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The Field of Consulting

Consulting is a very broad term, but it is an easy concept to grasp. To put it simply, a consultant is an expert that provides useful counsel to a business so that the business can grow and become better in the future. The overall goal of a consultant is to leave a firm better off in the business area that they provided help with. The business topics that consulting can be provided for include: IT, strategy, finance, marketing, leadership and the list goes on! The goal of this Wiki page is to examine the many different opportunities in the world of consulting, as well as expand your knowledge about the field of consulting and enlighten you on its many uses and application in the real world.

In a broad sense, it refers to a qualified expert giving advice to an individual, firm, or organization on a specific business topic, but under the surface, it is so much more than that. In the field of consulting, there is a hierarchy of purposes that a consultant is expected to do. According to the Harvard Business Review, there are 5 traditional purposes that make up a consultant’s objectives. One of the biggest priorities of a consultant is to provide information. A firm will often ask for information, such as analyses of competitive structure, attitude surveys, and market surveys so that the firm can decide what it needs to do. Next, a consultant will be expected to solve the firm’s problems. The consultant needs to identify the real issue behind a firm’s business conflict. Some of the other critical tasks that a consultant must be able to do is recommend actions that the firm can take to solve their conflict and implement change within the organization so that it can become a better business. Along with these traditional purposes, there exist 3 additional goals that a consultant aims to accomplish. First, he or she wants to build commitment and engagement within the organization so that their counsel can be accepted and implemented. Second, the consultant wants to facilitate the firm’s learning. One of the critical end goals of the consultant is to make sure that the client is left with lasting value, which will allow them to progress their business. The final goal of a consultant is to ensure that their client is operating at an effective level. Meaning that the professional contributes to the overall effectiveness by addressing issues with sensitivity and awareness to their larger contexts; how the immediate concern fits into the whole picture.

Without a doubt, these tasks are not always easy and require certain skills; not everyone can be a consultant. As a consultant, you aim to demonstrate a high proficiency in your area of expertise that can be applied to various projects and issues. Over a short amount of time, you are exposed to firms that have vastly different purposes and needs, and you must be able to confidently use skills in your area of expertise to address them all. Generally speaking, consulting is a job that looks different nearly every day. While the demands of each specific branch vary, a typical consulting job follows the same formula. A consultant takes on a client’s project or issue on which they need professional advice. Sometimes this is because they lack an employee whose skills are tailored to this need, and sometimes what the business needs most is a new outside perspective. After taking the job, the consultant must gain as much knowledge about the company and their needs as possible. Strong analysis skills are necessary, and the consultant cannot be afraid to ask questions, request feedback, and adapt quickly to a new work environment and peers. Some consultancies choose a more holistic approach to their work, while some aim their focus on one particular sect of the company. This depends on both the consultant and their area of focus.

Consulting has many different fields, such as optimization, international affairs and marketing. Consulting with the purpose of optimization is to make a company run better and more efficient. This field of consulting has been growing in popularity recently. Some of the stamps include finding the wasted time and resources in the company, this could be workers, outdated machinery or processes. Then you get rid of the waste of repurpose it. Then you make everything run better, faster and more smoothly. Consulting within international affairs can be working for governments in different countries or even within elections. This is so that the government can hire a specialist to fix a problem that is within. They could do this by hiring them through a consulting firm that specializes in this field. Marketing consulting is one of the most common forms of consulting. This is when a company hires someone from a marketing consulting firm and they make an ad or a campaign that makes a product more appealing to different audiences or even bring in a new demographic with a new ad campaign. All these different types of consulting are very important to the world we live in and we see it everyday even if we don't think we do.

Consulting and Marketing

Related Articles

Strategies for Introducing Marketing into Nonprofit Organizations

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This article addresses the idea of introducing marketing tactics to non-profit organizations. He refers to these non-profit organizations as the “third sector” which comprises non-profit and private organizations. These non-profit organizations have a history of having a hard time getting funding and author Philip Kolter believes that the lack of marketing and advertising could be the issue. He poses the idea that in order to survive these organizations need to start thinking and behaving like marketers and if they can’t do it themselves, they have the ability to hire a marketing consultant. He advises that an organization find someone with experience in their field of services and someone who has prior experience. This could either be a temporary relationship, on a contract basis, or an employee. A marketing director can also be employed as the organization gets more serious and later on, a marketing vice president.

Many non-profit organizations have shied away from marketing because they think it is all for the greed of sales and promotion, but this is a misconception. Marketing is an idea that encompasses aspects of product development, market research, strategy, and customer support, and until these organizations accept that, they may not survive.

