Management consulting is an independent professional consulting service, which helps enterprises and entrepreneurs to identify and seize new opportunities, strengthen learning and implement changes by solving management and operation problems, so as to achieve enterprise goals. It is a service activity in which experts with rich knowledge and experience in enterprise management work closely with enterprise managers and use various scientific methods to find out the main problems existing in enterprise management, make quantitative and qualitative analysis, find out the causes of the problems, put forward feasible improvement plans and guide their implementation, so as to seek the steady development of enterprises. Its tasks mainly include:
First, help enterprises find the main problems in production and operation management, find out the reasons and make feasible improvement plans;
The second is to guide the implementation of the improvement plan;
Third, teach management theory and scientific methods, train management cadres at all levels in enterprises, and fundamentally improve quality of enterprise.
Due to the differences of national culture, language culture and development stage of management consulting, the concept expression of management consulting is not the same. The British Management Consulting Association defines management consulting as "services provided by independent qualified individuals or most people in determining and investigating policies, institutions, procedures and methods, who make suggestions for appropriate actions and assist in implementing these suggestions." The definition of Harvard Encyclopedia of Business Management in the United States is: "Make a clear diagnosis of the current business, then establish the basic policy of the current business and the policy of the future business structure in view of the changes in the business environment, and then make plans and implement them effectively according to the policy." In his Dictionary of Business Research, the famous Japanese business scientist Tomomi defined management consultation as: "The so-called business diagnosis refers to investigating the actual business conditions of enterprises, diagnosing business problems, putting forward specific improvement suggestions, or giving guidance on the implementation of improvement suggestions on this basis."
The management consulting industry first developed from America. When 19 appeared at the end of the year, it focused on solving some basic problems in production management. German consulting industry began in 1950s, and there are 9680 consulting institutions in various forms. Great changes have taken place in the western management consulting industry since 1980s. With the continuous improvement of management consulting methods and the quality of consulting services, management consultants no longer only provide consulting advice, but often assist customers to implement consulting advice. In particular, many large consulting companies are actively committed to global organization building and new market development. In the late 1980s, the management consulting industry in Europe and America grew at a rate of 20-30% per year. By 1995, the annual income of the global management consulting industry exceeded 50 billion dollars. After entering the 1990s, the demand for strategic consulting has greatly increased, which is due to the general change of management mode of modern enterprises from business management to strategic management. Making competitive strategy and implementing strategic planning have become the most important content of enterprise management.
Management consulting is a rapidly developing industry in the world in recent years, and its influence has penetrated into many fields of political and economic life. At present, about 50% of the world's top 500 enterprises have their own internationally renowned consulting companies and have long-term cooperation. At&In America; T company has more than 65,438+0,000 consulting companies to provide all-round and multi-level consulting services, and the annual consulting fee is as high as more than 300 million US dollars. In Germany, consulting industry is the fastest growing and most stable modern industrial sector in German economy, and its annual growth rate is much higher than that of German national economy, which has become an organic part of German social and economic system. The tentacles of consultation have extended to all aspects of people's daily life, including medical care, culture and entertainment, education, job hunting and other services that need consultation. The contents of consultation are many and complete, including production management consultation, strategy consultation and management method consultation.
In order to meet the requirements of enterprises in the 2 1 century for the external environment characterized by "customer, competition and change" and the new operation mode of "e-commerce", and to provide professional consulting services for enterprises to realize the revolution of management concept, the reorganization of management mode and the change of management means, we are committed to developing "modern consulting industry", that is, the management consulting industry is committed to providing enterprises with the most advanced management ideas, management modes and modern IT technical means.
Second, the development of consulting industry in China
The management consulting industry in China is developed on the basis of learning from the theories, methods and experiences of Japanese and European and American enterprises. With the development of China's reform and opening up, China's consulting industry came into being in the early 1980s. Looking at the development of China consulting industry in the past 20 years, it can be divided into the following stages:
1 and the government-run consulting industry in the 1980s
The development of consulting industry in China originated from consulting enterprises established by the government, mainly focusing on investment, science and technology, financial consulting and other fields. In order to effectively adjust the national industrial structure, solve the bottleneck industries and establish a reasonable price system, the former State Planning Commission set up "investment consulting" and "engineering consulting" companies throughout the country, so as to realize the scientific decision-making of national investment and the rationalization of engineering construction. In order to promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, the former State Science and Technology Commission and China Association for Science and Technology established and supported a number of "scientific and technological consulting" enterprises throughout the country; In order to promote the socialization of enterprise financial accounting consulting and the social intermediation of accounting, auditing and evaluation, the national financial system has established "financial accounting consulting" companies and "accounting firms" in various places.
2. Information consulting industry in the first half of 1990s.
The information consulting industry that emerged in 1980s is non-standard and non-market-oriented, but its appearance makes people realize the value of information. With the economic development of China in 1990s, a number of foreign and domestic private "information consulting" companies and "market research" companies began to emerge in the process of market economy, providing standardized consulting services for enterprises. The early demand of information consulting industry mainly comes from foreign-funded enterprises and some joint ventures. After nearly five years of development, some information consulting companies that operate according to market rules have emerged, such as Zero Survey, Gallup (China) Consulting, South China International Market Research, HC Information and Chen Hao Business. These information consulting and market research companies have won the market with their high-quality professional services and stood firm in the competition.
3. Management consulting industry in the second half of 1990s.
In the early 1990s, the information consulting industry in China began to enter the initial stage of development, but the management consulting industry was still in the primary stage of development. The most typical ones are the early "creative companies" and "planning companies". About 1992, an "idea" of Beijing Yang He sold for 400,000 yuan, which was heated by the media. In addition, "creative company" followed closely, and several best-selling books promoting "creativity" made the name of consulting really hot for a while. However, it is a misunderstanding to link the management consulting industry with the declining "idea company". An uneducated person may come up with several "ideas", but management consulting is a typical knowledge industry.
By the mid-1990s, with the perfection of China's market economy and fierce market competition, a large number of foreign management consulting companies entered the China market, and the management consulting industry in China began to develop. Since then, the management consulting industry has bid farewell to the era of "thinking" and entered the stage of professional development. By the end of 1990s, some domestic management companies began to emerge in the market, such as Hampton Management Consulting, Zhuo Yuan Strategy, Bofeng Marketing, Paili Marketing, Broadcom Jingwei and so on.
At present, China's enterprise management consulting industry is developing rapidly. Excellent management consulting enterprises in Beijing and Shanghai have carefully studied the consulting experience and process of foreign excellent consulting enterprises, and combined with their own professional advantages, formed a set of consulting methods that are in line with the reality of consulting enterprises in China. After unremitting market expansion, these enterprises have passed the difficult period of starting a business and gradually won the trust of customers in consulting practice.
The development of consulting industry is the product of the development of market economy. The fiercer the market competition, the greater the demand for consulting industry. It can be said that market economy is the external environment and foundation for the survival and development of consulting industry. With the continuous maturity and development of China's market economy, it can be predicted that consulting industry will be the most promising sunrise industry in 2 1 century.