SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

COURSE TITLE: CONSULTANCY IN STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

COURSE CODE: BSM 413

LECTURER: DR. AMBROSE KEMBOI

TASK: GROUP ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC: THE COUNSULTING PROCESS

GROUP: THREE

ADM NUMBER NAME PHONE NO SIGNATURE

BSM 22/18 KIBIWOTT 0706309716

GILBERT

BSM 24/18 AGNES WANJA 0791493604

BSM 25/18 AGATHA 0703741738

KIMORGO

BSM 0027/18 ABIGAEL 0717768415

KALEYKE

BSM 29/18 KIPCHIRCHIR 0798591510

PHYLLIAN

BSM 30/18 KEVIN KIPTOO 0799088325

BSM 31/18 SHEILLAH 0715344361

KANDAGOR

BSM /34/18 LORRINE KOIGI 0710216181

Introduction

From the viewpoint of management, consultancy or consulting process can be defined as

using one's expertise and knowledge to direct a client into solving a problem they are facing
such as strategic consultancy in organizations. Consulting has nowadays become one of the
core areas of management studies. Consulting is basically all about assisting another
organization, group, team or individual to transform business from one state to another. The
consulting process also involves assisting in such transformations predefined by the
management or the individual concerned. The consulting process consists of five main phases
that are elaborated further below.

STEP 1: Entry step

This is the period of entering the association. The activities undertaken in this step consists
of the following:

 First contacts with clients

 Preliminary problem diagnosis
 Assignment planning
 Assignment proposals to client
 Consulting contract

It is the main contact interface between the client and the consultant.This initial stage is
often emphasized that it establishes the frameworks for all that activity that will follow
thereafter, since the ensuing stages will be firmly affected by the nature of reasonable work
done, and by the sort of relationship that the consultant sets up with the client at the
earliest reference point.

This is the preparatory and planning phase. It incorporates the conversations that begins
and enhances the piece of consultancy. It involves conversations on what the client would
like to alter or change in his/her company and exactly how the consultant could be of any
help to him or her, clarity on their roles is shed as well as the assignment plan which is
derived from preliminary analysis of the problem.

It can also be said that the entry phase begins the relationship between consultant and
client organization, testing the fit of consultant’s skills and values, with the organization’s
needs. Contracting continues the process of clarifying the expectations of the consultation
efforts (goals, objectives etc.) and the desired characteristics of the client-consultant
relationship

The client and the consultant establishes contact and identifies each other through an up-
closed and personal gathering. The expert chooses for starters, how he/she could help in
critical thinking and emergency intercession at this stage. In this initial stage, it can likewise
happen that a task proposal isn't arranged to the customer's fulfillment and hence no
agreement is concurred, or that few consultants are reached and welcome to introduce
proposals yet just one of them is chosen for the task.

STEP 2: Diagnosis (discovery phase)

It’s an in-depth analysis of the problem to be solved. In this phase, the consultant and client
clarify the problem using various approaches in order to get more information.

Consultants and clients cooperate in;

 Identifying the sort of change required - through a clear analysis of information they
have gathered.
 Defining the purpose to be achieved by the assignment.
 The consultant has to assess the client's performance patterns, and assessment of the
requirements and resources related to business transformation, needs and
perspectives.

The results of the diagnostic phase are generated and conclusions drawn on how to orient
work on action proposals so that real problems are resolved and desired purposes achieved.

Some possible solutions may start emerging in this phase.

Fact finding and fact -diagnosis often receive little attention, yet decisions on what data to
look for, what data to omit, what aspects of the problem to examine in depth and what facts to
skip predetermine the relevance and quality of the solutions that will be proposed.

Through data collection and talking to people the consultant is already influencing the client's
system, and people may start changing as a result of the consultant's presence in the
organization. This therefore seeks to providing feedback to the client.

Impacts of consultancy in an organization

Positive

 To increase awareness of the need to change.

 Has a useful learning effect in that it improves the problem solving skills.

