TANZANIA INSTITUTE OF ACCOUNTANCY

(TIA)
COURSE: BAC III (F/TIME & EVENING 2023/2024)
SUBJECT: BUSINESS CONSULTANCY
CODES: GSU08213
TOPIC 1: EXPLAIN CONCEPTS OF CONSULTANCY IN AN ORGANIZATION
LECTURER: DR. ANICETH KATO MPANJU

1.0 INTRODUCTION
In this sub-enabling outcome, students should understand and be able to explain the
following:
(i) Meaning of consultancy, consultant and client.
(ii) Types of consultant
(iii) Roles played by a consultant
(iv) Importance of consulting services
(v) Qualities of a consultant and
(vi) Explain nature of consulting problem

1.1 DEFINE CONSULTANCY, CONSULTANT AND CLIENT

1.1.1 Define consultancy
Consultancy is an independent professional advisory service assisting managers and
organizations to achieve organizational purposes and objectives by solving management
and business problems, identifying and seizing new opportunities, enhancing learning
and implementing changes.

1.1.2 Define Consultant

Consultant is an expert or professional contractor in specific field who provides unbiased
opinions, advice and innovative ideas and solutions to a client in return for a fee. The
independence of the consultant is due to the fact that he/she is not an employee of the
company he/she is consulting, and when this is the case then, the consultant becomes
an external Expert.

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On the other hand, a consultant who works dependently to the organization he/she is
consulting is known as internal or in-house consultant.
Whether working internally or externally, and as part of his/her work, any consultant is
expected to describe the situation, make an independent assessment, tell the truth about
the situation and recommend frankly and objectively.

1.1.3 Define Client

Client is a person or group that uses the professional advice or services of a lawyer,
accountant, advertising agency, architect, etc.

1.1.4 Consultant’s independence.

Independence is a salient feature of consulting. A consultant must be in a position to
make unbiased assessment of any situation, tell the truth and recommend frankly and
objectively what the client organization needs to do without having any second thoughts
on how this might affect the consultant’s own interests.

Facets of independence
 Technical independence: The consultant is in position to formulate a technical
opinion and provide advice independently of what the client believes or wishes to
hear.

 Financial independence: The consultant has no financial interest in the course of

action taken by the client. The desire to get more business from the client in the future
must not affect the objectivity of the advice provided in the current assignment.

 Administrative independence: The consultant is not the client’s subordinates and

cannot be affected by his or her administrative decisions.

 Political independence: Neither the client organization’s management nor its

employees can influence the consultant using political power and connections.

 Emotional independence: the consultant preserves personal detachment and

objectivity irrespective of empathy, friendship, mutual trust, emotional affinities and
other personal pressure that may exist at the beginning or develop in course of
assignment

1.2 DESCRIBE TYPES OF CONSULTANT

1.2.1 Introduction

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Consultants exist in practically every field. Let’s discuss the different types of consulting
in which you can specialize.

1.2.2 Types of Consulting

1. Management Consulting
Management consulting is the most common type of consulting and includes many
different niche consulting careers under its umbrella. Firms like McKinsey, Bain &
Company, and Deloitte primarily work in management consulting. It’s a $250 billion
industry — at least, where it stands as of 2021.

As a management consultant, you would work with business leaders to help their
companies run smoothly. This typically involves assessing certain processes and
providing advice on how to improve or implement new ones.

Not all management consultants are the same — some follow a generalist approach and
assess each organization as a whole, and some specialize in more specific departments
or fields.

2. Strategy Consulting
Strategy consulting is an important subset of management consulting. The purpose
of strategy consulting is to review key business strategies and provide expert advice on
how to improve or develop new ones. Strategy consultants are typically experts in a
certain industry or field and advise on high-level, strategic business decisions, such as
company vision, resources, and investments.

3. Operations Consulting

While strategy consultants primarily work with the “why”, operations consulting addresses
the “how”. These consultants address operational processes including procurement,
outsourcing, supply chain management, and more. Also, operations consultants often do
more for businesses than give advice — sometimes they also offer implementation and
deployment services to help clients put their new processes to work.

