Useful Readings
Case Questions.com
Managementhelp.org
Case in Point by Marc Cosentino
How to Get into the Top Consulting Firms by Tim Darling
Suggested Courses for those interested in Consulting:
MKTG 259: Marketing Strategy
MKTG 243: Marketing Research
SMPP 206: Applied Microeconomics
SMPP 208: Macroeconomics Policy & Business
SMPP 209: Seminar Business Econ & Public Policy
SMPP 213: Management of Strategic Issues
SMPP 290: Consulting Process (summer)
MGT 225: Statistical Modeling and Analysis
Areas of Consulting
Environmental
Internal vs. External
Not-for-Profit
Commercial vs. Federal
Healthcare
IT
Strategy
Human Resources
Financial Services
Marketing
Environmental [top]
An environmental consultant works on client contracts in areas such as water pollution, air and land contamination, environmental impact assessment, environmental audit, waste management, environmental policy, ecological/land management, noise and vibration measurement and environmental management.
The sector continues to expand in response to a mix of regulation, corporate risk and reputation management. Consultants operate in a very commercial environment and senior staff may be required to help attract future clients for the business.
According to the 2006 Environmental Data Services (ENDS) survey of environmental professionals, the majority continue to be employed in the consultancy sector.
Internal vs. External Consulting (top)
Source: Vault, by Hannah Im
While many readers have expressed interest in external consulting, I bet there are a few out there who wonder about internal consulting. My career includes both working as an external consultant for two of the Big Five and a startup Internet consulting company, as well as working as an internal consultant for one of the world's largest investment banks. This article is for all those interested in internal consulting. While I will not describe all similarities or differences, here are enough descriptions to get you started.
Similarity 1: The Dynamic Environment
Consulting, in general, offers a variety of projects and interaction with a large range of clients in different industries and/or environments. No two days are the same. No two projects are the same either. Each day, we get to stretch our intellects and creativity. Those case questions in the interview process actually represent the kind of thinking required in our jobs. On the message boards comparing consulting to other industries, stimulation and challenge are the two characteristics that consultants consistently mention.
Similarity 2: Networking and Influence
We also get to rub shoulders with some of the most brilliant minds in industry. There are very few careers where we get to meet and dialogue with as many CEOs, board members, and industry leaders. Sometimes we witness and learn the importance of ethics, the impact of poor prioritization, or the negative power of the bottom line (a.k.a. revenue, be it plus or minus). But among them all, we also find inspiration, leadership, influence, and for those of us who are lucky, mentors and other long-term relationships, even friendships. Most importantly, they listen to us and are genuinely interested in our opinions. As a first year consultant, this blew my mind! Me, a fresh graduate, offering insight to men and women decades my senior and with far more experience. In other jobs, learning is often a one-sided experience for consultants. But in consulting, the learning is most definitely symbiotic between consultant and client.
Similarity 3: Broad Experiences
Our clients range in size, structure, and strategy. We advise on issues both common and unique throughout our client rosters. By the end of our first year, many of our r?sum?s contain a wider range of projects and skills than those in other fields.
Difference 1: Our Clients
Regardless of whether we are internal consultants or external, the rewards are equal. However, the kinds of rewards vary, because of the environments where we consult.
As external consultants, we engage startups and blue chips. Our clients do not resemble each other. As an internal consultant, we work within one company only. Though we interact with departments of different sizes, our client remains the same. Catering to numerous clients has its advantages and disadvantages, as does serving one client. When working with a diverse clientele, we get to know many industries as generalists, so it takes us longer to become experts. If we work within one industry, the time to specialization decreases, and we get a broad overview of the industry. We know different companies' best practice and how each grapples with their issues. Still, most of the diversity within any industry is vast enough that we still need more time to settle on one or two areas of expertise within the field. With one client, we get to know one industry very well and can become an industry or product expert much more quickly. However, we miss the chance to broaden our exposure to the numerous environments and people external consultants have.
Difference 2: Project Completion
Working as external consultants, we meet many employees at each client. However, we do not always remain onsite or work with the clients long enough to establish deep-rooted relationships. Nor do we always get to see a project through to completion or know if the clients implemented our suggestions. Internal consultants, on the other hand, work with the same people for longer periods, even if the projects are short-term in nature. So we also know the outcome of our projects and have greater opportunity to manage the projects' outcomes.
