So, what’s consulting, eh?

Finance Ministry seeks advisors for mammoth LIC floatation

Ministry of Steel launches request for consulting proposals

Indian accounting and advisory firms join global networks

These are few of the various taglines we hear in the news quite frequently. We all have heard a lot about firms like BCG, McKinsey, Deloitte etc. But what is this thing? How can the same person serve to various sectors? Why do various organizations need consulting in the first place? Who all need it? Do you need it?

Doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, business consultants, and numerous other professionals will offer customers or prospective customers the chance to meet with them for a consultation. Consulting began to develop shortly after the rise of management as a unique field of enterprise in the late 19th Century, along with the Industrial Revolution.

The dictionary defines a consultant as “an expert in a particular field who works as an advisor either to a company or to another individual” usually where the client wants to change something, achieve something, attain something, or become something, and he needs help.

The client knows what the desired state is, but he needs an expert’s opinion or help in getting there.

Consulting requires rigorous data analysis, good deal of on field experience and a devoted study to the problem to understand the bigger picture( to also suggest alternatives which client might not even think can be benefitting).

The 5 main types of consulting are:

1.Strategy Consulting Careers.

2.Operations Consulting Careers.

3.Financial Advisory Consulting.

4.Human Resources Consulting.

5.Risk & Compliance Consulting.

The first firms were started by university professors. The first management consulting firm was named Arthur D. Little, after the founding MIT professor, in the late 1890s. This company originally specialized in technical research, but later became a general Management Consultancy.

The founder of McKinsey, one of the first consulting firms, believed that Management Consultancies should adhere to the same high professional standards as lawyers and doctors who developed the modern form of this field and started hiring newly graduated MBAs from top schools to staff his projects.

These MBA graduates in various firms made a plethora of analytical tools and approaches that would define the new field of strategic management.

Today, at many top business schools, as much as 1/3rd of the graduating class will sign with Consulting firms upon graduation.

By the 1990s, there was thus a huge demand for Undergraduates and MBAs alike, and firms were recruiting extremely aggressively on campus. Currently, most consulting companies are working at full capacity and the outlook for the sector as a whole is very positive.

Internal consultant: Someone who operates within an organization but is available to be consulted on areas of their specialization by other departments or individuals (acting as clients).

External consultant: Someone who is employed externally to the client (either by a consulting firm or some other agency) whose expertise is provided on a temporary basis, usually for a fee. multinational corporations. This type of consultant generally engages with multiple and changing clients, which are typically companies, non-profit organizations, or governments.

Management consultants are the ones make some of the highest salaries in the professional world, and as you would anticipate with such a lucrative & charming career, getting into the field is extremely difficult and ludicrously competitive. You need top-tier grades, you need to make the right connections at networking events, and you need to absolutely nail each stage of the interview process to get selected.

Today, consultants can be used at almost any work/stage of task. Consultants can support in mergers and acquisitions, create growth strategies, diagnose the business, evaluate market environments, help in financials, create customers and almost all major business/personal segment.

Thus we can say that the field is broad and deep, and highly varied with an exciting atmosphere.