4. Financial Strategy Consulting

Financial consultants, or advisors, help businesses make informed, objective, and legal
financial decisions to improve returns. This sector of management consulting works in
corporate finance, financial restructuring, risk management, and even real estate. All
financial consultants must meet certain requirements and obtain a license to offer
financial advice.

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5. Human Resources Consulting

The purpose of human resources (HR) consulting is to help companies hire and retain
remarkable employees. These specialists address HR processes including training and
development, conflict resolution, management philosophies, benefits and pensions, and
employee satisfaction. HR consultants also ensure businesses are following legal and
ethical personnel practices.

6. IT Consulting

Information technology (IT) consultants implement and manage new technologies, such
as systems integration, software development and management, and enterprise
architecture.

As an IT consultant, you might help businesses figure out what software to invest in and
how to use it to meet goals, solve challenges, and implement important changes. This
consulting division is a highly specialized and lucrative industry, worth almost double the
management consulting industry — $460 billion.

7. Business Consulting

Business consulting is a broad term that refers to specialists who work with businesses
on anything from financial advising to training to layoffs. (You’ll see that this category
overlaps with others in this list.)

As a business consultant, you’d typically work with small to mid-size businesses

(SMBs) — as opposed to management consulting, where you’d work with enterprise-level
businesses — to objectively assess challenges and provide solutions.

8. Sales Consulting

Sales consultants work to improve the performance of sales teams, regardless of size or
industry.

As a sales consultant, you’d typically work in sales training and development, but you
could also be brought on for other purposes, such as choosing a CRM, improving the
sales process, or boosting team morale. Because sales is considered one of the most
important parts of a business, financially-speaking, quality sales consultants are highly-
valued and sought-after.

9. Marketing Consulting

The purpose of marketing consulting is to evaluate a business’s marketing efforts and

provide guidance on how to improve to meet goals and bring in revenue.

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As a marketing consultant, you might specialize in a certain field of marketing, such as
content marketing, PR, or social media marketing. Or, you might focus on a niche
marketing process, such as defining target audiences, customer acquisition, or brand
awareness.

10. Environmental Consulting

Are you passionate about environmental laws and regulations? Environmental consulting
may be for you. As an environmental consultant, you may advise businesses on how their
practices affect the environment around them and often work with industries like
construction, waste management, real estate, and energy (but can be hired by any type
of company).

Environmental consulting is particularly important as companies work to reduce their

permanent impact on the environment.

11. Financial Consulting

Financial consulting overlaps somewhat with the financial strategy consulting we
discussed above. The main difference, however, is that this category also
includes independent financial consultants that work with individuals, families, and
entrepreneurs.

As a financial consultant, you may help with everything from day-to-day expenses,
investments, and taxes to cash-flow issues, insurance, and financial legalities.

12. Career Consulting

Individuals and businesses alike use career consulting to either equip themselves or their
employees to grow in their jobs. As a career consultant, you may help clients with skill
development, resume building, job applications, interviews, and understanding the job
market as a whole. If you have a background in HR or recruiting, career consulting may
be for you.

13. Healthcare Consulting

The purpose of healthcare consulting is to maximize the impact and output of
healthcare organizations. Healthcare consultants are basically management consultants
that work in the healthcare industry. They analyze the personnel, profits, and processes
in an organization and provide advice on how to improve and solve pressing challenges.

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14. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Consulting

It's not uncommon for companies of any size and industry to find themselves lacking the
specific skillset that diversity and inclusion consultants bring. Hiring an HR consultant is
simply not enough to overcome implicit and explicit bias in an organization and that's what
makes DEI consultants one of the most sought-after professionals in this market.

As a DEI consultant, you'll bring an objective point of view to business' equity problems
— especially those that involve personnel and culture. If you have a background in HR,
psychology, sociology, or nonprofit management, you may find that with specific training
and education, DEI consulting could be your next career move.

15. Public Relations Consulting

While public relations might be a staple in enterprises, the function is more often coupled
with marketing and communications in smaller companies. But public relations is a
discipline all its own, and unfortunately, that fact is usually realized in the middle of a
crisis.

As a PR consultant, you might work on a retainer to help plan for crises before one occurs
or you may be brought in during the middle of a crisis to determine a company's best
course of action to work with the public and media.

