Dieses Buch entwickelt Bausteine einer erfolgreichen Zusammenarbeit zwischen Unternehmensberatern und ihren Klienten. Namhafte Autoren aus Unternehmen und Managementberatungen sowie Marktbeobachter schildern die Grundvoraussetzungen einer erfolgsorientierten Partnerschaft zwischen Beratern und Beratenen. Handlungsrichtlinien fur alle Phasen von Beratungsprojekten werden erlautert und best-practice anhand von Praxisfallen dargestellt. Beratern gibt das Buch einen Einblick in die Philosophie ihrer Kollegen und die Restriktionen ihrer Kunden. Auftraggeber erhalten wertvolle Hinweise uber den Umgang mit Beratern. Marktbeobachter finden Insiderinformationen uber die Beratungsansatze unterschiedlicher Anbieter und die Entwicklung der Branche. Allen genannten Gruppen ist das Buch zu empfehlen, da es erstmalig in diesem Umfang interessante Einblicke in die Denkweisen und Anspruche aller im Beratungsumfeld beteiligten Parteien und den erfolgsfordernden Umgang miteinander bietet. "

Delivers the essential practical skills needed to consult and make sharp, well prepared interactions in a wide range of business situations This comprehensive handbook covers the fundamental skills and attitudes required by successful consultants from novice to practitioner level, irrespective of their specialist area. It untangles the key variables present in any consulting service and introduces practical ways to improve their effectiveness based upon the author's experience of helping consulting organisations to develop and excel in the marketplace. The book explores consulting from the ground up' steering away from theory and focusing instead on practical application, providing a solid platform upon which to build further domain-specific competence. The Consultant's Handbook provides: * An understanding of the key variables that can be addressed in order to improve one's own consulting performance * A set of simple practices that can be implemented with immediate benefit to the reader * Practical insight into day-to-day real life consulting interactions * Confidence to implement the new ideas and approaches

A classic revised and updated for the twenty-first-century consultant
Revised and updated for consulting in the twenty-first century, this new edition is for anyone who wants to know what consulting is really like as a career, as a living, and as a life. Geoffrey Bellman reveals how to make the job rewarding both financially and personally as he examines the practical issues of managing time, clients, and money as well as such broader concerns as how to balance work with family life. At once practical and personal, this book is for all types of consultants, all those who work with consultants, and all those who dream of being consultants.
Geoffrey M. Bellman (Seattle, WA) has consulted to organizations of all sizes, from the inside and outside, including numerous Fortune 500 companies. He is the author of several well-received books, including Getting Things Done When You’re Not in Charge the bestselling book that has sold more than 80,000 copies.

The purpose of this book is to investigate the innovative process in engineering of consulting firms as a knowledge-intensive service sector. Extant literature in a resource-based view of the firm calls for empirical studies to illustrate the process of how human resource systems provide organisations with a competitive advantage. The key issue is on how the different elements of human resource systems interact. The evidence unveiled in this book does just that. Likewise, it has been suggested that resource systems as a source of a competitive edge should not be viewed as a static phenomenon. Sustained competitiveness requires an organisation to constantly adjust itself according to the evolving market conditions. Such dynamic capability has been illustrated in cases within this book. On the other hand, literature on innovative studies indicates that new analytical approaches applicable to both manufacturing and service industries can be beneficial to future research in this field. The tactic adopted in this book can serve as a prelude to such an attempt.

Electronic Business, Knowledge Management, IT-Einf hrung: F r die Realisierung neuer Gesch ftsstrategien wird Beratungswissen immer wichtiger. Damit steigen zugleich die Anforderungen an Consultants. Dies betrifft alle Bereiche von der Strategieberatung bis hin zur Prozess- und IT-Beratung. Hierzu werden dem Leser Vorgehensweisen f r die Unternehmensanalyse und Probleml sung vermittelt. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt des Buches bilden die Soft-Skills: Lernen Sie, wie durch effektive Kommunikation bessere Projektergebnisse erzielt werden k nnen. Berater internationaler Consultingunternehmen zeigen den Anwendungsbezug der einzelnen Qualifikationen auf. Praktikern sowie Berufseinsteigern bietet das Buch umfassendes Orientierungswissen sowie konkrete Hilfestellung f r das Erbringen professioneller Beratungsleistungen. Die zweite Auflage enth lt neben Erweiterungen ein neues Kapitel und eine Fallstudie.

