ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE WITHIN A CONSULTANCY PRACTICE

Like other industries, many forms of organization have been tried out in consultancy:

• industry focused groups;

• consultants grouped by specialization;

• regional groups, concentrated by geography;

• a combination of some or all of the above.

There is no one right answer. Form should follow function, and so organization structure should be an element of infrastructure that improves the ability of a consultancy practice to enhance its key processes.

Tasks and Roles in a Consultancy Practice

There are a variety of tasks in all management consultancies, which can be subsumed in the following roles:

• practice manager;

• account manager (salesperson);

• bid manager;

• project manager;

• resource manager;

• auditor;

• operating consultant.

In a small practice, these roles may be carried out by a single individual; in a large one, they may be spread among several people. It is not unusual for someone to be engaged in more than one role. For example, an individual could be taking the role of an account manager or as project manager in the sales process. Subsequently he or she might conduct the project as the operating consultant. An explanation of each of the above roles is set out below.

Practice Manager

The role of practice manager is to manage the business of the consultancy practice, or a part thereof. This is a general management role, with responsibility for producing a profit stream.

The survival and profitability of a consultancy's business are superordinate objectives. The practice manager therefore usually has the greatest seniority within a consultancy unit. At an operational level he or she will be setting priorities and targets and resolving questions of conflict between others in the consultancy unit, for example, over competition for resources. The practice manager therefore sets the (internal) commercial environment in which consultancy projects are conducted. The practice manager will also be responsible for setting strategy for his or her unit, within that for the practice as a whole.

Account Manager

As consultants derive much of their revenue from past clients, the role of the account manager is to maintain links with (specified) past and present clients, and may also be responsible for winning business from new ones. The account manager may have a specialization as a consultant but frequently this may not be relevant to the client's current needs. Other consultants will therefore be engaged in projects for the account manager's clients. But when the project is complete, the project team will move on to other assignments for other clients and the account manager will be left to maintain the client relationship. In this respect, the account manager is a bridge between consultancy and client and the various sales are the vehicles passing over the bridge. Even when there is no traffic, the bridge exists; if there is no bridge, there can be no traffic. So, the relationship must be maintained, even when there are no current projects. Thus, while the practice manager sets the commercial context for the project from the firm's point of view, the account manager will be managing the context of the project from a client relationship point of view.

Bid Manager

A bid, or proposal, for a piece of consultancy work might simply involve a short letter. If the project is to be of any size, however, it will involve devoting some time and effort to preparing a proposal, which is a project in itself.

In some practices, this is formally recognized by the appointment of a bid manager. The task of the bid manager is to define the terms of reference for the project, to prescribe the methodology, to assess the resources required to carry it out and to prepare a costing of them. It may also involve assessing the risks associated with the project and, where these are felt to be substantial, seeking authority to proceed with putting in the bid.

Usually the account manager or the project manager who is going to work on the project will take this role. Occasionally, however, there may be people whose specialization is preparing proposals on specific topics.

Project Manager

The job of the consultancy project manager is to meet the project objectives, within the allocated resources, while maintaining good relationships with client staff. It is sensible on any operating consultancy project to appoint one person who is responsible for its delivery. The project manager may report to the account manager on project matters, in that the account manager is overseeing the ongoing relationship with the client and the commercial context of the project. If there is only one consultant involved with the project, he or she has to take the role of project manager.

Resource Manager

It is unusual for consultants to be permanently allocated to a single account. The task of resource management is to deploy consultants among accounts and projects, and to ensure that their utilization is optimized. Consultants might be allocated to groups for the purposes of resource management according to location or specialization. Resource managers may also act as 'product champions', with the aim of promoting their specialist services among the internal connectors - account managers - and thence to the consultancy's client base.

Auditor

The job of auditor is sometimes called quality manager or quality assurance director. The purpose of the role is to monitor projects against quality standards and to design and carry out procedures to ensure that suitable quality standards are established and maintained.

Over the last decade it has become clear that quality is not simply a policing function but something that provides a real commercial and competitive advantage. The purpose of the auditor is to provide someone outside the sales and operating teams involved with the sale or delivery of a particular project, who can helpfully comment on how well these tasks are being carried out.

An auditor might carry out inspections of bids or projects to see that they conform to good practice. Inspections can be conducted after a bid is won or lost, at the conclusion of a project or some time after the end of a project. The auditor can also be a source of counsel and advice during the project. This does not have to be a full-time role; for example, a consultant in Division A of a business can act as auditor for projects in Division B and vice versa.

Operating Consultant

This is the default role and those individuals filling the previous six roles will probably also operate on assignments. It is common practice that even the most senior individual within a firm will do work with a client, although practice management and account management tasks may consume most of his or her time. Operating consultants may also have responsibilities for some sales aspects.

When you enter a consultancy practice, you normally do so as an operating consultant. The other roles above are taken on with increasing experience. What this means in practice is that there is a decoupling of rank and role - performance of a particular role does not imply seniority (except that of the practice manager). Thus, for example, A might supervise B on one activity, whereas on another, B might supervise A.