16. Brand Consulting

As a brand consultant, you'll be responsible for assessing where a brand currently stands
in the market. Competitor analyses, research, and design may fall under the scope of
work, but if you prefer to specialize in one area, that's certainly an option.

Brand consultants may work closely with marketing and sales consultants to bring
products to market, adjust prices, and offer creative expertise to position a company a
certain way in the minds of consumers.

17. Procurement consulting

Procurement consulting is when a firm or agency provides procurement services for a
client. Consulting firms may provide a combination of advisory, process implementation
or execution services.

For example, procurement clients benefit from training and expert advice in digital
transformation, cost, category and risk management. Or, a consultant may also build
more efficient processes, implement software and provide sourcing services for a specific
project.

18. Logistics Consulting

Consulting firms may focus on different logistics processes:

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  Inventory: Strategies to meet variable demands and avoid either having excess
or missing stock, which may create additional costs, such as warehousing.
 Warehousing: Strategies to improve the physical space, the manipulation and
safety of goods, which improves the demand forecast and avoids issues with
internal and external supplies.
 Transportation and Distribution: Strategies for route planning, vehicle outfitting,
reverse logistics, and definition of cargo modes (FTL or LTL).
 Production: Strategies related to supplying and replacing goods and raw
materials, and their integration to the supply chain after they are manufactured.
 Structure Planning: Global logistics reorganization; in other words, look at
processes as a whole, regardless the number of companies involved.
 Strategy Definition: Analysis of processes, design of logistics models, quality
control, and choosing technology systems.
 Logistics Audit: Reviewing and implementing industrial traceability models.

1.3 EXPLAIN IMPORTANCE OF CONSULTING SERVICES OR CONSULTANTS

1.3.1 Importance of Consultants
Consultants exist because they play important role in organizational development and
success. The consultants’ roles include the following;
a) They provide unbiased expert advice to organizations, especially when the
consultants are not employees of the client organization and therefore cannot take
sides or fear being reprimanded by not supporting management’s point of view.

b) They help clients solve problems. Consultants originate expertise in problem

investigation techniques and process, and then they involve the client in problem
identification, analysis and identification of the most viable solution.

c) They bring about collective focus and commitment to solving the problem. This is
achieved by involving clients in problem identification, analysis and design of
appropriate solutions. This way the client feels the ownership of the consultancy
process and internalizes the solutions.

d) They assist the client in implementing the agreed solution. However, this depends
on the nature of the consulting contract.

e) They would work under guidance of top management when the client organization
has clear knowledge of the problem as well as its solutions, but is hesitating to effect
the changes in fear of being rejected by their subordinates. In this case, the
employees tend to readily support the consultant’s recommendation since the
consultant is an outside person and has no stake in the organization.

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f) By involving the client in the process, the consultant assists him/her to acquire
additional knowledge and skills which could be useful in dealing with similar
problems in future, without the client having to hire the consultant for the matter.

1.3.2 Why Clients Use Consultants

The driving forces behind the clients’ use of management consultants include the
following;
 Curiosity; admittedly or not, some managers do not pursue any clearly defined
purpose when inviting a consultant to their organization. They invite them because
he is a star or has a reputation of someone who succeeds where everyone has failed.

 Insecurity; this is a more common reason, in which a manager may feel insecure
because of lack of information, growing criticism and unrest within the company,
increasingly aggressive competition, age, fragile personal health or for any other
reason. Turning to a consultant is then a measure of relief-like hoping that a doctor
will tell them that they are not really sick and, if they are, will help them recover.

 To have an alibi: in recruiting a consultant, some managers look for an alibi, that is,
they want to be able to refer to external authority in justifying a decision, especially
when the decision is an unpopular one, or is likely to generate criticism or resistance,
or a manager wants to show that he is aware of the problem and has looked into it
seriously-as witnessed by a consultant’s report.

 Improved business results; in many cases, fortunately, managers use consultants

because they are willing to improve organizational performance and business results.
The manager’s immediate objective may be to prevent current performance from
slipping, take corrective measures when performance has deteriorated, or use the
consultant for future-oriented work such as analyzing trends, identifying opportunities
and developing medium and long-term strategies, but the bottom line is improved
performance.