At a time when divisiveness and racism are on the rise, the need and demand for diversity training and trainers has never been greater. The authors - with more than 25 years of combined experience in diversity and social justice work - conceived this book in response to constant requests for advice on how to get started in, and develop a career as, diversity consultants. This succinct cookbook - with the additional wisdom of fourteen well-known and respected practitioners who offer the lessons they have learned - provides the guidance to get you going and succeed. The cookbook metaphor reflects the delicate nature of diversity consulting where the little things can make a significant difference in the final outcome. As with cooking where a dash of seasoning, the choice of temperature, or cooking time, impact the final dish, so the wrong balance in creating an environment that is welcoming and constructive while addressing issues that may be disorienting for the audience can ruin a presentation before it gets started. Like a cookbook, this book is set out in small chunks. It covers the need to need to audit and enhance your skills and knowledge, establish your brand and what you distinctively bring to the table, develop your outreach and contacts, and learn to listen to clients to determine what interventions will achieve their long-term goals. It addresses the need to develop your strategic plan with a clear sense of mission, vision, and values; moves on to topics such as financial planning, pricing, contracts, scheduling, and considerations about presentation styles and handouts; and gets down to the specifics of marketing, with ideas on business cards, websites, networking, and even how to dress. For anyone contemplating embarking on a career as a diversity consultant - either part-time while holding an existing position or as a full-time endeavor, this is an invaluable guide for getting started, and for keeping at your side as you develop your practice.

"The consulting industry is one of the fastest growing business sectors worldwide with new opportunities emerging continually in hundreds of different fields. Whatever your area of expertise--engineering or employee relations, computers or customer service--there's likely to be a demand for your consulting abilities." --Gregory Kishel and Patricia Kishel from the Preface
Who needs consultants? The answer is simple: everyone does Consultants are no longer viewed as a luxury. They've become a necessity in today's constantly evolving business environment. And, for millions of career changers, recent graduates, retirees, and former government employees, consulting is an excellent way to turn knowledge and experience into a profitable business.
Now, two highly successful consultants provide you with a proven plan for entering and growing in this lucrative field. You'll get practical advice on what it takes to succeed as a consultant, where the real opportunities are, and the types of situations you are most likely to encounter. You'll learn all of the aspects of becoming an independent consultant, including how to choose a specific field and set up business, how to determine fees and market your services, how to get referrals and maintain good client relations, how to write winning proposals, what kinds of insurance you should have, how to win government contracts, how to enter foreign markets, and much, much more.
Packed with step-by-step guidelines, forms, and checklists, this valuable guide is must reading for both working consultants and anyone interested in starting a consulting business.
Written for anyone with ideas, information, or skills to sell, this valuable guide shows you how to make the most of your talents, putting them to work for yourself and your clients. Drawing on their own experiences as management consultants, Gregory Kishel and Patricia Kishel offer down-to-earth advice on what it takes to succeed as a consultant, where the opportunities are, and the types of situations you are likely to encounter. Step by step, you will learn all of the aspects of becoming an independent consultant, including:
* How to choose a specific field and set up a business
* How to determine fees and market your services
* How to get referrals and maintain good client relations
* What kinds of insurance you should have
* How to win government contracts, enter foreign markets, and much more

Whatever your area of specialization, this indispensable book will give you the information you need to build and maintain a profitable consulting business.

Management consultancy practice is particularly concerned with helping clients implement strategic organisational change. But what exactly are organisations, and management consultancy interventions in them? Management consulting is said to be a knowledge-intensive industry. But what kind of knowledge do management consultants possess, and how far can we rely on it? Management consultants are often criticised for unethical exploitation of their clients. But how ought management consultants to behave in order to meet acceptable ethical standards? These are questions about the philosophical topics of ontology, epistemology and ethics. The ancient Greek philosophers thought deeply about these topics, and their ideas remain fresh and relevant even to so modern a subject matter as management consulting. Writing between the end of the sixth and the end of the fourth century BCE, these philosophers were drawing upon an intellectual tradition that was very different from our own, and were responding to social and economic conditions that were wholly unlike ours. Approaching these philosophical questions from a perspective that is radically different from our own, their work provides a rich resource for novel thinking about management consulting. From the speculations of the Presocratic philosophers Heraclitus, Parmenides, Leucippus and Democritus about the nature of the universe to the thought of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle about the nature of human beings, this book uses the work of these great thinkers as a lens through which to study major philosophical questions about management consulting. Examined in this way, many established assumptions and principles of management consultancy practice seem questionable, and new ways of thinking possible.

This open access book offers four ways to enrich traditional research methods in business ethics. By looking at critical jokes and cartoons on management consultants, their business practice and their clients' demands, many ethical transgressions in business get addressed. By illustrating and criticizing such transgression, jokes can serve as an example in a theoretical argument, as a prompt to reflect on in an open interview, as a statement to assess in an enquiry or as basis for qualitative content analysis. By adding jokes to the conversation on ethical transgressions in business much depth and honesty can be added, resulting in better research data. Jokes can help to surpass social desirability bias included in answers given in traditional interview settings or enquiries. This book is of interest to consultants, researchers, educators and students in business ethics and management. The book showcases what kind of practical and ethical wisdom is embedded in business jokes and how this knowledge can be made productive in the context of business ethics.

