DBM 633 PRACTICE OF CONSULTANCY WBA

1. a) Explain the merits of using external consultants in an organization

Established reputations - Over the years, external consultants such as

Bain and Boston consulting groups have maintained a good reputation due to their

best strategy consulting processes. However, along with the expertise comes a hefty

price tag that many client companies are not so willing to pay. The companies that are

aware of their expertise continue to pay or the services and their reputation continue

to grow for a good reason and they continue being influential. Despite their high

charges, external consultants have more advantages than internal consultants who are

looted to employing highly learned personnel.

External consultants are advantaged due to their expert status. External

consultants are regarded to as experts and not peers. They are integrated to the work

project environment. Internal consultants lacks concrete understanding of a project

hence they can be viewed by a pair of individuals to make changes. However external

consultants research on the problem and are hired to make changes on a specific

business problem due to their expertise. This ensure more emphasis is enforced on the

project at hand making clients to buy in.

External objectivity of external consultants is essential. External consultants

are not only specific about their area of specialization but the industry as a whole. An

external consultant as a wide area of experience than an internal consultant.

Therefore, they can apply experience from the past works. An experienced consultant

will have had multiple experiences working with other companies in the same

industry and that faced similar challenges

External consults are preferred due to their experience. The consultants are

experienced hence, they have a greater knowledge of wider areas. They are aware of
the problem facing the whole industry unlike internal consultants who are aware of

the problems within an organization. The knowledge applied by external consultants

is reliable and effective.

b) Discuss six qualities of an effective consultant.

Consultants’ possess different characteristics that help them in conducting projects

effectively. A consultant should be professional. Consultants should be aware that their

relationship with clients should be professional. Consultants should not take their employees

attitude since it can cause a negative impact towards a project.

Consults should be good at time management. Consultants should be able to

accommodate all the activities necessary for the project. The timeline should be able to

accommodate schedule, budget and overall requirement. This quality mostly applies when

one is faced with pressure of working within the budget and budget constraints.

Consultants are required to have good judgment especially when confronted with a

problem or a challenge facing the subordinate. Consultants must learn to listen in and avoid

drawing into conclusions. Before having the final decision, it is effective to consider the

opinions of their peers or employees.

An effective consultant should be a team player. Consultants should demonstrate that

they are team players by working with their team members. Consultants should genuinely

value the input and expertise of others. It is necessary to establish a collaborative system

with the peers.

A good consultants should have good communication skills. The consultant should be

fluent in oral and written communication skills. Good communication skills instills effective

results of the work being initiated. In addition of being eloquent in English which is an

official language, it is important to understand the language being used by employees. In

countries that use their local language, the consultant can easily communicate without

necessarily employing translators.

A consultant should be an expert in their work. Clients look for consultant since they

believe that consultants are well aware of the problem and how to impose effective solutions.

The clients may also lack time to solve their problems and implement their own projects. As

a consultant, the level of knowledge should be broad enough to know when to ask questions,

where to find solutions and where to look for solutions. A good consultant should be a good

reader. A consultant gets the information from reading books and staying updated on the

current affairs from gazettes and magazines.

A consultant should have good listening skills. Clients are different and possess

different characteristics. Some clients will be verbose, others reticent. Having excellent

listening skills will encourage all to be free and explain their problems widely. The

consulting becomes more streamlined when the clients explain fully. Consultants should

never assume or hesitate to ask questions. Asking questions helps them to fully understand

the needs of their customers. This enhances them to reinforce better solutions to the

problems.

Consultants should understand their roles and responsibilities. They should as well

understand practices and parameters of the job. The consultant should understand how their

clients view consultants. Consultants should explain to their clients on the importance of

their clients implementing what is expected of them. Hence, both the consultant and the

clients have a role to play on the success of the project. It is important to be open to the

clients and explain what you can do and what you cannot fix. Some of the clients view

consultants a god who can fix all problems through the solutions and decisions they offer.

Therefore, communication is paramount before beginning the work.

 Consultants should involve other consultants. It is important to involve other

consultants who perform better on the problem challenging them. Consulting or referring

other consultants does not change prestige. For instance if a problem of a client involve legal

issues it is necessary to refer them to legal consultants.

A consultant should protect their reputation since if it is damaged, it may be difficult

to get clients. Use of official names indicates transparency, responsibility and accountability.

Clients who are ethical should be avoided. It is important to select clients wisely.

A consultants should have self-confidence. It shows they are sure of themselves and

courage to answer sensitive questions.

Lastly, a consultant should have the ability to simplify and explain a solutions. A

consultants should use diagrams, simple language and metaphors.