 Learning; this is regarded as the modern philosophy justifying the use of consultants.
Assignments have two purposes: one is to solve a specific problem by applying the
consultant’s expertise, and two, is to transfer this expertise to managers and
specialists in the client company. Learning becomes a motive when a consultant is
hired to run a training course in a client organization and the client decides to take on
other work involved in using the result of that course for making practical
improvement. Alternatively, the consultant may be hired so that the client can observe
and learn the consultant’s diagnostic and problem-solving methodology at work,
compare it with his own and choose which is best. All in all, clients do not go to

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 consultants to find solution to one problem, but to acquire the consultant’s special
technical knowledge and learn skills used in solving problems and implement change.

1.3.3 Five Generic consulting purposes

Consulting purposes can be looked at several angles and described in various ways as
illustrated by this Figure.

Archiving organizational purpose

and objectives

Solve
Identify and Enhance Implem
Managem
Seize Learning enting
ent and
opportunities changes
1. Business organizational purposes
Achieving and objectives
Problems

All consulting to management and business tends to pursue a general and overriding
purpose of helping clients to achieve their business, social or other goals. These goals
may be defined in various ways: customer satisfaction, competitive advantage,
profitability, high performance, effectiveness etc. the consulting has to add value to the
client organization, and this value should be a tangible and measurable contribution to
achieving the client’s principal purposes.

Solving management and business problems

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The most frequently mentioned purpose of consulting is helping managers and other
decision makers with problem solving.
The consultant’s task is described as a professional assistance in identifying, diagnosing
and solving problems concerning various areas and aspects of management and
business.
These problems can be categorized as corrective, progressive and creative.
 Corrective Problem
In the situation where the client faces the serious failure in any aspect of business such
as decline in production, falling of sales and profit, failure to meet target etc, the problem
is defined as a need to restore the origin condition or corrective problem. This explains
why the consultants are sometimes referred as company doctors or business healers.
 Progressive Problem
The consultant takes an existing situation and seeks to improve it. The consultant is
commissioned to scent and seek opportunity to expand situation. The organization may
be performing well but the management may realize that there still more rooms for
business expansion given the existing environment. The consultant is hired to explore
those opportunities and suggest the action to exploit it.
 Creative Problem.
The client contracts a consultant to create a complete new thing. For example, when
a client wants to diversify the business and create new sales for customer. In such
assignment the client may have no idea about the new project and may not provide
any new information concern the project. So the consultant has to generate some
information that may assist the client.
Identify and enhance new opportunities
Most consultants feel that, they can offer much more than simply helping organizations
to get out of difficulties. They may be called to track back deviations that has been
taken place, find and correct the reasons for them. Clients usually prefer using
consultants for tracking new opportunities. They consider consulting firm as a source
of valuable sources of information that can turned in to a wide range of initiatives and
innovative that help business
Enhancing Learning
Many clients turn to consultants, not only to find a new solution to a problem but also
to acquire the consultant’s special technical knowledge and methods of assessing
organizations, identifying problems and opportunities, developing improvements and
implementing changes.
The purpose is to empower the client by bringing new competence into the
organization and helping managers and staff to learn from their own and the
consultant’s experience. In this way organizations are helped to help themselves and
become learning organizations. The learning effect of consulting is most important and

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 durable one. The choice of consulting methods and degree of client’s involvement can
increase or reduce this effect.

1.4 Outline roles of a consultant

 The technical role:
In this role the consultant is a resource person and therefore an expert in the problem
being investigated. The consultant is concerned with the problem faced by the client ad
the way it should be diagnosed and solved. He applies current problem identifications
and problems solving techniques to come up with technical feasible solutions.
 The process role:
This concerns the working relationship between the consultant and the client and how the
consultant goes about identifying, analysing and devising solutions to the problem. I order
for the consultant and client to perform their respective roles effectively and efficiently
there should be developed a strong collaborative relationship.

