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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The management consulting business model requires new changes in this new era of disruptions. The typical management consulting business mode is based on consultants either training and developing or engaging in actual management consulting. Today, this has been combined due to operational risk management. The reason is that identifying problems and providing solutions to senior managers is not enough today - consultants need to also be able to offer and execute solutions. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has placed consultants in what is known as a dual role. In this article, we examine the challenges of the management consulting business model and provide an alternative way for large consulting companies and those medium to small organizations to re-emerge with sustenance. These challenges were found in our interviews with 81 senior management consultants at McKinsey &amp; Company and Boston Consulting Group, Inc. in the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates.
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The End of Management Consulting as We Know it?

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The diagnostic phase is the essential part of the consultancy cycle, providing the client with interpretable data and systematic approaches to improve the consultation effectiveness, however, there are still areas for improvement in diagnostic frameworks, data analysis, and client-consultant communication. This paper will demonstrate that although the diagnosis is an ongoing activity and a crucial node linking the whole consultancy cycle, it still requires using a mix of context-specific empirical tools and fostering a sustainable client-consultant relationship, dedicated to exploring the root causes of the organizational issue. In order to explain this, the paper will firstly focus on the importance of the diagnosis. Secondly, it will evaluate the diagnostic methods and data collection ways. Thirdly, it will discuss how to provide effective feedback to clients and build strong client-consultant relationship in the diagnostic phase. Finally, the paper will summarize the critical study of the diagnosis.
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The Diagnostic Phase of the Consultancy Cycle

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Management Consulting is one of the oldest and most well-established professional services across the world. Consultants have developed subject matter expertise and competency in a variety of areas such as General and Strategic Management, Financial Management, Marketing &amp; Distribution Management, e-Business, Operations Management, Human Resource Management, Knowledge Management, Enterprise Performance Management, Business Transformation, Quality Management, and Information Technology. Information Technology as a discipline has evolved rapidly in the last three decades with software development paradigms and the advancement in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. The space of AI &amp; ML technologies is rapidly evolving, impacting the way insights are arrived at, how decisions are taken, organization models, and organization structures. This article explores the challenges, new opportunities and potential changes to the ways of working for management consultants given the developments in AI, particularly with large language models.
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Management Consulting in the Artificial Intelligence – LLM Era

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This essay explores the imminent impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the management consultancy sector over the next five years. After tracing the historical context of technological innovation and societal unease with disruption, we delve into the current landscape of management consultancy, emphasizing its evolution and present dynamics. Specialized themes in the consultancy market today, such as internal consulting and data-centric approaches, highlight the industry’s dynamism.
The core focus anticipates the implications of AI on management consultancy, with a shift towards AI-powered analytics and insights transforming consultants’ roles. Market segmentation deepens as specialized AI-driven consulting firms emerge, challenging traditional players. The competitive landscape witnesses the entry of tech giants, intensifying competition and prompting strategic shifts in consultancy models. A forward-looking perspective considers changes in pricing and cost structures, emphasizing ethical considerations in AI deployment.
In this transformative landscape, a blended future emerges, envisioning AI-driven quick insights complemented by human consultants offering context, creativity, and empathy. This condensed exploration provides a crucial foundation for academics, industry practitioners, and policymakers navigating the evolving interplay between AI and management consultancy.
</abstract>

Artificial Intelligence’s Impact of the Management Consultancy Sector over the Next Five Years

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper sets out for fellow consultants: (i) internal controls to avoid a client’s hiring of a chief executive officer (CEO) who may have had a past or current instance(s) or pattern of misconduct; (ii) the forms of possible misconduct of a CEO; (iii) the component steps and process to follow in investigating such misconduct; and (iv) respecting a CEO’s procedural rights during the investigation.
This paper provides consultants with content upon which to advise during their practices, including their advice to organizational clients, senior management, and boards of directors.
</abstract>

Consulting Advice on Investigations into Possible CEO Misconduct

So What Makes a Successful Consulting Project?

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The paper presents an analysis of the possibilities for developing a community of independent management consultants and forming partnerships in conditions of global uncertainty. The purpose of the study was to show the core of activity, level of competencies and uniqueness of knowledge of the management consultants’ community; determine its growth points. Individual consultants from the National Institute of Certified Management Consultants of Russia (NICMC), Fifty eight consultants took part in the study as a sample. Using the author’s questionnaire, it was possible to identify perspective areas of community development strategies and partnerships for consultants that allow them to achieve greater success in consulting.
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Communities and Partnerships of Independent Management Consultants - The Path to Professional Success

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper investigates the ethical dilemmas faced by consultants when balancing personal morals with professional obligations, using a real-life case study involving a consultant overhearing illegal price-fixing activities. The case highlights the consultant’s internal conflict and the decision to remain silent due to fear of professional repercussions and power dynamics. The analysis discusses violations of the Dutch OOA code of conduct, particularly concerning integrity and professional independence, and explores the ethical frameworks of moral disengagement, consequentialism, and virtue ethics. The paper emphasizes the complexity of moral integrity in consulting and the potential consequences of both action and inaction in ethically challenging situations.
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Conscience and Compromise: The Struggle of Moral Codes in Business

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
If we truly believe that “people are our greatest asset” as the old saying goes, we generally don’t treat them as assets. Traditional assets such as furniture, buildings and intellectual property are treated in a prescribed manner on financial statements as well as the ongoing care and maintenance of that asset. The author challenges the notion of considering people as expenses only and introduces five different models (or asset classes) of a management consulting firm’s greatest resource - its people. Some of these models have been around for decades, some are emerging, and all are changing with the incessant demand for adaptation of our management consulting industry worldwide.
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Are you Hiring and Managing the Right Pi-Shaped People?