Negative

 Ineffectiveness due to withheld information especially where delicate situations are

involved. This is whereby the consultant uncovers information that the client was not
willing to reveal.
 Client systems unpreparedness causes failure
Dimensions of identifying the problems.

1. Substance or identity

This is where you describe the problem such as poor performance, shortage of competent
staff, lack of ideas of how to invest idle capital.

2. Organization and physical location

Does the problem affect any of the organization's departments or any physical units such as
plants or buildings.

3. Problem ownership

This involves people affected by the existing problems and their readiness to resolve it.

4. Absolute and relative magnitude

How important or urgent is the problem in absolute terms(amount of working time, money
lost, volume of under-utilized capacity and potential future gains), in relative terms (in
comparison to other problems) and what the organization gains once the problem is resolved.

5. Time perspective

How long the problem has existed and are there chances of recurrence in the future.

Aims of diagnosis

 To identify causes of the problem

 To identify other significant relationships
 To identify client's potential to solve the problem
 To give possible directions of further action

Issues in problem identification

 Mistaking symptoms for problems such as decline in sales.

 Preconceived ideas about the causes of the problems such as using one's own opinion
and past experiences.
 Looking at problems from one technical point of view such as engineering or human
resource
 Ignoring how the problem is perceived in various parts of the organization such as
focusing on the top management's view.
 Wrong appreciation of the urgency of a problem
 Unfinished problem diagnosis due to time and cost constraints
 Failure to clarify the focus purpose that is, focusing on the wrong problem
STEP 3: Action Planning

This is the third phase that puts emphasis on creativity and innovation hence its activities are
characterized by developing possible solutions to the problem diagnosed, choosing among
alternative solutions, presenting proposals to the clients and preparing for the implementation
of the solution chosen by the client. The diagnostic phase lays a foundation for effective
action planning by defining and analyzing problems and purposes as well as factors and
forces that stimulate the change process in the client organization which act as a guideline to
proper action planning. The involvement of clients is fundamental on this phase due to the
following reasons: -

 Extensive conceptual, design and planning work on possible solutions should only be
undertaken if the client is fully familiar and in complete agreement with the approach
taken, and will be able to go along with the alternatives that are being pursued. This
agreement can best be established by working jointly with people who are in a
position to ascertain what the client organization will accept and be able to
implement.
 Action planning requires the best talents to be mobilized and all good ideas to be
examined; it will be ineffective if the talents within the client organization do not
contribute or match to the alternative solutions being offered.
 As with diagnosis, the client’s personnel can do a most of the design
 and planning work with back-up from the consultant, thus reducing the cost of the
project.

 Participation in action planning generates commitment that will be necessary,

 and put to the test, at the implementation stage.

 Action planning provides a new range of learning opportunities for

 the client but will definitely be lost if the consultant is left to proceed alone.

A major challenge that consultants face during this phase is time constraint where majority of
the time is spent on collecting and examining facts and less time to prepare alternatives and
falling to the pitfall of developing one solution without much consideration. However, this
can be avoided through proper scheduling and ensuring enough time for creative search for
the appropriate solution.

Searching for a possible solution;

The client expects the consultant to recommend the best solution to the problem, or suggest
the best way of taking a new opportunity. However, majority of business management
problems have more than one solution and in some cases the number of alternative solutions
is high, especially if the purposes pursued are complex. Sometimes new situations cannot be
dealt with using old approaches especially in an ever changing/dynamic environment. The
action-planning phase starts therefore with a search for ideas and information on possible
solutions to the problem. The objective is to identify all interesting and feasible alternatives
and subject them to preliminary evaluation before starting detailed design and planning work
on one proposal.

1. Orienting the search for solutions

The main factor to be considered is the nature of the problem, especially its technical
characteristics i.e. functional area, techniques or methods to be changed; complexity i.e.
technical, financial, human and other aspects, importance to the client organization, need to
respect sector technical standards; degree of newness that is whether the consultant and the
client are familiar with the problem, whether a completely new solution has to be developed
or an established solution can be applied with or without adaptation.

