used to describe financial services firm representatives, project managers, web developers, financial advisers and analysts. Just about every field or specialization has its share of consultants who, as opposed to permanent employees, have more flexibility and deal with a wide range of products, services and clients. “Management consulting”, however, refers to a specific set of advisory practices relating to providing management guidance to well-established agencies and enterprises operating in a global capacity.
The value of hiring a consultancy is inherently obvious for large corporations, governmental agencies and nonprofits; But, when it comes to small and mid-size businesses, management consultants generally provide access to broad expertise and technical knowledge which many businesses lack internally as well as the experience of working with larger organizations. Another clear benefit is the ability to temporarily employ experts in particular technical fields (think information security or database design) who focus on implementation and delivery of industry standards. In other words, an external consultant(s) with a specific industry specialization determines the solutions that an internal employee or business owner (which has a very narrow range of external practices but expertise in company policy and practices) implements and manages.
Management Consulting Firm Types:
Strategy Consulting – Strategy consultancies are the most common type of management consulting firm and are primarily focused on improving organizational performance through a generation of new revenue streams, workflow management, process analysis and improvement, and competitor analysis. More often than not, strategy consultants deal with the corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, and enterprise change management concerns of multinational companies and government agencies.
IT Consulting – Information technology consultants solve organization challenges through the design and implementation of information systems. A majority of IT consulting firms provide solutions for both internal systems and customer-interfacing systems such as web architecture, design and development. The distinction between IT consulting firms and other forms of consultancies are becoming more blurred with increased utilization of task-specific technologies. The utilization of information systems to solve organizational issues is now a viable solution for most businesses and is a common practice making the understanding of the system development life cycle, project management, and implementation thereof a job requirement for consultants in any field. IT firms are the most diversified type of consulting firm. Each and every firms’ specialization is unique along with its product and service offerings.
FinTech Consulting – Financial technology consultants aim to centralize and improve global banking, lending, payments and remittance challenges using emerging technologies such as institutional and asset-management tools, digital currencies and financial information systems. Financial services firms are among the most heavily-regulated businesses on earth, and navigating regulatory requirements and processes for a wide variety of nations is a daunting task for even the largest organizations. New technologies help alleviate some of those burdens and simplify the process for both the business and investor alike.
Marketing Consulting – Marketing consultancies are a unique type of management consulting firm focusing on developing strategies to target consumers and successfully sell goods and services. Design of successful marketing strategy generally requires both industry-specific and broad market-wide knowledge of products, services, competitors as well as creativity and design expertise. Marketing agencies come in all shapes and sizes and may focus on traditional campaigns or digital marketing.
HR Consulting – Human resource consultants help navigate the challenges internal HR departments face. More often than not, a lack of sufficiently organized data and personal bias among hiring managers and HR professionals prevents the selection of the best candidate for the role. HR consultants can help organizations implement tools and policies which significantly improve candidate attraction, selection, assessment, training, and promotion while ensuring compliance with local, regional and national labor and employment policy. Nowadays, HR professionals play a larger role in M&A restructuring, succession planning, and industrial and labor relations than they have previously. HR consultants provide technical and interpersonal solutions to help organizations choose and retain the talent which provides the best value and return on investment.
PR Consulting – Public relations agencies and consultants help companies and governments determine the best practices for creating and managing an organization’s desired image with the public. Public relations specialists help manage reputations and construct narratives to benefit relationships between an organization and its customers, investors, partners, and employees. Reputation and crisis management are two of the most utilized PR services. More often than not, a consultancy stands more to gain by providing sound honest advice than a PR agency whose primary focus is the sale of their products and services.
Social Media Consulting – Social media consultants design and develop strategies for consumer-engagement on the web. Generally speaking, one of the primary goals of the organization in process is to increase relevant web traffic, sharing, and conversation about their products or services. Experienced social media consultants focus on creating and maintaining a strong online media presence and public brand recognition. Managing the dozens, and sometimes even hundreds, of social media platforms and sites a company may desire to maintain a presence on can be impossible for internal departments without retaining a social media consulting firm to design a strategy utilizing the latest in cross-platform technologies.
Financial/Investment Advisory Consulting – Financial advisory consultants provide the objective advice your organization needs about investment opportunities without the limitations inherently present with registered financial services firms and advisers. The main difference is the compensation structure. While financial service firm representatives attempt to secure your account as a client, these professions are generally commission and/or performance based causing various conflicts of interest. A consultancy rarely participates in the process of referring or managing accounts, which brings a certain level of impartiality to the subject providing businesses unbiased and objective investment advice.
Legal Consulting – As opposed to legal counsel, legal consultants externally identify the legal issues and challenges facing their clients and present effective solutions. Legal consultants are generally hired in addition to internal legal counsel in order to provide industry-specific knowledge and expertise. Legal consulting services are heavily utilized in specializations such as intellectual property, global banking, tax and compliance, real estate transactions, technological transactions, and legal structuring.
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