MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT COMPETENCE FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT

Phuoc D. Nguyen

To establish and measure a management consulting firm’s own management consultancy competencies framework (MSCF). First, based on international, national, and best-known management consultancy associations’ management consultancy competencies frameworks every management consulting firm defines career paths for management consultants, career paths are classified into management consulting titles such as associate consultant intern, consultant analyst, business analyst, associate, consultant, senior consultant, project leader, engagement manager, case team leader, associate principal/associate partner, principal, director, senior executive, etc. (mconsultingprep.com, 2018). Second, apply Mindtools’ (2018) method of competency framework development to follow steps:

Step 1: Prepare – define the purpose of the framework, and establish the steering committee and task force.

Step 2: information collection – observe positions’ activities while they’re performing their duty on the projects, interview every position in titles of career paths and interview groups of title to identify CSFs for consulting success, design a questionnaire to survey all current positions, and based on survey results to implement job analysis.

“The second criterion is ‘giftedness/talent/skills’. Does the prospective team member possess the stuff’ required for the position? Or, if training is possible, does the prospective team member appear to have the ability to obtain the necessary skills? The third criterion is ‘people skills/personality’. Again, the prospective team member must possess the people skills and personality style that the position requires.” (Compliment of His Business Inc., 2003).

Step 3: Build the framework – document key skills knowledge, values, attitudes, personal attributes or distinguishing qualities, characteristics, and motives for every position; identify and define key area indicators (KAIs), KPIs; professional, ethical, and quality standards (PEQS) for consultancy work (ILM, 2011), and assessment criteria for every position; validate and revise the competencies as necessary.

Step 4: Implement – provide coaching and training to every title; link consulting value, objectives, and targets to every individual performance and communicate consulting performance. “The most desirable indicators to measure the effects of management consulting must be concrete and objective indicators like the contribution of consulting to the profit of the company, improvement of productivity.” (Lee, Kim, & You, 2016, p. 3).

Step 5: measure, analyze, and assess MSCF performance – based on assessment criteria, KAIs, KPIs, and PEQS to measure, analyze, and assess MSCF performance of every step in the consulting process and outcomes of the whole consulting process for every title and consulting group to suggest strengths and areas for improvements.

Step 6: follow up and examine after the assessment – If improvement implementation results are under-expected, then implement further coaching and training; reward the competencies for good performance and good improvement results.