Every year in the United States corporate strategy consulting firms and agencies that specialize in executive business management and improving shareholder approach receive billions of dollars for their services.
But these consulting firms are about more than just giving advice to corporate management. Consultants can accomplish much more for a business.
After conducting interviews with partners and officers from five well-known consulting firms, Harvard Business Review magazine published a report that further explained the services offered by consultants and how these services fall into a natural hierarchy.
This hierarchy of consulting purposes was designed to clarify the purposes of management consulting because when both sides understand the purpose at hand, they are each more likely to work effectively together.
The hierarchy is comprised of eight consulting purposes. The lower purposes are the ones that are most understood and requested by clients. But the top three tiers are goals that top consultants strive for and that can help take business management to the next level.
The eight purposes from top to bottom are:
Purposes 1 through 3 are less likely to be requested by clients, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have as much merit or effectiveness. The goals are typically byproducts of purposes 4 through 8, but they are not necessarily dependent on the other purposes being achieved prior to their implementation.
Top management consulting firms across the country can usually reach the top tiers of the hierarchy with their clients while also tip-toeing the line between what’s best for the client and what would help the consultant’s business.
But regardless of the situation, the primary goal of all corporate consultants is to first address the purposes and problems the client has hired them for. Once the initial goals are achieved and the relationship between consultant and client begins to grow, then the top three purposes can be used to help the client sustain its improved organizational effectiveness.
