In today's business world, it is all about having the 'edge' over your competitors and being able to retain your customers. However, how do companies find out information about obtaining this edge? Lee Vee Meng, senior executive from Accenture explains what management consulting is all about. In a nutshell, management consulting involves mostly mobilising the right people, skills and technologies - any business ingredients, really - to help a company improve its corporate or business performance, and to get ahead of its competitors.
So what makes a company tick?Researches done by professional management consultant firms have revealed that outstanding companies consistently outperform their peers in revenue, profit growth and total return to shareholders. These companies do so over a sustained time frame, across business cycles, industry disruptions or even changes in CEO leadership. Research has also shown that such companies are very clear when it comes to business directions, especially those that involve making big decisions. They are always one step ahead of the market and their anticipation of market trends is always spot on. Further study into high-performance businesses reveals that market focus and position are optimised when companies first focus on getting the right answers in three critical areas of strategic decision making. They are: the optimal way to manage for the present and the future; what are the best core values to be developed for the company; and what leadership structures and design can be developed to achieve a competitive advantage.
What do these qualities mean?To be able to manage the present and the future involves taking a short and long term view of things. A company would need to balance the energy needed to succeed in today's market conditions with the energy needed to recognise and enter new markets to sustain future growth as well. Also, companies would need to find a healthy equilibrium in terms of growing organically and getting involved in mergers and acquisitions to branch into other areas of expertise. On top of that, when core values are involved, firms would need to ensure that their core values - which they believe would be good for their business - are strictly adhered to by every department, and if it is a huge company with subsidiaries, that the values are followed by the subsidiaries too. This is vital to ensure that the whole firm, 'parent' or 'child', are moving in the same direction. Lastly, organisational design is also important for a firm to maintain its edge. An effective design should reflect already-existing strengths and energies of people in the business, and they use a deep knowledge of their people to create the design that is right for their company. High performers know their strength lies not in the labels on the organisation chart but in the unique way their organisation are able to execute their design. In the company architecture, business units and functions are comprised of modular teams of people with common competencies and skills.
Getting into management consultingGetting into management consulting is all about having the right qualities and aptitude towards the career. Typically, an entry level graduate who joins a management consulting group is someone who has consistently performed excellently academically on top of being actively involved in extra-curricular activities in school and university. Apart from being able to communicate well, he or she is also someone that is able to work in a team and portrays leadership qualities.
Management consulting at AccentureManagement consulting at Accenture encompasses strategy and business consulting. Graduates entering into this department would explore sources of shareholder value creation and transforming business processes. This encompasses a suite of services, including identifying and creatively solving complex problems, designing or re-engineering critical processes, and fundamentally transforming the way a company operates. As a management consultant with Accenture, you can focus on identifying and shaping solutions for clients, collaborating with both clients' team members and your colleagues. Project teams are often made up of people with diverse and complementary skills, and your role is to focus them on a client's business challenges. At a more senior level, management consultants lead overall client planning sessions and manage long-term client relationships.
What kind of graduates does Accenture look for?Accenture is very selective in hiring graduates into their management consulting group. The applications are received all year round through http://careers3.accenture.com/Careers/Malaysia. Accenture hires approximately 30 graduates into the management consulting practice annually.
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