2. As a consultant, you have been invited to a college to make a presentation on the

topic

“Knowledge and skills required by a consultant.”

a) Explain the contents you would include in your presentation.

On knowledge I would explain the process of problem solving as a consultant: it is

necessary to brainstorm possible solutions. It is the first step in the problem-solving process.

A good consultant should have the knowledge of involving the clients before offering the

solutions. One get a much wider variety of options if you include your clients in your
brainstorming sessions, and you begin building client buy-in to your recommendations. The

secret to conducting productive brainstorming sessions is to encourage every possible idea

despite doubting its possibility. This means suspending judgment for the duration of the

session and welcoming everyone's input. Therefore, it is necessary to record every discussion

and suggestion.

Consider the implications of each possible solution. Every idea is important. Isolate

each alternative that was generated during your brainstorming sessions and follow it to its

logical conclusion. For instance if there is a problem on marketing it is advisable to find

Weigh alternatives and narrow your focus. After working through all possible

alternatives, weigh them against each other to determine which ones are most likely to be

relevant to the outcome. As a part of getting to your final recommendations, you have to

focus your efforts more sharply at this point and move ahead on a few fronts instead of

many. Do away with the alternative that has least impact to the problem.

Lastly, pick the best courses of action. At this time, ensure you have few alternatives

that are manageable.. Continue to work through this list with your client until you whittle it

down to no more than five of the best courses of action. At the end of this step you are ready

to come up with a suitable recommendation.

Some of the skills to be included in the presentation are such communication,

listening and transferrable skills of consultant. Good Listening Skills are important for a

consultant. During the consulting process, consultants will meet different people with

unique characteristics. Some will be verbose, others reticent. Excellent listening skills will

encourage all to talk freely, being patient with the clients to explain themselves is essential.

This leads to more information sharing which, in the end, can make the consulting process
more streamlined. Consultants never assume and don’t hesitate to ask questions until they

understand their clients’ needs fully.

A good consultant Good Communication Skills. Communication is the only way of engaging

with the customers. The consultant should have excellent oral and written communication

skills. In addition to English, it is beneficial to know the language widely used by the

employees of the company. In Kenya, employee from different regions may opt to speak in

Kiswahili which is the national language for better understanding among themselves. In

some countries, the documentation may be in a local language. Ideally, the consultant can

easily read this language without employing any translator. This helps in saving costs

incurred from hiring of more employees.

Consultants should have transferable skills. A good consultant should be diversified.

A great consultant is able to apply learning across different situations to come up with

innovative ideas. The result should be practical new strategies that are credible. The

knowledge possessed by consultants should be able to be emulated by the younger

generation and those interested in being consultants. Hence, more consultants would be made

out of them.

b) Describe four factors that may influence your successful presentation.

Asking questions and receiving responses from the audience. Administering

questions indicate that an individual is aware of the topic presented. The responses will help

to identify areas where the audiences understood and where they did not understand. Correct

responses is an indication that the audience understood the topic. Engaging audience in a

question-and-answer session will help in pointing out some of the content that might be l eft

out.
 Showing passion and connecting with the audience. I would ensure I am relaxed to

avoid nervousness. The subject on knowledge and skills will shine through when connecting

with the audience. Showing passion would encourage the audience to listen more and also

engage in the presentation through asking questions and noting down the necessary

information. Connecting with the audience is a strategy that can be used to eradicate

boredom to the audience. The audience would understand more when they are involved in

the presentation.

Put focus on the audience’s needs. I would ensure that the presentation focus on

what the audience can take back with them. I would put my focus on the major information

that the audience would like to know about consultancy and what they can apply within and

out of the college; this will be achieved through making it easier for the audience to

understand. I would keep the information simple and concentrate on the core message. I

would put my presentation simple by concentrating on the core information only. I would do

away with anything that does not add value.

Observation of body language and eye contact. As a presenter it is necessary to use

body language and eye contact effectively. Smiling and eye contact builds rapport. The

audience will connect with me easily. Moreover, eye contact will help in feeling less nervous

since I would be talking to individuals and not a mass of unknown people. I would ensure the

audience see me clearly as well as my slides. This will be achieved by turning off all lights.

3. a) Examine the reasons behind the growing needs for Consultancy services in
Kenya Today.

The growth of IT sector has influenced the need for creating more consulting agencies.

The evolvement of information technology has attracted more technology experts to research

on the latest technology. The increase of digitalization has attracted many business to
consider use technologies and hire IT consultants to offer them with digital solutions in the

software, applications and cyber security. Consultants have the right expertise. Consultants

have a track record that helps them to perform the tasks effectively. Consultant are involved

by their clients to provide expert knowledge in a particular subject. An IT consultant may not

be an expert in management hence business choose consultants based on their needs.

