Consulting is defined as the process of giving advice to other professionals, most often the advice is related to financial and business matters. The business world is becoming more complex with international markets which has made consulting services helpful and these services are quite commonly used by businesses all over the world. Any business can benefit from business management consulting services regardless of size, industry or current state.
Below is a list of six common types of consulting services. Note that there are niche consulting services too for those businesses that are highly specialized.
1. Operations Consulting
The main goal of operation consulting projects is to create more effective client operations by advising and supporting implementation of changes in alignment with a target operating model, functional business processes, management systems, culture or other components of the value chain. This segment of the business consulting industry is the largest and most commonly used.
As the name implies, there is a heavy focus on operations. As a result, this form of consulting is most commonly seen in manufacturing businesses. Operations consultants participate in a variety of activities including, but not limited to, hands-on implementation support for sales, marketing, finance and human resources.
2. Management Consulting
Also known as business consultants or organizational advisors, management consultants focus on a variety of organizational concerns related to strategy and elements linked to management. These consultants focus on advisory services, as opposed to hands-on services, the most out of all other consulting divisions.
3. Strategy Consulting
This sector of the industry is the highest level of the consultancy market, generally there is a focus on strategic topics such as corporate and organizational strategy, economic policy and government policy. Because of the advanced nature of the work, strategy consultants typically work with CEOs, directors and senior management.
The nature of work focuses more on quantitative and analytical skills, as opposed to implementation and operations, as well as the long-term goals and sustainability of an organization. In addition, these types of consultants tend to give advice that impacts the whole company instead of participating in hands-on activities.
4. Technology Consulting
Any consulting that has to do with information technology, or technology in general, would be the work of a technology consultant. In today’s world of business, technology has become quite complex which is why technology consultants are there to advise businesses on the best way to implement or adjust information technology.
Usually technology consultants help IT departments determine what technological tool is best for the company’s needs and how to implement the technology in the best way possible so that time and money is not wasted. Factors that are frequently considered is data volumes and types, customer base size, additional details to be captured and upstream or downstream system integration.
5. Marketing & Sales Consulting
Businesses may need consulting assistance to understand the most effective promotional channels, which channels to consider, how to budget for these channels, gauging how large a marketing and sales team should be, and how to increase a sales team reach. Organizations that have big, crucial marketing and sales departments would typically benefit from this type of consulting the most.
6. Human Resources Consulting
In recent years, companies have been focusing on human capital by bettering their benefits for employees and determining the best way to improve employee productivity. This has made human resource consulting very critical in today’s market.
Human resource consultants assist companies with employee policies by making them friendly, guidelines and mandates, bettering performance management systems and determining processes that streamline performance on the basis of incentives and compensation.
