- •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
feel that by not using their services the clients’ businesses are being deprived of something special. Powerful advertising tools are too costly to be used by small and new consultants looking for new clients. Thus advertising serves mainly to strengthen the position of a small group of already very powerful and successful players, since they are the only ones who can afford enough of it to make an impact, when in fact they need it least. One can only hope that the growing sophistication of clients will mean that they do not believe everything in the advertising that some consultancies have been producing.
Of course, publicity and advertising are standard and perfectly correct tools for marketing and promoting professional services, including consulting. The question is how they are used. The limits of professionalism and taste have been reached, and probably crossed, in some cases, thus shifting the balance between the professional and commercial sides of consulting towards the commercial. Some consultants do not hesitate to promise the moon to potential clients. Writing about the Big Six and the changes in their attitudes since the 1980s, Mark Stevens pointed out that “for generations, members of these huge influential practices considered themselves professionals who happened to be in business. But beginning in the 1980s, this view flip-flopped: increasingly they saw themselves as businessmen who happened to be professionals. The distinction is critical.”4 The same could be written today about quite a few firms in consulting and other professions.
38.2 Your profession
The comment by Mark Stevens may be regarded as irrelevant and unfair by some professionals. They will argue that, in their firms, there has never been the slightest danger of misrepresentation, conflict of interest or sacrificing of clients’ interests and service quality to earnings and profits. Yet it is useful to keep constantly in mind the delicate balance between professional and commercial objectives in operating any professional firm and planning its future.
The current international climate in business and society is most favourable to those who provide businessand management-related professional services. As mentioned elsewhere, there are more and more issues in which industrial and service firms, governments and even social and voluntary not-for-profit organizations will need advice and help from independent professionals. The trend towards treating knowledge as a commodity and an object of business is fairly pronounced, although in some fields the limits to trading in knowledge and making profit from it have yet to be negotiated, fine-tuned and codified by legal texts and ethical rules.
However, the future will belong to true professionals, not to instant experts willing to promise and sell anything to uninformed clients without worrying about the outcome. Professional culture and responsibility are not dead concepts and if in some professional firms they have given way to the get-rich-quick culture, these firms would be well advised to reconsider their long-term
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objectives and value systems. The professional service sector enjoys considerable clout with business and government clients, who recognize it as a source of useful knowledge and experience that they themselves lack. More and more clients realize that, to stay competitive and meet the expectations of their own stakeholders, they must buy and apply this knowledge. It would be a great disservice to the consulting profession if this advantageous position should be wasted because of some consultants who accept assignments they are not qualified for, or leave clients with costly systems that will never attain the promised parameters.
Balancing the professional and the commercial sides of consulting, or any other professional service, is an extremely delicate issue when demand for services is high, change fast, time pressure strong, competition severe but not always orthodox in its approach, markets liberal and temptation to reduce standards difficult to resist. Yet from a long-term perspective there is no alternative.
Profound and far-reaching structural changes in the professional service sectors have commenced and their end is not in sight.5 The partition and dismantling of the largest accounting and other professional service empires is on the way. Some of these firms are facing a crisis of credibility, confidence and even identity. Simultaneously, new integrated and multiservice giants are being created through acquisitions of management consultancies by IT service firms, or vice versa. Further spectacular changes can be expected and some may be very surprising. Where there are minimal legal and regulatory barriers, anyone can acquire an established professional service firm, especially if that firm has been restructured as a joint stock company and its shares are traded on the stock markets. Some mergers and acquisitions may create new kinds of innovative providers integrated along the value chain, combing specific sector products or services with IT, business, management, and other professional systems and services. Conversely, other mergers and acquisitions may be opportunistic, creating clumsy conglomerates and having a short life.
Where is the client in this process? Serving clients’ evolving interests in the best and most effective ways is the credo of all consultants. However, in referring to clients and their interests, many consultants’ mission statements and advertisements contain a mix of rhetoric and reality. Professional firms that merge, split, buy other firms, or expand operations with sometimes astronomic speed will always argue that it is in their clients’ interest, and point to benefits, such as better service for global clients, systems integration, caring for cultural diversity, quality assurance, or getting closer and giving a faster response to the client. And they will be right – from a certain perspective and within certain limits. Other issues may be overlooked or suppressed, such as growing conflict of interests and loss of objectivity, painful and uncertain harmonization of incompatible cultures, the danger of turning a personalized and fine professional service into an anonymous mass-market process, and the levelling – and in some instances even lowering – of individual consultant competencies.