Provide organized, efficient, relevant consulting with lasting value Maximizing the Value of Consulting is an indispensable, practical guide for managing, measuring, and delivering the results that make internal and external consulting a lasting value to clients and the company. Sponsored by the ROI Institute and the Association of Internal Management Consultants, this book provides a roadmap to relevance for consultants operating in the increasingly fast-paced, changing, dynamic environment. Readers will learn how to use resources properly and manage the investment efficiently, while truly connecting to the business, securing appropriate levels of commitment, and providing adequate levels of support. Detailed coverage includes guidance toward calculating the value of consulting in terms that executives understand, including business impact and ROI, and using the appropriate tools to show how things are working throughout the process. Whether organizations are using internal or external consultants, or both, consultants can provide better value to the company. Consultants are needed to provide advice, support, and insight into the processes undertaken to improve the business, and integrate the input of different functional units into a more streamlined strategy. This book is designed to help consultants provide the utmost value to clients by maximizing organization, efficiency, and ultimately, ROI. * Manage for value with better organization and cost control * Set objectives at multiple levels to deliver useful results * Measure implementation, impact, ROI, and intangibles * Use final results to drive appropriate actions, creating lasting value The skyrocketing need for internal and external consultants will continue, in almost every functional area ranging from HR and technology, to auditing and risk management. Maximizing the Value of Consulting provides a manual for relevant, value-driven consulting, with world-renowned expert insight.

Template-driven Consulting is a book for managers who have long been searching for a way to cut costs on expensive external business advice. Every day, new stories of companies that encounter severe financial troubles show up on the front pages of newspapers across the globe. Cost-cutting is again the most pressing issue in organizations - initiating massive layoffs and large-scale reductions in spending on capital goods. This text allows your company to trim down expenses at another source: external consultants. By drawing on the use of templates, TDC at last brings about the often cited knowledge transfer from consultants to your employees. Applying TDC, your employees become the experts whilst you see the number of and cost for external consultants decrease tremendously! This book, with its clear structure and hands-on approach, lets you understand the new methodology and will help you in reaping its cost benefits.

At a time when divisiveness and racism are on the rise, the need and demand for diversity training and trainers has never been greater. The authors - with more than 25 years of combined experience in diversity and social justice work - conceived this book in response to constant requests for advice on how to get started in, and develop a career as, diversity consultants. This succinct cookbook - with the additional wisdom of fourteen well-known and respected practitioners who offer the lessons they have learned - provides the guidance to get you going and succeed. The cookbook metaphor reflects the delicate nature of diversity consulting where the little things can make a significant difference in the final outcome. As with cooking where a dash of seasoning, the choice of temperature, or cooking time, impact the final dish, so the wrong balance in creating an environment that is welcoming and constructive while addressing issues that may be disorienting for the audience can ruin a presentation before it gets started. Like a cookbook, this book is set out in small chunks. It covers the need to need to audit and enhance your skills and knowledge, establish your brand and what you distinctively bring to the table, develop your outreach and contacts, and learn to listen to clients to determine what interventions will achieve their long-term goals. It addresses the need to develop your strategic plan with a clear sense of mission, vision, and values; moves on to topics such as financial planning, pricing, contracts, scheduling, and considerations about presentation styles and handouts; and gets down to the specifics of marketing, with ideas on business cards, websites, networking, and even how to dress. For anyone contemplating embarking on a career as a diversity consultant - either part-time while holding an existing position or as a full-time endeavor, this is an invaluable guide for getting started, and for keeping at your side as you develop your practice.

Everything you ever wanted to know about consulting--a practical roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs Seismic changes occurring in the workforce are leading to more and more people entering the world of contract, freelance, and contingency work. Rapid changes in demographics and advances in technology have led companies and talent to engage in profoundly new ways and consulting is one of the keys to success. The New Business of Consulting is authentic and practical, and shares the knowledge and skills required to start and grow a successful consulting business. From how to make a smooth career transition, to how to determine a consulting fee, to how consultants inadvertently create a bad reputation, it covers everything you need to know to thrive and flourish in this competitive field. Covers contemporary topics, such as how to achieve success in the gig economy Discloses a reliable technique to land the clients you want Presents options to help you balance your life and your business Prepares you for naming your business, managing critical financial issues, and building a client relationship Shows you how to take your income and impact beyond working as a solopreneur The crucial start-up days of a consulting business may be frenetic and fraught with questions. This new edition provides sanity and answers all the questions. It includes practical tools, templates, and checklists that you can download and implement immediately.