Integrating Social Media and Social Marketing: A Four-Step Process

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This article is about the vast amount of opportunity there is with the integration of social media in the field of marketing. The authors claim that if organizations are able to use social media correctly, they will be able to increase their ability to place the customer at the center of the marketing process. They provide 4 steps for this process.

1. Describe the target audience. In order to be effective the organization, or the consultant working for the firm, needs to decide on the audience segment they want to key in on for marketing. Part of this includes discovering how that audience uses social media (adults and teens use social media differently)
2. Identify why the firm would want to engage with the audience. Do they want feedback? Do they want a solution to fixing a problem with the product or service?
3. Outline a strategy to engage the audience. The organization needs to identify the reasons/benefits of having that connection with the audience. How is this relationship mutual? What does the audience get from the exchange?
4. Choose the type of application to use based on the audience’s preferences. Which social media is most desired among the audience?

These are the 4 steps that a consultant would have to take in order to ensure that their client is getting the most from social media marketing.

Pertinent Platforms/Programs in the Discipline

Tableau Data Visualization Tool

Tableau

Tableau is an amazing business intelligence and data analytics tool that can be used to convert raw data into nicely crafted visualizations. The software connects to Excel and other database files to fetch data. The layout is very modern and interactive, and it is a staple in the world of data analytics.

Consultants usually help companies utilize Tableau so that they can get the most information from their data converting them into charts, maps, and graphs. These data visualizations can help leaders of a firm make sense of unusual patterns in the data, plan for the next actions that the firm will take, and revise something within their business in order to correct a newly identified flaw. Consultants that use Tableau can develop marketing solutions for their clients due to their understanding of databases and analysis.

McKinsey Digital

McKinsey Digital is a branch of the renown McKinsey & Company that transforms and builds businesses by “bringing together the capabilities needed to help organizations grow and thrive in the digital age”. This group offers some of the best marketing and sales consulting in the world. They aim to help clients generate digital sales, create new digital channels, and overall succeed in the digital world. They focus on dynamic e-commerce pricing with the goal of driving revenue and margin growth for their clients as well. They key in on customer engagement and loyalty as well, aiming to obtain high customer retention rates. This group is very versatile, helping businesses in multiple marketing aspects.

As the world we know becomes more digitized it will be very important to be able to adapt to the rapid changes. Marketing will be mainly digital, and this group is a signal that this aspect of business will be very important in the future.

Glossary Terms

Retention

Customer retention is one of the most important data points of every business. The idea of retention boils down to the simple fact that businesses want to keep their customers buying their products or services. They want to keep generating revenue from their current customers, as it can be hard to acquire new ones (customer acquisition). A firm would hire a consultant for professional advice on how to keep its retention rate high.

A consultant would look at several metrics in order to analyze a firm’s retention rate. They would first look at the firm’s attrition rate which is the number of customers a company has lost within a specific time frame. They would look at the repeat customer rate, which measures the chances that an existing customer will make more than one purchase. Finally, the consultant would calculate the purchase frequency which represents the average number of orders placed by each customer.

If the firm realizes that they have a poor retention rate, then it would seek counsel on how to raise it, whereby a consultant would provide the following solutions:

1. Engage with your customers: implementing effective engagement tactics like email marketing and social media
2. Improve customer support: allow customers to reach you in multiple different ways
3. Foster a community: create membership programs that provide perks to loyal customers to increase their loyalty to your brand

KPI

Key performance indicators or KPI’s are a set of quantifiable measurements that are used to gauge an organization’s overall performance. They help assess a firm’s current status, and help determine which strategic, financial, and managerial decisions it should make in the future. A major reason why these indicators are so important in the realm of consulting is because they allow consultants to understand what a firm has been doing right and wrong. There are many different types of KPI’s, but a marketing consultant would typically focus on those that affect the marketing of a firm. Marketing KPI’s attempt to gain better understanding of the effectiveness of a firm’s current marketing and promotional campaigns. They focus on conversion rates of prospective customers into customers; they include the following:

1. Website Traffic: This KPI monitors the number of people who visit a firm’s web pages. A consultant would use this metric to understand whether website traffic is being directed to actual sales
2. Social Media Traffic: Similar to website traffic, this KPI tracks the views, likes, shares, and comments (overall engagement) between customers and the firm’s profiles.
3. Impressions and Reach: This KPI reflects the number of times that your marketing campaign was shown to a user. A consultant would try to find the best ways for a firm to increase their reach to more potential customers

Ways To Engage

Georgia Tech Marketing Association

The Georgia Tech Marketing Association (GTMA) was founded in 2009 in hopes of educating and advancing the careers of prospective marketing students. This group invites industry professionals to speak about their careers and provide college students with tips and tricks to begin their careers. The association holds workshops that intend to build the skills necessary to have in the field of marketing. They provide students with many great networking opportunities, providing wonderful opportunities to interact with different professionals in both local Atlanta companies and nationwide companies, such as Pinterest, Coca-Cola, and Newell Brands. This group may provide a good foundation of what it means to be a marketing consultant as it gives students the experiences of traveling, networking, and education that can ultimately contribute to their success in marketing and consulting.