External consultants often have to reach out to their clients to find out how that last project is faring, and many times, we are disappointed to learn the project was never implemented. Maybe funding fell through, or reorganization no longer makes the project necessary, or some other situation arises to obliterate all those hours and ideas we contributed. By this time, there is very little we might be able to do about the client's situation.
This is not always true for internal consultants - often, clients seek us out when it looks like the project's value will diminish. Also, because internal consultants are already onsite and probably know the management that decided to bypass our recommendations, we can act almost immediately.
Difference 3: Additional Consulting Opportunities
External consultants constantly bear the pressure to identify and close sales opportunities in order to climb the ranks. Unfairly, clients often view external consultants' genuine concern or interest in their firms as another sales pitch. In contrast, the company generally values an internal consultants' advice more, because we are not perceived as only seeking self-promotion at the client's disadvantage. So when an internal consultant recognizes a consulting opportunity, management generally receives our communication more willingly.
Difference 4: Career Transitions
On my first day at my first company, the human resources partner told us one in one hundred of us new employees would stick around to make partner. At the time, I thought I would surely be one of those on partnership track. I also did not understand why anyone would want to leave such a great company. But during my first year, I witnessed a great turnover rate, including partners. Few of us are lifetime consultants. Some of us return to school, but many external consultants join other industries. Our clients offer a great starting point. Sometimes, they recruit us, and sometimes, we solicit them. In contrast, internal consultants wishing to leave the company often struggle more, since a large portion of our network is concentrated under one roof. However, internal consultants who want to transfer out of consulting and into another department generally have an easier transition.
Difference 5: Utilization
Because consulting firms make money based on number of hours billed, external consultants face a lot of pressure only to bill. This translates into more on-the-job training and less formal training. Unfortunately, regardless of whether you are an internal or external consultant, your clients always expect a degree of expertise. Justifiably, they seek best practices from external consultants and deep knowledge from internal consultants - after all, external consultants cost a lot, and internal consultants are cost centers.
Unfortunately, even when external consultants are "on the beach" or want to pursue free formal training, we are often denied and put on development projects instead, like research or proposal writing or presentation support. Internal consultants do not share the same pressures on how we use their time, and management is more likely to allow or send us on training. On the other hand, internal consultants face a higher client expectation to know their internal clients and the clients' issues. So training is not only easier to acquire, but management tends to view it as necessary for job performance.
Consulting Careers
Whether you choose to be an internal consultant or external consultant, you will have career and growth opportunities available to you in many forms. But like everything else in life, how much you learn depends on you. So be sure to take advantage of every chance to develop your network, your skills, and your talents. Be sure also to recognize what outstanding achievements you contributed toward any project and to put it prominently on your resume.
Not-for-Profit (top)
The similarities between Not-For-Profit’s (NFP) and For-Profit’s (FP) are few but worth noting. First, the consulting roles don’t change very much. Consultants are called upon to facilitate, to problem-solve, to manage projects, to advise and counsel, to teach, to research, and so on. The many different hats a consultant might wear in the FP arena fit just as well in the NFP arena. It’s in the execution of the role and the selection of processes and methodologies that the differences are important. Essentially, then, a consultant might perform all the same functions for NFP’s as for FP’s – but how those functions are performed will likely be different. The second similarity is simple: both types of organizations are trying to accomplish goals through an organized approach to grouping people and performing tasks.
In the end, the consultant confronts a similar mix of variables – maybe a classic 80/20 Pareto match – that includes (a) people working together (b) across different functions (c) in some organized fashion (d) through a set of processes (e) to accomplish goals. But these five, which might be the 80% match with the For-Profit’s environment, are not sufficient for the consultant to succeed. It’s the other 20% we need to understand and adapt to.
The Differences - Governance, 2) Passion, and 3) Money.
