AS organisations have restructured, downsized, privatised and globalised, consulting has expanded.The industry is reckoned to be worth $50 billion per annum worldwide. Estimates suggest it is worth $3.5 billion per annum in Australia.
AS organisations have restructured, downsized, privatised and globalised, consulting has expanded.
The industry is reckoned to be worth $50 billion per annum worldwide. Estimates suggest it is worth $3.5 billion per annum in Australia.
Despite the surge in the use of consultants there is still enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that their use is as successful as it could be.
Consulting is intangible, which means that clients do not really know what they are to get until they get it – or get what they do not want! Consulting involves direct interaction between the “buyer” and “seller” and the two are inseparable.
The implications of these two characteristics are that consultant selection is often difficult, quality is hard to determine, the outcome is dependent on the quality of interaction with clients and the interaction experience can influence perceptions of the outcome, whatever its quality.
Clients would be well advised to make sure that the consultants they hire can deliver on their promises. Consultants fall roughly into three categories.
Those who operate in the job area and are self-identified consultants working solo or in small practices, those who operate in the area and are members of a professional body (the Institute of Management Consultants or similar organisations for human resource or IT specialists, for example), and those who operate in the job area and are members of the big national or international consulting firms.
For management consultants especially, the numbers of self-identified consultants and members of the big firms far outnumber those who are members of IMC.
Clients who hire big firm management consultants or management consultants who are members of IMC or similar professional bodies have an assurance of quality service and an appeal mechanism if they do have problems with the service.
There are many excellent self-identified management consultants in practice who could be, but choose not to be for one reason or another, members of the IMC.
This is because such membership is not required by clients. (Clients, however, accept that it is necessary for accountants and engineers and other professional they hire to be members of their professional bodies).
But there are many other self-identified consultants in practice who do not have the required qualifications and experience to qualify for IMC or other professional body membership and it is these management consultants about whom clients can be less sure of a quality service.
There is nothing to stop anyone claiming to be a management consultant and therein lies the dilemma for clients who hire them.
Hiring the big firms or from the ranks of IMC members or members of similar professional organisations is a surer way of obtaining quality service than taking on an unknown self-identified consultant.
·Dr Roger Smith is director, International Programs, UWA.
The industry is reckoned to be worth $50 billion per annum worldwide. Estimates suggest it is worth $3.5 billion per annum in Australia.
Despite the surge in the use of consultants there is still enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that their use is as successful as it could be.
Consulting is intangible, which means that clients do not really know what they are to get until they get it – or get what they do not want! Consulting involves direct interaction between the “buyer” and “seller” and the two are inseparable.
The implications of these two characteristics are that consultant selection is often difficult, quality is hard to determine, the outcome is dependent on the quality of interaction with clients and the interaction experience can influence perceptions of the outcome, whatever its quality.
Clients would be well advised to make sure that the consultants they hire can deliver on their promises. Consultants fall roughly into three categories.
Those who operate in the job area and are self-identified consultants working solo or in small practices, those who operate in the area and are members of a professional body (the Institute of Management Consultants or similar organisations for human resource or IT specialists, for example), and those who operate in the job area and are members of the big national or international consulting firms.
For management consultants especially, the numbers of self-identified consultants and members of the big firms far outnumber those who are members of IMC.
Clients who hire big firm management consultants or management consultants who are members of IMC or similar professional bodies have an assurance of quality service and an appeal mechanism if they do have problems with the service.
There are many excellent self-identified management consultants in practice who could be, but choose not to be for one reason or another, members of the IMC.
This is because such membership is not required by clients. (Clients, however, accept that it is necessary for accountants and engineers and other professional they hire to be members of their professional bodies).
But there are many other self-identified consultants in practice who do not have the required qualifications and experience to qualify for IMC or other professional body membership and it is these management consultants about whom clients can be less sure of a quality service.
There is nothing to stop anyone claiming to be a management consultant and therein lies the dilemma for clients who hire them.
Hiring the big firms or from the ranks of IMC members or members of similar professional organisations is a surer way of obtaining quality service than taking on an unknown self-identified consultant.
·Dr Roger Smith is director, International Programs, UWA.
