A breakdown of different types of consultants

There are many types of consultants to choose from. A lot of people think that consulting is all strategy-driven, where companies hand a few slips of paper to the CEO and then leave. But this is not actually the case; there are all kinds of companies offering advice right along the value chain. This is why it is vital that you do your research into the kind of consultants you need for your organization and think about the types of problems you are experiencing.

1. Strategy consultants

Strategy consultants are the most obvious type of consultant. They are often slightly more expensive and have access to the CEO suite because they affect executive decisions. They give advice on the fundamentals of a business, such as pricing, product mix, and target market. They make decisions on the basis of profit margins, thinking about sales and costs and how to maximize the former and minimize the latter. They often work longer hours but do shorter projects because they have less need to engage with employees across the company, and a lot of their time will be spent on crunching numbers.

2. Technology consultants

Technology consultants will look at the IT systems which a company has in place and think about whether they are working as well as they could be for both the employees and the customers. In this digital age, technology is extremely important as customers often expect a seamless experience. Businesses often go to firms such as HLB System Solutions for longer-term solutions, including managed IT services. Often consultants in this area can tell companies how to migrate their systems across from legacy infrastructure to cloud computing, which can be more efficient for all concerned.

3. Operations consultants

Operations consultants look at the processes in place across the organization. They think about whether things could be done more efficiently. They may look at sourcing and where products come from, in addition to whether the cost makes sense and whether any element of the supply chain could be changed. They may look at executing projects or suggestions put forward by strategy consultants. They tend to spend a lot longer at organizations than strategy consultants because they need to be there through all the stages of implementation.

4. People consulting

Last, but far from least, in these times, HR is the most important function in a company. This is where people advisory services come in – they can understand what employees need to be more engaged and how to serve them better. They can also understand what competencies are needed for the job at hand and how those employees at the firm can meet those requirements by initially creating a checklist of different competencies, surveying employees on what they know, and then working with firms to fill in those gaps. This may be through training or learning and development – there are so many tools they have at their disposal.

There is bound to be the right kind of consultant out there for you – it’s just a question of what type you need!