Management consulting refers to the providing of services to businesses in order to help them improve their performance and achieve growth. Management consulting firms help their clients to solve their problems by finding more effective and more efficient ways of conducting their business operations. These firms work with organizations in both the private and public sector by assembling a group of talented, analytical individuals that can identify and solve complex business issues.
Types of Management Consulting Engagements
While there are numerous types of management consulting engagements, there are five types that are considered to be the most common:
Strategy Consulting
The strategic management of a company is the highest level of decision making to determine the direction of a business. These types of decisions are usually in the hands of the “C-suite” and are most often made with a top-down view of the company. Strategic consulting engagements, therefore, tend to address the most essential choices concerning a company’s direction and impact all aspects of the business.
Financial Consulting
To be successful, companies must make be able to make objective and informed financial decisions. These financial decisions must consider a large number of complex variables. Financial consultants assist their clients by offering financial guidance and expertise specific to the needs of that company. Some areas of financial consulting include:
Corporate finance
Risk management services
Corporate restructuring
Transaction services
Operations Consulting
The operational practices of a business are what steers the company itself. Operations consulting engagements often address issues such as:
Process management
Supply chain management
Procurement strategies
Outsourcing decisions
Operations consulting thrives because companies are always seeking to optimize their operational procedures through increased efficiencies, cutting reduction strategies, and enhanced quality.
Human Resources (HR) Consulting
For most organizations, employees are viewed as their most valuable assets. And given this, the need for effective employee management is critical for a company’s long-term success. HR consultants help businesses develop clear and effective procedures to manage such things as:
Employee training and development
Employee benefits
Worker engagement
Conflict resolution
HR consulting industry emerged as a specialization from more general management consulting practices to assist companies in addressing employee-specific issues and decisions.
Compliance Consulting
In today’s highly regulated work environment, companies must understand and adhere to laws, standards, and ethical practices. Compliance is the process of creating assurance for this. Enforcing compliance through company policies can help to identify and prevent breaches of governance, which can include fraud, discrimination, or abuse. This will then help to protect the organization against fines and lawsuits.
The Traditional Consulting Business Model
The consulting business model is typically based on the idea of hiring talented people and charging clients a fee for gaining access to this talent. While the vast majority of the consulting industry operates by these basic principles, new, technology-driven business models are emerging that can create a higher level of value for customers. These new models can also benefit the firms themselves by creating greater opportunities for efficiency and scale.
eLearning for Enhanced Consulting Engagements
An important aspect of many consulting engagements is in the need for employee training to create awareness of technology, procedural, and other changes. In the past, the only real option for conducting employee training was through classroom-led instruction, online learning, or “eLearning” has emerged in recent years as a more efficient and preferable training approach.
Not only is eLearning more effective and convenient for the client, but it allows the consulting firm to scale and achieve margins that are not possible in a purely labor-driven model. While eLearning can impact all areas of a consulting and corporate training engagement, some common use cases include:
Technology training
Compliance training
Introduction of new procedures and operational policies
LMS Portals for Consulting Firms
LMS Portals provides our consulting partners with a cloud-based, multi-tenant learning management system (LMS) to support the employee training aspect of your consulting engagements. Our system allows you to launch private, customized eLearning environments (portals) on-demand. And each portal your launch can have its own corporate branding and supporting technologies to optimize the user experience and training engagement.
Visit our Partner Program pages to learn more or contact us today to get started
for free!