Despite the size of the consulting industry and its attractiveness to business school graduates, there is a dearth of agreement about what constitutes "professionalism" in consulting. "The Practice of Professional Consulting" provides the most comprehensive introduction to the field of consulting, including a complete system of guidelines, and all the tools, templates, techniques, case studies, competencies, and assessments to become a professional consultant. Broad enough to be useful to anyone starting any kind of consulting business, yet specific in explaining typical client situations, this guide offers new and aspiring consultants with a perspective of the rules, roles, values, methods, and techniques used across firms in the consulting industry.

Ein Werkzeug fuer Unternehmensberater und Unternehmer zur Durchfuehrung einer komplexen Betriebsanalyse. Ausgerichtet auf kleine und Mittelstands-Betriebe, die vom Inhaber geleitet werden.

In this gripping and colorful account of the American dream gone astray, Lewis Pinault provides the essential guidelines on how to get ahead and an enlightening perspective on the brutal infighting that can engulf even the most civilized consulting firm. This stunning exposé of some of the most prestigious and respected names in the business leads you into a world where a client's interests are skillfully subordinated to those of the consultants, where money rules the day, and where principles and morals are unwelcome baggage.

Humorous and insightful, this no-holds-barred account takes you behind the scenes of the dehumanizing indoctrination of an academic intellectual into an exploitative -- and exploited -- "global transformation contractor." Featuring new material dealing with the e-consulting industry's boom, bust, and its future, Consulting Demons offers the most complete look at an industry that exacts the highest prices for the most questionable standards of success.

The Consultants Big Book of Reproducible Surveys and Questionnaires is a value-packed collection of 50 easy-to-use diagnostic tools consultants can use to collect data from their clients, quickly make needs assessments, and offer diagnoses. Never before has such a comprehensive, user-friendly collection of surveys and questionnaires been available to consultants.

Mel Silberman, Ph.D., is a bestselling author, speaker, and consulting psychologist known internationally as a pioneer in the areas of interpersonal intelligence, active learning, and facilitation/ consultation. Dr. Silberman is the president of Active Training, a provider of products, seminars, and publications.

Written and field-tested by practicing consultants, The Consultant’s Tool Kit will save consultants both time and money-as it makes their work with clients much more effective. Each tool or activity is designed to solve a common consulting problem. Reproducible worksheets, exercises, and questionnaires are easily downloaded from the web and customized by consultants to fit the exact needs of each client—and help them effectively implement the solutions.

This collection of field-tested tools, customizable questionnaires, and techniques for working with clients provides crucial problem-solving help in areas such as:

• Managing and leading change

• Organizational initiatives

• Assessing team and organizational functioning

• Improving relationships between departments and business units

• Creative problem-solving techniques

Mel Silberman, Ph.D., (Princeton, NJ) is a best-selling author and editor. A professor of adult and organization development at Temple University, he is the author of Active Training.

An indispensable guide for students who consult to businesses. --Jerry Katz, Series Editor Thousands of students participate in fieldwork experiences every year. Field Casework addresses the common questions and concerns of students engaging in consulting projects for small and startup businesses. Offering practical guidance, this informative text supports and directs the reader from the initial project assignment and client meeting to the closing presentation and exit meeting. Primary chapters are devoted to establishing client relationships, conducting the information search, maintaining a cohesive student consulting team, and developing recommendations for the client business. A unique feature of this book is the incorporation of student reactions, responses and advice in each chapter. Information about the role of the Small Business Administration, and Small Business Institutes, confidentiality, and ethical considerations is included in two appendixes. This book is an excellent resource and essential guide for students of management, organizational studies, economics, and marketing or a variety of other courses that require consulting projects. The real-world examples, sound methods, and student feedback provided make Field Casework an extremely relevant text. ^B^

A corporate recruiter tells why he says no-and how first-time job-hunters can get the yes.
A college grad has specific questions when trying to land the first job after school. How are just a few candidates chosen from a stack of hundreds of resumes? What exactly do recruiters want to hear in an interview? What are the common job-hunting mistakes students make time and time again? "Confessions of a Recruiting Director" gives the inside scoop on the entire hiring process- from a top recruiting director who's seen and heard it all-and delivers a specific, step-by-step approach to beating the odds.
Step 1: Resumes-how to pass the 15 Second Test
Step 2: Networking-how to use connections to get a job
Step 3: Cover Letters-why nine out of ten never get read
Step 4: Ace the Interview- the shocking truth about what recruiters want
Step 5: Thank-You Notes- making a lasting impression
Step 6: Follow Up-the fine line between persistence and stalking Plus: Real-life before-and-after resumes, cover letters, thank-you notes and the answers to ten necessary interview questions.

The perspective of complex responsive processes draws on analogies from the complexity sciences, bringing in the essential characteristics of human agents, understood to emerge in social processes of communicative interaction and power-relating. The result is a way of thinking about life in organizations that focuses attention on how organizational members cope with unknown as they perpetually create organizational futures together.
Providing a natural successor to the Editors' earlier series (Complexity and Emergence in Organizations) this series Complexity as the Experience of Organizing, aims to take this work further by taking very seriously the experience of organizational practitioners, and showing how taking the perspective of complex responsive process yields deeper insight into practice and so develops that practice.
In this book, all of the contributors work as leaders, consultants or managers in organizations. They provide narrative accounts of their actual work addressingquestions such as:
- How does the work of the researcher actually assist managers when the uncertainty is so great that they do no know what they are doing yet?
- What does research in organizations actually achieve?
- If patters of human interaction produced nothing but further patterns of human interaction, in the creation of which we are all participating, is there a detached way of understanding organizations from the position of the objective observer?
In considering such questions in terms of their daily experience, the contributors explore how the perspective of complex responsive processes assists them to make sense of their experience and so to develop their practice. "AComplexity Perspective on Researching Organizations" offers a different method for making sense of experience in a rapidly changing world by using reflective accounts of ordinary everyday life in organizations rather than idealized accounts. The editors' commentary introduces and contextualizes these experiences as well as drawing out key themes for further research.
"A Complexity Perspective on Researching Organizations" will be of value to readers from amongst those academics and business school students and practitioners who are looking for reflective accounts of real life experiences of researching in organizations, rather than further prescriptions of what life in organizations ought to be like.

