Now in its second edition, this unique and authoritative guide provides a description of the management consultancy profession worldwide, together with advice on how to choose and use its services effectively. With contributions from leading practitioners, the guide is essential reading for all purchasers of management consultancy services. Part One identifies the parameters and definitions of management consultancy. It presents overviews of the industry's origins and evolution, the present status of the leading multinational management consultancies and some of the global forces shaping the development of management consultancy. Part Two is devoted to ethics and best practice in management consultancy from a number of perspectives. Central to these discussions is the international development of the Certified Management Consultant (CMC) qualification. Part Three scrutinises the life of the client-consultant relationship, focusing on what clients can do to make the consultant's role effective and their working relationship productive. Part Four comprises snapshots by leading practitioners of thirteen key consultancy fields, ranging from strategy and marketing through change management and process re-engineering to the newer disciplines of information and knowledge management, m-commerce, ERP and e-business. Part Five consists of a general account of consulting in developing countries, followed by profiles of 26 country-by-country management consultancy markets.

Management Consulting: A Guide for Students bridges the gap between the latest academic research and practical skills to provide a comprehensive new introduction to modern consulting. David Biggs' important new textbook walks students through the key dimensions of management consulting from the contexts, through the processes, and into skills and implementation using a wide range of examples to provide a refreshing and modern guide for students. Every chapter deploys a consistent pedagogical framework including clear learning objectives that correspond with the latest standard course outlines, mini case studies, and industry snapshots. Full-length case studies appear at the end of every chapter, either prepared specifically for the text by international academics and consultants or supplied from premium vendors such as Harvard Business Review. A full set of online supporting resources for students and lectures make this the complete resource for management consulting courses at all levels.

New topics covered in this edition include: e-business consulting; consulting in knowledge management; total quality management; corporate governance; social role and responsibility of business; company transformation and renewal; and public administration.

Guide for professional management consultants showing how to develop skills and attributes for client-centric consulting.

Management consultants of various kinds play an important role in the world of business, and within other types of organization. The Oxford Handbook on Management Consulting is a comprehensive overview of thinking and research on management consultancy with contributions from leading international scholars. The first section provides an account of the historical developments in management consulting research, and how current thinking has evolved from prior work. The second section focuses on disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, their diversities, areas of synergy, and parallel concerns. The following sections examine consulting as a knowledge business, consultants and management fashion, and the relationship between management consultants and their clients. The Handbook concludes with an assessment of areas of future research and debate. By bringing together a wide range of research and thinking on management consulting across different disciplines, sub-disciplines, and conceptual approaches, the Handbook provides a comprehensive understanding of both current thinking and future directions for research.

‘I have never seen such a book about management consulting before: this sets a new standard. This book is extremely thorough and addresses all of the relevant topics.’ - Sander van ′t Noordende, Group Chief Executive Products Operating Group, Accenture Whether you are looking to build on your management studies or experience of working in business, you are likely to have come across management consultancy and will need a clear and concise introduction to this area to help you understand its practices and techniques in order to hire and implement management consultancy in the future. This text provides you with these essentials for success in your studies and later industries when working with and not just for consultancy firms. The text is built around learning objectives to empower your understanding of the ′what′, ′how′, ′when′ and ′why′ at macro and micro levels of management consultancy and its stakeholders, and provides you with engaging real life examples and extra web materials for study. As well as full courses on management consultancy, this text will be invaluable to your management knowledge and skill-set across strategy, change, analytics, problem-solving, solution implementation and decision-making as applied by the world′s top management consulting firms, such as McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company. Lecturer’s resources Lecturer’s guide Teaching notes per chapter Answer guidance to end-of-chapter questions in book Suggested discussion questions Suggested small group assignments Suggested small group field project Lecture slides Option 1: provide all figures of the book on PowerPoint slides Option 2: create complete PowerPoint presentations for each chapter Exercises Exam questions Discussion forum Student resources Templates for developing logical structures Web resources Consultancy publications Consultancy web site, career page Job application preparation services Consultancy institutions

'Management Consultancy' provides a comprehensive introduction to the consulting industry. The text begins with the presentation of a theoretical underpinning, before outlining how to carry out management consultancy and providing guidance on entering the industry.