The consultant, in collaboration with the client, will have to decide whether to direct the
search towards solutions that may be commercially available e.g. purchasing an Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP)software package from an IT firm, or towards a new original
solution like developing a new software using the client’s own resources.

The consultant should formulate questions to consider in deciding the focus area of the search
for feasible solutions to the problem such as: - Should it be limited to the client organization?
Could possible solutions be found in other organizations, sectors, or countries? Is it necessary
to screen technical literature for better and more alternative solutions? Should a research
establishment be involved? What should the new solution achieve in terms of purpose, level
of performance and output? How will the new situation differ from the present? Are the
client’s business and market changing rapidly and is competition likely to come with better
solution or should further developments be foreseen?

2. Using experience
In finding ways of improving the client’s situation, the consultant often draws on experience.
He or she considers methods successfully used elsewhere, using knowledge derived from a
variety of sources such as previous assignments and clients; the consulting organization’s
files and documentation; colleagues in the consulting organization who have worked in
similar situations; professional literature (books, periodicals and research reports); producers
of equipment and systems software, who may be developing or have developed
improvements; staff in other departments of the client organization, who may have
knowledge of the particular process; organizations that are prepared to communicate their
experience.

The purpose all these activities is to make sure that all available experience is identified and
considered, so that the client gets the best advice or a solution reflecting the best experience
and to avoid reinventing the wheel. This ensures the consultant does not cede to the obvious
temptation to choose the most comfortable way – suggesting what he or she has done in
similar situations with previous clients, or choosing the first solution that comes to mind.

3. Creative thinking
In current consulting, there are more and more situations where experience cannot offer any
satisfying solution and where both the consulting team and the client organization have to
come up with a totally new approach. Creative thinking is an inventive thought process that
involves perceiving things from a different view which in the end it results to discovery and
development of new solutions or ways of doing things. It combines a rigorous analytical
approach with intuition and imagination.

There are five stages in the creative thinking process, and all need to be practiced consciously
to get the best results:

 Preparation: Obtaining all the known facts; applying analytical thinking as far as
possible; defining the problem in different ways, i.e. restating the problem and the
purposes pursued.
 Effort: Divergent thinking, to generate multiple ideas, concepts and approaches. This
will lead either to possible solutions or to frustration. Frustration is an important
feature in the effort stage and in the full creative thinking process. It is usually
followed by the production of good ideas.
 Incubation: Leaving the problem in one’s subconscious mind while one gets on with
other things. This also gives time for inhibitions and emotional blocks to new ideas to
weaken, and gives opportunities to pick up additional ideas from what one sees or
hears in the meantime.
 Insight: The flash of illumination that gives an answer and leads to possible solutions
of the problem.
 Evaluation: Analyzing all the ideas obtained in the previous three stages so as to find
possible solutions.

NOTE:

 Two of the stages – preparation and evaluation – require analytical thinking.

 The three central stages – effort, incubation and insight – require suspended
judgement and free wheeling . The key to successful creative thinking is the conscious
and deliberate separation of idea-production and idea-evaluation.

Techniques of creative thinking include: -

 Brainstorming. This is a means of obtaining a large number of ideas from a group of