Implications and Approaches - As you’ve been reading, you might have already identified these implications for the management consultant assisting Not-For-Profits: Whatever you plan to do, plan on it taking 30-50% longer than it would in a FP environment. Generally, you’ll need to get greater advance buy-in and consensus than you might be used to. This simply takes legwork, one-to-one conferences, and recycling efforts. The decision-making process is slower. Even with advance work done, getting decisions made will take longer. This is most often because of the greater involvement of the board, either in total, or selective members who seem to be particularly visible around the decision process.
Whichever methodology you might choose for an engagement, ensure it allows for the influence of history, emotions, and relationship-maintenance "dances." These might be time consuming and distracting from your critical path, but they are essential to the engagement’s success. Relationships are important in any organization, but nowhere more so than in the NFP. People seem to have stronger bonds due to the passion-for-mission dynamic. The consultant, in his/her zeal to move along the critical path to "the solution," must take care to help preserve the positive relationships, if not enhance them, as a byproduct of the engagement. At a minimum, as with the physician, the consultant should "do no harm." It might be just a coincidence, but most of the NFP’s with which I’ve worked have very long, storied histories.
In NFP project planning and project management, it’s important to understand this history of relationships and events. We need to know which closets hold skeletons and which cows are sacred. This means additional up-front time for interviews and study but it pays off big when you’re able to side-step land mines later on.
Do your homework. Yes, good consultants always do their homework; but in the NFP arena one element of preparation is often unnecessary in the FP world: persuasive arguments for use with people of passion. A reliance on logic and numbers will often be inadequate to make your case. Invest time to truly understand the mission, the goals, the passions, the history, and the relationships. Use this knowledge to shape your persuasive arguments.
Embrace frustration. Okay, learn to live with it. If most of your time is spent in the FP world, the NFP world will present higher frustration levels. In some engagements it’s the heat of the passions, in others it’s the slowness of action, and in others it’s ill-formed processes and systems that make it difficult to get things done. These do not prevent a consultant from succeeding; but they do extend the time and heighten the frustration of the journey. (Find more information at http://www.managementhelp.org)
Healthcare Consultants (top)
Healthcare Consultants provide billing, coding, interim management, HIS, marketing, new venture development, operational improvement, organizational, patient safety, regulatory compliance, research, restructuring, retained search, revenue cycle and expenditures management, strategic planning, training. Clients include hospitals, integrated healthcare systems, medical group practices, diagnostic imaging centers, clinical labs, long-term care facilities, sports medicine and rehabilitation centers, and dozens of other healthcare provider models. Learn more from the American Association of Healthcare Consultants website: http://www.aahc.net/.
IT (top)
IT consultants work on various aspects of Applications Portfolio Management, Converged Network Services, Customer Intelligence, Enterprise Security, ERP Solutions, Mobile Enterprise, Help desk services, Network services, Midrange services, Mainframe services, Application management and low-cost development centers, Business process outsourcing, Data center operations, Facilities management, Telecommunications, Web hosting, Securing people, facilities and systems.
Strategy (top)
Strategy Consultant look at the long term business development plan. They develop and execute business strategy, identifying and securing new opportunities. Development opportunities are realized through organic growth, acquisition and joint venture.
Human Resources (top)
A Human Resource Consultant works across a broad range of topics including: Coaching & Leadership Development, Compensation & Benefits, Compliance & Employment Law, Diversity, Employee Relations, Executive Search, General HR, Global HR, Health & Safety, HR Audits, HR Policies & Procedures, HR Strategy & Planning, HR Technology & Systems, Labor Relations, Organizational Development, Performance Management, Recruitment & Staffing, Recruitment, Selection & Staffing, Training.
Financial Services (top)
For quantitatively focused individuals interested in accounting or financial statements. Financial Consultants work includes corporate finance projects (valuation, capital budgeting), risk management, and corporate restructuring through issues like Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Additional responsibilities can include managing and growing the existing book of business, meeting and profiling prospective clients, reviewing investment goals and recommending investment products (e.g. stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, annuities).
Marketing (top)
Marketing Consultant work can include, but not limited to: Search Engine Marketing and Optimization, Branding, Positioning, Affiliate Marketing Development and Management, Marketing Strategy and Plan Development, Internet Marketing Strategy and Plan Development, Lead Generation, Sales and Marketing Campaign Development, Marketing Classes, Seminars, and Workshops.