Social Media

Instagram Logo

Social media has become a key instrument for the success of businesses of all sorts. This is primarily because social media is where millions of people spend at least 2 hours a day. Scrolling and clicking, these people are bound to come across advertisements, and a consultant is going to make sure that you are one of those lucky businesses that get seen.

Social media is a great way to engage in the field of consulting because of social media’s great influence on sales and promotion. Many marketing consultants have the job of maintaining a firm’s content creation and social media presence. There is also a fair amount of interaction that can be done with customers via social media, something that businesses could not really do 20 years ago.

An independent consultant can also find work by means of social media as well. A simple Instagram or Facebook account can act as your portfolio so that other firms who need service can spot you and hire you. With social media the possibilities are endless!

Consulting and International Affairs

Related Articles

Three rules for strategy at Deloitte Consulting: Secrets of long-term, sustainable success

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Following the global financial crisis in the late 2000s, fingers were pointing in every direction. No one really knew what to do to get the world back on track, but some companies were faring better than others. Most of these companies were clients of the Deloitte consulting company, and still just a handful of their large clientele. Why were they doing so well?

The authors of this paper conducted a study to determine the three most important things that all the most exceptional companies at Deloitte were doing. These three things were the secret to both the clients’ success, and Deloitte’s. The first thing is emphasizing a focus on long-term profits. It was worth sacrificing a little more money now on productivity and innovation to ensure more profit and efficiency later. In this same vein, the second thing that Deloitte advises is focusing on long-term revenue, rather than short-term cost. More revenue in the long run proves substantially more useful than saving a few bucks in the moment. And third, Deloitte found its success by maintaining a flexible mindset. After following the two core principles, the rest is unpredictable and requires an innovative, flexible approach.

Power and the diffusement of management ideas: The case of McKinsey & Co.

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This article explores the role of consulting firms in shaping management practices and organizational culture. The authors argue that consulting firms, such as McKinsey & Co., have significant power to shape management practices due to their expertise and reputation. The article examines the history of McKinsey & Co. and its role in shaping management practices over the past century. The authors argue that McKinsey has been particularly influential in diffusing management ideas across organizations, due to its reputation as a trusted advisor and its use of data-driven methodologies. The article also explores the potential downsides of this influences, such as the homogenization of management practices and the perpetuation of inequality within organizations. The authors argue that consulting firms like McKinsey can unintentionally reinforce existing power structures within organizations, rather than challenging them. Overall, the article highlights the complex role of consulting firms in shaping management practices and organizational culture. While these firms can have significant influence, their impact may not always be positive, and it is important to consider the potential downsides of their influence when evaluating their role in organizations.

Pertinent Platforms/Programs in the Discipline

R logo

R coding language

R is a free, widely-used programming language developed at Bell Laboratories. It is an open-source language that allows users to implement new functions, and thus is constantly involving and improving thanks to its large and active community of users. It is most known for its ability to effectively handle large datasets, often associated with and used for statistical analysis. The website refers to R as an “environment,” rather than a statistical system, though, as its functionality can be extended by downloading packages from the large library it offers. Users can even create their own packages, perfectly tailoring the system to the needs of their project or interests. R’s extensive catalog of tools, functions, and operations make its capabilities nearly endless, and sometimes difficult to master. It is becoming increasingly popular in academia, research, social sciences, etc, and is an invaluable tool for consultants as they work with clients’ data.

Invesco Global Strategic Intelligence

Simply put, Invesco is an investment management company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Their primary job is to manage their clients’ investments. They create investment profiles for their clients, choosing the right places to invest and analyzing how that might affect a company’s progress. Investment plans are created and tailored specifically to what each business client might need.

At Invesco in particular, there exists a Global Strategic Intelligence team. This team of people is specifically responsible for considering potential global threats and developing a deep enough understanding to guide a company safely through these investment risks. These issues can manifest in a few specific domains: cybersecurity, geopolitics, social media, etc. The team uses global sources to gather as much information as possible relating to these individual areas in order to most accurately develop strategies for their clients. Some of the global sources that the Global Strategic Intelligence team would utilize include, but are limited to: intelligence sharing groups, traditional media, law enforcement partners, and data analytics. Analysts on this team must have a strong understanding of international affairs, quality research ability, and creative analytical skills.

