Management consulting

Box 7.2 Information materials for preliminary surveys

Client’s publications (including material published through the Internet):

–annual financial and activity reports;

–financial, statistical, trade and customs returns to government, trade associations and credit organizations;

–economic surveys;

–sales promotion material such as catalogues and advertising brochures;

–press releases, interviews given by management, etc.

Information from other published sources:

–conditions and trends in the client’s economic sector, including technological developments;

–information on business firms in the sector;

–industrial outlook studies;

–trade statistics and reports;

–industry norms and key business ratios;

–regulations which the client must observe;

–corporation income tax returns (if published);

–labour–management relations.

Client’s internal records and reports:

–information on resources, objectives, plans and performance;

— information on plant, technologies and equipment used;

–reports on financial results and costs of activities, services and products;

–minutes of board and management committee meetings;

–tax returns;

–sales statistics;

–movement of material;

–staff appraisal, etc.

Documentation files of the consulting firm:

–information on the client;

–information on the sector and similar organizations.

Observing activities and interviewing key people are vital to informationgathering. Tours of the client’s premises, seeing people in action and hearing their views, worries and suggestions, give direct indications of how the organization works in practice, the pace it sets and the relationships between its workers. These are invaluable insights which records cannot convey; however, extensive interviewing and observation of activities are beyond the possibilities of preliminary surveys.

Contacts with other organizations associated with the client may be made either by the consultant, or by the client personally. During their work, consultants make contact with many organizations apart from those of their clients. These contacts not only assist the current assignment but also establish a relationship which can be used in future work. For example, contacts may be

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established with trade unions, employers’ and trade associations, sectoral research institutions, or management associations.

The consultant should inform the client of the purpose and nature of any contact made. The client may personally contact some outside bodies (e.g. employers’ associations), and should know of any consultant contact. Talking to the client’s customers is an essential source of information and ideas for management consultants, but contacts with customers should not be made without the client’s agreement.

Alternative approaches

The approach described in the previous paragraphs is the traditional consultant’s approach: the consultant performs the diagnosis as an expert, using data collection and analytical techniques of his or her choice, with some participation by the client. Moving along the continuum of consulting roles towards the process function, the client and his staff become more active and the consultant focuses on providing effective diagnostic methods instead of personally carrying out the diagnosis.

For example, some consultants use problem-identification workshops which can be run as part of a problemand action-oriented management development programme, or used directly as a technique for identifying problems and opportunities on which the organization will have to act. In this workshop or group approach, the members of the group develop their own lists of problems requiring action, compare and discuss their lists, and agree on a joint list and on priorities. They then work separately on a more detailed definition and analysis of the principal problems from each list, paying attention to relations between various problems. This is followed by other meetings, where individual analyses are compared, a collectively agreed analysis is made and action proposals are developed.

This exercise can be organized in one group, or as a system of groups. The initial groups can be heterogeneous (from various levels and functions of management), thus enabling one organizational process or problem to be examined from several angles. Alternatively, technically homogeneous, functional or departmental groups can first look at one problem from their specific technical angles (financial, organizational, production, staffing, etc.), followed by workshops involving representatives of the different groups, who meet to compare and harmonize their viewpoints and develop a problem definition that is endorsed by all groups. Often it is more effective if groups look at organizational processes rather than at fragmented tasks and units.

Management may decide to involve an external or internal consultant in these group exercises. The consultant’s approach may be low-key, reminding the group of the appropriate procedure, of criteria that may have been overlooked, and of methodological errors that might lead to false conclusions.

The use of the group approach is often preceded by a thorough explanation of diagnostic, problem-solving and performance-improvement methods. If

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