- •In praise of the fourth edition
- •CONTENTS
- •FOREWORD
- •The concept of consulting
- •Purpose of the book
- •Terminology
- •Plan of the book
- •ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
- •1.1 What is consulting?
- •Box 1.1 On giving and receiving advice
- •1.2 Why are consultants used? Five generic purposes
- •Figure 1.1 Generic consulting purposes
- •Box 1.2 Define the purpose, not the problem
- •1.3 How are consultants used? Ten principal ways
- •Box 1.3 Should consultants justify management decisions?
- •1.4 The consulting process
- •Figure 1.2 Phases of the consulting process
- •1.5 Evolving concepts and scope of management consulting
- •2 THE CONSULTING INDUSTRY
- •2.1 A historical perspective
- •2.2 The current consulting scene
- •2.3 Range of services provided
- •2.4 Generalist and specialist services
- •2.5 Main types of consulting organization
- •2.6 Internal consultants
- •2.7 Management consulting and other professions
- •Figure 2.1 Professional service infrastructure
- •2.8 Management consulting, training and research
- •Box 2.1 Factors differentiating research and consulting
- •3.1 Defining expectations and roles
- •Box 3.1 What it feels like to be a buyer
- •3.2 The client and the consultant systems
- •Box 3.2 Various categories of clients within a client system
- •Box 3.3 Attributes of trusted advisers
- •3.4 Behavioural roles of the consultant
- •Box 3.4 Why process consultation must be a part of every consultation
- •3.5 Further refinement of the role concept
- •3.6 Methods of influencing the client system
- •3.7 Counselling and coaching as tools of consulting
- •Box 3.5 The ICF on coaching and consulting
- •4 CONSULTING AND CHANGE
- •4.1 Understanding the nature of change
- •Figure 4.1 Time span and level of difficulty involved for various levels of change
- •Box 4.1 Which change comes first?
- •Box 4.2 Reasons for resistance to change
- •4.2 How organizations approach change
- •Box 4.3 What is addressed in planning change?
- •Box 4.4 Ten overlapping management styles, from no participation to complete participation
- •4.3 Gaining support for change
- •4.4 Managing conflict
- •Box 4.5 How to manage conflict
- •4.5 Structural arrangements and interventions for assisting change
- •5 CONSULTING AND CULTURE
- •5.1 Understanding and respecting culture
- •Box 5.1 What do we mean by culture?
- •5.2 Levels of culture
- •Box 5.2 Cultural factors affecting management
- •Box 5.3 Japanese culture and management consulting
- •Box 5.4 Cultural values and norms in organizations
- •5.3 Facing culture in consulting assignments
- •Box 5.5 Characteristics of “high-tech” company cultures
- •6.1 Is management consulting a profession?
- •6.2 The professional approach
- •Box 6.1 The power of the professional adviser
- •Box 6.2 Is there conflict of interest? Test your value system.
- •Box 6.3 On audit and consulting
- •6.3 Professional associations and codes of conduct
- •6.4 Certification and licensing
- •Box 6.4 International model for consultant certification (CMC)
- •6.5 Legal liability and professional responsibility
- •7 ENTRY
- •7.1 Initial contacts
- •Box 7.1 What a buyer looks for
- •7.2 Preliminary problem diagnosis
- •Figure 7.1 The consultant’s approach to a management survey
- •Box 7.2 Information materials for preliminary surveys
- •7.3 Terms of reference
- •Box 7.3 Terms of reference – checklist
- •7.4 Assignment strategy and plan
- •Box 7.4 Concepts and terms used in international technical cooperation projects
- •7.5 Proposal to the client
- •7.6 The consulting contract
- •Box 7.5 Confidential information on the client organization
- •Box 7.6 What to cover in a contract – checklist
- •8 DIAGNOSIS
- •8.1 Conceptual framework of diagnosis
- •8.2 Diagnosing purposes and problems
- •Box 8.1 The focus purpose – an example
- •Box 8.2 Issues in problem identification
- •8.3 Defining necessary facts
- •8.4 Sources and ways of obtaining facts
- •Box 8.3 Principles of effective interviewing
- •8.5 Data analysis
