Management Consulting
Management consultancy is a collaborative process by which improvements in business strategy, organisational performance, and operational effectiveness through the implementation of the right systems, processes, behaviours, and skills.
This approach to consulting uses analytical tools to shed light on ineffective areas of the organisation, so solutions can be developed and implemented.
The stages of this consulting approach are, as follows below. It’s important to know they are not a linear process.
- Engage
- Analysis
- Design
- Implement
- Review
Engagement is a first critical step, because without it, the other stages will fail to live up to their potential. Open, free, opinion and discussion are vital. Well thought out engagement is a critical component to success.
The analysis phase relies on tried and proven tools to establish an agree data driven picture that everyone can agree to. Data gathering is best undertaken by operational staff, as this that plays into the next step of designing and adds foundation to engagement.
Design, implement, and review work in parallel in an agile approach. This phase runs more like a learning cycle, always gathering data about what works and what doesn’t.
What sort of benefits can management consulting bring to organisations?
In 2017, Innes Auchterlonie, Managing Director of IMRANDD, an asset integrity consulting practice based in Aberdeen, and Andrew collaborated on a researched journal article. The research included 26 above ground mining improvement projects.
Across the 26 improvement projects, roles and responsibilities for performance were defined, more effective processes with key performance measures designed, and shared targets across the operational organization agreed on. Almost every mining project was driven from the production area, rather than head office and, most importantly, responsibility was given to the actual workforce performing the task. In total, these 26 mining projects delivered $300 million in cashable savings and even more if the cash release is included from a reduction in stocks and working capital.
Reference: https://offshoreengineer.oedigital.com/articles/201708/mining-for-ideas-15888
Also see the case studies page - https://woodward-consulting.net/case-studies/
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