Перевод текста Management consulting

Management consulting refersto both the industry, and the practice of, helping organizations improve theirperformance, primarily through the thorough analysis of existing businessproblems and development of plans for improvement. Organizations hire theservices of management consultants for a number of reasons, including, forexample, to gain external and presumably more objective advice and recommendations,to gain access the consultants` specialized expertise or simply as temporaryhelp during a one-time project, where the hiring of permanent employees is notrequired. Because of their exposure to and relationships with numerousorganizations, consultancies are also said to be aware of industry `bestpractices,` although the transferability of such practices from oneorganization to another is the subject of debate. Consultancies may alsoprovide organizational change management assistance, development of coachingskills, technology implementation, strategy development, or operationalimprovement services. Management consultants generally bring their own,proprietary methodologies or frameworks to guide the identification ofproblems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective orefficient ways of performing business tasks.

Management consulting refersgenerally to the provision of business consulting services, but there arenumerous specializations, such as Information technology consulting, humanresource consulting, and others, many of which overlap, and most of which areoffered by the large diversified consultancies listed below. So-called`boutique` consultancies, however, are smaller organizations specializing inone or a few of such specializations.

Management Consulting isbecoming more prevalent in non-business related fields as well. As the need forprofessional and specialized advice grows, other industries such as government,quasi-government and not-for-profit agencies are turning to the same managerialprinciples that have helped the private sector for years.

One important and recentchange in the industry has been the spin-off or separation of the consultingand the accounting units of the large diversified firms. For these firms, whichbegan business as accounting firms, management consulting was a new extensionto their business. But precipitated by a number of highly publicized scandalsover accounting practices, such as the Enron scandal, accountancies begandivestiture of their management consulting units, to more easily comply withtighter regulatory scrutiny that arose in the wake of the scandals.

Added to these approaches arecorporations that set up their own internal consulting groups, hiring internalmanagement consultants either from within the corporation or from externalfirms whose employees have tired of the road warrior lifestyle. Many of thesecorporations have internal groups of as many as 25 to 30 full-time consultants.

The internal consultantapproach is chosen for three reasons. First, the corporation does not want topay the large fees typically associated with external consulting firms. Second,they want to keep certain corporate information private. Finally, they want agroup that more closely works with, and monitors, consulting firmrelationships. Often, the internal consultant has less ramp up time on aproject due to familiarity with the corporation, and is able to guide a projectthrough to implementation—-a step that would be too costly if an externalconsultant were used.

Internal consulting groups areoften formed around a number of practice areas. The more common areas are:organizational development, process management, information technology, designservices, training, and development.

There are several potentialproblems facing internal consultants, and those who employ them. The internalconsultant may not bring the objectivity to the consulting relationship that anexternal firm can. An internal consultant also does not bring to the table bestpractices from other corporations. When the consulting industry is strong, itcan be difficult to recruit candidates who are of the same high calibre asthose working for outside consulting firms. Lastly, when financial times gettough, often the internal consulting group is the first to face layoffs