Invesco created a five part video series in conjunction with Georgia Tech detailing the field of global strategic intelligence. One of the panelists was Tech's own Adam Stulberg, chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. Click here to watch it!

Ways To Engage

McKinsey logo

McKinsey & Company

McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that provides a range of advisory services to businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations. Founded in 1926, McKinsey has become one of the largest and most respected consulting firms in the world, with more than 130 offices in over 65 countries, one of the most geographically diverse consultancies in the world. The firm is known for its expertise in strategy, operations, organizational management, and digital transformation. McKinsey has worked with a wide range of clients, from small startups to Fortune 500 companies, and its approach to consulting is based on a rigorous, data-driven method that emphasizes collaboration with clients to achieve measurable results. McKinsey’s international reach has played a significant role in its success. For example, the firm has joint ventures with consulting firms in regions such as the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. It boasts a number of international initiatives and programs aimed at promoting economic growth and development in emerging markets by improving education, healthcare, and infrastructure.

Undergraduate Consulting Club at Georgia Tech

The Undergraduate Consulting Club at Georgia Tech is made up of all Georgia Tech students, and aims to create a place for students who are passionate about consulting to come together to gain experience and form connections. They pride themselves on the connections their club boasts, partnering with companies like IBM, UPS, and NCR to provide valuable networking opportunities for students entering the workforce hoping to pursue a career in consulting. The club has been around since the 1970s, and has an executive board comprised of student members that rotates every semester. Students who join can take part in pro bono projects, undergo interview preparation, and participate in networking events. The club is open to any major, and opens applications every semester. Consulting looks different with every type that is practiced, so this club is the perfect opportunity for students to see what their interests might look like on a daily basis, as well as connect with people who can help them get to the companies and positions where they want to be.

Glossary Terms

Geopolitics

Geopolitics is most commonly used as a term interchangeable for international politics. It refers to the relationships between global powers, and how their standings are affected by economics, communication, geography, etc. Analysts focus on individual actors on the international scale, and how their actions are affected by other actors. These actors can be countries, companies, or individuals. Each of them has something to contribute to the international order, whether it be good or bad for others. Some actions, while beneficial for the actor who took part in it, can cause tensions on the global scale to rise. The possibility of causing tension is a risk that a company or organization must calculate and consider thoroughly before continuing. This is where consulting comes into play. Some consultant’s main job is to consider how a company affects geopolitics in their actions. Their official job title is often called an “Analyst”, as they are primarily responsible for providing an analysis on any issues relevant to the business’s decisions, and how they might impact employees or clients.

Strategy/management consulting

Strategy, or management, consulting is what most people think of when they hear the term consulting. On the most fundamental level, it is when a consultant takes on a specific project for a short amount of time, working with a team of people within a company to guide them through an issue or roadblock they have encountered while growing their business. Strategy consulting differs slightly from management consulting in that strategy looks at one issue in particular, while management takes a more holistic approach to analyzing a company. Often the aim of hiring a strategy consultant is revenue. They are looking for the best direction to take to increase productivity and efficiency, in turn decreasing costs and growing profits. Businesses hire these people for a few reasons. Firstly, to bring in a new outside perspective. Their opinions and decisions are based solely in the benefit of the business, not in personal gain as a company executive might be worried about. In addition, a strategy consultant has specific skills that employees in the company do not. They are highly specialized in one area, an expertise that the company may have no need for other than in the project at hand.

Consulting and Optimization

Pertinent Platforms/Programs in the Discipline

Clarity

Clarity is a site for experts in their field who are building or working on startups. They are willing to help with others or get help on their startups for hire. Clarity uses face-to-face communication with clients. The website says it has made over 73,000 calls. To apply you use a LinkedIn profile. The pricing works by the consultant setting a price per minute, and clarity takes fifteen percent commission on all the calls. Clarity is a more specified field than other consulting platforms. Clarity also has a vast video archive full of experts giving presentations on a variety of topics which can be useful to anyone. This could spark ideas on business ventures, or change the ways you conduct your consulting. This site could be very useful for people looking for advice for their businesses and trying to find future contacts and expand their network. Since you sign up with your linkedIn account it shows your credibility.

Upwork logo

Upwork

Upwork is a freelance marketplace that allows you to advertise your skills in hopes of someone hiring you. As a freelance consultant, work is not always guaranteed. It can be hard to find work, but this is one place you can advertise your skills so you can find work. It can also go the other way, potential clients can advertise the work they need done. You can find virtually every specialty on upwork and it is very broad. You pay a commission to upwork after completing a job. The more jobs you complete for a certain company the less of a percentage you will have to pay. You get ratings from the employer you did work for and other employers are able to look at these ratings and it will help you get your next job. The users of upwork are mostly entrepreneurs looking for some extra money and experience.