people in a short time. Typically, a group of eight to 12 people take a problem and
produce ideas in a free-wheeling atmosphere. Judgement is suspended and all ideas,
particularly wild ones, are encouraged. In fact, the wildest ideas can often be
stepping-stones to new and very practical ones. Ideas are displayed on sheets of paper
and are produced very quickly; a session may produce over 200 ideas in an hour. Its
main disadvantage lies in the fact that all ideas are to be evaluated and irrelevant ideas
have to be discarded to arrive at a few really good ideas hence time consuming.
  Synectic’s. In this technique, which is similar to brainstorming, a group of about nine
people takes a problem. The client explains the problem and participants put forward
a suggestion for solving it. After a few minutes the client analyses the suggestion,
saying what he or she likes about it before touching on the drawbacks. Then new
suggestions are put forward and analyzed until possible solutions are found.
 Attribute listing. This technique lists the main attributes of an idea or object, and
examines each one to see how it can be changed. It is normally used on tangible rather
than intangible things. Each attribute is questioned and changes are suggested.
 Forced relationships. This technique takes objects or ideas and asks the question, “In
how many ways can these be combined to give a new object or idea?”
 Morphological analysis. This technique sets down all the variables in a matrix and
tries to combine them in new ways. Although the matrix does not give all possible
alternatives that exist. Many alternatives will be discarded, but some are worth
considering and may suggest new, practical, useful and feasible solutions.
 Lateral thinking and PO. If a problem is tackled analytically, it is necessary to go
into greater and greater depth and detail, this is vertical thinking. Creative thinking
involves the examination of all options, including those that appear to be outside the
given problem area which is lateral thinking. Edward de Bono has recommended
deferring judgement by prefacing an idea with the letters “PO”, which stands for
“give the idea a chance, don’t kill it too quickly, it may lead to useful ideas
 Checklists. These may be used as pointers to ideas specified to a certain area.
 The six thinking hats. This approach, developed by Edward de Bono, suggests the
use of different thought processes for different purposes. Each hat has a different
color and is used as a symbol for a particular way of thinking (white – for assessing
available and required information; red – for feelings and emotions about the issue;
yellow – for looking at gains and advantages; black – for constraints, criticism and
risks; green – for creativity, new ideas and possibilities; and blue – for pulling the
whole thinking process together and managing it).
 Breakthrough thinking. This approach, developed by Gerald Nadler and Shozo
Hibino, provides “seven principles of creative problem-solving”. It does not follow a
constant pattern of inquiry, but proposes a general flow of reasoning. Opportunities
for a breakthrough must be continually sought in order to increase the probability of
one of the three distinct types of breakthrough: (1) the brilliantly creative idea; (2) the
solution that produces significantly better results; (3) bringing to fruition the “good
idea”, in order to make it real and implement an outstanding system or solution.

The following four guidelines apply in creative thinking:

 Suspend judgement – Rule out premature criticism of any idea.

 Free-wheel – The wilder the ideas the better the results.
 Quantity – The more ideas the better.
 Cross-fertilize – Combine and improve on the ideas of others.
Barriers to creative thinking include;

–Self-imposed barriers

– Belief that there is always one right answer

– Conformity or giving the expected answer

– Lack of effort and courage in challenging the obvious

– Evaluating too quickly

– Fear of looking foolish

-Respect for authority is a major barrier which is difficult to overcome. Even if a person
perceived as an authority does not explicitly require conformity and uniformity, and
encourages colleagues to look for new ideas, challenging his or her views may be difficult if
not impossible in many organizational and national cultures. This is one more reason why
managers in both consulting firms and in client organizations should refrain from expressing
a preference for one solution if the search for the best solution is to continue.

-Success can be a serious barrier to creativity. In a successful company, management can

easily become locked into methods and practices that have been its strong points, and may be
unwilling to recognize that there can be an even better approach, or that owing to its success
the company has stopped working on further improvements.

4. The solution-after-next principle

This principle of breakthrough thinking suggests developing alternative solutions that take
into consideration future needs. The principle states that the change or system you install now
should be based on what the solution might be next time you work on the problem. This
implies anticipating future changes: in the environment, in demand for the client’s services or
products, in competition and within the client organization itself. An obvious requirement is
that, by adopting a new solution, the way is not blocked to further solutions that may become
necessary in the future e.g. by building a production capacity that cannot be expanded).
Viewing the problem and the solution from a future perspective helps to arrive at the best
possible current solution. It may be useful to visualize an ideal future system. Even if such a
system cannot be implemented immediately, certain elements will be usable and the vision of
the future will improve the quality of the solution that will be adopted.

Developing and evaluating alternatives

1. Pre-selecting ideas to be pursued

In the search for innovative ideas judgement has to be deferred to avoid blocking the process
of creative thinking, however, new ideas have to be sorted out, reviewed, discussed and
assessed with a criterion such as `very interesting; interesting; trivial; useless; not clear. Due
to the impossibility to pursue a large number of ideas, a preselection must be made and only
ideas classed as “very interesting” will be followed up. The selection should be made in close
collaboration with the client. The client may feel that several ideas could lead to acceptable
solutions, but should also realize that parallel work on several solutions will probably
increase the length and the cost of the assignment.