This volume makes an important contribution to the growing literature on management consulting. It brings together international contributors from a wide variety of backgrounds and draws on recent empirical research from a diverse range of countries, consultancy firms, and client companies. The analysis focuses on three key areas. The first part of the book looks at the emergence and development of the consulting industry in different countries and time periods. The interplay between national systemic context and outside influences is stressed, and the efforts of consultants to become recognized as 'legitimate' knowledge carriers by their clients is highlighted, in competition - and sometimes cooperation - with other suppliers of management knowledge, notably academia. The volume goes on to consider the generation, management, and validation of consulting knowledge by consultancy organizations and management gurus, showing how these activities are influenced not only by the consultancies' own characteristics in terms of size, structure, and national origin, but also by the (national and cultural) context in which they are operating, and by the role of 'gatekeepers', such as book publishers or journalists. The third part of the book focuses on the nature and dynamics of the consultancy-client relationship, focusing especially on the ways in which consultants convince managers of the need to hire outside advisors; on the reaction of those concerned in the client organization towards the consultants' recommendations; and on the methods used by the consultants to overcome the possible reluctance and resistance from within the organization. From a more theoretical point of view, the chapters in this volume also show that research on management consulting has to take into account different levels of analysis: the consulting industry as a whole and its position relative to other knowledge providers such as academia; the specific consultancy organization and its relationships with internal and external sources of knowledge; and the particular consultancy project and notably the interplay between the consultants and the various stakeholders within and outside the client organization.

There's more small-business funding out there than you realize-and Target Funding shows you how to find it, land it, and use it to launch, stabilize, or grow your business Target Funding is a strategic guide to funding opportunities aimed at specific types of businesses and business owners. You'll learn about all the options available to you-including conventional, alternative, and diversity funding-and how to access them based on your needs and your demographic, industry, location, and other variables. The book includes: *Critical information on the wide range of funding options available to startups and small businesses of all kinds, including un-bankable ventures and independent inventors*Hundreds of vetted funding sources that include the features and eligibility requirements of each grant, loan, and investment opportunity specified*Real-life business funding stories that inspire and inform*Expert advice and insider tips for mastering the funding game*A roadmap for finding accessible funding opportunities that align with your funding needs Target Funding reveals a proven business-funding strategy that can make all the difference as you pursue your entrepreneurial dream.

< p>In an increasingly complex and sophisticated marketplace, businesses are spending more on consulting services than ever before. Keeping up with this healthy, growing and dynamic segment of the U.S. and Canadian economies with < I>Consultants & Consulting Organizations Directory< /I>.< p>You'll find complete contact information as well as full, clear and concise descriptions of each organization's activities. Each entry furnishes: < ul>< li>Street addresses or P.O. boxes for headquarters and branches< li>Phone, fax and toll-free numbers< li>E-mail addresses and Web sites< li>Notation of service to international clients< li>Notation of mergers and former names< li>And much more< /ul>< p>More than 25,000 firms and individuals listed are arranged in subject sections under 14 general fields of consulting activity ranging from agriculture to marketing. More than 400 specialties are represented, including finance, computers, fund-raising and others.

Architects, engineers and surveyors work with large numbers of contracts and other documents. These may contain standard or typical clauses which are encountered frequently but that may have implications far beyond the obvious, especially with regard to terms of engagement and collateral warranties. This essential book provides practical guidance on the legal and commercial risks which these clauses pose and gives advice on the acceptability of particular clauses by reference to case law and first-hand experience. Innovative and unique, this key book, essential for practitioners, illuminates the legal and commercial considerations, not only of the parties they represent, but of all members of the project team. Quantity surveyor Mark Hackett and lawyer Mark Klimt have wide ranging and current experience of terms of engagement and collateral warranties used in a broad spectrum of projects. By virtue of their respective disciplines, this significant volume addresses matters from both the legal and commercial perspectives; readers will find priceless practical advice on navigating safely through different contract forms, and consultants are shown how to take guidance on sensible and workable contractual arrangements which, most importantly, will have the support of the insurance market.

Management Consulting: A Guide for Students bridges the gap between the latest academic research and practical skills to provide a comprehensive new introduction to modern consulting. David Biggs's important new textbook walks students through the key dimensions of management consulting - from the contexts, through the processes, and into skills and implementation - using a wide range of examples to provide a refreshing and modern guide for students. Every chapter deploys a consistent pedagogical framework including clear learning objectives that correspond with the latest standard course outlines, mini case studies, and industry snapshots. Full-length case studies appear at the end of every chapter, either prepared specifically for the text by international academics and consultants or supplied from premium vendors such as Harvard Business Review. A full set of online supporting resources for students and lectures make this the complete resource for management consulting courses at all levels.