What do consulting firms do?
This is a big question for many outsiders since consulting can be such a wide and hard-to-defined job. In this article, we will focus on the task of management consulting firms. What do they actually do and how do they manage to perform their tasks as their client's wish?
First of all, it is not a myth that big corporates usually go look for management consulting firms when they want to cut down some costs. Since they are not sure what business portfolio to downsize or get rid of completely, they will turn to a third party with expertise for the most objective result. In another way, consulting firms can be seen as doctors for companies, who will give the "patient" a check-up and then recommendations in a strategical way. Moreover, in case they want to expand to a new market or a new industry, it is very likely for them to hire firms with such strong backgrounds in that field. In this context, the "patient" is considered as an athlete who's going to compete and the "doctor" is there to help them succeed. The expected outcome is an improvement in performance, maybe higher profit or possibly a better way of doing things. On the other hand, it's not just corporations but also the public sector, such as governments, non-profit organizations, hospitals need a management consulting firm to cater for their specific needs, which are typically related to more savings and reducing costs.
Essentially, consultants are hired to solve these problems. Their daily job will be working with numbers and then analyzing them. They also have to do tons of research before and during their project to know the client's need as well as possible. In other words, they are paid to think of a solution to the problem. However, consultants must bring deliverables in a short amount of time, since there is obviously a timeline engagement to meet. Thus, the pressure is no joke and they need to make sure the expectations of clients is not overrated. In other words, the job of a managing consultant is being able to come up with a valuable implementation in a tight deadline while remaining realistic and goal-oriented.