How do Management Consulting Firms Accelerate Growth?
Ricky Cookson
When companies run into the oh-so-familiar trudge of optimizing and evolving their business to match growing demands, they look for problem solvers.
And the business of solving problems will always be booming.
When it comes to dialing in on the bottlenecks of modern enterprise and executing a solution, these organizations often turn to problem solvers called management consultants.
As a sales and management consulting firm, our team is regularly asked, “What is management consulting, exactly? And what does a management consulting firm do?” In the words of Bob Slydell from Office Space:
In short, we solve the kinds of business problems that hinder growth and momentum. But we’re going to give you a better idea of what management consulting is and what a management consulting firm does.
What is Management Consulting?
Management consulting is an umbrella term for a variety of services that reveal a business’s pain points and implement solutions that improve performance. Too often, management consulting is used synonymously with advising, but management consultants provide more to a business than mere advice and counsel. They undertake extensive business analysis, go heads down into internal operations, and immerse themselves in your organizational structure.
These services cast a wide net. The umbrella term is helpful for brevity, yet it does very little to explain what exactly management consultants do. And why do management consultant services vary from firm to firm?
For example, a company may look into management consulting for their
- Overall business strategy
- Organizational structure and governance
- Process architecting, design, and execution
- Digital transformation (be it a matter of tech stack optimization or operational efficiency)
- Change management for HR and people strategy, sales, marketing, or advertising
- Leadership consulting and project management
Looking at this list, these objectives obviously require several different, specialized experts, but technically, it’s all management consulting.
The Role of Objectivity in Management Consulting
In most cases (outside of private companies, non-profits, and the like), management consulting is industry agnostic. The consultants are not only specialists in business operations and organizational excellence, but in a sense, they’re professional analysts. They have a knack for research and, simply, the ability to connect the dots. When starting a project, they dive into the business itself and its industry, the trends evolving it, and the ways companies can position themselves as leaders.
The primary reason that research and analysis are so vital is because of one thing: objectivity. When it comes to the services mentioned above, an unbiased opinion could not be more critical to growth and performance. Too often, leadership teams are so engrossed in operating the business and executing their day-to-day that seeing through the fog is impossible.
What’s more common than realized is many of the projects we’ve been involved in begin with a diagnosis and end with an entirely new set of issues. When you bring in an objective party to drill into the business, they can see through the nuances of internal struggles and uncover the real issues.
Coming back around to the definition of management consulting, it’s consulting services that help companies solve complex business problems. However, the realm of “complex business problems” is a rabbit hole that requires as much expertise as it does recognition and execution. Thus, management consultants are, in a sense, investigators. They come into the organization, inspect the overarching structure and procedures, and pinpoint the real issues bogging down efficiency and success.
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What is a Management Consulting Firm?
Because the list of services is so expansive, management consulting firms exist to address nearly every business problem you can think of, serving industry giants looking to expand their enterprise to the local start-ups trying to gain an edge over the competition.
Management consulting firms play a significant role in diagnosis root issues. Let’s say a company approaches a firm thinking they need help with organizational alignment. While they may be under the impression that they’ve caught the scent of the bottleneck, their consultant may reveal that their issues won’t be resolved by the reallocation of team members. The firm might find that the real problem stems from mismanagement of technology (or lack thereof) that’s causing communication issues. After correctly diagnosing the problem, a firm can then bring in the specialized people needed to optimize the company’s technology and enable better communication across the organization.
Management consulting firms can recognize what the issues actually are (as opposed to what they seem to be) and allocate the necessary resources to solve them.
Another quality of some management consulting firms is their “on-demand” approach to handling a business’s challenges. Like we mentioned earlier, the day-to-day operations executives handle don’t leave a lot of wriggle room to plan and implement the solutions their company needs. To mediate their demanding schedule, they can bring in a firm with the wherewithal and functional expertise to undertake that burden for them.
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Upward Momentum Through Management Consulting
Engaging with management consultants is a surefire way to discover the causes of internal stagnation and begin a campaign to solve them. From strategy and implementation to industry specialists, there’s always an option to revitalize your business and get back on track.
At Skaled, we specifically focus on creating sales excellence and changing the way buyers and sellers interact with each other. Powered by a network of talented, insightful, and strategy-oriented consultants, Skaled is trailblazing management consulting by strengthening leadership and enhancing competence across sales teams. Skaled is considered a leader in management consulting, and we’ve secured a top spot on DataIntelo’s list of companies growing the management consulting industry.
As an industry leader, when a client asks us, “what is a management consulting firm? And what do you do?” We don’t just tell them we solve business problems. We tell them we open the door to opportunities, and we reignite confidence in our client’s abilities so that they can accelerate their growth.