The topic Management Consulting was more about supporting businesses with assembly line design and shop floor organization in the beginning and it emerged in the US in the late 19th and early 20th century. Overall, the goal is to increase productivity in business which stands good as today.
The technological revolution brought exponential growth in the corporate sector and businesses have been increasingly seeking guidance from expert consultants in this regard. Businesses rushed to seek professional guidance on emerging technology tools, practices, strategic planning, and organizational design. This resulted in the growth of professional consultants who can extend unique and discrete types of consulting services. Consultation is pursued in order to make crucial decisions, be they personal or business. But this practice of providing advice became a profession very late in human history.
Over a period of time, it has become a full-fledged industry similar to any other sector, and it has undergone shifts and changes according to market dynamics.
At the time of economic hardship there used to a lot of questions about the expertise of such consulting services as well.
The recent revolution in digital technology further revolutionized the consulting arena and helped consultants to better showcase their skill set. This further resulted in greater collaboration, global reach, and contact in the network of clients. It has come a long way from the practice of advising companies and assisting mega-corporations.
There can be hundreds of types of consultants, considering the diverse complexity of the world of consultancy. Here, we discuss the topic of business consulting and its sub-categories.
Business Consulting/Advisory
Business consulting is about identifying, proposing, and changing the processes or methodologies to build up competitiveness in an enterprise in order to bring surplus in operations. The Business Consultant needs to do hours of research, data analysis, and discussion with related parties to provide the best solution fora problem faced by an enterprise. Business consulting is a broad term in that it encompasses services offered to businesses of different natures, sizes, and processes. Here are a few of them:
- Operations consultants
Operations Consultants utilize data models to help an organization streamline and improve the efficiency of its value chain. These Consultants help businesses rediscover operations to unlock growth, reduce costs, and improve responsiveness to customers.
- Strategy consultants
Strategy consultants are essentially geared to render objective strategic advice to business managers and owners. Strategic consultants leverage deep industry knowledge and the right analytics and reasoning. Strategy consultants work across all industries, including private and public sectors.
- IT/Technology consultants
IT consultants advise, guide, and lay a road map for sourcing, utilizing, and managing technology assets and resources with the aim to help businesses achieve their goals in the technology-dominated times. The typical work portfolio of technology consulting includes business process automation, digital risk management, system implementation, and IT enterprise security.
- Human resources consultants
Human resources consultants work to ensure that the company is effectively utilizing its personnel to achieve organizational goals. By developing an organization-specific human resource model, HR consultants make sure that the workforce is operating at a high level of productivity and efficiency.