1.5 EXPLAIN QUALITIES OF CONSULTANT

Consulting is human enterprise. Whether the specific problem being addressed by the
consultant is a new accounting system or the need for strategic planning, the essence of
consulting still centers on the human qualities of consultants interacting with human
clients.
As a result, the success or failure of a consulting project depends on the multi-faceted
skills that a consultant brings to the client’s situation. If the consultant is not perceptive,
does not communicate with sensitivity, or lacks up-to-date knowledge, the client’s
problem will not be solved.
This section highlight those critical skills, based on experiences of numerous consultants.
Seven broad areas of competence are identified, within which there are many specific
skills. The seven areas of competence are: (1) diagnostic ability, (2) solution and
implementation skills, (3) general and specialized knowledge in management and its
related disciplines, (4) communication skills, (5) marketing and selling ability, (6)
managerial skills, and (7) certain personality attributes conducive to consulting.

1) Diagnostic ability
Consultants are detectives – master sleuths who must ferret out the evidence, read
behind the clues, and put their fingers on the culprit. They are problem finders as much
as problem solvers. The client’s problem is rarely what is stated in the beginning of a
project.
Most important is the quality of objectivity. Consultants cannot believe every opinion
expressed to them by client employees.

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Another diagnostic skill is one of intense curiosity. Consultants must be nosy-delving
behind symptoms and superficial explanations.
A third attribute is conceptual and analytical, which is the art of being able to see a pattern
running through diverse pieces of evidence. Most client problems rarely have simple
explanations; instead, they are shot through with a complex set of hidden causes.
Finally, ability at inductive reasoning is the diagnostic hallmark of effective consultants.
They must treat each situation as if it is new and unique, not as an exact replica of their
last engagement.

2) skills
To identify a client’s problem without helping to solve it is a consulting project only half
completed. Solutions do not appear automatically just because the client’s problem has
been diagnosed accurately. Consultants must also complement their analytical skills with
an ability to create answers that the client will accept and implement.

3) Knowledge
Consultants must be in forefront knowledge in their fields of expertise. Book knowledge
is not reserved for academicians. Clients expect consultants to be up to date, even ahead
of their own staff experts. Why hire a consultant who is expounding the virtues of a
traditional management technique that is regarded as passé by a client?
One essential area of knowledge is management theory supported by scholarly research
findings. Too many clients (and even consultants) subscribe to myths that have been
dispelled by previous research studies.
Applied techniques in the administrative sciences are another invaluable form of
knowledge. All specialist areas in consulting require sophisticated expertise in such topics
as modeling, questionnaire design, and statistics.

4) Communication skills
If there is one essential talent that underlies all the skills discussed thus far, it is the ability
to communicate effectively with the client. Close rapport is pivotal in being able to sell a
proposal, in gathering accurate data from interviewers, and in gaining acceptance for
recommended solutions.
Sensitive listening skills are cited repeatedly by consultants and clients alike as the
“number 1” factor that differentiates between good and bad consultants.
Exceptional writing ability is vital for summing up how well the consultant as listened to
and understood the client. The first test comes in the written proposal to solicit business
from a prospective client.

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Another test of writing skills comes later, in the final report, where conclusions and
recommendations are expressed to the client.
Oral presentation skills are required at meetings where clients are given progress reports
or a preview of the final written report.
Another communication need is a broad repertoire of intervention skills. Meetings with the
client can bog down in details if the consultant doesn’t act to clarify the real purpose of a
meandering discussion.

5) Marketing and selling

A popular misconception is that consultants don’t need to sell their wares. Consultants
like to assume that hungry clients will naturally search out their God-given talents. They
forget that competition within the consulting industry is intense and that many clients hold
a skeptical view of consultants.
Overall marketing responsibility in a consulting firm falls on the key partners who chart its
direction. They must develop a marketing strategy that distinguishes the firm’s strengths
from those of is competition. They must publicize and promote the firm’s desired image
among potential clients. Keeping the firm visible and reputable in the marketplace is a
prerequisite to being considered when clients pick up the telephone.

