Management Consulting in Practice: Award-winning International Case Studies - Hardcover

Czerniawska, Fiona

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0749442816 ISBN 13: 9780749442811

Publisher: Kogan Page, 2004

Synopsis

This authoritative new book explores the relationship between top management consultant teams and their clients. It presents through a series of case studies, from both the private and public sectors, best-practice consulting at the sharp end of contemporary management across all management disciplines.

The case studies are drawn from the MCA Awards, which recognise Best Practice in all the categories of management. Firms present qualifying client engagements for evaluation by a distinguished panel drawn from industry and academia.

Each case study explores a unique business situation and the way it was tackled by the team, and also examines how those teams responded to challenges during their projects and the unexpected lessons they learned. The case studies are embedded within an explanatory framework that draws out common themes, relates the case studies to generic models, and discusses how their approaches can be applied in other businesses.

Case study clients include the International Olympic Committee, Sun Microsystems, Apache Corporation, Aon, Tesco, BT Business, MoD, Westminster City Council, BAE Systems, GCHQ, Sainsbury's Supermarkets, Home Office, Transport for London, and NHS Trusts.

About this title

About the Author

Fiona Czerniawska is one of the world's leading commentators on the consulting industry. She is the Director of the UK Management Consultancies Association's Think Tank and the founder and managing director of Arkimeda, a firm that specializes in researching and consulting on strategic issues. She is also a Programme Director at London Business School's Centre for Management Development.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

About the Management Consultancies Association

About the Authors

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 - The power of working together

Reasons for selecting a particular consulting firm

The challenge of consulting projects

The client-consultant relationship

Meeting client expectations

Summary - key lessons for managers and consultants



2 - What sets excellent consulting apart?

Foundations of good consulting

Projects that exceed client expectations

The best of the best

Case study 2.1 Customers driving local services

Case study 2.2 Reinventing a core offer

Case study 2.3 How to build a new digital city every two years

3 - Change management

Change and scale

Public and private faces of change management consulting

Summary - key lessons for managers and consultants

Case study 3.1 Living the brand - for real

Case study 3.2 Delivering safer buses

Case study 3.3 Electronic payments for 13 million citizens



4 - Human resources

Advising versus doing

Summary - key lessons for managers and consultants

Case study 4.1 Protecting the benefits of staff in transition

Case study 4.2 Diagnosing and treating workforce ailments

Case study 4.3 Standing down, moving forward

5 - Operational performance

The five pillars of operational consulting

Miracles and parables

Summary - key lessons for managers and consultants

Case study 5.1 Blue skies, blue bills and online breakthroughs

Case study 5.2 Smarter methods to beat constraints

Case study 5.3 Relocating the organization and redesigning its mind

Case study 5.4 Bringing rationality to bear



6 - Business strategy

Strategy consulting: smaller, leaner, fitter

Summary - Key lessons for managers and consultants

Case study 6.1 Changing people for a change

Case study 6.2 Releasing the future from the present

7 - Technology exploitation

Five hallmarks of success

IT consulting: leaner and fitter?

Summary - key lessons for managers and consultants

Case study 7.1 Closing the net on persistent offenders

Case study 7.2 Great journeys and small steps

Case study 7.3 Mobile technology as enabler and enforcer

Case study 7.4 When small businesses go global

8 - Outsourcing

Second generation outsourcing

From advice to delivery

Summary - key lessons for managers and consultants

Case study 8.1 Evolving the outsourcing market

Case study 8.2 Outsourcing for outcomes

Case study 8.3 Gearing up for renewed battle



9 - Electronic trading

Pull not push

Getting the technology right

Technologists, coordinators and bridges

Summary - key lessons for managers and consultants

Case study 9.1 Pioneering multi-channel voting

Case study 9.2 Collaborating systems drive down costs

Case study 9.3 A knowledge portal helps close the deprivation gap

Case study 9.4 Flow, streams and the erosion of resistance

References

Index

Edition details

• Publisher: Kogan Page
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0749442816
• ISBN 13: 9780749442811
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304