- •Box 8.4 Cultural factors in data-gathering – some examples
- •Box 8.5 Difficulties and pitfalls of causal analysis
- •Figure 8.1 Force-field analysis
- •Figure 8.2 Various bases for comparison
- •8.6 Feedback to the client
- •9 ACTION PLANNING
- •9.1 Searching for possible solutions
- •Box 9.1 Checklist of preliminary considerations
- •Box 9.2 Variables for developing new forms of transport
- •9.2 Developing and evaluating alternatives
- •Box 9.3 Searching for an ideal solution – three checklists
- •9.3 Presenting action proposals to the client
- •10 IMPLEMENTATION
- •10.1 The consultant’s role in implementation
- •10.2 Planning and monitoring implementation
- •10.3 Training and developing client staff
- •10.4 Some tactical guidelines for introducing changes in work methods
- •Figure 10.1 Comparison of the effects on eventual performance when using individualized versus conformed initial approaches
- •Figure 10.2 Comparison of spaced practice with a continuous or massed practice approach in terms of performance
- •Figure 10.3 Generalized illustration of the high points in attention level of a captive audience
- •10.5 Maintenance and control of the new practice
- •11.1 Time for withdrawal
- •11.2 Evaluation
- •11.3 Follow-up
- •11.4 Final reporting
- •12.1 Nature and scope of consulting in corporate strategy and general management
- •12.2 Corporate strategy
- •12.3 Processes, systems and structures
- •12.4 Corporate culture and management style
- •12.5 Corporate governance
- •13.1 The developing role of information technology
- •13.2 Scope and special features of IT consulting
- •13.3 An overall model of information systems consulting
- •Figure 13.1 A model of IT consulting
- •Figure 13.2 An IT systems portfolio
- •13.4 Quality of information systems
- •13.5 The providers of IT consulting services
- •Box 13.1 Choosing an IT consultant
- •13.6 Managing an IT consulting project
- •13.7 IT consulting to small businesses
- •13.8 Future perspectives
- •14.1 Creating value
- •14.2 The basic tools
- •14.3 Working capital and liquidity management
- •14.4 Capital structure and the financial markets
- •14.5 Mergers and acquisitions
- •14.6 Finance and operations: capital investment analysis
- •14.7 Accounting systems and budgetary control
- •14.8 Financial management under inflation
- •15.1 The marketing strategy level
- •15.2 Marketing operations
- •15.3 Consulting in commercial enterprises
- •15.4 International marketing
- •15.5 Physical distribution
- •15.6 Public relations
- •16 CONSULTING IN E-BUSINESS
- •16.1 The scope of e-business consulting
- •Figure 16.1 Classification of the connected relationship
- •Box 16.1 British Telecom entering new markets
- •Box 16.2 Pricing models
- •Box 16.3 EasyRentaCar.com breaks the industry rules
- •Box 16.4 The ThomasCook.com story
- •16.4 Dot.com organizations
- •16.5 Internet research
- •17.1 Developing an operations strategy
- •Box 17.1 Performance criteria of operations
- •Box 17.2 Major types of manufacturing choice
- •17.2 The product perspective
- •Box 17.3 Central themes in ineffective and effective development projects
- •17.3 The process perspective
- •17.4 The human aspects of operations
- •18.1 The changing nature of the personnel function
- •18.2 Policies, practices and the human resource audit
- •Box 18.1 The human resource audit (data for the past 12 months)
- •18.3 Human resource planning
- •18.4 Recruitment and selection
- •18.5 Motivation and remuneration
- •18.6 Human resource development
- •18.7 Labour–management relations
- •18.8 New areas and issues
- •Box 18.2 Current issues in Japanese human resource management
- •Box 18.3 Current issues in European HR management
- •19.1 Managing in the knowledge economy
- •Figure 19.1 Knowledge: a key resource of the post-industrial area
- •19.2 Knowledge-based value creation
- •Figure 19.2 The competence ladder
- •Figure 19.3 Four modes of knowledge transformation
- •Figure 19.4 Components of intellectual capital
- •Figure 19.5 What is your strategy to manage knowledge?