2. Working on alternatives
After the preliminary screening of ideas, the detailed design, systems development and
planning work should in theory be started on all alternatives shortlisted. In practice a
pragmatic attitude is needed since there may be insufficient resources for working on a
number of possibilities simultaneously, and detailed design and planning of several
alternatives may be inefficient if only one is to be retained. To help with this a phased
approach may be used or to start by developing the idea that received the highest preliminary
rating as long as it provides a satisfying solution.

3. Evaluating alternatives

It is clear that the evaluation of alternatives is not a one-off action to be undertaken at a

defined point in time in the assignment. When data is collected and analyzed timely
presentation should be given to the forthcoming evaluation exercises. At the beginning of the
assignment, the consultant should define the reference period during which data will be
collected for use in comparing new solutions with the existing ones. When action planning
has started, a preliminary evaluation may be made in several steps to eliminate ideas and
reduce the number of alternatives on which the consultant and the client will do detailed
work. A comprehensive evaluation is required when the client finally opts for one particular
alternative. There are some comparatively easy cases, such as the choice between two or
three machine tools (of different technical level, productivity for the same production
operation. The criteria are limited in number and can be quantified, especially if production
records are reasonably good. In contrast, there are complex cases, such as a major
reorganization in a manufacturing company, an acquisition of another company or a new
marketing strategy hence there may be several alternatives.

Personnel and training measures will be involved and in such a case some criteria lend
themselves to fairly exact calculation of costs and benefits e.g. the cost of training needed.

In consulting on management and business issues, the following situations prevail:

– Alternatives that are ideal by all criteria used are rare, and in most cases, there is a need to
compare positive and negative consequences of several alternatives

– The number of criteria is high: certain basic criteria are met by all alternatives and further
criteria have to be examined

– Some important criteria (especially environmental, social, cultural and political criteria) are
difficult, if not impossible, to quantify

– The evaluation involves different criteria that are not directly comparable e.g. financial and
political criteria
– There is a strong subjective element in the evaluation: somebody has to decide how
important various criteria are in the given case, and make the evaluation using the “soft”
criteria in addition to hard data. To overcome this and to increase the element of objectivity
in subjective evaluations, various attempts have been made to associate numerical values
with adjectival scales

Presenting action proposals to the client

When work on action proposals and the evaluation of alternatives has reached an advanced
stage, the consultant has to consider the time and form for the presentation to the client. This
will depend mainly on the type of project undertaken and the working relationships between
the consultant and the client’s managerial and specialist staff.

In long and complex assignments, involving strategic issues and costly investment or other
measures, the client’s staff is usually very much involved and keeps the senior management
informed about progress. The consultant submits progress reports and seeks further guidance
from the client at several points during the assignment, so the presentation of final proposals
does not bring up anything completely new. Therefore, information that the client has had
from previous reports and other contacts with the consultant is summarized, confirmed and
presented for approval.

In other cases, the reporting which has preceded the presentation of proposals may have been
limited. The scope of the assignment may not require reporting and discussions at each step
or in assignments that will affect some vested interests (e.g. reorganizations), the client does
not want to hold many meetings and have information circulated before the solutions have
been defined and thoroughly examined by a restricted managerial group. Hence the need for a
well-prepared presentation which may convey completely new information to a number of
people.

1.The presentation
Most consultants prefer to make an oral presentation backed up by written evidence and using
audiovisual aids to support the case. The consultant may make an oral presentation,
introducing documentation that will be left with the client, to be followed by another meeting
once the client has examined the proposal in more detail. Alternatively, the client may prefer
to receive the proposal in writing first and arrange a presentation meeting after having read
the proposal.

