Management Consulting ^{3rd Ed.}

How do the consulting process and the consulting industry work?

What skills does a successful management consultant need to develop?

How does the experience on a work placement programme or in-company project compare with the work of a consultant?

Addressing these questions and many others,Management Consulting is written for students taking dedicated management consulting modules and work placement programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It is well suited to students of business as well as scientific and creative disciplines who undertake a work-based project during the course of their academic study.

Key features include:

• A comprehensive introduction to practice and process in consultancy
• Examples across a wide range of industries including art, media and design, computing, engineering
• Help in choosing and developing a career in consultancy
• Access to recent academic research with extensive references and further reading

New to this edition! This third edition has been significantly revised, adding to the tools and techniques required of the discipline to make the book practical as well as intellectually rigorous. It also includes:

• Two new chapters on consulting across cultures; and contracting, influence and team leadership
• Focus on key topics: evaluating capabilities and opportunities; the selling process of consulting; and consulting as a graduate career option
• New case exercises to put tools and techniques into practice
• A long case study running throughout the book

• Part One — Management Consulting in context and how it adds value
1. The nature of management consulting and how it adds value
• Learning Outcomes
1. What a management consultant does
2. Consulting and management roles
3. The client-consultant interaction
4. The responsibilities of the management consultant
5. Types of clients
6. Modes of consulting
7. The decision to use a consultant
8. Provision of information
9. Provision of specialist knowledge
10. Provision of a new perspective
11. Provision of support for internal arguments
12. Provision of support for gaining a critical resource
13. Facilitating organizational change
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise:Natural Beauty Ltd
  
2. Consulting: the wider context and consulting process
• Learning Outcomes
1. Management consulting: core processes of a business
2. 'Hard' side consulting: operational processes of a business
3. 'Soft' side consulting: human processes of a business
4. Consulting to the non-profit and public sectors
5. Overview of the consulting process
6. Initial contact and initiating the project
7. Preliminary analysis of the issues and defining objectives
8. Pitching the project: the formal proposal and project charter
9. Project progression and follow-up
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Southern Food Services
  
3. The skills of the consultant and the project proposal
• Learning Outcomes
1. The effective consultant's skill profile
2. Project management skills
3. Analysis skill
4. Relationship-building skills
5. The consulting selling process
6. The function of the project proposal
7. What to include in the proposal and an example
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise:Golden Star
  
4. Consulting cross borders and cultures — Jeremy Wilcock
• Learning Outcomes
1. The great wide world
2. Factors encouraging international operation
3. Researching and selecting overseas markets
4. Market entry options
5. Export management issues
6. Culture
7. International marketing
8. Global marketing planning process
9. Managing the client/cvonsultant relationship
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Bill Chieftain
  
• Robinson Mason case study: Part 1
• Part Two — Project evaluation and analysis
5. Defining the destination, developing a strategy and understanding change
• Learning Outcomes
1. Identification of opportunities and issues with the client organisation
2. Problem analysis, specification and quatification
3. Objective setting: defining the desired end-state
4. Developing a strategy for the destination
5. Developing the strategy for the journey
6. The need for change in the client organisation
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Exconom
  
6. Evaluating client capabilities and business opportunities — Margaret Dewhurst and Tony Kellett
• Learning Outcomes
1. Preliminary analysis techniques
2. Strategic capabilities of business
3. Financial and business performance
4. Identification and evaluation of strategic options
5. Planning for the future
6. Opportunity, innovation and information
7. Qualitative methods for evaluating opportunities
8. Quantitative methods for evaluating opportunities
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: DQS
  
7. Contracting, influence and team leadership — Kevin Parker
• Learning Outcomes
1. Contracting
2. Influencing
3. Fundamentals of rapport and key skills
4. Change-limiting assumptions
5. Outcome thinking, outcome-frame thinking and improving advocacy
6. Listening, powerful questions and push and pull of influencing
7. Team leadership and climate
8. Accelerating team performance and dealing with conflict
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: O'Reilly Design
  
• Robinson Mason case study: Part 2
• Part Three — Undertaking the project
8. Executing a successful project
• Learning Outcomes
1. Consultant-client engagement for project implementation
2. Benchmarking project progression
3. Understanding the roles of client team members
4. Relationship with the client during the project
5. The desire for change by the client organisation
6. Change-enhancing interactions
7. Types of project shock
8. Responding to project shocks
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Argyll Chemistry
  
9. Creative approaches to analysis
• Learning Outcomes
1. The importance of creativity and innovation
2. Analysis strategies
3. Visualising information
4. Supporting analysis with ad hoc visuals
5. Cognitive style and strategy
6. Mind mapping
7. Brainstorming
8. Features analysis
9. Delphi Auditing
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Businesses in the chemical sector
  
10. Analysing decision-making in the client business and the decision context
• Learning Outcomes
1. Approaches to understanding decision-making
2. Decision-making in organisations
3. Types of management decision-making roles
4. The decision-making unit
5. The dimensions of a decision
6. Decision-making style and influence
7. Organisational orientation
8. Organisational culture
9. Strategy processes
10. External influences on organisational decision-making
11. The naturalistic decision-making approach
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Inflight entertainment
  
11. Consulting project planning and time management
• Learning Outcomes
1. Individual roles for team members
2. Setting a timetable and critical path analysis
3. Project budgeting
4. Organising meetings and reviews
5. The importance of time management and effective time management
6. Time management systems
7. The function of the project log
8. What to include in the project log and suggested formats
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Manor House restaurant
  
• Robinson Mason case study: Part 3
• Part Four — Delivering the product to the client
12. Communication skills and presenting your ideas
• Learning Outcomes
1. The nature of business communication
2. Communication as a business tool
3. Verbal and non-verbal communication
4. Written and visual communication
5. Planning the communication
6. The consulting report
7. Formal presentations
8. Making a case: persuading with information
9. Answering questions and meeting objections in presentations
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Holroyd Engineering
  
13. Learning from success
• Learning Outcomes
1. Handing over ownership of the project
2. Post-project summary and review
3. Follow-up projects and key client management
4. Using consulting projects as case studies
5. Recognising the successes
6. Success and transferable skills
7. Recording successes on your CV and relating them in job interviews
8. Learning from failure
   
• Team Discussion Points
• Summary of Key Ideas
• Key Reading
• Further Reading
• Case Exercise: Beta Venture Capital
• Robinson Mason case study: Part 4
14. Consulting as a career
1. Learning Outcomes
1. The consulting industry today
2. Key players in the consulting world
3. Career structure in consulting firms
4. Becoming a consultant
5. The internal consultant
6. The value of the consulting experience in non-consulting careers
   
1. Team Discussion Points
2. Summary of Key Ideas
3. Key Reading
4. Further Reading
5. Case Exercise: AB Consulting
   
• Appendix: Example of a consulting report: Supergelato Ice Cream Ltd

This is not really a book about Management Consulting per se, but a book about Project Management from a Consulting viewpoint. And especially from a Management Consulting viewpoint!

If you understand that, you realise that the authors have written a pretty decent book, that you may in fact learn a thing or two from. It will not revolutionize your project leader role (you should be one if you read this book) but it will be valueable nonetheless.