Management consulting refers to both the industry, and the
practice of, helping organizations improve their
performance, primarily through the thorough analysis of
existing business problems and development of plans for
improvement.
Organizations hire the services of management consultants
for a number of reasons, including, for example, to gain
external, and presumably more objective advice and
recommendations, to gain access the consultants' specialized
expertise, or simply as temporary help during a one-time
project, where the hiring of permanent employees is not
required. Because of their exposure to and relationships
with numerous organizations, consultancies are also said to
be aware of industry 'best practices,' although the
transferability of such practices from one organization to
another is the subject of debate.
Consultancies may also provide organizational change
management assistance, development of coaching skills,
technology implementation, strategy development, or
operational improvement services. Management consultants
generally bring their own, proprietary methodologies or
frameworks to guide the identification of problems, and to
serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or
efficient ways of performing business tasks.
Management consulting refers generally to the provision of
business consulting services, but there are numerous
specializations, such as information technology consulting,
human resource consulting, and others, many of which
overlap, and most of which are offered by the large
diversified consultancies listed below. So-called 'boutique'
consultancies, however, are smaller organizations
specializing in one or a few of such specializations.
Management Consulting is becoming more prevalent in
non-business related fields as well. As the need for
professional and specialized advice grows, other industries
such as government, quasi-government and not-for-profit
agencies are turning to the same managerial principles that
have helped the private sector for years.
One important and recent change in the industry has been the
spin-off or separation of the consulting and the accounting
units of the large diversified firms. For these firms, which
began business as accounting firms, management consulting
was a new extension to their business.
But precipitated by a number of highly publicized
scandals over accounting practices, such as the Enron
scandal, accountancies began divestiture of their management
consulting units, to more easily comply with tighter
regulatory scrutiny that arose in the wake of the scandals.
