What does a consultant do?

Working as a consultant is renowned for being challenging, diverse and rewarding; this, to a large extent, explains why the field belongs to one of the most popular sectors to work in, both among students and more experience professionals. Yet, before entering the consulting market it is, for aspiring consultants, crucial to understand what the daily life of a consultant looks like. So what does a consultant do? The activities of a consultant typically consist of two main domains: external activities on a project basis and activities that support internal operations.

Client related activities
Once a consultant is staffed on a project then the project member can (in a simplified view) be part of two different types of engagements – an advisory project (e.g. strategy development, corporate finance, HR strategy) or an implementation project (e.g. strategy execution, roll-out of new business processes, ERP implementation). Advisory projects typically last from a few weeks to a couple of months, while large implementation projects, such as a global roll-out, can easily last up to a few years.

An advisory project typically consists of a number of standard phases, irrespective of the functional nature of the issue or the industry it is in. The first phase is the preparation phase, where project members plan the project in terms of client agreements, staffing, budgeting, planning, project structure and governance. This phase is in the most cases managed by senior consultants, such as Managers, Directors or Partners.

The problem definition phase follows – here the project team analyses the client issue and, based on that, develops the requirement for the data gathering phase. Uncovering the real problem ('root cause') is in practice easier said than done, it often requires desk research, interviews and thorough analysis for it to surface. The data gathering phase subsequently ensures the required information is obtained, through, for instance, surveys, benchmarks, interviews, etc.

Once the data has been gathered the consultants proceed to the analysis phase. Data is placed under scrutiny, analysed, tested against hypotheses developed at the start of the project and checked with the client. Following the validation of data (often an iterative process), options and solutions are developed, which stand at the basis of the final recommendation. A final deliverable, often in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, is developed to inform the stakeholders involved.

Internal activities
Besides client related work, consultants are expected to contribute to internal objectives, which may vary, from following training to performing research for external publication or contributing to the organisation of an event. Typically as consultants climb up the ranks the importance of activities shift from client delivery to, for instance internal management (strategy setting, management), sales (proposal delivery, client management) and engagement management (coaching, Quality Assurance).

In addition to seniority, the balance of activities between client delivery vs internal matters also changes once a consultant is not chargeable, known as 'on the bench' in the industry. This could either be because a consultant is in between projects or, in the worst case, if there is no project available. In this case, a consultant's focus turns completely toward internal tasks and an increased contribution to, for instance, account management (sales), training development or other areas is expected.

 

Types of consultants  

The consultancy industry is one of the most diverse markets within the professional services industry, and, as such, a wide spectrum of types of consultant are found in the industry. Moreover, being a ‘consultant’ is not a protected professional title like most other professions, and, as such, anyone can title themselves strategy, management, business, finance, HR or IT consultant. Given the widespread areas in which a consultant can operate, and added to this the variety of work places a consultant can access, there has been a sharp rise in the number of independent consultants over the past few years. Following the influx into the industry, a common definition of a ‘consultant’ has become more difficult to reach.

Over the past few decades, branch specific associations and analysts have developed different definitions in order to categorise the diverse types of consultants active in the field. Consultancy.org adheres to the approach used by Kennedy Information, an American research agency that has been analysing the consultancy market since the ‘60s (for more info see the page on the Consultancy Branch). The methodology behind their approach is based on there being six core types of consultants within the consulting industry:

Strategy Consultant
The term Strategy Consultant is used to describe consultants who operate at the highest level of the consultancy market, with focus on strategic topics like corporate and organisational strategy, economic policy, government policy and functional strategy. For this reason, strategy consultants generally carry out work assigned by top managers, like CxOs, directors and senior managers. Seeing that the nature of strategy consulting differs from the other more implementation and operational driven areas, strategy consultants generally have a different profile than their peers. Their focus lies more on quantitative/analytics skills, and their job description revolves more around giving advice than overseeing implementation.

Management Consultant
Management consultants, in practice also known as business consultants or organisational advisors, are consultants who focus on all sorts of organisational concerns from strategy to a variety of elements within management. In the methodology upheld by Kennedy as well as Consultancy.org, Management Consulting is a collective term used for all services that fall under Strategy Consulting, Operations Consulting and HR Consulting. For that reason, management consultants form the vast majority in the advisory branch – more than half of all advisors can be defined as a management consultant.

Operations Consultant
Operations consultants are consultants who help clients improve the performance of their operations. Consultancy activities in this segment vary from advisory services to hands-on implementation support, for both primary functions (e.g. Sales, Marketing, Production, etc.) as secondary functions (e.g. Finance, HR, Supply Chain, ICT, Legal, etc.). Operations Consultants form the largest segment within the advisory branch, and the majority of consultants are active within one of the many underlying operating areas. Seeing as the operations is often associated with the strategy and technology side of a company, active operations consultants regularly work side by side with experts from these domains.

Financial Advisory Consultant
Consultants who operate in the Financial Advisory segment generally work on questions that address financial capabilities, and, in many cases, also the analytical capabilities within an organisation. Subsequently, the profiles of consultants active in this segments can differ greatly, from M&A and corporate finance advisors to risk management, tax, restructuring or real estate consultant. Consultants specialised in forensic research and support disputes also fall under the Financial Advisory segment. The majority of financial consultants work for the large combined accounting and consulting firms, or else for niche advisory offices.

Human Resource Consultant
HR consultants help clients with human capital questions within their organisations and / or with improving the performance of the HR department. Chief topics central to the job description of HR consultants are, among others, organisational changes, change management, terms of employment, learning & development, talent management and retirement. HR consultants are also brought in by organisations to help transform the business culture within their organisation, or transform their HR department, which includes changes in the area of organisational design, processes and systems, among others. HR consulting forms, together with strategy consulting, the two smallest segments of the consultancy industry, and the number of consultants active in this domain is, therefore, lower than those in other parts of the industry.

IT Consultant Technology consultants, also known as IT, ICT or digital consultants, focus on helping clients with the development and application of Information Technology (IT) within their organisation. IT consultants focus on transitions (projects) in the ICT-landscape, contrary to regular IT-employees, who work on day-to-day IT operations (so-called ‘business as usual’ activities). The majority of ICT-consultants work on implementation projects, for instance, extensive ERP systems applications, where their role may vary from project management to process management or system integration. Within IT consulting, the fastest growing markets are digital, data analytics (also known as data science), cyber security and IT forensics.