Businesses thrive when they seek advice from specialized personnel. Business that seek

expertise from consultants become more efficient and profitable. Additional of more

consultant services will be beneficial due to the increase of business in the country. Business

that involve consultants maneuver the competitive business sector easily.

Increasing startup culture. The youths in Kenya have shifted from being job seekers to

being entrepreneurs. Consultants are required to help the new business in management

marketing. Consultants save on costs. Most of the new business have less capital and they

have not gained from the business. Most organizations realize that they can save much from

hiring consultant once per week rather than hiring full time employees. Businesses also need

consultants to save on the money on benefits, hence additional costs is saved. However the

costs to hire a consultant is high but it makes good economic sense. Consultants that

specialize on lean manufacturing and proactive funding. On marketing consultants helps in

creating market for new businesses.

Government initiatives influence the growth of consultant services. Some of the initiative

imposed by the government of Kenya are such as Ajira. Ajira targets the youths to bridge the

gap of unemployment. This is an initiative that has attracted many youths. The initiative has

called for consultancy for newbies. The initiative calls for experts in computer hence experts

are involved to train the newbies. Consultants have been placed in every sub county for easy

access of the services and skills necessary to begin working digitally.

 Growth of industrialization has influenced the need to have more consultancy agencies.

The investment of the government on chemical, metallurgical and energy sectors require a

lot of consultancy. Industrialization require expertise in the specialization of the nature of the

industry; for instance, chemical industries involve consultants specialized in chemical

courses like chemical engineering. Embracement of industrialization globally has increased

the GDP of the country. Kenya has embraced industrialization as a way of creating jobs to

the unemployed youths and graduates. Consulting firms are some of the jobs created from

the growth of industrialization. Consultants ensure profits are incurred in the local and

international market. Industrialization require technical expertise. Consultants help in

suggesting better technology for industries in order to make work easier and more effective

for better productivity.

The relation of foreign direct investments. Structuring of tax laws attracts more investors.

The international players have considered investing in Kenya. For marketing purposes, there

is need for more consultants. Foreign investors require accounting and tax consultants. These

consultants are involved in analyzing a company’s financial statements and records to ensure

they comply with laws and regulations, suggesting ways to reduce costs and increase

revenue, and computing taxes and preparing tax returns. Consultants in the finance sector

specialize on a given sector such as healthcare. Foreign investors require marketing

consultants to attract new clients and investors.

b) A contract is an important document in any consulting assignment. Describe the

Contents of a consulting contract.

 Recitals and background is the first step. It is the opening section of a contract. This

step precedes the main body. It contains the general information about the contract. It

contains:

 Name and contact information of the consultant

 Name and contact information of the business

 Start and end date of the contract

 Acknowledgement and entering into an agreement.

Recitals is necessary since it can be used as reference in case of future disagreement

within the contract. Recitals exist to explain agreement of the contract. Scope of services is

contained in the contract to show the services rendered by the consultant. The services are

outlined in a general way. However it is necessary to exhaust more on the services the

consultant offer. Additional descriptions are added together as an attachment.

Ownership of intellectual property is involved in the contract. This is a valuable asset

in any business. The ownership of intellectual property sets the terms and conditions of the

right to use the assets. If the services a consultant provide involve creativity, they will

describe intellectual property transferability and any exceptions in this section.

A contract contains compensation, expenses and schedules. This section contains

consulting fees and all information related to payments. Some of the information in this

section is such as when and how to expect payment. This section majors on how consultants

charge their customers. Some of the elements written in detail are such as the type of the

structure, forms of payment you expect, budgetary restrictions and how to handle

reimbursements.
 Dispute resolution is a stage where legal action is involved to resolve disputes

between a consultant and a client. Some of the problems to be resolved are such as breach of

contract, arbitration, mediation and non-payment of services a consultant may opt to use a

personal lawyer for guidance on the legal actions to take.

Termination of services indicate the specification involved for an independent

contractor. Different factors can cause a contract to be terminated. Consultants should

indicate if the contract can be terminated anytime and the conditions to terminated.

Methods of communication is a step that indicates how you want to handle issues.

For instance use of notices and media. Others prefer a letter being emailed in their business

address. The change of the communication sector allows the two parties to use digital means

of communication to confer information.

Confidentiality must be help in a contract. As a consultant it is illegal to trade secrets.

Confidentiality can be assured by agreeing to face legal action. Confidential information

should be between the consultant and the client only. No third party should be involved.