6) Managerial ability
Although consultants are supposed to be adept at the art of management, it does not
necessarily mean that they practice what they preach. Heavy managerial responsibilities
fall on consultants, especially as their consulting firms grow and diversify into a broader
range of services.
The earliest management challenge comes in one’s ability to lead a project team of
consultants. Teamwork is essential when a diverse group of consulting talent is required
to solve a complex client problem. Without skillful leadership, the consulting team can
become divided against itself. The engagement manager must hold frequent and effective
meetings, keep the project on schedule, maintain cost control, guide the report-writing
stage, and arrange for effective oral presentations to the client.

7) Personality characteristics
As with any profession, certain personality attributes “fit” better with the consulting job
than do other characteristics. Not everyone is born to be a consultant. Salespeople must
enjoy relating to people, surgeons must remain cool under stress, plumbers must have a
flare for tools and pipes, and artists must possess a creative urge.

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Consulting is a demanding and frustrating job that never ends. Just when one project
ends, you are on a plane/bus to another job. The following are nine essential attitudes
mentioned most frequently by other consultants.
(i) Ethical Standards
Consulting is a big-stakes game that affects the vital interests of employees,
investors, and customers. These vested interest groups will seek to win the
consultant’s favor. Thus, your ethics must remain scrupulous in performing a job that
does not cater to one group or the other. If you slip in integrity, you can harm others
and yourself.
(ii) Empathy and Trust
Client employees are usually reluctant to reveal their private concerns and complaints
to a complete stranger. They are especially suspicious of consultant hired by their
senior managers. To bridge this gap of inherent mistrust, consultants need to
communicate empathy (not sympathy) for others, to be understanding and respectful
of different points of view.
(iii) Positive Thinking
Clients react negatively to cynical and sarcastic behavior from consultants. An
“upbeat” attitude is essential for the clients to feel confidence in consultant’s
recommendations.
(iv) Self-motivation

Each consulting engagement requires daily adjustment to the vagaries of the client’s
situation. You cannot wait for instructions from the home office every time the client
deviates from plan. Personal initiative is essential to react rapidly. Clients expect their
consultants to be their own masters.
(v) Team Player

Rugged individualism belongs in the boxing arena, not in consulting. Close

cooperation is required among consultants as they compare perceptions of a client’s
problem and also as they relate to the client’s employees in determining a plan of
action.
(vi) Self-fulfillment

Despite high incomes associated with consulting, clients rarely show their gratitude.
They take personal credit for the positive results, while blaming the consultants for all
failures.
(vii) Mobility

Airlines love consultants-“Have bag, will travel” is the consultant’s motto. If you like a
9-to-5 job from Monday to Friday with dinner at home every night, don’t choose

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 consulting. Continuous travel, up to 60% of one’s time, is not uncommon. Prepare
yourself and your loved ones for this gypsy life.
(viii) Energy
Long hours, plastic hotel rooms, greasy meals, and demanding clients take a toll on
a consultant’s emotional and physical well-being. It is essential to be in top shape to
survive the wear and tear.
(ix) Self-awareness
Too much is at stake for a consultant to take out neurotic tendencies on the client.
Consulting does not place you out in front, leading the client into battle. In reality, you
are backstage, acting with intelligence and reflection. A low-key and thoughtful
demeanor is what the client wants.

8) Intellectual abilities
Do I have the right educational background to do this job? Do I know what it is about?’ It
is very important to have a global view on things, with a broad background, where people
can observe from different points of view so that the global impression is closer to reality.
9) Understanding people
In order to understand people, it is necessary to talk and listen a lot. Never avoid contact
with people from different origins – such as cultural, hierarchical, levels and different
educational backgrounds – because this is exactly where you can learn a lot. Learn from
the others and try to understand what they mean, why their opinions differ to yours. Surely
it is worth trying to find out why somebody reacts differently to you? In so doing you have
to analyse the behaviour of yourself and the other person.

10) Emotional maturity

Emotional maturity has nothing to do with age; it is about how people react in given
circumstances, and what experiences they have.

11) Real business example

Imagine that you have to explain to a boss that the way he manages a company is not
the right one, and that the only way to ‘save’ the business is for him to leave the
management. This is an emotional and complicated situation. The person appearing in
front of you is maybe the one who hired you, the one who has given you the mission, and
you have to tell him that he is the real problem.

