Who is a Consultant???
Whenever we say 'a consultant' what actually do we mean? And who are we referring to?
We visit a doctor - we pay consultation fee. So, is he a consultant?? Probably yes. We want a financial advice, lets say to buy shares, we go to a consultancy company. So is he the consultant? Yes. We want someone to represent our company in client meetings. The person who represents our company, is he a consultant? The answer again is yes. Some company wants to identify talent gap in their company. They hire a person for advice. Is he a consultant? The answer, unfortunately, is again yes.
So once again the question pops-up. Who actually is a consultant? The consultant is the person who has expertise in his field. The consultant is the one who troubleshoots and identifies the problem and provides quick but amicable solution. The consultant is the one who mitigates business risks. Consultants' posses in-depth knowledge not only on how the company is performing but also in which direction the industry is headed forward to.
(From now on read consultant as IT Consultant unless stated otherwise)
Coming to the grooming IT consultancy, the roles of IT Consultants differs largely to the consultants from other areas. IT consultants provide advice on how best a particular technology can be used to enhance quality, productivity or rather efficiency and to what extent it is beneficial to use technology in a particular sector. If a consultant says there is a large growing need to change how the organization functions, not just for profits but for survival as well, then we call it BPR (Business Process Re-engineering). BPR brings about radical changes to the business process.
The other major job that consultants do is outsourcing. Identifying the activities to be outsourced (primarily non-core activities), cost associated with it, any margin revenue saved/generated, time lapse for outsourcing are few among the many activities they do. Most companies, especially in retail industry, require building a strong rapport with its customers. Consultants chip-in and we call it as customer relationship management.
Now the question arises. Is consultants' job only restricted to modify process? The answer is an easy no.
They are involved with people as well. Identifying vacancies and filling it with temporary candidates (or contract jobs), identifying talent-gaps in the organisation and taking appropriate action, sometimes to the extent of hiring new employees etc. They are a part of 'staffing' as well.
So the next question - what skills one should poses to become a consultant? Basically the person should be an expert in his domain to become a consultant. Technical skills, Management skills, Convincing skills (read as communication skills) form the pillars of consultant's building. Can anyone who has the fore mentioned skills become a consultant? It's always an open question.
Consultants do face a lot of challenges. One of the major challenges they face is that the clients' requirements keep changing; sometimes clients they themselves do not know what they want.
Agreed clients know what they want. But is it possible for a consultant to know every pinch about the industry? It's never a possibility. However clients do expect the consultant to know every minute detail about the industry.
The other problem which no consultant can ever ignore is payment. Charging high results in backing off of the clients and at the same time consultants can't survive by charging low. Balancing these two by providing all the requirements clients ask for and convincing clients for the payment consulting firm demands is a challenge.
The other biggest challenge is the work of consultant is long-term oriented and clients, most often than not, are short term oriented. Importantly consultants work cannot be directly related to sales. Though it is intended to boost sales, there is no way one can prove or ignore the fact that hiring consultant results in increase/decrease of revenue.
Having understood that there are a lot of challenges, why is that anyone wants to be a consultant? The answer is everyone wants to choose their career path that they would call it perfect and being a consultant is a near perfect option :)
Thanks a ton!!!!
Comments please :)
Whenever we say 'a consultant' what actually do we mean? And who are we referring to?
We visit a doctor - we pay consultation fee. So, is he a consultant?? Probably yes. We want a financial advice, lets say to buy shares, we go to a consultancy company. So is he the consultant? Yes. We want someone to represent our company in client meetings. The person who represents our company, is he a consultant? The answer again is yes. Some company wants to identify talent gap in their company. They hire a person for advice. Is he a consultant? The answer, unfortunately, is again yes.
So once again the question pops-up. Who actually is a consultant? The consultant is the person who has expertise in his field. The consultant is the one who troubleshoots and identifies the problem and provides quick but amicable solution. The consultant is the one who mitigates business risks. Consultants' posses in-depth knowledge not only on how the company is performing but also in which direction the industry is headed forward to.
(From now on read consultant as IT Consultant unless stated otherwise)
Coming to the grooming IT consultancy, the roles of IT Consultants differs largely to the consultants from other areas. IT consultants provide advice on how best a particular technology can be used to enhance quality, productivity or rather efficiency and to what extent it is beneficial to use technology in a particular sector. If a consultant says there is a large growing need to change how the organization functions, not just for profits but for survival as well, then we call it BPR (Business Process Re-engineering). BPR brings about radical changes to the business process.
The other major job that consultants do is outsourcing. Identifying the activities to be outsourced (primarily non-core activities), cost associated with it, any margin revenue saved/generated, time lapse for outsourcing are few among the many activities they do. Most companies, especially in retail industry, require building a strong rapport with its customers. Consultants chip-in and we call it as customer relationship management.
Now the question arises. Is consultants' job only restricted to modify process? The answer is an easy no.
They are involved with people as well. Identifying vacancies and filling it with temporary candidates (or contract jobs), identifying talent-gaps in the organisation and taking appropriate action, sometimes to the extent of hiring new employees etc. They are a part of 'staffing' as well.
So the next question - what skills one should poses to become a consultant? Basically the person should be an expert in his domain to become a consultant. Technical skills, Management skills, Convincing skills (read as communication skills) form the pillars of consultant's building. Can anyone who has the fore mentioned skills become a consultant? It's always an open question.
Consultants do face a lot of challenges. One of the major challenges they face is that the clients' requirements keep changing; sometimes clients they themselves do not know what they want.
Agreed clients know what they want. But is it possible for a consultant to know every pinch about the industry? It's never a possibility. However clients do expect the consultant to know every minute detail about the industry.
The other problem which no consultant can ever ignore is payment. Charging high results in backing off of the clients and at the same time consultants can't survive by charging low. Balancing these two by providing all the requirements clients ask for and convincing clients for the payment consulting firm demands is a challenge.
The other biggest challenge is the work of consultant is long-term oriented and clients, most often than not, are short term oriented. Importantly consultants work cannot be directly related to sales. Though it is intended to boost sales, there is no way one can prove or ignore the fact that hiring consultant results in increase/decrease of revenue.
Having understood that there are a lot of challenges, why is that anyone wants to be a consultant? The answer is everyone wants to choose their career path that they would call it perfect and being a consultant is a near perfect option :)
Thanks a ton!!!!
Comments please :)
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