Legal action is taken to the party that breach confidentiality. Indemnification is necessary in

protecting the consultant from third parties. Some consultants opt to involve third parties that

then pass the work to the clients. This clause is used to protect a consultant from potential

contract breach cause by inclusion of third parties. Non- compete is a section that prohibits

competing with clients. Non-compete include whether a consultant can work for a client’s

customers. Enforceability is a section that makes any unlawful part of the contact lawful.

This section protects the client and consultant from baseless termination.

Signatures and dateline is essential for the contract to be valid. A lawful contract

must have signatures from both parties. The signatures indicate an agreement. This section
contains a blank line for signatures, dateline for each signature, name of the signer.

Witnesses are not necessary. Lastly, it is essential to have law attachments as a way of

gaining trust from the client.

4. a) As an upcoming consultant, you intend to set up a consultancy firm in one of the

fastest growing counties in Kenya. Explain various techniques you are likely to use

to

market your firm.

I will seek to find clients in a way that closes sales to bring in revenues. The first technique

will be to find the clients I can assess - clients that I know and clients that I do not know. In

order to market to the clients that I already know as part of my friends who managed to

establish their own companies or work in other well-established firms, I will have a schedule

of meeting them face-to-face. During the meeting, I will offer myself to demonstrate my

skills by working on their projects for a few days. I will begin by working on the

relationships that I already have with a few of my friends. I will avoid focusing my efforts on
the industry, sectors, or the person to serve. I will request company executives and managers

working on different problems to assist them think through problems and come up with

appropriate alternative solutions that can achieve performance that matter. This approach

will allow me to gain experience, get referrals to other companies, or be deployed to begin

working on internal projects in the same company. Consequently, this will lead to billable

work and eventual implementation.

I will use a hook to target clients that I do not know well. For this groups of clients, I will

target at sharing insights with them concerning the industries they operate. For example, I

will do a survey of supply chain issues in specific industries. Other areas can also include

conducting a study on consumer behavior in consumer goods market during the

electioneering period. Moreover, other areas will include conducting literature review on

digital marketing and developing a new approach to assist companies adopt e-commerce.

I will then use summaries from such studies and use it as an opportunity to meet meetings

working for companies such as Brookside, Heineken, TATA Chemicals, Bidco, KWAL,

Unilever, or EABL. The approach will provide me with an opportunity to gain insights about

the industry trends around problems that confront many of companies in Kenya. This will

also make client see me as someone who can assist them research into problems and come up

with alternative solutions.

I will adopt the use of owned media to create and share content with potential clients. I will

begin by outsourcing a small company to design my website at a small fees. The website will

act as my online office indicating the general information around all the consulting services I

provide to client. The website will also create a place where I can sell my services, build a

strong relationship with prospects, provide them with information about me and my
consulting. Moreover, I will use it to provide a place where clients can come to update

information. They will visit the website to respond to or find information.

I will also list the website on Google my business and Yellow Pages. In order create and

grow my visibility on Google, I will create a Google Business listing (Business profile).

Besides, I will also create a free Google My Business account to allow my website appear in

Google maps and local searches in Kenya in Google Search results. I will use the Google My

business for local marketing to engage with clients, highlight my services (provide houses, a

link to the website, services, pricing, attributes, and other unique details associated with

consulting. I will also gain insights on my clients and local search performance such as

queries clients are searching through Google Analytics.

b). Explain effective negotiation skills that a consultant could use during consultancy
exercise.

Listening skills - Effective negotiation among parties in a contract to have effective listening

skills. The negotiator must ensure they discover their field of interest. Through this, the

parties will stick to grasping and understanding of their matter/content before them.

Negotiation brings together parties that seek to achieve their interests. In this case, one must

remain calm without losing temper. Any attempt to lose temper hampers and inhibits

communication. whenever one become angry, there is a likelihood of jam the mind to words

of others.

Appropriate problem analysis - Effective negotiators need to have the skills to allow them

analyse problems and determine interests of each party during the negotiation. More

importantly, a detailed problem analysis offers the opportunity to identify an issue, interested

parties, and outcome goals.

Emotional control - Negotiators are likely to experience intense debate to secure their

interests. However, everyone must understand ways of keeping emotional checks at balance.
Negotiations involving contentious issues is likely to be frustrating. Any party that allows

emotions to take control at the time of meeting Could lead to unfavourable outcome.

5. Executing a consultancy assignment takes a process known as ‘Consultancy cycle.’

Examine the stages in the consultancy cycle.

A 5 phase consulting model provides five different phases that explain consultancy cycle.

