<p>The management consultancy, a 14 billion EUR industry in Europe, has become an attractive market in the last couple of years. The Swedish market is blooming with an economic growth of a staggering 20 % according to analysts at Konsultguiden. The attractiveness of the market has brought many foreign players into the field such as Celerant. Celerant is a UK-based company earning a total of $145 million in 2006 with about 650 employees around Europe and the USA. Their focus is mainly within operational management. A few years ago, Celerant decided to expand in to the Nordic region consisting of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and has just recently started to focus a bit extra on the Swedish market. Using Porter’s model of Five Forces we look at the Swedish management consulting industry to see what factors to consider focusing on when entering the market. Through an analysis of the current management consulting market, we compare it to Celerant’s strategy for entering the Swedish market to see if our analysis differs or is similar to the consultancy’s actual strategy. This gives us a picture of how the management consultancies perceive the market and how they act accordingly. The results show similarities with two factors: the consultants and the clients. These seem to be the main factors to focus on as a management consultancy entering the Swedish market. There seems to be a current shortage of competent consultants on the Swedish market and therefore a necessity to focus on recruitment. Clients are what make business for consultancies and business connections need to be established before entering the market. However, we found that more precaution should be taken for factors such as substitutes and new entrants as well. There is a constant change of trends in the management consultancy industry and needs to be considered in order to stay competitive on the market, since a management consultancy needs to be able to offer what the clients demand.</p>

<p>There has been a rapid expansion of the PR and information industry during the last few years. An expansion like this might lead to structural changes in an industry. The aim of this thesis is to describe a part of this industry, namely the Swedish PR consulting industry, in terms of its development, structure and professionalism. Web sites of the consultancies in the industry has been analyzed. Furthermore, interviews have been conducted with three leading individuals in the industry. Structural changes can be seen since there is a trend towards further specialization among the consultancies. Some of the most common criteria for an industry to be characterized by professionalism are not achieved, but the industry is characterized by an aim towards increased professionalism.</p>

<p>Professionals currently working in consulting firms and job-applicants aiming to work in this industry are very often finding themselves in a situation where they experience a skill-gap regarding the skills consulting firms have claimed as the must-have ones. Confusion about which are those skills has increased since from academics to professionals, from researchers to higher education institutions and from students and graduates to job-searchers, they all have a different understanding of which ones are those skills. In fact even from one consulting firm to the next one the skills differ. Moreover current and available literature is yet to explore deeper the project teams working for consulting firms in order to grasp a real understanding and easy identification of these skills, since studies so far have provided mixed set of skills for traditional project teams rather than for consulting project-teams leading to mixed discoveries and inconclusive results. The findings in this study provide support for a controversial discussion occurring when trying to identify the skills consultants affirm their employer require and how these companies acquire, foster and retain these skills.</p>

There has been a rapid expansion of the PR and information industry during the last few years. An expansion like this might lead to structural changes in an industry. The aim of this thesis is to describe a part of this industry, namely the Swedish PR consulting industry, in terms of its development, structure and professionalism. Web sites of the consultancies in the industry has been analyzed. Furthermore, interviews have been conducted with three leading individuals in the industry. Structural changes can be seen since there is a trend towards further specialization among the consultancies. Some of the most common criteria for an industry to be characterized by professionalism are not achieved, but the industry is characterized by an aim towards increased professionalism.

The management consultancy, a 14 billion EUR industry in Europe, has become an attractive market in the last couple of years. The Swedish market is blooming with an economic growth of a staggering 20 % according to analysts at Konsultguiden. The attractiveness of the market has brought many foreign players into the field such as Celerant. Celerant is a UK-based company earning a total of $145 million in 2006 with about 650 employees around Europe and the USA. Their focus is mainly within operational management. A few years ago, Celerant decided to expand in to the Nordic region consisting of Denmark, Norway and Sweden and has just recently started to focus a bit extra on the Swedish market. Using Porter’s model of Five Forces we look at the Swedish management consulting industry to see what factors to consider focusing on when entering the market. Through an analysis of the current management consulting market, we compare it to Celerant’s strategy for entering the Swedish market to see if our analysis differs or is similar to the consultancy’s actual strategy. This gives us a picture of how the management consultancies perceive the market and how they act accordingly. The results show similarities with two factors: the consultants and the clients. These seem to be the main factors to focus on as a management consultancy entering the Swedish market. There seems to be a current shortage of competent consultants on the Swedish market and therefore a necessity to focus on recruitment. Clients are what make business for consultancies and business connections need to be established before entering the market. However, we found that more precaution should be taken for factors such as substitutes and new entrants as well. There is a constant change of trends in the management consultancy industry and needs to be considered in order to stay competitive on the market, since a management consultancy needs to be able to offer what the clients demand.

Professionals currently working in consulting firms and job-applicants aiming to work in this industry are very often finding themselves in a situation where they experience a skill-gap regarding the skills consulting firms have claimed as the must-have ones. Confusion about which are those skills has increased since from academics to professionals, from researchers to higher education institutions and from students and graduates to job-searchers, they all have a different understanding of which ones are those skills. In fact even from one consulting firm to the next one the skills differ. Moreover current and available literature is yet to explore deeper the project teams working for consulting firms in order to grasp a real understanding and easy identification of these skills, since studies so far have provided mixed set of skills for traditional project teams rather than for consulting project-teams leading to mixed discoveries and inconclusive results. The findings in this study provide support for a controversial discussion occurring when trying to identify the skills consultants affirm their employer require and how these companies acquire, foster and retain these skills.