Clients, however, are not passive observers of the consulting scene. They have become more sophisticated in selecting and using consultants. More and
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more of them are able to insist on getting tangible and measurable results from their consultants, and value for money. Consultant–client collaboration and transfer of knowledge are already quite intensive in many assignments and will become more intensive and versatile in the future. These relationships will increasingly influence the development of consulting and other professions alike. Clients have a role in shaping the professions. In restructuring and redesigning their services and products, and adopting new business models, consultants will have to listen more to clients, dialogue with them, give priority to client-friendly models and approaches, and scrupulously avoid behaviour that irritates and repulses clients. After all, consulting and other professional services can only exist if there are clients who believe in their value, and are willing to pay for them.
38.3 Your self-development
A consultant who wants to invest in self-develoment to prepare for the future can seek inspiration in the overall development and structural changes of the markets for professional services and of the professions themselves. He or she will need to keep abreast of developments, not only in management consulting, but in IT and other professional and business services. A broad understanding of the ongoing and expected changes in technology, business and society is necessary. An ability to view narrow and special technical issues from a wider business and societal perspective has traditionally been a major asset of consulting professionals, and remains important, not only to the generalist but also to the specialist. Without this ability, management consultants would be IT, quality or other systems technicians, probably providing a useful technical service within narrow limits, but missing the view of the total enterprise and its complex human and business fabric.
Against this background, you can assess both your current competencies and your future potential. Being a consultant, you are probably objective, critical and realistic enough in judging yourself. You are able to compare and judge, using the right benchmarks. You are aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Discussing these issues with colleagues and with management helps, but eventually every consultant has to take full responsibility for decisions on his or her future, especially if considerable time and energy are to be invested in learning, and strong personal commitment will be necessary. This is not only every consultant’s right, but also a matter of a developed sense of responsibility to oneself, the clients, the firm and the whole profession. Not only organizations need to “reinvent themselves”; management and business consultants have to reinvent themselves even more courageously and more frequently than any of their clients.
An individual’s vision of the future and of personal capabilities and goals may not always coincide with that of his or her firm. In some firms, there is a discrepancy between policy statements on learning and development, and current reality. The firm may realize that its future depends on the skills of its
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staff remaining up to date. But it may strongly prioritize current incomegenerating client work, even if this is routine and repetitive and offers no learning opportunities to the consultants. These issues need to be discussed, and solutions adopted and implemented. If management does not take the initiative and is reluctant to invest in human capital, individual consultants employed by the firm should not hesitate to do so. After all, an individual, not the firm, is the primary owner of his or her intellectual capital.
38.4 Conclusion
Consulting to management is a fascinating profession. While consultants may feel threatened and constrained by competition from other service sectors, new regulations and various other forces, new trends and changes keep opening new horizons for them. Currently the main business, social, technological and other trends are creating more opportunities and more demand for consulting than in the past. In professional service sectors we have witnessed a great deal of restructuring, and further structural changes are likely to be forthcoming, as indicated by the performance record, growth pattern, restructuring experience, visibility and social prestige of leading consulting firms. Consulting is in a delicate equilibrium between the professional service approach and objectives, and the commercial approach and objectives, in all respects, including strategy, firm management, individual assignment design and execution, knowledgesharing with clients and people development. The leading consultants have always exhibited a remarkable capacity to understand and maintain this equilibrium, restore it when it is disrupted, adapt to the changing needs of their clients, and pursue excellence both professionally and as businesses. This capacity is the best safeguard of the future of consulting.
1See, e.g., F. Czerniawska: Management consultancy in the 21st century (Basingstoke, Hampshire, Macmillan, 1999), and R. Dawson: Developing knowledge-based client relationships: The future of professional services (Boston, MA, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000). See also
E-business consulting: After the shakeout; The global consulting marketplace: Key data, forecasts
&trends; and other reports on the consulting industry produced by the Kennedy Information Research Group and available from Kennedy Information.
2It is useful to follow sources focused on recent development and trends, such as M. Porter: “Strategy and the Internet”, in Harvard Business Review, Mar. 2001, pp. 62–78; J. Hagel and J. Seely Brown: “Your next IT strategy”, ibid., Oct. 2001, pp. 105–113; “Ten smart moves – corporate IT that’s worth a closer look”, at www.ebusinessforum.com of the Economist Intelligence Unit, 7 Dec. 2001; or “How about now? A survey of the real-time economy”, in The Economist, 2 Feb. 2002.
3P. Drucker: “Why management consultants?”, in Perspectives No. 234 (Boston, MA, The Boston Consulting Group, 1981).
4M. Stevens: The Big Six: The selling out of America’s top accounting firms (New York, Simon
&Schuster, 1991), p. 22.
5See also “Spoilt for choice” (special report on professional service firms), in The Economist, 7 July 2001.
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