Consulting doesn't seem to be an industry. In the industrial and commercial bureau, marriage agencies and management consulting companies are grouped together. In fact, there is no reason for this division. The reason for this situation, I think, is that there is no accurate consultation positioning.
Nowadays, many people think that consulting is information intermediary and talent intermediary, because they all follow the name of "information consulting company" and "employment consulting company". In fact, this kind of work is very different from real consultation. They can be called "information" companies because they provide a kind of information (called "information" in Hongkong and Taiwan Province). Their main job is to store information and then choose packaging for customers as needed. It is only a passing process, and its work has scale effect, and the charge for each service will not be very high.
Consulting is different, such as auditing, taxation, financial consulting and marketing consulting. Their main job is to form a personalized plan on the basis of basic principles and methods, combined with customer conditions. Its value mainly lies in the consultant's creative thinking according to the customer's personality on the platform of certain management mode and related knowledge (experience and research accumulation of consulting company) and putting forward solutions. Because its results are completely customized for customers, and the completion of the results is based on the number of consultants and working hours, it is difficult to produce scale effect, and the fees for consulting projects will be higher.
In consultation, it can be divided into two types. One is to solve the problem instead of the customer and complete the work that the customer needs to complete, but it can't be done because of its own ability or some restrictions. For example, the audit and tax work of accounting firms. Among them, few customers participate. Moreover, it has formed a more standardized and fixed working procedure and method, which allows individuals to play less space, focuses on solving short-term problems, and the results are easy to measure. For example: audit report.
The other is to help customers solve problems and solve them with customers, just like McKinsey &; According to the company, we seek to solve problems with customers, not for them. (We seek to solve problems with customers, not instead of solving problems), and customers are involved in the whole process (we try to work closely with key members of customer organizations). The part of the work that needs personal exertion is very large, and the work focuses on the long-term development of the organization, including several levels, a shaped report, the exchange of ideas in the process, and the change of culture and values, which are not easy to show in the short-term performance.
The typical representative of the second type of consulting is management consulting, which is divided into business development strategy, human resource management, marketing, financial process optimization and other consulting activities.