- •19.3 Developing a knowledge organization
- •Figure 19.6 Implementation paths for knowledge management
- •Box 19.1 The Siemens Business Services knowledge management framework
- •20.1 Shifts in productivity concepts, factors and conditions
- •Figure 20.1 An integrated model of productivity factors
- •Figure 20.2 A results-oriented human resource development cycle
- •20.2 Productivity and performance measurement
- •Figure 20.3 The contribution of productivity to profits
- •20.3 Approaches and strategies to improve productivity
- •Figure 20.4 Kaizen building-blocks
- •Box 20.1 Green productivity practices
- •Figure 20.5 Nokia’s corporate fitness rating
- •Box 20.2 Benchmarking process
- •20.4 Designing and implementing productivity and performance improvement programmes
- •Figure 20.6 The performance improvement planning process
- •Figure 20.7 The “royal road” of productivity improvement
- •20.5 Tools and techniques for productivity improvement
- •Box 20.3 Some simple productivity tools
- •Box 20.4 Multipurpose productivity techniques
- •Box 20.5 Tools used by most successful companies
- •21.1 Understanding TQM
- •21.2 Cost of quality – quality is free
- •Figure 21.1 Typical quality cost reduction
- •Box 21.1 Cost items of non-conformance associated with internal and external failures
- •Box 21.2 The cost items of conformance
- •21.3 Principles and building-blocks of TQM
- •Figure 21.2 TQM business structures
- •21.4 Implementing TQM
- •Box 21.3 The road to TQM
- •Figure 21.3 TQM process blocks
- •21.5 Principal TQM tools
- •Box 21.4 Tools for simple tasks in quality improvement
- •Figure 21.4 Quality tools according to quality improvement steps
- •Box 21.5 Powerful tools for company-wide TQM
- •21.6 ISO 9000 as a vehicle to TQM
- •21.7 Pitfalls and problems of TQM
- •21.8 Impact on management
- •21.9 Consulting competencies for TQM
- •22.1 What is organizational transformation?
- •22.2 Preparing for transformation
- •Figure 22.1 The change-resistant organization
- •22.3 Strategies and processes of transformation
- •Figure 22.2 Linkage between transformation types and organizational conditions
- •Figure 22.3 Relationships between business performance and types of transformation
- •Box 22.1 Eight stages for transforming an organization
- •22.4 Company turnarounds
- •Box 22.2 Implementing a turnaround plan
- •22.5 Downsizing
- •22.6 Business process re-engineering (BPR)
- •22.7 Outsourcing and insourcing
- •22.8 Joint ventures for transformation
- •22.9 Mergers and acquisitions
- •Box 22.3 Restructuring through acquisitions: the case of Cisco Systems
- •22.10 Networking arrangements
- •22.11 Transforming organizational structures
- •22.12 Ownership restructuring
- •22.13 Privatization
- •22.14 Pitfalls and errors to avoid in transformation
- •23.1 The social dimension of business
- •23.2 Current concepts and trends
- •Box 23.1 International guidelines on socially responsible business
- •23.3 Consulting services
- •Box 23.2 Typology of corporate citizenship consulting
- •23.4 A strategic approach to corporate responsibility
- •Figure 23.1 The total responsibility management system
- •23.5 Consulting in specific functions and areas of business
- •23.6 Future perspectives
- •24.1 Characteristics of small enterprises
- •24.2 The role and profile of the consultant
- •24.4 Areas of special concern
- •24.5 An enabling environment
- •24.6 Innovations in small-business consulting
- •25.1 What is different about micro-enterprises?
- •Box 25.1 Consulting in the informal sector – a mini case study
- •25.3 The special skills of micro-enterprise consultants
- •Box 25.2 Private consulting services for micro-enterprises
- •26.1 The evolving role of government
- •Box 26.1 Reinventing government
- •26.2 Understanding the public sector environment
- •Figure 26.1 The public sector decision-making process
- •Box 26.2 The consultant–client relationship in support of decision-making
- •Box 26.3 “Shoulds” and “should nots” in consulting to government
- •26.3 Working with public sector clients throughout the consulting cycle
- •26.4 The service providers
- •26.5 Some current challenges
- •27.1 The management challenge of the professions
- •27.2 Managing a professional service
- •Box 27.1 Challenges in people management
- •27.3 Managing a professional business
- •Box 27.2 Leverage and profitability
- •Box 27.3 Hunters and farmers
- •27.4 Achieving excellence professionally and in business
- •28.1 The strategic approach
- •28.2 The scope of client services
- •Box 28.1 Could consultants live without fads?
- •28.3 The client base
- •28.4 Growth and expansion
- •28.5 Going international
- •28.6 Profile and image of the firm
- •Box 28.2 Five prototypes of consulting firms
- •28.7 Strategic management in practice
- •Box 28.3 Strategic audit of a consulting firm: checklist of questions
- •Box 28.4 What do we want to know about competitors?