Phase 1: Discovery - a consulting project begins with a discovery phase that involves

collection of intelligent about an organization. Some of the areas where consultants collect

data include historical insights, structures, organizational objectives, or marketing. This

involves interviewing stakeholders, customers and partners to understand communication

workflow, culture, collaboration as well as other important information. Information from

this phase is used to provide clarity. It is also important to note that this is an important phase

out of the five phases. It is critical to gain the ability to tell stories and sell the idea to

company executives. In specific, consultants need people skills to create a strong rapport,

connect with clients and develop trust.

Phase 2 - situation analysis - This is the phase when a consultant need to analyse internal

and external climate of a business. This is done in order to develop a clear understanding of

organization and its capabilities. Other areas of understanding includes customers and

business landscape. The American Marketing Association refers to a situation analysis as the

process for systematic collection and studying of past and present data of a company in order

come up with trends, forces and conditions that are likely to influence future performance.

An indepth analysis cut across looking into communication with the public through social

media.

Phase 3 - Planning - This us where the real begins between the consulting and client

organization. In some cases, a client can come up with a number of recommendations. for
example, a consultant can recommend a shut down of some processes in a company.

Moreover, most of the planning will cut across working with client internal teams, legal,

human resources, or support teams. Other areas would include content strategy such as

creation of content, stored internally between cross function and global teams. Other areas

might also cover escalation workflow such as supporting customer issues and crisis

management.

Phase 4: Implementation - The implementation stage depends on the outcomes of a

planning phase. When the social media is through, the client will then create and share policy

with the client. The client would become sensitive and empathetic in order to ensure that an

establishment of social media policy does not come out as being a big brother type of an

initiative. After the client approves the training curriculum, then it becomes easier to roll out

the implementation to the next step. For example, a client could use job function,

department, or region.

Phase 5: Measurement - The step focuses on closing the project and celebrating their

successes and accomplishment. Failure in this step implies that stakeholders also fail to take

responsibility but assign the blame to other people.

6. a) Analyze five ethical issues arising from interaction between clients and
consultants
i. Causing harm to the client - The contract should not involve activities that harm the

client or employees of client. A consultant should avoid any manner of express or implied

hard to the client business or employees.

ii. Maintaining privacy of client information - A consultant should not disclose any kind

of information that relates to their clients to other parties when conducting sales and

marketing activities. Moreover, consultants should avoid disclosing information about the

types of clients they have engaged in their contracts.

 iii. Conflict of interest - consultants should not have any nature of conflict of interest in

the client's business. The conflict of interest might range from vested interest in buying

shares, benefiting from the contract after the implementation. A consultant should not

accept to work on assignments that conflict with prior or current obligations to other

clients.

iv. Avoid behaviors clients might consider unethical - Client expects a consultant to do

the right thing when the law is not extended to cover some areas. Because if the law had

already been extended to cover such particular area, they cannot be worried about it. The

client expects the consultant to always have the best interest for them.

b) Discuss any five costing strategies for consultancy work

I. Cost-plus pricing. A consultant adds a profit margin on the average costs of offering a

service. The cost-plus refers to the use of a standard mark-up on unit costs. It also depend on

either a company or an industry where the consultant operates. A consultant considers all

costs associated with offering the service - fixed, variable, overheads, among others. For

example, some of the costs can cover rental, utilities, administrative, and other general

overhead costs.

ii. Perceived value-based pricing - This technique involves pricing on the basis of monetary

value that the service has for the client. It involves the extent to which a client perceives the

benefits from an offering with respect to the price. The logic requires a consultant to focus

more on the value a client is likely to get as opposed to focusing on cost of services and its

attributes. It is demand-oriented technique that assumes a client can determine what a client

is willing to pay for the service. The consultant they design the so-called optimal formulation

of a service. Another approach would consider the service as given, hence estimating

demand and profit resulting from several different price levels.

iii. Going rate pricing - A consulting firm that uses this technique charges similar price as

other competitors in similar industry. The charges also depend on the strength that a market

has. Therefore, a firm uses cost structures as secondary to the industry practices.

iv. Sealed-bid pricing - Consultants select prices of a service by considering the costs and

expectations about what competitors are likely to do. It is also based on the expected profit

that a consultant is likely to generate from the bidding strategy. The client rather than a

consultant determines the price. The technique seeks out clients who request for the service

through sealed bids and encourage consultants to take a sealed bird approach.

v. Negotiated Pricing technique - The consultant and client negotiate to determine the

overall price of a service. It is a profit oriented method whereby the negotiation process

seeks to work out an optimal price for the parties on a case-by-case basis.