Management Consulting Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Management Consulting - Coursework Example Theoretically, one can understand the significance of Management Consulting only when they understand its definition at two levels. First is the basic level which looks into the broad 'functional view' of Management Consulting. According to Fritz Steele, Management Consulting is, "any form of providing help on the content, process or structure of a task or series of tasks, where the consultant is not actually responsible for doing the task itself but is helping those who are." Looking at this definition one might feel the importance of Management Consulting is over-hyped. However, it is the second definition which views Management Consulting as a "special professional service" that will help clear this misunderstanding. According to Larry Greiner and Robert Metzger, "management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to organizations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective and independent manner, the client organization to identify management problems, analyze such problems, recommended solutions to these problems, and help, when requested, in the implementation of solutions." This approach takes Management Consulting at a different level and calls it a 'professional service which can be carried out effectively only with the help of professionals.' Value addition is a profession in which there is tr... Hence in context of Management Consulting, value addition is carried out when knowledge is being transferred from the consultancy to their client. According to Peter Drucker, "what is unique to management is that from the very beginning the consultant played a key role in the development of the practice, the knowledge and the profession of management." In Management Consulting knowledge is not only being transferred in the form of facts and figures, but also as methods, practices and their application which eventually leads to achieving the consultancy's objectives. This transfer of knowledge which finally leads to value addition exists in two dimensions. First is the 'technical dimension' which deals with finding solutions to problems relating to the nature of management of the clients. Second is the 'human dimension' which deals with the interpersonal relation in the client organization and between the client and the consultancy. In legal terms however, the implication of 'creating value' is totally different and inextricably liked with the shareholders of the company. The fact that the shareholders invest their funds in the company and take unlimited risk in doing so, makes it necessary for the company to pay due considerations to the shareholders needs. Today, the process of creating value in a financial scenario is carried out as an 'operational activity' in 3 different ways. One of them is called 'Market Value Added' which describes value as the difference between the market value and the book value of the company's equity. Another view is the 'free cash flow' approach, which takes the view that value is related only when cash produced by a company's operations