- •Box 28.5 Environmental factors affecting strategy
- •29.1 The marketing approach in consulting
- •Box 29.1 Marketing of consulting: seven fundamental principles
- •29.2 A client’s perspective
- •29.3 Techniques for marketing the consulting firm
- •Box 29.2 Criteria for selecting consultants
- •Box 29.3 Branding – the new myth of marketing?
- •29.4 Techniques for marketing consulting assignments
- •29.5 Marketing to existing clients
- •Box 29.4 The cost of marketing efforts: an example
- •29.6 Managing the marketing process
- •Box 29.5 Information about clients
- •30 COSTS AND FEES
- •30.1 Income-generating activities
- •Table 30.1 Chargeable time
- •30.2 Costing chargeable services
- •30.3 Marketing-policy considerations
- •30.4 Principal fee-setting methods
- •30.5 Fair play in fee-setting and billing
- •30.6 Towards value billing
- •30.7 Costing and pricing an assignment
- •30.8 Billing clients and collecting fees
- •Box 30.1 Information to be provided in a bill
- •31 ASSIGNMENT MANAGEMENT
- •31.1 Structuring and scheduling an assignment
- •31.2 Preparing for an assignment
- •Box 31.1 Checklist of points for briefing
- •31.3 Managing assignment execution
- •31.4 Controlling costs and budgets
- •31.5 Assignment records and reports
- •Figure 31.1 Notification of assignment
- •Box 31.2 Assignment reference report – a checklist
- •31.6 Closing an assignment
- •32.1 What is quality management in consulting?
- •Box 32.1 Primary stakeholders’ needs
- •Box 32.2 Responsibility for quality
- •32.2 Key elements of a quality assurance programme
- •Box 32.3 Introducing a quality assurance programme
- •Box 32.4 Assuring quality during assignments
- •32.3 Quality certification
- •32.4 Sustaining quality
- •33.1 Operating workplan and budget
- •Box 33.1 Ways of improving efficiency and raising profits
- •Table 33.2 Typical structure of expenses and income
- •33.2 Performance monitoring
- •Box 33.2 Monthly controls: a checklist
- •Figure 33.1 Expanded profit model for consulting firms
- •33.3 Bookkeeping and accounting
- •34.1 Drivers for knowledge management in consulting
- •34.2 Factors inherent in the consulting process
- •34.3 A knowledge management programme
- •34.4 Sharing knowledge with clients
- •Box 34.1 Checklist for applying knowledge management in a small or medium-sized consulting firm
- •35.1 Legal forms of business
- •35.2 Management and operations structure
- •Figure 35.1 Possible organizational structure of a consulting company
- •Figure 35.2 Professional core of a consulting unit
- •35.3 IT support and outsourcing
- •35.4 Office facilities
- •36.1 Personal characteristics of consultants
- •36.2 Recruitment and selection
- •Box 36.1 Qualities of a consultant
- •36.3 Career development
- •Box 36.2 Career structure in a consulting firm
- •36.4 Compensation policies and practices
- •Box 36.3 Criteria for partners’ compensation
- •Box 36.4 Ideas for improving compensation policies
- •37.1 What should consultants learn?
- •Box 37.1 Areas of consultant knowledge and skills
- •37.2 Training of new consultants
- •Figure 37.1 Consultant development matrix
- •37.3 Training methods
- •Box 37.2 Training in process consulting
- •37.4 Further training and development of consultants
- •37.5 Motivation for consultant development
- •37.6 Learning options available to sole practitioners
- •38 PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
- •38.1 Your market
- •Box 38.1 Change in the consulting business
- •38.2 Your profession
- •38.3 Your self-development
- •38.4 Conclusion
- •APPENDICES
- •4 TERMS OF A CONSULTING CONTRACT
- •5 CONSULTING AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
- •7 WRITING REPORTS
- •SUBJECT INDEX
Management consulting
1.5Evolving concepts and scope of management consulting
It is important to be aware of some dilemmas in the nature and purpose of management consulting and to understand how they are reflected in evolving consulting concepts and practices.
Advice or results?
We have shown that consultants are advisers and remain in this position except when they are recruited by clients to become temporary members of staff. Advisers have no authority to make decisions about a client’s business and their influence has limits. The assignment may be too short and understaffed to produce tangible results, the client may be unwilling to follow the advice given, staff may not collaborate or their resistance and inertia may be too strong, or the consultant may be unavailable for follow-up and debugging. Even the soundest advice alone cannot provide absolute assurance that there will be tangible, measurable, and sustainable results.
