Consulting is a type of professional consulting services provided to corporate clients to optimize business processes or achieve strategic development goals.
What tasks do consulting companies solve?
The world's largest consulting firms today include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG (KPMG). They are also called the "big four".
In most cases, the services of consulting companies are used by managers, administrative staff, and department managers.
Companies can use the services of external consultants in two cases. First, when the company is small and at an active stage of its development. In this case, it does not have its own structural units capable of solving the task.
Secondly, the services of consulting companies are often used by large corporations. The fact is that the conclusion of the consulting division to outsourcing is due to considerations of economic feasibility and allows you to reduce the cost of maintaining personnel.
Usually, a consulting company is contacted in difficult crisis situations. For example, with a drop in sales, loss of market share and a decrease in the competitiveness of products. Consultants can help reorient a business to more promising niches for development or develop a company's marketing or competitive strategy. But dealing with critical situations is not the only function of the consulting company.
Often, her clients are companies that involve business development and the search for new directions of development. For these purposes, consultants conduct marketing research of the market, determine the most promising niches for its development, analyze the activities of competitors, make a pre-investment assessment of business projects, and forecast the development of market segments. They can also carry out an internal audit of the company's activities to identify problem areas within the organization.
External consultants can solve internal problems of the company, providing the management with a plan for optimizing business processes, building a management structure in the organization, motivating personnel, etc. They can also directly participate in the management of the company, carry out strategic and tactical planning.
The main goal of HR consulting is to increase the efficiency and individual productivity of employees.
Another area of activity of consulting companies is the development and implementation of information systems, as well as system integration.
A new direction of consulting is the so-called personal consulting. Unlike traditional psychological counseling, it is aimed at developing strategies for personal development, forming a system of relationships.
Types of consulting companies
Consulting companies are extremely diverse. From the point of view of the profile of their activities, they can be highly specialized (which cover the entire range of consulting services) and highly specialized (providing only one type of service - for example, audit of companies or IT consulting).
The methods of activity distinguish between expert, process and training consulting.
Localization distinguishes between domestic and international consulting.
According to the range of tasks solved by consulting companies, one can single out specialists in the field of commercial, financial, legal, environmental, technological consulting, etc.
