Consulting

What is consulting?

For professionals working in the professional services, the terms ‘consultant’ and advisor’ are often used interchangeably. What exactly do these terms mean? Consultancy.eu zooms in on this field to get a closer look at the origins of the consulting industry, and also provides insights into the main features of consultancy and the ecosystem in which consultants operate.

Consulting is defined as the practise of providing a third party with expertise on a matter in exchange for a fee. The service may involve either advisory or implementation services. For the consultant, taking an independent and unbiased stance on an issue is central to his/her role. A consultant can, in principle, service any sector. Over the past few decades, however, the term has become synonymous with business advisory – which focuses mostly on business strategy, management, organisation, operational processes and technology.

1. Assessment of symptoms: A client knows they’ve got a business problem (such as declining revenue or a new competitor in their market). They turn to a consultant for help getting to the root of the problem, as a sick patient would turn to a doctor. 
2. Diagnosis: The consultant assesses the client’s business performance, taking into account similar problems they’ve seen at clients in the past, like a doctor would check their patient’s symptoms against known illnesses.
3. Prescription: The consultant recommends a course of action to improve revenues or meet a competitive threat, much like a doctor would tell their patient what’s wrong with them and prescribe medicine or recommend a medical procedure.
4. Bedside manner: The consultant has the experience to steer a client to the right course of action as a doctor would advise a nervous patient.
5. Follow-up care: The consultant provides the client with a step-by-step process to improve their business results, much like  a doctor provides a patient with the steps necessary to regain their health. 

Why does anyone trust a doctor? Because they are experts in their field and have extensively studied the human body, the injuries and illnesses that can afflict it, medicines, and surgical procedures.

Consultants, similarly, are business experts. They can lead the client through a fact-based analysis of their business problem and the evaluation of alternative courses of action. They can also leverage their firm’s collective knowledge to bring extensive industry and functional expertise to bear to solve the problem.