The Practice of Professional Consulting

Professional Capabilities of Consultants

Consulting is as much an art as it is a science. First, in the real world of consulting, very busy professionals follow the consulting stages sequentially and in part concurrently, trying to maintain some sense of clarity, order, and logic. Second, they apply the science of their particular, often proprietary analytical technologies, such as BCG’s portfolio analysis and cycle time reduction; Monitor’s five forces, Mercer’s value migration, Stern Stewart’s economic value added, McKinsey’s seven S’s and MECE process, and Booz’s PERT analysis (Biswell & Twitchell, 2002; Rasiel, 1999). Consultants endeavor to keep things organized while trying to manage often irrational people in their own ranks and among ...