There is therefore a growing tendency to use consultants for more than providing advice. “Advice” tends to be defined more and more loosely and liberally, and consultants are increasingly viewed as assistants, helpers, service providers or even service brokers who work with clients on various issues for as long as necessary to make sure that tangible and measurable results are achieved. Also, consultant remuneration tends to be increasingly related to results, rather than to time spent on providing advice. Clients would be wise not to get bogged down in vaguely defined time-based assignments with unclear consultant responsibilities and uncertain results. In large and expensive projects, which are often focused on management systems and information technology, clients need to have safeguards against escalating costs, low reliability and failure to meet set parameters and promised performances. Consultants may be offered roles and positions likely to increase their impact on results or to give them more authority and responsibility for achieving certain results in client organizations. New ways of remunerating consultants have become widespread, including equity and stock options (see Chapters 30 and 36). In this way the consultant is clearly accepting to be dependent on the wider and longer-term business results and prosperity of the client, sometimes even beyond the scope of improvements that can be attributed to the consultant’s intervention.
Management consulting, business consulting, or any consulting?
Traditionally the scope of the services offered by management consultants was confined to functions, subjects and problems regarded as part of management,
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Nature and purpose of management consulting
although the scope of “management” has never been fully and accurately defined. Management consultants were keen to stick to their business and maintain their identity, and most of them were not particularly seeking to broaden their services and explore new territory.
Over recent decades this attitude has changed dramatically, and in several directions, both in management consulting and in other professional services. Management consultants have started to rethink and redefine their business, widening and enhancing their service offerings, merging or establishing alliances with other consultants and professional service firms, and abandoning self-imposed restrictions on the sort of work they are prepared to undertake.
These changes have been triggered by a number of factors, including the growing complexity and sophistication of doing business in national and international environments, market deregulation and liberalization, new opportunities for innovative consulting, growing demand for integrated and “one-stop” professional services, competitive pressure coming from other professions and, above all, the advancement of information technologies and their rapid penetration into management and business processes. In using consulting and other professional services the clients are asking “what will add value to my business”, and the service providers must inevitably adopt the same perspective.
In this new environment, some consultants have felt the need to stress that their field of activity is no longer management consulting (narrowly and rigidly defined), but business consulting (a wider concept and service portfolio) or consulting to management, consulting to business or organizational consulting (more open concepts permitting the service portfolio to be easily adjusted as opportunities and demands change).
Consulting coupled with other business?
The information technology giant IBM is often mentioned as a pioneer of a new approach, where management and business consulting is provided by a manufacturer, a software house, an investment bank or another business entity. Traditionally a leading supplier of office and computer hardware, IBM decided in the early 1990s to position itself as a provider of systems and services to clients. This included management consulting alongside IT services. IBM thus became the first large manufacturer and IT service provider with important management consulting services. In 2000, IBM had 50,000 consultants on its payroll and was one of the largest consulting firms in the world. Many other firms in manufacturing, utilities, finance or professional services have adopted a similar strategy and have included integrated management and business consulting (often called management services) in their offer to clients, with considerable success.
The reasons for this success are similar to those mentioned above. Clients that choose these service providers are seeking a complete, integrated and firsthand service in combination with know-how about the latest technology and the sector in general. They may be less concerned about independence and potential conflict of interest, e.g. if a consultant quite naturally suggests software or
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Management consulting
hardware made by his or her employer, or if a consultant coming from the same industry sector is in some way related to the client’s competitors in the sector.
Commoditization
Commoditization is a common trend in professional services and is currently very pronounced in management, business and IT services. Rather than identifying needs, devising a solution and implementing a new and “tailor-made” system for every client, a consulting firm has a range of products that are offered to all clients (or categories of clients). Advice and know-how are turned into a commodity. The client can choose among standard offerings “off the shelf” – diagnostic instruments, change and project management programmes, training and selfdevelopment packages, production control systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) systems, e-business or knowledge management software and so on. These products may be the result of the consultant firm’s own research and development and based on its own work experience, or the consultant may have acquired the product from another firm, or be distributing and using it under a licensing agreement.
