Business Consulting Paper - Essay Example

Business Consultant A consultant is a person who is an expert in a particular field and offers advices regarding the area of expertise. The consultant provides professional knowledge and guidance for the improvement of organizations (Chelliah & Davis, 2010). The areas of expertise include business, law, engineering or any other field that requires professional knowledge. There are two groups of consultancy includes internal and external consultants. The internal consultant operates within a certain company and he or she is an employee in the said company.

On the other hand, an external consultant refers to a professional consultant who may be an individual or a firm offering the services at a fee. The external consultant advices different clients compared to an internal consultant who only advises his company. This essay expounds on what is a business consultant and his or her respective roles and responsibilities.A business consultant is a person who is an expert in business fields and offers advice and guidance to firms mostly at a fee. The business fields include finance, management, accountancy, human resource and procurement.

For instance, a finance consultant advises a firm on management issues of finances and how to get the finances. He or she advises them on how to issue stocks, rights issues, bonds and any other tactic of gaining capital from the shareholders. He or she advises the client on how to join the stock exchange markets to trade in stocks. This is done to improve the capital base of an organization thus facilitating its growth. An example of a firm providing financial consultant services is Deloitte Consulting LLP (Malone, 2012).

A management consultant who is still a business consultant, advises firms on any management issues. He or she guides a firm when setting up its organization structure, and also when coming up with the roles and responsibilities in every position. A management consultant also helps any organization to choose the best organization culture that would improve the performance of the employees. An example of management consultant firm is the McKinsey & Company. It has been offering these services since 1926.

Human resource consultant gives guidance to an organization on how to handle its human resource; a framework on how to recruit, induct and associate with new employees is set by the help of a human resource consultant. An example is Mercer LLC in the United States, which has many offices worldwide (Malone, 2012). Finally, a procurement consultant who is still a business consultant, advises firms on logistics matters, tendering matters, importing and exporting products. He/she advises a firm on measures to take when acquiring any property by ensuring all the legal guidelines are followed.

Business consultants play key roles in businesses and organizations, which includes some of the following. Firstly, listen to a client, identify an issue in the client`s firm, examine it and offer a solution or guidance on how to solve the issue. He or she uses his past experiences and knowledge about the issues and professionally helps the client. Secondly, the business consultants prepare in advance by carrying research projects to know where firms needs to be guided. For instance, they determine or forecast rates inflation in future and advise firms in advance (Iles, Chuai & Preece, 2010).

Thirdly, business consultants act as business analysts. They collaborate with a firm to help it identify any shortcomings in its activities and advising it according. The employees are included in the process of identifying the problem and devising ways of solving the problem. Fourth, the role of a business consultant is to come up with strategies to increase business opportunities and at the same time recommend appropriate logistics on the management of firms. Finally, the business consultants analyses firm`s financial reports and advises the clients with respect to their analysis (Chelliah & Davis, 2010).

Thus, business consultancy is a field that is very important in any investor because professional guidance is given to improve the businesses. ReferencesChelliah, J., & Davis, D. (2010). But do you like your (expensive management) consultant?. Journal of Business Strategy, 31(2), 34-42. Iles, P., Chuai, X., & Preece, D. (2010). Talent management and HRM in multinational companies in Beijing: Definitions, differences and drivers. Journal of World Business, 45(2), 179-189.Malone, S. (2012). Consultant–client relationships in UK SMEs: The roles of the Personal Business Adviser.

Industry and Higher Education, 26(6), 505-519.