1. What is management consulting?
Consulting that improves the core processes and methodology, identifies constraints and weakness in
the present system and recommends solutions for enhancement of business and overall improvement
of organizational management is management consulting.
Management consulting also involves development of cost benefits analysis, business cases and
project feasibility analysis.
2. How could management consulting be useful to me?
An independent appraisal of management styles, procedures, and alignment with strategies would
assist in analyzing and correcting constraints impacting healthy business growth.
3. Are management audit and management consulting different concepts?
Audit is the process of appraisal that highlights the areas for improvement which is an integral part of
management consulting. Based on the finds from audits, recommendations for improvements are
made which in other words is known as management consulting.
4. What are different management styles and which is the most recommended style?
Authoritarian style: where the boss is all powerful and others are expected to follow a dictum and
nothing moves without the boss’s consent.
Consultative, where the boss doesn’t involve his subordinates in decisions but communicates his
decisions in a way the subordinate feels involved in the decision making.
Team, where every person in the group has a right to voice his/her opinion and a consensus on
decisions is arrived.
Authoritarian style sometimes may hamper organizational growth as it is a very egocentric approach to
management.
Consultative style is effective under certain circumstances where the competence and skill of the
subordinates are limited in understanding overall macro perspectives.
Teams are known to take aggressive and bold decisions and more often than not achieve their goals.
All the styles in their own right are useful at different organizational levels in the hierarchy.
5. What are different types of audits?
Financial audits: primarily validate the presentation of financial statements and ensure that
transactions comply with various statutory and regulatory norms.
Internal audit: covers the internal control mechanism existing within an organization and ensures that
the financial transactions follow an acceptable system of approvals and authorizations depending on
the size of the organization.
Management audits: assess the overall business and organizational performance and whether they
adhere to the strategic vision of the business entity.
Process audits: appraise whether existing processes are adequate, well documented and conveyed to
all the stake-holders. It helps in improving efficiency by eliminating bottlenecks and redundancy which
in turn impacts costs and speed to the market.
Statutory audits: are mandated by the regulations in force, in the location where the business entity is
located and certify whether the regulations have been complied with.
6. What is Corporate Governance and what is its importance?
Corporate governance is a term associated with the Board or the top management of an organization.
As they have been mandated to achieve the objective for which the organization has been formed, the
emphasis is to act on a fully informed basis for decision making and performance of the business
entity. It lays down clear policies, procedures, rules, roles and responsibilities with delegation of
authority within which business would be conducted.
7. Is centralized control of processes a good proposition?
Excessive centralization may sometimes mean excessive controls and would be akin to the
authoritarian style of management discussed in point 4 above and could hinder the growth of the
organization, reduce speed to the market, put undue pressure on a select group of personnel and
result in excessive cost.
This excessive control is also termed as management myopia. Especially for an organization that has
business spread over various regions with diverse cultures and languages this business model may not
yield best results.
Therefore, it is important to assess the right balance between centralized and decentralized business
models.
8. Why adopt change unless there is a need?
Changing when a need arises is crisis management and often results in panic and chaos. It also
results in loosing valuable head start over competitors.
9. Why do we need plans?
Once a gentleman waiting for a train went to the station master and yelled “Why the hell have
timetables when the trains are habitually late?”
The station master replied “Sir, if it weren’t for the timetables how would you know the trains are late.”
Therefore, plans indicate overall guideline to assess actual performance. The resultant analysis of
deviations might indicate either improving actual performance or quality of plans.
10. What is the difference between strategic and operational plan?
Strategic plans analyze an opportunity or an issue and structures the vague and subjective concepts
into achievable goals that can be clearly communicated and understood.
Operational plans layout the actions that need to be performed within set parameters to achieve the
goals recommended by strategic plans.
The appropriate strategic planning tools and methodologies assist in setting the road map for
organizational success.
11. Is there a best business model that always works?
“It is not necessary what works for you will work for me.”
Business models have to be customized depending on the size of the organization, nature of business
and other internal and external factors.
12. How do we compete and grow?
It is said it is not the strongest or the most talented that would succeed. It is those who have the right
attitude, flexibility and adaptability to change that have a greater chance of succeeding.
13. What are the challenges in managing exponential growth in business?
Growth involves a paradigm shift in outlook, attitude, management style and adaptability. Growth also
means increased work load and responsibility. This also means that the core management team has
to expand and new talent has to be ushered in.
As an organization grows you need talented, skillful, result oriented and dynamic partners who have
the capability to shoulder higher responsibilities and deliver under pressure situations.
A positive outlook that all stake-holders should benefit and remain satisfied is the key to success
when growth is exponential.
14. How important is training in personality development?
Only when the capacity of the brain is challenged does innovation take place. It is said that once a
person stops learning, he has reached his point of incompetence. Change is permanent and everyone
has to cope with the dynamic global competitive levels. Current thinking would change to give way to
novel ideas and improved performance techniques.
Knowledge is the key to success and constant updating of knowledge is imminent. Therefore, every
individual and organization has to give adequate attention to keep abreast with latest methodology
and philosophy.
15. What is e-learning and what are its advantages?
E- Learning (that is usually in CD-ROM or Web-based) is one such change in thinking and
methodology as mentioned in point 14 above. Though personalized training and workshops are very
effective and improve interpersonal communication and team building, it is becoming increasingly
difficult to arrange frequent training sessions due to timing issues, costs involved and at times
disinterest of participants.
E-leaning enables effective training programs on various subjects to be presented through multi-media
interactive CD- ROMs and internet. They are either developed in-home or bought off- the- shelf.
The main advantages are e- learning programs are cost effective, they enable learning at your own
pace, give time for introspection and interruption need not result in missing out on any important
aspect.
16. How can I get funding for my business?
A bright idea is not support enough for justifying funding. As a first step a compelling business case
has to be developed to substantiate why funding is required. Typically a business case would contain
definition of business opportunity and would be substantiated by market research, business potential,
market share, legal and regulatory issues, risks involved and financial projections.
In fact the process of developing a business case gives lot of insights, clarity and understanding to the
conceiver of the business opportunity.
It is advisable to take assistance of experienced experts to develop a professional project report. A
convincing business case ensures higher degree of reliability and increases the probability of
withstanding due diligence.
Once the case is ready, there are various financial institutions, merchant bankers, chartered
accountants and management consultants who could recommend appropriate channels of procuring
funds depending on the nature of the project.
17. What are funding options and how to identify the best option?
Funds can be obtained in the form of equity, debt or a combination of both.
Depending on the nature, size, limitations and risks associated with the project financing deals can be
structured to take care of the promoters’ and financier’s interests.
As mentioned earlier, flexibility, adaptability, mutual consent and a broad outlook would be the key to
any successful funding deal.
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