The objective of the presentation is to obtain the client’s acceptance of the recommendations.
The degree of persuasion will depend on many factors and must be anticipated, prepared for
and built into the presentation. The presentation meeting is held between the consulting team,
the client and those members of the staff chosen to attend. The consultant’s presentation
should work through a logical series of steps, building up the case for the recommendations
in an effective manner, so that the client should have little or no hesitation in accepting them.
A presentation should not be made unless the consultant believes that the probability of
acceptance is high. The presentation should not overwhelm decision-makers in the client
organization with analytical details, or try to impress them by techniques that are normally
the specialist’s domain. However, the techniques used in evaluation should be described. A
clear picture of all solutions that have been envisaged should be given and the choice
proposed by the consultant justified. The consultant must be absolutely honest with the client,
especially when explaining: the risks involved; the conditions that the client must create and
maintain; the tasks that could not be completed; the future perspectives.

Depending on circumstances, acceptance at this point may be in principle only. There may be
an agreed intention, but the final decision may be contingent on a detailed study of the
written proposals by the client, on consultations with important shareholders or on the
recommendations being explained to and accepted by employees’ representatives. Where
there have to be further presentations to representatives of trade unions, staff associations or
other stakeholder groups, the client takes on the role of persuader and negotiator. Under no
circumstances should the consultant take this on alone but instead be ready to back up the
client and help to organize whatever explanatory campaign is necessary and should strongly
advise against trying to get everything over at one mass meeting.

2.Plans for implementation

A section on the action proposals presented to clients that should be availed is a realistic and
feasible plan for the implementation of the proposals. The client receives a static picture,
describing the new project or scheme as it should look when implemented. The planning of
stages and activities to put the new scheme into effect can reveal further problems and needs,
allowing the proposal to be further improved before the final version is implemented.

Thus, an effective action proposal shows not only what to implement but also how to do it. A
plan for implementation should be included in the proposal.

3.The decision
It is the client and not the consultant who decides what solution will be chosen and applied.
The client’s decision on the consultant’s proposal is subject to the same influences as any
other management decision. The number of important decisions that are determined by
emotional rather than rational criteria is surprisingly high.

Furthermore, the client’s conception of rationality may differ from the consultant’s
conception, especially if their cultural backgrounds are not the same. It is essential that the
consultant is aware of the client’s personal preferences, and of cultural and other factors
affecting decision-making in the client organization. This awareness helps him or her to avoid
proposals that will not be accepted, and to recognize again that consulting is much more than
presenting technically perfect solutions: it also involves earning confidence and explaining to
the client and the staff so that they will accept rational measures as their personal choices.

The decision taken on the consultant’s proposals may be the final point of an assignment, if
the client wants to undertake the work personally. If the client prefers to involve the
consultant in implementation, the decision will act as an introduction to the next phase.
Step 4: Implementation

This phase involves bringing the solutions offered by the consulting firm to the client
organization into action. In this step the client takes everything that has been decided
previously and implements the solution decided upon. Mostly the implementation falls to the
organization/client but the consultant will still remain deeply involved in the efforts. If the
client does not accept the consultant's proposals at the end of the action planning phase, the
assignment has been poorly managed by both parties. If the consultant and the client
collaborate closely during the diagnostic and action planning phase, the client cannot really
reject proposals that are the product of joint work. If there are any doubts about the feasibility
of the proposals that are emerging corrective measures should be taken immediately without
waiting until the proposals have been finalized. The following steps should be taken when
planning and monitoring implementation.

 Defining new responsibilities and controls.

Implementation will create new tasks and relationships when abolishing old ones. For people
to remain committed their contributions must be specified. The specification will be
particularly helpful for drawing up a training program and establishing controls for
monitoring and implementation. Furthermore, the program should define controllable and
measurable results of individual tasks, operations and steps.

 Setting pace and lead-time of implementation.

The feasible and desirable pace of change is an important criterion. It's necessary to gain
commitment and support of a number of individuals who will constitute to this. Considerable
time and effort of each individual will be needed to achieve this and accelerate the whole
process. Therefore, it's important to allow sufficient time for all these activities. c. Building
in-flexibility and contingency. Adjustments are easier if some flexibility is built-in. The More
complex and innovative the assignment, the greater the chance that the work program will
need to be adjusted several times during the implementation phase. Completion of the
assignment should not be scheduled for the very last time that is the time when the scheme
must be in operation. Therefore, sometime should be reserved for final adjustments.

