Consulting in Work Process

Consultant service lines related to HR. They give them fancy names, like “Human Performance” (at Accenture), “Organization” (at The Boston Consulting Group), and “Organizations, People & Performance” (at Booz Allen Hamilton). Consultants in these areas work on everything from creating more effective organizations, to managing change, to developing training programs, to managing health-care programs for their clients. The work is often strategic, focusing on the people issues of running a large company. A lot of it is data-driven, too, such as in actuarial consulting, which involves financial planning based on the company’s long-term hiring projections.

Consulting firms are traditionally among the largest employers of top MBA and college graduates. More than half the people in top MBA programs and a significant number of college seniors flirt with the idea of becoming a management consultant after graduation. It’s a high-paying, high-profile field that offers students the opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility right out of school and quickly learn a great deal about the business world.

In essence, consultants are hired advisors to corporations. They tackle a wide variety of business problems and provide solutions for their clients. Depending on the size and chosen strategy of the firm, these problems can be as straightforward as researching a new market or as complex as totally rethinking the client’s organization. No matter what the engagement, the power that management consultants wield is hard to scoff at. They can advise a client to acquire a related company worth hundreds of millions of dollars, or reduce the size of its workforce by thousands of employees.

One word of clarification: "Consulting" is a big, one-size-fits-all term that includes virtually any form of advice-giving. This industry overview focuses primarily on the flavor known as management consulting. Often called strategy consulting, this segment of the industry includes firms that specialize in providing advice about strategic and core operational issues. Although some of the highest profile firms populate this segment, they’re not the only ones doing consulting.

In the world of business, management consultants are jacks-of-all-trades. Working through consulting firms or as independent contractors, they advise corporations and other organizations regarding an infinite array of issues related to business strategy—from reengineering to e-commerce, change management to systems integration. From billion-dollar mergers and acquisitions to corporate reorganizations in which thousands of jobs are at stake, they are the directors behind the scenes of nearly every major event in the marketplace.

A career in consulting can encompass a wide variety of industries. One word of clarification: “Consulting” is a big, one-size-fits-all term that includes virtually any form of advice-giving. Pretty much anyone with a specialty in a field can offer consulting service; to keep this profile specific, we’ve focused on management consulting, a broad category in its own right. Often called strategy consulting, this segment of the industry includes firms that specialize in providing advice about strategic and core operational issues.

Most management consultants hold salaried positions at firms that cater to a clientele of mostly large corporations. They are assigned on a project basis to their firm's clients, who are billed by the hour for their services. Depending on the client's needs and the firm's functional specialty (or core competency, as it's often called), consultants conduct objective research and analysis on behalf of their client, and make recommendations based on their findings. Ultimately, management consultants take on the responsibility of improving their clients’ businesses by effecting change through their recommendations.

Although some of the highest-profile firms populate this segment, they’re not the only ones doing consulting. Thousands of other organizations and individuals call themselves consultants, make money by selling their advisory services, and offer plenty of opportunities for employment. If you like the idea of giving advice to other businesses, and you have a particular interest in computers, human resources, corporate communications, mobile communications, health care, financial services, real estate, e-commerce, or some other specialized field, there’s a good chance you can find a position with an organization doing precisely that.