12) Stress resistance

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Stress is not only due to an exaggerated amount of work – in which case it would be easy
to avoid it as it would be sensible to split the job into two parts, create a new job and the
stress would disappear. Stress is also due to the complexity of the job.
Many people work in jobs they are not qualified for, and so they have to work above their
normal capacity all the time. This is not a good situation; as such people have to put all
their efforts into actually doing their daily job, leaving them no time or energy to think
about what they are doing, or to look for innovation or change. Sometimes, stress is also
due to ‘fear’ of those above them, ‘fear’ for the career, ‘fear’ about what people think of
you.
In the consultancy business, the reasons for stress tend to be similar, except that you
always have to behave as an independent person without any hierarchy. You have to act
as if you were the only person responsible, without having to take into consideration the
position of the person facing you. As a consultant, you have to convince yourself that you
are working objectively on a mission, and that all the people involved in this can be
changed, and are not necessarily the best ones for the job.

13) Personal drive and initiative

One of the characteristics you should enjoy observing when young consultants start work
in a company is their personal drive and initiative, because it is in these two fields that the
‘real consultants’ can be detected, those who will make it, and the ‘average’ ones. Those
who are enthusiastic and bring a personal touch to the business are pleasant to work
with; if, in addition, they take initiatives (even if they are not always the right or the best
ones) they can do a good job, because by acting like that they can boost the mission. So
if a person feels during this analysis phase that he does not need initiative, it might be
better to forget the dream of working as a top-level consultant.

14) Ethics and integrity

Integrity means, Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values:

Why is ethical behaviour important?

The first response to that question is clear: because it is a matter of human reflex, and
because this is simply a question of respect for both the profession and the clients. But is
it really that simple?
If all consultants were real consultants, meaning that they were really concerned about
their clients, we would never have any problems because even in difficult situations they
(the consultants) would give objective, clear information. They would inform their clients
about the dramatic situation they live in, and would never hide anything or forget to
mention irregularities. Unfortunately, not all consultants are honest and some are easily
influenced.

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Physically and mentally fit
The consultant must be physically and mentally fit to be able to sustain long hours of
work. Consulting assignments have specific time frame within which they have to be
finished and submitted to the client. Any delay without acceptable cause may lead to the
client revoking the contract and demand damages

1.6 EXPLAIN NATURE OF CONSULTING PROBLEM

Consultancy is the process of seeking professional advice from a consultant (a person or

firm that gives professional or technical advice).A consultant is an independent and
qualified person who provides professional service to individuals, organizations or
business undertakings. Consultancy services include identifying and investigating
problems concerned with policy, organization, procedures and methods; recommending
appropriate action and helping to implement these recommendation. A client refers to an
individual or organization in need of consultancy services. The consulting process
involves consultant and client relationship.

1.6.1 Nature of Consultancy Services

Consultancy services encompass a broad range of activities but generally have certain
common characteristics. They include:
1. High expertise:
Consultants are highly trained, well experienced and knowledgeable in a complex
specialist area of expertise. They provide expert advice to their clients in the area of their
specialization. They acquire the skills by training and experience.

2. Membership in professional bodies:

Consultants hold qualifications and accreditations in their field of expertise. They have to
acquire the prescribed qualification and procedures to overcome the entry barriers in the
field of consultancy services. Further membership of a professional society or governing
body is also required.

3. Highly customized services:

Consultancy services are tailored to meet client's needs. This leads to greater
customization of services and high levels of variance in service quality. These are high
contact, people-based services with high degree of specialization.

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4. Confidentiality:
Consultancy services are provided to clients individually. These are provided on a basis
built upon mutual trust and confidence. Credence plays an important role in the selection
of a consultant. A consultant should have knowledge, integrity and reputation.

5. Quality services:
Quality is the pivot around which the consultancy service revolves. Sky is the limit for
quality. Clients expect high quality of services from consultants at reasonable rates. If the
consultants offer world class services, the task of its marketing is simplified.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Explain consultancy, consultant and client.

2. Explain seven types of consultant
3. What are the roles played by a consultant in organizations?
4. Explain importance of consulting services
5. Explain seven qualities of a consultant
6. Explain nature of consulting problem

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