Management Consulting: Choosing The Right Firm

Most companies at any stage of their growth (or even in the event of their decline) can be benefited
substantially by retaining the services of the right management consulting firm. Management
consulting firms are, generally speaking, in the practice of advising and assisting businesses to improve
their performance in any given set of circumstances.
Consultancies operate primarily through an analysis of a client company's situation; the application of
experience and expertise in formulating a tactical or strategic plan for improving the status quo; and, by
proactively overseeing the implementation of the proposed plan of action until the desired result is
obtained. It is in this last aspect of a typical management consulting engagement where even the most
notable and established consulting firms tend to fall short.
Consultancies may provide organizational change management assistance, development of coaching
skills, process analysis, technology implementation, strategy development, financing, marketing and
branding, merger and acquisition or operational improvement services. Management consultants often
bring their own proprietary methodologies or frameworks to guide the identification of problems and to
serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing work tasks.
In choosing the right management consulting firm, the following factors must be given serious
consideration: objectivity, expertise, experience, problem-solving orientation, scalability of solutions,
client-centric focus and affordability. In considering all of these factors, you may well find that some of
the older, larger management consulting firms may not be the ideal match for your company's needs.
In an ideal client-consultant relationship, the client and the consultant can both gauge the return on the
consulting investment (the Consulting ROI) by dividing the incremental improvement (produced by
the implementation of the consultant's advice and efforts) by the total billings of the engagement. The
greater this return, the more successful the engagement.
In making this evaluation, it should be borne in mind that the client's cooperation is an integral
component of any successful engagement and further, that the consultant can only hope to exert
limited control over the client's compliance.
Returning to the factors for selection of a management consulting firm as set forth earlier, we should
take a closer look at each factor, the reasons for its significance, and how to get a preliminary reading
on whether or not your prospective selection has the necessary attributes to warrant your serious
consideration:
Objectivity:
When retaining the services of a management consulting firm, be certain to choose one that will view
your company objectively (i.e., a firm which: has no ties to any of management or employees; a firm
which is not too narrowly specialized in your vertical or technical industry; and a firm which does not
have a conflict of interest where it may be doing work for one of your direct or prospective
competitors).

Expertise:
Look for expertise (among the resumes of the management consulting firm's personnel) in the areas
where you believe that your company needs to focus. Don't look for narrow technical expertise look
for expertise in the areas of business discipline where your firm may need shoring up, such as
marketing, branding, manufacturing, strategic planning, financial restructuring, strategic planning,
dispute resolution, team-building, risk management, etcetera. Business is business, whether it is
nanotechnology or fertilizer packaging.
Experience:
While expertise is quite important, there can be no substitute for experience in the various business
disciplines especially if that experience centers around a particular area of expertise across a broad
spectrum of industry sectors. Some of the best small- to medium-sized management consulting firms
are comprised of a group of experts (in different business disciplines) who are well-seasoned with the
wisdom that only experience can confer.
Problem-Solving Orientation:
When requesting the services of a management consulting firm, your company is generally not looking
for an academic or operational study your company, as most, is usually looking for pragmatic, realworld solutions to suspected or known problems. Your company is seeking actionable findings. If your
choice of management consulting firm is wrong, you will wind up with a tremendous amount of
information, usually beautifully bound and presented. But is the information focused on solving
problems? Is the information instructive and directly actionable? Most of all, will the firm that you
select assist you directly in the implementation of its suggested course of action? Most firms fall short
when it comes to distilling their information into a tightly-focused, streamlined actionable agenda, just
as they are prone to fall short when it comes to hands-on assistance in the implementation phase.
Scalability Of Solutions:
Solutions to problems encountered by your company must be accommodating of your company's size
of operation. If the solutions presented by your selected management consulting firm are based upon a
framework and assumptions that are too large or too small for the existing size of your business, they
can be more harmful than helpful. Scalability of solutions, i.e., suggestions and plans to fit the present
size and immediate needs of your firm, is a critical component of a successful consulting engagement.
Oftentimes, a large management consulting firm paired with a young, growing company makes for a
poor match where scalability of solutions is concerned. As an added note, scalability is as essential to
realistic implementation as realistic implementation is to a successful outcome. When it comes to
management consulting firms and to proposed courses of action, one size does not fit all.
Client-Centric Focus:
If the management consulting firm that you are contemplating engaging spends more time touting its
own accomplishments and reputation than examining your needs, consider this to be a negative
indicator. While an allowance must be made for a certain amount of salesmanship, a client-centric
management consulting firm will inundate you with requests for information and question you
extensively.Then, they will make careful note of your information and answers and reiterate or
paraphrase them to you, just to be certain that they understand your needs so that they may sculpt them
into the scope of your engagement. A firm that does far more talking than listening and observing is

