The first generation of management consultants was born in America 1870 to 19 14. At that time, their main role was to help manufacturing enterprises improve productivity and efficiency. Their particularly active field is steel engineering companies in the northwest of the United States. At that time, people didn't call them management consultants. In fact, no one knew the real meaning of management consultants. On the contrary, people call them "industrial engineers". People regarded them as researchers of time and action, and their dominant views didn't change until the 1960s.
Taylor left a special legacy to people. Taylor's research scheme made him known as the father of scientific management by later generations. What Taylor cared about was actually the so-called organization method. His thoughts of simplifying complex manufacturing work, clarifying supervision mode and improving productivity had a far-reaching influence in the United States and Europe at that time, and continued until the 1970s.
After World War I, management consultants played a very important role in the development and reorganization of American industry. For example, General Motors hired Arthur_D._Little to set up a research and development center for it, and the US government also purchased the consulting services of Booz Allen Hamilton. In the 1920s, management consulting still developed under the inspiration of American thought. Management consulting in this period began to be influenced by early motivational industrial psychologists, such as Elton Mayo and Mary Parker Follette. These thinkers look at efficiency from a broader organizational perspective. Among them, people began to pay more attention to human factors.
In the 1960s, in the real market, widely distributed consumer groups have also been formed, and the importance of advertising and marketing began to get people's attention. American consulting companies have also contributed to this. Many of their consulting companies are trained in companies like Procter & Gamble, among which Procter & Gamble has always been regarded as a marketing business school. In this way, management consultants help large companies learn and use brand-new marketing skills.
The 1960s was also the era when "management by objectives" prevailed. The framework of "management by objectives" was put forward by John Humble of Ahlvik Orr Partners. In short, Hambler's main point is that the secret of excellent management lies in establishing a clear enterprise goal system, setting measurable goals, and forming a * * * understanding of the ways to achieve the established results. Later, he said: "I think the future of consulting, the completely foreseeable future, is to be able to understand the relationship between the various components (in the management process), not the components themselves."
This management view is very consistent with the management culture at that time, because the management culture at that time placed great emphasis on long-term planning and manpower planning. However, this management view quickly withdrew from the dominant position, and people began to tend to the following management views: the business world has entered an unpredictable stage, which is difficult to predict. What broke all the classical assumptions of enterprise management was the oil price crisis in the 1970s. Between 1973 and 1978, the global oil price tripled and rose to an unprecedented sky-high price. The soaring oil prices during the two Great Depression dramatically changed people's business priorities. Financial performance has become the most concerned issue for enterprises, and various accounting consulting companies have also begun to pay attention to the consulting market.
In the 1980s, a series of advances in management thought also had a corresponding impact on the consulting industry. First, as Japanese companies gain more and more market share in the global automobile products market, household appliances market, semiconductor products market and computer market, one of the responses of other companies is to imitate Japanese management methods. Therefore, Japan's flexible manufacturing system, especially quality management and other production methods, has had a great impact. Secondly, the liberalization of financial market, the reduction of international tariff barriers and the internationalization of enterprises have created the demand for global enterprise strategy and global marketing strategy.
Facts have proved that it is extremely complicated to manage international companies with different systems, cultures and products. The cultural changes of these large international companies are both endogenous and exogenous. Cultural change transcends different functions, and its influence is subtle but powerful. This new consulting field has been influenced by many experts engaged in management culture research. At the same time, the demand for human resource management consulting is growing. The development of human resource management consulting activities is driven by the following factors: the rise of the wave of mergers and acquisitions, the increasing demand for personal training and career development, and ensuring that human resource management practices can reflect the changes in corporate culture.
Porter believes that enterprises must "create value", and he puts forward the concept of "value chain": every activity carried out by enterprises can be analyzed to find out the mutual influence between them. He explained: "For these strategically important activities, if an enterprise can pay lower costs or do better than its competitors, then it can gain a competitive advantage."