Ways To Engage

Deloitte

Deloitte Consulting LLP is just a branch of Deloitte which is known as the world's largest professional services organization. Deloitte provides audit and assurance, consulting, tax, and risk and financial advisory services to many different well known brands which includes almost 90 percent of fortune 500 companies, and thousands of other private companies. Deloitte has almost 415,000 employees all over the world. Their global aggregate revenue is 59.3 billion dollars. This is almost half of what is generated in the United States. The United States arm of Deloitte Consulting LLP is led by Dan Helfrich who is the chair and CEO of this arm. They employ over 85,000 employees working on different things, ranging from Marketing to Mergers Acquisitions & Restructuring. Deloitte Consulting LLP helps clients solve their most complex business issues and shape their futures with confidence. Deloitte Consulting LLP slogan is Impact that is measurable. This is good because they do a lot of work in sustainability and making the world a better place.

Boston Consulting Group Logo

Boston Consulting Group

Boston Consulting group is the second largest consulting firm by revenue, right behind McKinsey and Company. The firm has diverse and global teams that bring deep industry and functional expertise to organizations, helping them to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact. They have a wide range of different types of consulting, from aerospace and defense, to travel and tourism. They have over 22,000 employees in around 90 offices all around the world. Their headquarters is located in Boston, Massachusetts. And according to Forbes, they are one of America's Largest private companies. They have recently been working on artificial intelligence and climate change and sustainability. Their slogan is “unlocking the potential of those who advance the world” this seems to fit well with them, because they are so versed in so many different fields of work. They are also very collaborative in all of their works making them even better.

Glossary Terms

Optimization

Optimization comes in many different forms. It can be a math problem, making something more efficient and better. But optimization in business is the process of fine-tuning a business strategy or process in order to improve efficiency or reduce costs. This is also a form of consulting to do just that. The consultants try to make the company they are working for better, in ways such as making their production quicker and use less materials, change the way a supply chain runs to save money, materials and time, and make a better delivery route to save time. Math is embedded in each and every one of these ways. At its base optimization is basically just making something better. Consultants that specialize in this are rising in popularity as people have started to realize how much waste was in their business whether it be physical waste, time waste or money waste, optimization can help fix all this.

Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain management also known as SCM is the flow of goods and services and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products. This is basically the overlooking of a supply chain to make it better in all areas. This form of management is one of the most popular with optimization consulting. There are so many areas to be improved. Artificial intelligence has started to help with the field. It can help find better routes or a better way to design something along the process. At the basis of SCM there is an equation of how much can be produced, and when the product is not produced to that full amount, a SCM comes in and finds the error in the process and changes it. These problems can range from anywhere in the process, from bearings that are worn out, and finding the best time to change them so that you are not wasting money on them, but still having the correct rotation in them. The product could be heated up too hot, causing more defects than ideal. A supply chain manager's job is to find these problems and fix them in the best way possible.

Related Articles

Marketing event optimization

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This article talks about the IBM marketing event optimization solution, which expands on prior related work in marketing optimization. The solution is a complicated series that provides a new algorithm that scales linearly to events and customers. This can produce almost 12 times improvement in performance. This really shows how optimization can be important in any field. This equation is much easier to compute which can allow the analyst to numerous what if scenarios as well so everything can run smoothly. If an optimization consultant were to apply this it could change how they worked in this field of optimization. This could also help with a return on investment for any changes made to the company's marketing plan. The skill level required for this solution has changed from needing someone skilled in statistical and operational research to business analysts or consultants. The marketing optimization solution can significantly improve customer satisfaction and return on investments.

Artificial intelligence in supply chain management

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It is no secret that with the recent breakthroughs in computing power that artificial intelligence has started to gain popularity and is being applied. This article talks about artificial intelligence being incorporated into supply chain management. The researchers' findings is that the most prevalent AI technique was ANNs, which is usually used to find complex patterns that humans cannot find. They can use this to pattern classification, approximation, optimization, clustering, function, prediction, retrieval by content and process control. This can help in supply chain management, because it can find the patterns in the supply chain that a human might not be able to find and resolve some problems that can be found in any area of the supply chain, whether it be in the production of the product, or the delivery process. They can process very large amounts of data and find errors that a human cannot when processing large quantities of data. Consultants can use artificial intelligence to find the errors in the data and then fix them accordingly.