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.
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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