The Template-based management (TBM) approach has been used since 2003 across the world in diverse contexts. It has evolved hand-in-hand with the evolution of business: Agile, Blueprints, Canvas, Design Thinking, or Kanban are only few of the many current concepts based on the approach. This book expands and upgrades the author's 2003 book 'Template-driven Consulting' (Springer) by tracing this evolution and offering the current state-of-the-art to practitioners. TBM combines structure and method: pre-structuring diverse processes, it helps to present complex activities and procedures in a simple, clear, and transparent manner and then implement them. The use of TBM ranges from conception or creative work in agencies to designing organizations and strategies, planning and monitoring initiatives and projects, to innovation management and optimizing cost structures, processes, or entire departments and divisions. The book also demonstrates how successful organizations use TBM to methodically and structurally apply the internal know-how in a cost and time-optimal way for attaining sustainable business success. Readers will learn to apply and use TBM, identify its importance, and benefit from a variety of case studies that illustrate the application and use for the entire business and management practice.

Break down the art and science of Salesforce consulting. This book will help you refine your consulting skills on the Salesforce platform. Author Heather Negley, a seasoned consultant who has completed over 30 Salesforce delivery projects in the past nine years, equips Salesforce professionals with detailed explanations on the stages of a project and the skills you need for each stage. You will learn the type of roles on a project, so that you can plan your career path. If you need help managing clients, this book teaches you how to effectively work with and advise people. You will go through the following main sections to round out your skills and service offerings: The best learning and community resources, including mentoring programs Tips on how to get job experience The evolution of software development Project roles The parts of a project Consulting skills The consulting skills section of the book breaks down each skill and explains the parts of the project to which you should apply your skills and real-world examples. Topics include client management, communication, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and avoiding cognitive biases. What You Will Learn Identify patterns in your projects through archetype identification Watch out for specific risks common to project types Choose the best consulting tool from your toolbox, depending on the problem that you encounter Who This Book Is For People who work as Salesforce administrators for their industry and want to make a move into consulting. It is an excellent choice for someone who is interested in project work and likes to work with people to help them make decisions.

The practical toolbox for readers of Million Dollar Consulting
This useful guide provides specific checklists, guidelines, templates, and actual examples for every step of the consulting process. It covers marketing, sales, meetings, implementation, follow-up, invoicing, practice management, insurance, equipment, subcontracting, and scores of other elements. Thousands of people have bought Weiss's Million Dollar Consulting and started their own consultancy. Now, this handy resource goes hand-in-hand to provide all the tools new consultants need to enact all the recommendations and ideas in Million Dollar Consulting.
Alan Weiss, PhD (East Greenwich, RI), has consulted for hundreds of organizations around the world, including Mercedes-Benz, Hewlett-Packard, Merck, Chase, American Press Institute, and the Times-Mirror Group. He is the author of 12 books, including Getting Started in Consulting (0-471-47969-1) and Organizational Consulting (0-471-26378-8).

This volume advocates accurate case outcome prediction that does not rely on symmetric modeling. To that end, it provides theory construction and testing applications in several sub-disciplines of business and the social sciences to illustrate how to move away from symmetric theory construction. Each chapter constructs case outcome theory and includes empirical analysis of outcomes. Chapter 1 provides a foundation of symmetric variable directional-relationship theory construction and null hypothesis significance testing versus asymmetric case outcome theory construction and somewhat precise outcome testing, while Chapters 2-6 investigate these principles through a range of applications. This volume will be very useful to researchers and professionals in manufacturing, service, consulting, management, marketing, organizational studies, and more. It will also be an excellent resource for advanced statistics students in building and testing case outcome models. Data sets are included so that readers can replicate findings presented in each chapter, and grow to present and test additional theories.

This book provides a concise and pragmatic introduction to transfer pricing. Approaching the subject from an economic and business perspective, it familiarizes the reader with the basic concepts without getting sidetracked by tax law. In turn, the book draws on case studies to demonstrate the identification and application of appropriate transfer pricing methods for the most common intercompany transactions. The intuitive step-by-step guidance, together with integrated Excel-based tools, will equip the reader to ensure compliance with the arm's length principle and thus to minimize tax risk. Based on the post-BEPS OECD Guidelines, the book's content is applicable to a global context.

AngelThink gives business founders and startups a distinct competitive advantage when it comes to raising funds or getting business angels to invest. Founders need to make investors love them; to want them, the team and the business proposition more than they'll like any other proposition - and investors see hundreds. The author distils research and experience, the psychology of influence and the wisdom of greats into 150 gems of insight to give founders the edge in the fundraising contest. He shows founders exactly what they need to do to make angels favour them over all others, from before founders even begin a pitch to after the deal is closed. He takes founders right inside an angel's head, analyses the cognitive, emotional and chemical activity in successful persuasion. In short, he tells founders exactly what they need to know to make angels say yes. It's the goldmine book every founder wishes they already had at the outset of their journey.