probably not client-centric. For those of us who are professionals in management consulting there are
three understood rules: 1) know your client; 2) understand exactly what your client would like for you
to focus on; and 3) be certain that the scope of your engagement is built around your prospective client
company's needs and objectives.
Affordability:
Cheaper is not necessarily better or worse. Your company must be realistic when it comes to its budget
for consulting, and be fully candid with any prospective candidate management consulting firm about
budgetary constraints, as well as time constraints. While some of the largest consulting firms may be
very inflexible in terms of their hourly rates and demands upon your limited budget, some of the more
contemporary small- to middle-sized consultancies may be willing to defer a portion of their billings
and/or take part of their compensation on a contingent basis geared to the occurrence of some
successful event. If a consulting firm just seems too expensive for your budget, and they cannot work
with you in terms of pricing, you may well be speaking to the wrong management consulting firm. In
the current economy, management consulting firms need to be creative when it comes to their pricing if
they wish to remain in business. After all, management consulting is a business just as manufacturing
or retailing. Businesses must be more flexible and creative in a difficult economy or when faced with a
client base having special budgetary needs.
As of June 1st, 2015, some of the better-known management consulting firms having a presence in the
United States or the United Kingdom (according to Wikipedia) included the following [the author of
this article does not necessarily endorse these firms, the list is not exhaustive, and the firms are merely
listed in alphabetical order]:

ABeam
A.T. Kearney
Accenture
A&G Management Consulting
AlixPartners
Altran
Arthur D. Little
Avasant
Avascent
Bain & Company
BDO Consulting
Bearingpoint
Berkeley Research Group, LLC
Booz Allen Hamilton
Boston Consulting Group
Capco
Capgemini Consulting
CGI
Cognizant Technology Solutions
Collinson Grant
Computer Sciences Corporation

Corporate Executive Board

Deloitte Consulting
Detica
Elix-IRR
Ernst & Y oung
FTI Consulting
Grant Thornton

Hay Group
HCL Axon
Hewitt Associates
Hitachi Consulting
Horvth & Partners
HP Enterprise Services
Huron Consulting Group
IBM Global Business Services
Ikon Marketing Consultants
Imdad logistics
IPL Information Processing Limited
ITN Consulting
KPMG
Kurt Salmon
L.E.K. Consulting
Logica
Marsh & McLennan Companies
Matrix Knowledge Group
McGladrey
McKinsey & Company
Mercer (consulting firm)
Mitchell Madison Group
Monitor Group
Mott MacDonald
Navigant Consulting
Oliver Wyman
PA Consulting Group
PricewaterhouseCoopers
Protiviti
PRTM
Qedis Consulting Ltd
QualPro
Rambll Management
Roland Berger Strategy Consultants
The Saint Consulting Group
Sapient
Schlumberger Business Consulting
SDG Group

Simon-Kucher & Partners

Slalom Consulting
SM&A
Strategy& (formerly Booz & Company)
Tata Consultancy Services
Tefen
The Burke Group
Towers Watson
TQMI Ltd
Walter Rhodes
West Monroe Partners
WS Atkins PLC

Many of the above-listed management consulting firms are very specialized in the nature of the
services that they provide. Many tend to be centered around accounting, IT, research, financial analysis
and other vertical areas of expertise. While this may be seen as positive (and may actually be desirable
in certain cases), much can be said in favor of multi-specialty firms, especially if your company is a
relatively young or rapidly-growing company. By and large, diversification of expertise is generally a
positive in management consulting companies which serve a client base of young entrepreneurial
enterprises and small- to middle market-sized firms.
Douglas Castle for Global Edge International Consulting Associates, Inc.
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