Commoditization of methods and systems is currently a feature of knowledge management and transfer. It responds to demands from clients, who want to get the best (or at least a good and easily applicable) system, methodology or approach at an affordable price, within reasonable time limits, and with a guarantee of applicability and standard performance. This is what the commoditized professional services aim to provide.
Conversely, the client accepts that the solution will not be unique, may have features that he or she does not need, and will be quite widely used, hence also by competitors. Indeed, most commoditized products cannot provide any distinct competitive advantage. Rather the risk is that a client will be disadvantaged by not following the trend and not buying a product that has become commonly used by his or her competitors.
Professional service providers who have commoditized their knowledge enjoy an enormous business advantage – if the product is in demand and sells well. They can serve large numbers of clients. Clients who would not consider buying a tailor-made solution for their organization may easily become interested in a standard product. Instead of using experienced and highly competent consultants for each assignment, the consulting firm can develop standard procedures for delivering standard products, and hence use more junior and less experienced staff, and cut the price. The spectacular growth of IT and e-business consultancies (discussed in Chapter 2) would not have been possible without considerable service standardization and commoditization.
Outsourcing
Outsourced services are activities that the client previously carried out within its normal structure and resources, but now chooses to contract out to a
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Nature and purpose of management consulting
consultant or another service provider. By branching out into new service areas, management consultants behave in the same way as other professions do – looking for new markets and opportunities and aiming to satisfy their clients’ demand for new, innovative and complementary services. The factors that may influence them in deciding to enter other fields of business service are:
●benefit to clients (Will the client appreciate such a service and will the service be really helpful to the client?);
●technical (Do we have the technical capacity and will the new service be synergetic with what we are already doing for the client?);
●legal (Does legalization allow a new service to be combined with the consultant’s current service portfolio within the same organization?);
●ethical (Is it appropriate for a management consultant to operate such a service and will no conflict of interest or other ethical problem arise?);
●commercial (Is the new service profitable and a potential source of future income?).
Outsourcing has been transforming the shape of the consulting sector. It has been greatly facilitated and boosted by the new information and telecommunication technologies, which permit software and application service providers to be accessed via the Internet (see Chapters 16 and 22). More and more business and management processes and functions are regarded as suitable for outsourcing, and many developments in IT focus on enlarging the scope and enhancing the efficiency of outsourcing. These developments cover issues such as reliability, confidentiality, speed of data transfer, worldwide access to business information, etc. In addition to the direct provision of outsourced services, new opportunities for consultants are created by the need to select and evaluate systems and providers of outsourcing, identify and modernize processes to be outsourced, assist with organizational and other changes connected with outsourcing, manage and control outsourced services, integrate services outsourced to different providers, etc.
In larger IT and management consulting firms, outsourcing has become the fastest-growing area of service and an indispensable source of stable and longterm income. This reflects the fact that the consulting firm may be better equipped to carry out certain activities, which it can perform more efficiently and economically than the client while keeping up to date with advances in the field. It also reflects new ways of doing business and managing knowledge, in which clients focus on their core business and use intellectual capital and financial resources in areas of their principal strength.
1F. Steele: Consulting for organizational change (Amherst, MA, University of Massachusetts Press, 1975), p. 3.
2P. Block: Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used (San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2nd ed., 2000), pp. xvi and 2.
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Management consulting
3L. E. Greiner and R. O. Metzger: Consulting to management (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1983), p. 7.
4See www.icmci.org., visited on 19 March 2002.
5P. Drucker: “Why management consultants”, in Perspectives (Boston, MA, The Boston Consulting Group), No. 243, 1981.
6Ibid.
7See G. M. Bellman: Getting things done when you are not in charge (San Francisco, CA, Berrett-Koehler, 1992).
8P. Stroh: “Purposeful consulting”, in Organizational Dynamics (New York, American Management Association), Autumn 1987, pp. 49–67.
9G. Nadler and S. Hibino: Breakthrough thinking: The seven principles of creative problem solving (Rocklin, CA, Prima Publishing, 1994), p. 128. See also Stroh, op. cit.
10Nadler and Hibino, op. cit. p. 149.
11Frequently referred to is the Kolb–Frohman model, which includes the following seven phases: scouting, entry, diagnosis, planning, action, evaluation, termination. See D. A. Kolb and A. L. Frohman: “An organization development approach to consulting”, in Sloan Management Review, Vol. 12, No. 1, Fall 1970.
12For example, framework contracts with consultants are used by the European Union in technical assistance programmes.
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