 Detailing procedures.

When a good deal of new methodology is involved, it is usual to prepare a manual for
guidance in the procedures to be followed. All new systems require instructions on how to
operate them. New stationery usually has to be designed. The consultant may do this
personally or may adopt part or all of some proprietary system.

 Monitoring implementation.

Once the new system starts running, the consultant should be available to answer any
questions and to help the client's staff to deal at once with any problem that may arise. It is
not uncommon for decision makers to experience uncomfortable afterthoughts once a
decision has finally been reached and implementation commences. However, once a decision
has been reached, the implementation process commences and the first problems inevitably
appear, a good deal of time maybe spent on reviewing the benefits of the displaced scheme
while comments are voiced on the drawbacks of the new scheme being implemented.
Training and developing client staff for implementation.

 Developing the cooperating team.

The most efficient although least formalized method of developing client personnel is
through knowledge transfer during direct cooperation with the consultant during the
assignment. In a small enterprise the owner maybe personally involved. In other
organizations, some managers and other members of the team who are responsible for the
project will work jointly with the consultant. A good consultant takes every opportunity to
involve the client's staff in the more sophisticated operations, experiences and stimulating
learning. Training for new methods and techniques. This concerns those staff members who
are involved in the introduction and use of specific technique. A number of people may have
to be trained and this may necessitate a precisely defined and scheduled training program
which precedes implementation and may continue during its first stages. Some of the
approaches are: on-the-job training by the consultant, training of in-company trainers by the
consultant among others. Training can be done through seminars, discussion groups, working
groups, special project teams, exchange of roles, individual project work and counseling by
the consultant

Step 5: Termination
It’s the last and final stage in the consultation process. There are various activities in this
process. The consultant’s performance throughout the assignment, path taken, changes made
and if any results have been achieved.
The results are evaluated by both the client and the consulting firm. Final reports are then
presented and critically discussed. Suppose there are any mutual commitments they are
settled at this point.
Need to establish a collaborative relationship or an agreement on follow up future contacts
are negotiated. Once these activities are completed, the consultancy assignment is terminated
by mutual agreement and the consultant withdraws from the organisation or client.

Termination applies to two equal important aspects of the consulting process:

 Job for which the consultant was brought in, therefore, withdrawal is done when the
job is either completed, discontinued or will be pursued without further help from the
consultant.
  Consultant-client relationship in that the financial dimension is considered and
evaluation is done to ensure that the deliverables are equal to the payment and both
parties are satisfied. Mutuality is also a factor whereby the state in which termination
occurs is acceptable to both parties.

Some assignments may be terminated too early, for example if:

 The consultant’s work on the project could not be completed

 The client overestimated his or her capability to finish the project without having been
sufficiently trained for it
the client’s budget does not permit the job to be finished
 The consultant is in a hurry to start another assignment.

Instances of assignments that finish later than necessary are also frequent. This may happen
if:

 The consultant embarks on a technically difficult project without making sure that the
client is properly trained to take it over.
 The job is vaguely defined, and new problems are discovered in the course of the
assignment.
 The consultant tries to stay longer than necessary.

To avoid these situations, the question of timely withdrawal should be discussed at the
beginning of the consulting process, when the consultant presents the whole assignment cycle
to the client. The consulting contract should define when and under what circumstances the
assignment will end.
Evaluation is a most important part of the termination phase in any consulting process.
Without evaluation, it is impossible to assess whether the assignment has met its objectives
and whether the results obtained justify the resources used. Neither the client nor the
consultant can draw lessons from the assignment if there is no evaluation.
Evaluation can be carried out by both the client and the consultant as a joint exercise, an
independent third party can be involved to avoid conflict and litigation when the client and
consultant disagree and by the independent consultant as a part of the consultant's knowledge
management.
Objectives of evaluation of the consultancy process.
This process seeks to answer the following questions.

 Has the assignment achieved its purpose?