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This article reflects on the disproportionate academic and media attacks that management consultancy seems to attract and links this to the failure of developing strong professional institutions on the example of comparable professions such as law and accountancy. In particular, whilst a professional project was initially at play within this sector, it eventually lost support from key stakeholders, in particular the large firms who employed a majority of management consultants. As such professional associations in the management consultancy field engaged in a series of accommodation strategies to win back some corporate support. The result was a weaker form of corporate professionalism.
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Failed Professionalization and Management Consultancy’s Image Problem - a UK Perspective

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper examines how internal advisors can enhance ethical decision-making beyond the scope of a corporate code of conduct, using a case from a major Dutch financial institution. The case study explores a decision involving a loan request for selling laughing gas, where the internal advisors’ assessment went beyond legal compliance to consider ethical implications, potential consequences, and stakeholder interests. The analysis highlights the use of ethical theories such as consequentialism, deontology, and stakeholder analysis, demonstrating how internal advisors can provide a human and interactive dimension to ethical decision-making. Ultimately, the paper underscores the importance of integrating internal advisory roles with corporate codes of conduct to foster comprehensive and ethically sound decisions.
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Business Ethics: How the Code of Conduct’s Superficiality Can be Combatted by Supplementing Decision-Making with Internal Advisors

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This paper critically examines the principle of professional independence in the consulting industry, focusing on ethical challenges through the lenses of consequentialism and stakeholder theory. Utilizing a case study involving a Dutch media company’s acquisition bid, the analysis reveals the tension between maintaining professional independence and succumbing to client pressures, resulting in an inflated and ultimately unsuccessful bid. The discussion highlights the importance of consultants adhering to ethical standards, considering all stakeholders’ interests, and maintaining objectivity to ensure long-term beneficial outcomes. By integrating stakeholder theory and consequentialism, the paper underscores the necessity of ethical rigor and professional integrity in consulting practices.
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Foundations and Challenges: Ethics in Consulting

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The Consulting Readiness Index (CRI) is an attempt to assess the stage of development of a country’s management consulting sector by the analysis of indicators shown to vary in proportion to national management consulting markets. This paper outlines the logic applied and includes the key data leading to creation of the CRI.
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Towards the Consulting Readiness Index

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<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
We review the concept of organisational resilience from the perspective of a consultant-client relationship. Specifically, we argue that the issue of a client’s resilience in the face of performance-diminishing disruptions needs to be a central theme of any consultant-client relationship. Management consultants have a responsibility to clients to support their resilience capabilities regardless of whether a given assignment explicitly uses the language of resilience. However, our literature review suggests this is a formidable challenge, particularly with larger and more complex client organisations. Understanding the client’s resilience landscape involves learning about the effectiveness of prior responses to disruptions at individual, organizational, and network levels. Advising the client on how to improve their resilience capabilities requires the consultant to think very carefully about the overall type of resilience needed, the reasons behind this stance, the level of implementation and the scope of implementation.
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Building Resilience in Client Organisations: The Consultant’s Challenge

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This is a view of the $150bn global management consultancy industry, abridged from a masterclass presentation given to the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers in Ireland in November 2020. The paper looks forward and explores the implications of current sector dynamics. It is structured into two sections: the global management consulting market, and the implications for consulting business models.
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Management Consulting: The Road Ahead

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
A major focus for consultants is pipeline. Generating future work is as important as delivering current projects because it provides continuity and hopefully growth of the business. This inherent uncertainty in the sales pipeline is perhaps the consulting firms’ biggest concerns. This paper seeks to demonstrate how management consultancy has actually become widespread and embedded in the economic activity of organisations. The research synthesised in this paper presents client perspectives on how consultants add value. Particular insight is given into the key features which differentiate those firms that are chosen for projects against those that are not. The findings suggest that the industry has transitioned from a dispensable service to an institutionalised one, embedded in client business cycles and operating procedures. This has implications for how individual consultancy firms develop and deliver their services, moving emphasis from market uncertainty to service design and quality.
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The ‘World’s Newest Profession’ is no Longer Dispensable; What Does it Mean for Consultancy Firms?

Growing the Next-Gen Membership: Securing Established Institutes of Management Consultings’ Futures

Ways Consultants Can Help Clients’ Companies Create a Culture That Thrives

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Management Consulting Journal

 The Management Consulting Journal (MCJ) focuses on the practice of management consulting and the management consulting sector. It publishes two volumes a year. It welcomes submissions from...

 The Management Consulting Journal (MCJ) focuses on the practice of management consulting and the management consulting sector. It publishes two volumes a...