Porter's works encourage companies to examine not only the internal activities of all companies, but also the external relations, especially the relationship between enterprises and suppliers. The development after Porter's view is business process reengineering, which is more logical. Mike Hamm and James Champi (Mike Hamm &; James Champy's book Enterprise Reengineering warns people's managers that they should pay attention to the process rather than the management function. Therefore, many companies carry out comprehensive and systematic reorganization of their business processes. In fact, almost every business process reengineering is carried out with the help of consultants.
The emphasis on organizational self-evaluation by the concepts of value chain analysis and business process reengineering has also led to other development trends in management practice, that is, focusing on the "core" business that enterprises are most suitable for or "best at managing", and accordingly outsourcing or "outsourcing" those activities that do not play a core role in business. What a management consulting company does in IT is to give suggestions to the company on what to outsource, how to outsource and how to continuously improve the management of outsourcing activities under the circumstances related to IT (information technology). The appearance of information technology has brought people to another main development direction of consulting industry.
If there is one factor that has changed management consulting activities to the greatest extent, it is it. In 1980s, IT projects of consulting companies accounted for less than 10% of the consulting business market. Today, IT projects account for more than 25% of the market. For some large consulting companies, IT projects generate 50% of their income. With more and more IT consulting companies occupying a dominant position in the consulting industry, the structure of the consulting industry is also undergoing tremendous changes.
Since the late 1990s, the Internet has begun to exert a strong influence on the field of management consulting. The rise of e-commerce has provided a lot of opportunities for management consulting activities, so their customers have begun to try to use this emerging commercial media. At the same time, it also promotes the development of network consultation, especially for network enterprises. McKinsey & Company estimates that in 2000, half of customer projects included a considerable part of e-commerce.
The development of online consultation will further promote people's demand for another service that people have not been exposed to so far-knowledge management consultation and service. In the future, knowledge management will play an unprecedented important role, and not only for consulting customers. As far as management consulting itself is concerned, knowledge management has become a key issue. From 65438 to 0999, MCA published a report entitled "Globalization and Knowledge Society", written by William White and Michael Sedgley, explaining how the use of knowledge and information technology accompanying knowledge dissemination will change enterprises. Connectivity will become the driving force of knowledge management.
RDS management consulting of responsibility-driven system
Responsibility-driven system RDS, also known as: quantitative responsibility management system. It is a new enterprise management consulting mode and method developed in China after scientific management consulting (management and control), target management consulting, cultural management consulting and strategic management consulting. Mathematical modeling diagram of responsibility matrix model;
This model was put forward by Mr. Fang Zhiliang, the founder and senior management consultant of rational responsibility matrix model and 4R4P management model (Peking University partner, president and chief consultant of Shanghai Kuhn enterprise management), and has been successfully practiced in more than 40 enterprises.
The emergence of RDS management consulting tools and systems, a responsibility-driven system, has created the original systematic management consulting tools and concepts in China management consulting industry.
The consulting working principle of responsibility-driven system: Through the four systems of rational responsibility matrix model (responsibility boundary system, responsibility evaluation system, responsibility interaction system and responsibility concept system), this paper analyzes the broad and narrow responsibility relationship between enterprises and members. Systematically analyze the operation, strategy and management of an enterprise, clarify the relationship among organization, members and responsibilities, and analyze the internal factors of responsibility relationship management among top, middle and members of the enterprise.
The RDS management consulting module of responsibility-driven system includes: organizational structure, division of functions and responsibilities, salary structure, performance appraisal, corporate culture, corporate strategic deployment, competency model and promotion, and internal training.
RDS consulting mode of responsibility-driven system is an innovative mode of management consulting, and it is also the first consulting mode that can take "responsibility" as a management tool and concept, which has changed the situation that traditional China management consulting lacks self-theoretical tools and relies entirely on western management theoretical models and systems.
