Specific Problems with Organization and Management Methods

Professional Management Consultants providing proscribed Business Services

Professional management consultants face fundamental problems that are eliminated by R-pM Consulting

By: Harry Greene

Over the years, management consulting has moved into providing business services in addition to professional management services. Along the way, management consulting lost some of its professional image, particularly in the business change and management improvement practices. Three fundamental problems make it difficult for management consultants to deliver professional management improvement services to their clients:

  • Business change and management improvement do not directly change or improve the business, but change structures overlaid on the business
  • As consultant firms provided more business services, much consulting moved from professional problem-solving to implementing packaged solutions
  • The gap between the client and the consultant widened, when consultants employed their methodology to produce deliverables, rather than helping the client achieve desired results

These problems hamper the consultant in delivering client satisfaction and hamper the client in gaining the benefits expected. Over the past several years, reports and books have highlighted problems with management consulting methods.

Business change and management improvement consulting does not improve the Business

The fundamental problem remains unrecognized today. Management consultants contrive an organization structure that is laid over the business, committing the fatal error of 20th century management. Once an organization structure is implemented, instead of organizing the business, the business can never be managed. The consultants then contrive and implement other structures for strategic planning, business processing, information processing, accounting, performance management, capital development, human resource management, management reporting, etc. that also are overlaid on the business. Each structure defines its own set of entities and is separately managed, creating business and information complexity.

Contrived structures overlaid on the business are ingrained deeply in conventional thinking. All business schools, management publications and training, and on-the-job learning teach overlaid structures as the way things are done, so no one looks for the alternative of simply organizing and managing the business as one structure.

Consulting has moved from professional problem solving to implementing packaged solutions

Historically, management consultants were employed to analyze and solve specific business organization and management problems. As time went on, consultants developed methodologies and packaged their services. Consultants started implementing software packages, like ERP, and providing business services like outsourcing. Many professional service offerings are delivered as a business service by using a proscribed methodology to produce standard deliverables or to implement a package.

Problems arise when to the client problem is redefined to fit the solution or when the client was expecting other benefits besides those provided by the packaged service.

The consultant often provides client deliverables, rather than working together for a joint objective

Any business organization and management consulting project is the client responsibility. It is not the consultant's enterprise. Often, both the client and the consultant prefer to leave the improvement up to the consultant. The consultant produces deliverables that are handed over to the client to accept or reject. These deliverables often miss the subjective mark, producing a dissatisfied client or push for the consultant to do more work

By not working with the consultant, the client misses valuable human capability development to know the consultant rationale and details to carry out recommendations.

R-pM takes a new approach to business organization and management consulting

Result-performance Management (R-pM) provides a new environment for professional management consulting in partnership with the enterprise customer. R-pM addresses each of the fundamental management consulting problems:

  • R-pM organizes the business of the customer enterprise to simplify the problem, enable precise scoping of work, and effectively manage the project
  • R-pM consulting achieves planned result value-added through the development and implementation of performance solutions
  • R-pM establishes partnership roles for the enterprise and consultant and builds the enterprise capability for investment, result, performance, and corporate management

The R-pM 21st Century Management Consulting Model guides the enterprise and consultant partnership to work together for enterprise success. The R-pM Toolkit provides the definitive guidance and methods for the customer and the R-pM Consultant to manage and execute the project and successfully employ R-pM.