 What specific results and benefits to the client have been achieved?
 What expected results could not be achieved?
 Has the assignment achieved some unexpected and supplementary result?

The results and benefits achieved from the consultancy process are categorized into 6
divisions:
a. New capabilities- these are new skills acquired by the client, they may be diagnostic
or other problem solving skills, communication skills and change management skills.
b. New systems- many assignments help to introduce changes in specific systems such
as information management, marketing, production and quality management and
preventive maintenance.
c. New relationships- the assignment may have helped to establish new business and
other relationships essential to the future of the client's business such as new strategic
alliances, agreements on benchmarking and subcontracting arrangements.
d. New opportunities-the consultancy may have identified potential new markets, new
technologies to be explored and cheaper sources of raw materials.
e. New behaviour-this involves changed behaviour especially interpersonal relations
f. New performance- this is achieved in the areas mentioned above if they produce
improvements in economic, financial, social or other indicators used to measure
performance.

Dimensions of consulting process to be evaluated:

 Design of the assignment or contract

 The quantity and quality of the inputs
 The consulting mode or style used
 The management of the assignment by the consultant and the client

CASE STUDY.
John is the CEO of Smart Software, a company that builds custom software solutions to help
customers overcome operational inefficiencies, providing tools that save time and money. He
has approached Consulting Success, a consulting company for expert advice on the
challenges his company is facing. He needed a more profitable fee structure and a better way
to reach prospective clients.
John explained that in the early years, he mostly ran pay-per-click advertisement using
generic, broadly targeted messaging. When the response wasn't quite what he expected, he
increased his advertisement budget. Soon, he was spending an average of 6 million shillings
on Google advertisements alone leading to high cost of expenses causing the company to
operate at a loss. He hired a team of salespeople and paid them 5 million shillings a year, to
make cold calls hoping that by speaking to people directly, he could get his message across.
The strategy didn't gain enough response to make it financially viable. John estimated that the
company booked one appointment for every 190 calls; a huge amount of work at high cost
without enough returns. At the same time, he wasn't sure how to structure his fees to offset
the cost of advertising.

Consulting success company, advised John to;

 Implement the use of blogs and podcasts, which offers both timely and evergreen
content that provides value to targeted audience rather than 'paying for clicks.'
 Implement the use of email newsletters.
 Implement the use of marketing automation technology on LinkedIn.
 Increase his fees to charge his worth and use an upfront fee structure.

John implemented the use of blogging and podcasting. He also started an email newsletter
which gained nearly 1000 highly targeted subscribers and learned how to implement
marketing automation technology on LinkedIn, which took him from 400 LinkedIn to 6500.
By increasing his fees and using an upfront fee structure, he eliminated the problem of
working on projects that never won.

John increased his fee by as much as 80% and added many customers paying monthly
retainers and began closing on some very big projects leading to increase in company profits.

CONCLUSION.

Consulting skills are crucial for delivering high quality, impactful advice to clients and on the
other hand, consulting is more than just giving advice. The above framework is a
fundamental method to structure a consulting project. It teaches strategic consultants the
process of how to develop creative solutions for any type of problem their clients might be
facing. The idea that consulting success depends solely on analytic expertise and on an ability
to present convincing reports is losing ground, partly because there are now more people
within organizations with the required analytic techniques than in the boom years of “strategy
consulting.” Increasingly, the best management consultants define their objective as not just
recommending solutions but also helping institutionalize more effective management
processes. This trend is significant to consulting firms because it requires process skills that
need more emphasis in firms’ recruitment and staff development policies. It is equally
significant to managers who need not just expert advice but also practical help in improving
the organization’s future performance.
REFERENCES.

1. James H. Kennedy, ed., Directory of Management Consultants, (Fitzwilliam, N.H.:

Consultant’s News, 1979).

2. See Jean Pierre Frankenhuis, “How to Get a Good Consultant,” HBR November–
December 1977, p. 133.

3. Fritz Steele, Consulting for Organizational Change (Amherst: University of Massachusetts

Press, 1975), pp. 11–33 and 190–200.