Consulting is a comprehensive research and development through the knowledge and experience stored in some people's minds and the comprehensive processing of various information materials. Consulting produces the comprehensive benefits of intellectual labor and plays the role of consultant, staff officer and external brain for decision makers. Latin consultation means consultation, which means discussion and consultation. In ancient China, "consultation" and "inquiry" were originally two words, namely, consultation and inquiry. Later, they gradually formed a compound word with the meanings of inquiry, planning and consultation. As a social activity with personnel and services, it has developed in military, political and economic fields, and has become an important means to assist decision-making in social, economic and political activities, and has gradually formed an applied soft science. Consulting activities are different from general labor, agency and intermediary services, and also from general research and development of specialized technologies. In the modern society where science and technology are highly integrated and cross-infiltrated, consulting activities are gradually socialized and become intelligence-intensive brain enterprises and software industries.
Management consulting is a branch of consulting industry. It is an intellectual service provided by consulting experts to improve customers' performance, that is, on the basis of in-depth investigation of customers' internal and external situations, collection of relevant information and data and quantitative and qualitative analysis, consulting experts help customers find out the existing problems and their causes, make objective and pertinent evaluations, propose feasible improvement plans and guide the implementation of service processes.