Consulting

A classical description of consulting (and/or consultancy) is the business of giving expert advice to people working in a professional or technical field.

Currently, consulting covers more than giving professional and expert advice and one good definition that covers Consulting is from the Institute Of Consulting (www.iconsulting.org.uk) that defined consulting as

”The provision to businesses of objective advice and assistance relating to the strategy, structure, management and operations of an organization in pursuit of its long-term purposes and objectives. Such assistance may include the identification of options with recommendations; the provision of additional resources; and/or the implementation of solutions.”

Consulting is becoming an increasingly broader industry covering many areas and fields with position in innumerable industries like

security (electronic or physical), military, management, business, education, accountancy, law, properties, automobile, human resources, recruitment, marketing (and public relations), internet, finance, engineering, science and so on.

I do not think that there is any field today that consulting has not touched.

Although most business have employees with a broad range of skills (with some specialties), the consulting industry have grown in recent years mainly due to changing demands within the business and other global economic factors have created needs that cannot be met with existing skills within the business and made employing more staff unprofitable on the short-run.

All these have made consulting a varied profession, with projects and clients changing constantly.

This is one of the beauties of consulting and it is also posing a lot of challenge for consultants.

Based on the explanation above, a consultant could be described as professional or an expert in a specific field that provides external advice for organizations that require specialist expertise or an objective outside perspective on their business.

Consultants provide information based on their expertise and knowledge that help businesses to attain their goals and solve problems.

Consultants are paid for the information they provide in the form of recommendations and may be implementation.

A consultant may require little formal education but must have a wide knowledge of the field of consulting which he/she may have acquired through formal or informal training, experience, passion and career.

To become a successful consultant, it is necessary to have skill, knowledge and experience in areas of expertise, logical reasoning, leadership and communication skills, ingenuity and ability to work well with others.

Consulting covers a wide range of fields, professions and industries and consultants are involved in some activities. Most times, it is very difficult to classify consulting into types and categories because many consultants define their activities and functions differently.

However, one way of classifying consulting is to categorize the activities based on professional’s areas of expertise, this produces consultants like Internet Consultants, Software Consultant, ERP Consultant, Operational Management Consultant, Human Resource Consultants, Recruitment Consultant and so on.

In reality, there are many differences and overlaps exist between the categories.

Thank you.

Augustus ZEKARYAH

Telephone: +234-8103-978-0214, E-mail: augustus

About the author

Augustus is a management, banking and business computing professional with over 20 years of documented success in the field. Augustus is recognized for the application of software to solving business problems, Software Project Management, Enterprise Architecture Strategy, and Delivery of learning solutions with focus on adaptability, Development and execution of business plans, General management and administration, Operations management and Best practice development. Augustus founded and manages FirstPlus Integrated Business Solutions (http://firstplus.com.ng) as a Software and Business Consulting outfit that specializes in Software development and integration, E-Learning development, Business and Marketing Planning, Consulting and training. Augustus brings to his work a high level of energy, passion, commitment and humour. He is married with children.

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