Per our expert guide to The 7th Estate, members of this elite group include business strategists, management consultants, futurist keynote speakers and more. But why are they such effective influencers, and in such constantly high-demand as strategy advisors? As it turns out, there are many reasons that organizations hire management consultants such as these:
- External expertise and fresh perspective. Business consulting pros bring knowledge, skills, and objectivity that may not exist internally and provide an outside, impartial view.
- Implement organizational change. Members of the seventh estate are often brought in to guide major transformations like restructuring, ERP implementation, mergers & acquisitions, etc. and manage the change process.
- Improve operations and cut costs. Business consulting pros often analyze operations and identify ways to enhance productivity, efficiency, and reduce costs through things like process improvements.
- Resolve business challenges. Companies tap leaders here to diagnose problems or performance gaps and provide solutions – for example turnaround situations or launch of new initiatives.
- Provide temporary expertise. Pros here can also help fill short-term needs by bringing skills and capacity during transitional situations or special projects.
- Access industry best practices. Management consultants synthesize learnings and best practices from their work across multiple companies and industries.
- Complementing management teams. Outside advisors work collaboratively with company leadership, providing expertise senior managers may lack while building internal skills.
- Drive strategy development. Strategy consulting experts also facilitate and provide an objective perspective to the strategy development process.
As a general rule of thumb, organizations tend to hire consultants for their specialized expertise, industry-leading capabilities, change management skills and best practice knowledge. Management consultants therefore supplement and help develop internal resources.