The core advantages of responsibility-driven system RDS management consulting are as follows:
1. This paper systematically and reasonably analyzes the composition mode of the responsibility relationship between enterprises and members, and puts forward an integrated functional responsibility matrix specification;
2. On the basis of "integrated" functions and responsibilities, establish the salary structure of members' four responsibilities (role responsibility, ability responsibility, obligation responsibility and career responsibility);
3. Analyze the matrix model SOCS (system is also called mechanism, goal, culture and strategy) of enterprise core competitiveness with rational responsibility matrix, and construct the performance management tool of members; (see the picture below)
4. Use rational responsibility tool 4R4P to build corporate culture: (see the figure below)
5. Rational Responsibility 4R4P tool constructs a systematic "radar" competency model tool, which can effectively guide the analysis and promotion basis of enterprise competency.
6. The strategic planning diagram of the responsibility quantification drive system:
7. The "radar" competency model of the quality of responsibilities of each post:
Why do enterprises have to consult companies?
People are sick and need to see a doctor; This is the same reason that enterprises should consult the company when there are problems in the management system.
Some enterprises say that I don't go to see a doctor and let it heal itself, but in fact it often worsens, and even Huatuo can't be cured.
Some companies say that it may be fine if I buy my own medicine, go to a class and try the medicine that others have taken, but it is still very dangerous. If the medicine is not symptomatic, it may aggravate my condition, delay the treatment opportunity and may have side effects.
It is natural to see a doctor when you are sick, so the hospitals in Shenzhen are overcrowded, and the number of operations should be arranged one month or even longer in advance. When there is a problem in the enterprise, especially in the management system, it is wise to let the external brain intervene:
1, enterprise reform needs a strong driving force, and it is difficult to achieve it only by relying on the internal strength of enterprises.
2. "Foreign monks are fond of chanting", and the neutrality of the external brain is more convincing.
3. The external brain is more professional and scientific, the reform efficiency is higher, and enterprises can take fewer detours.
4. People inside the enterprise are busy with daily affairs and have an excuse not to do things to improve the system. Even if they do, the effectiveness of the reform will be discounted or even failed because of the avoidance of personal hobbies or the entanglement of interests. The second generation of "proposal-based" management consulting, represented by foreign brands, has been criticized by more and more enterprises in China, and there are different opinions on the reasons for acclimatization. Wang Junqiang, a well-known domestic management consulting expert and general manager of Shanghai Jingbang Group, pointed out: "Any management consulting is based on correct theoretical assumptions. Only if the hypothesis is established can the theory have vitality, otherwise it will be neither fish nor fowl. The reason why foreign consultancies are not acclimatized is that the theoretical models supporting these consultancies are all mature large enterprises, while China is mostly developing small and medium-sized enterprises. The theoretical premise and management theme of the two are very different. "
The third generation of management consulting is based on the special development stage and management theme of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, and its characteristics are consulting+lifelong counseling. The representative company is Shanghai Jingbang Group. A new mode of micro-consultation crowdsourcing to complete consultation. With the decreasing role of tools and best practice consulting, there is a growing demand for fragmented consulting with business insight. In the eyes of a group of truly consulting business experts, the value of saving the world is gradually becoming the mainstream. They are not only from management consulting companies, but also from executives of well-known domestic enterprises.
Micro-consulting is in the form of a platform, which has built an hour-long consulting service platform for these business experts. Through video conference, telephone conference and other means, help experts quickly respond to the needs of "micro-customers", pass on wisdom and share insights. Its characteristics are online, small unit, strong pertinence, short and pithy, more reasonable and practical. Thanks to the characteristics of the platform, the field of micro-consulting services is broader, including the evolution of trends represented by e-commerce and big data; Investment and financing determine the future enterprise form represented by M&A; Scientific management represented by strategy, comprehensive risk, supply chain and IT planning; Enterprise asset management represented by brand operation and crisis management; The ideological system of "touching the human soul" represented by eastern and western philosophy. High-level experts, including the vice president of Lenovo Group and the founder of a famous domestic consulting company, have formed a highland of wisdom in China.