Abstract Facing the trend of globalization and new era of regional economy, corporations in the economical fact of ECFA are standing to embrace a whole new beginning for new economy age! The researcher currently works at VATM International Business Managerial Consulting Co., Ltd. and the company¡¦s major services are to provide consultation for financial and tax affairs, and operational management for executive officers. In her own professional development, from offering consultation as an accountant to executive management, operational strategies, and innovative concept, she realized that within the whole process of operational service, the use of time for decision making and abilities for information interpretation become the greatest operational issue that corporations need to face when tackling competition. It is also the most neglected ability that entrepreneurs must cultivate. A consultant from one perspective is to provide major resources for corporation operators¡¦ decision making and from another angle is to sustain the quality of information of corporations. The importance of a consultant is undeniable.In other words, the role of a consultant is not as the doctor of a corporation from the traditional viewpoint, but as the invisible chief staff and external inspector and mentor. The researcher believes that a consultant should take Entrepreneur-Schweitzer¡¦s perspective and face the problems of corporations from a humanist standpoint. The present study focuses on the psychological journey of launching a new business and self-reflection of an individual consultant. The study offers appropriate roles and positions a competent consultant should take. From the whole process of self-reflection and launch for an enterprise, the researcher suggests ¡§ManageAccountanize¡¨(business management accountanize)for consultation field as a concept for problem solving but not the idea of Balanced scored which the consultants use in general. In addition, this study also investigates the consulting industry value chain and knowledge value chain so as to approve the value of professional consultants. The researcher provides insights of the necessities of consultants including academic theoretical applications and establishment of consultation authority.

Aim: This study aims to explore the knowledge hiding phenomenon among project teammembers in the consulting industry. This study investigated why, when, how and what type ofknowledge team members hide.Methodology: This research applied a qualitative research with inductive approach. Semistructuredinterviews with eleven participants from EY in Kazakhstan were conducted.Secondary data was obtained from existing scientific articles and books.Findings: Findings of the study provided that (i) variables affecting knowledge hiding atindividual level also influence at team level; (ii) the technological and organizational barriershad a minor influence on knowledge hiding at team level; (ii) tacit/explicit and key/commonknowledge are subject to hiding among team members; (iv) three additional variables arediscovered at team level, i.e. laziness, fear of being seen silly and self-study. Theoretical contributions: This study contributes to the counterproductive knowledgebehaviour by exploring patterns of knowledge hiding among team members. Additionalknowledge sharing barriers of why and when team members hide knowledge were found. Teammembers hide knowledge when they feel ownership over knowledge and territoriality servesas a mediating tool. Nevertheless, collective knowledge psychological ownership weakensknowledge hiding, because team’s success is more important than individual’s goals.Managerial implications: Organizations are encouraged to nurture team environment, becauseteam members might feel that they are obliged to share their knowledge. Also, managementshould consider to lower territoriality perspectives (e.g. by team buildings, etc.). Limitations and future research: Future research should increase the number of respondentsfrom different companies, industries and geographical areas. To validate the three newly foundknowledge hiding variables at team level, they can be tested at individual level. On top of thatfuture research can focus on the effects of interpersonal injustice on knowledge hiding on eachmember, motivational process on knowledge concealing/sharing and cross-cultural differencesof how knowledge concealing is interpreted can be researched.

Professional services are one of the fastest growing industries, accounting for over US$330 billion in revenue, globally. The industry is also characterised by stiff competition among professional consulting firms. Thus, in order to survive and grow sustainably, consulting companies need to, not only deliver high quality services which surpass their clients’ expectations but, also nurture strong relationships with them.This study sought to understand the relationship between project delivery success and the strength of client-consultant relationships. It used the engineering consulting industry, focusing on public sector clients and consulting firms in South Africa. The methodology used focused on first establishing as to whether clients and consultants measure project delivery success and relationships using the same factors. It then tested the relationship between project delivery success and client-consultant relationships using the identified set of factors.Through a detailed literature review, project delivery factors were categorised into project success and project management success factors. In order to capture the different dimensions involved in project delivery and client-consultant relationships, frameworks were developed to adequately classify these factors. These frameworks were used in the design of the data collection instrument.The findings from the study indicated that clients and consultants measure project delivery success using fairly similar factors, which they also rated in a fairly similar way. However, the study established that clients and consultants neither evaluate relationships using the same factors, nor rate the factors in a similar way. It was also found that project delivery success does not necessarily result in strong client-consultant relationships.On the basis of these findings, the study established that product delivery success is results from the interaction of many factors within and beyond project boundaries. It also involves a variety of stakeholders with different expectations. Project success is more difficult to measure than project management success. Client-consultant relationships depend on the types of clients and consultants involved as well as the model of engagement used. These factors also influence the choice and priority given to different measurement factors.Thus, the study recommended the importance of active client-consultant engagement for clients and consultants to and understand these complex context-specific environments in structuring and defining problems and design relevant solutions. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Thesis (MBA (Business Management))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.