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CONSULTANCY AND MDP ACTIVITIES

Dr. S L Gupta, Dr. Arun Mittal


Dr. S L Gupta
Professor & Coordinator (Academics and Doctoral Research)
Department of Management
Birla Institute of Technology
(Deemed University),
A-7, Sector-1, NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh-India
M 9811230453
E-mail: [email protected]


Dr. Arun Mittal
Assistant Professor
Department of Management
Birla Institute of Technology
(Deemed University),
A-7, Sector-1, NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh-India
M 09818057205, 9873957205
E-mail: [email protected]



















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CONSULTANCY AND MDP ACTIVITIES

Introduction

Corporate consultancy is one of the major activities of a sound and competent
management department. There are various factors which contribute in the possibility
and excellence of consultancy activities for management. Corporate consultancy is
one of the major areas of where the management institutions are investing their
resources and putting their best efforts. Consulting is essentially an advisory service
and consultants are often referred to as Change Agent. There are basically two
approaches to consultancy: First approach is the broad functional view while second
approach, is as a special professional service which also emphasizes a number of
characteristics that such a service must possess. The two approaches are
complementary rather than conflicting.

On first view, Fritz Steele defines Consultancy as practice of giving expert advice or
help on the content, process, or structure of a task or series of tasks, where the
consultant is not actually responsible for doing the task itself but is helping those who
are.

The second approach as defined by Larry Greiner and Robert Metzger defines,
management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to
organizations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective
and independent manner, the client organizations to identify management problems,
analyze such problems, recommend solutions to these problems, and help, when
requested, in the implementation of solutions.


Types of Services Offered By Management Departments

In todays fast changing worlds, consultants may be asked to assist with any type of
management or business problem in any sort and size of organization, virtually in any
sector and part of the world & beyond. The consultants service portfolio is extremely
wide and diversified, and is evolving fast. The services offered by consulting firms
are changing fast, partly due to pressure from clients changing requirement, but also
as a result of the consulting firms own research and innovation aiming to anticipate
clients needs and offer new and better services to them. The various types of services
offered by consulting firms are listed below:

Offer advice on business strategy and transformation: Consulting firms help
companies in addressing the very purpose and future of business and organization by
bringing changes in the areas of corporate strategy, strategic planning and decision-
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making, business alliances and partnerships, major business restructuring, mergers
and acquisitions, total reorganizations, e-business strategies, divestment etc.

Management functions, processes and systems: Traditionally, management
consulting services were structured in accordance with the prevailing structures of
management functions and processes. Information technology, however, has
transformed this area of consulting radically. Currently many consultants assist their
clients in implementing IT systems, including assessing needs and feasibility;
selecting, developing, adapting, introducing and debugging a system; training staff;
and modifying procedures, documentation and work methods accordingly. The
general trend has been away from separate systems for each area (production,
personnel etc.) to system coordination and integration, a dominant and promising
approach at present.

Resolve specific management problems and challenges: Usually cutting across
several management functions and processes, reflecting new business opportunities
and constraints that require a creative and innovative approach, i.e. Business
expansion to a new territory, technology transfer, licensing agreements, investment
project design, structuring and management, e-agreements, investment project design,
structuring and management, e-business, exploring new business opportunities due to
market liberalization etc.

Human resource consulting services: The various types of services offered under
human resource are as below:
Related to employee benefits like social insurance, pension, salaries etc.
Personnel recruitment services and executive search;
Personnel administration;
Human resource and human capital management and development,
including training, and strategies and activities.

Sector-specific specialized services like services in banking, insurance, utilities,
telecommunication, e-business and IT, education, central and state government
administration, health care etc. This type of specific sector has its advantages.
However, full sector specialization may lead to conflict of interest in serving clients
who compete with each other within the same sector.

Outsourcing and other emerging lines of services: Many consulting firms are now
performing outsourced IT, administrative, commercial, financial or other activities for
an on behalf of clients. By doing this, the consulting industry is becoming a wider
business-service sector, where consulting remains important, but other services are
also offered. For example, IBM a leading supplier of office and computer hardware
sold its business to Lenovo and decided in early 1990s to position itself as a provider
of system and services to clients. This included management consulting along with IT
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services. Similarly, Accenture has five broad headings under its portfolio: consulting,
technology, outsourcing, alliances and venture capital. Consulting firm have also
moved in other areas such as technical and managerial training, production and
distribution of training packages, book publishing, opinion polls for market research
transfer of technology such as Patents and licenses, auctions, venture capital and
others.

Top Management Institutions in Consultancy Practices:

The top institutions are obviously the IIMs and other of the similar categories. The
consultancy projects by top institutions are received mainly from the corporate. These
projects involve high costs for clients and a high degree of responsibility for the
institutions. A list of top B-Schools is given for reference as under:

1. Indian Institute of Management- Ahmadabad, Banglore, Calcutta, Indore,
Kozhikode.
2. Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, Delhi, Kharakpur
4. Birla Institute of Technology
5. Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, Delhi
6. Management Development Institute, Gurgaon
7. XLRI Jamshedpur.
8. ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad
9. Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development
10. Indian Institute of Finance

Current Practices by Management Institutions:

Management institutions in India are taking a variety of assignments from
government and corporate regarding research, case studies and so on. The institutions
are using their students as the prime resource in the completion of these assignments.
The following observations can be made as the current consultancy practices by
management institutions in India:

Major Clients:
1. Government-State and Central
2. Non Government Organisations, Self Help Groups
3. MNCs and Indian Incorporations

Kind of Projects:

1. Research- Survey Based Projects
2. Case Studies
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3. Corporate Plans
4. Strategy Formulations and Implementations
5. Project Feasibility Reports

Resources:
1. Institutional Resources-Institutions Lab., Library and Stationary
2. Manpower: Colleagues, Research Scholars and Students
3. Persons Hired for Specific Intellect or a particular task.

Beneficiaries:
1. Faculty Incharge: Principal Investigator who gets the highest fees and he/she
is the prime incharge of the project. Usually he and his team gets 70% of the
total project revenue
2. Institutions: Institution earns the goodwill and a token remuneration of usually
30-40 per cent of the total project revenue.
3. Research Scholars: They get experience and some amount out of the 70% of
revenue to the principal investigator.
4. Students: Students get experience and learning which significantly enhance
their practical level of understanding.
5. Clients: They get good work at reasonable costs.

Need of Consultancy for Faculty and Benefit to Students:

There is a great requirement of taking consultancy projects for faculty members.
These projects enhance the real life exposure of book experts. The teachers are the
masters of their subjects but they prepare students for industry and corporate. In such
a case the faculty members must involve themselves in real life projects to get the real
world exposure, so that they can communicate the same to the rest of the world.

The students can be used for data collection and analysis of the surveys conducted for
the purpose of consultancy work. The students can also contribute in literature review
and other exploratory work. Further the students can also go for field work and can do
the particularly assigned work such as collecting material and editing etc. One thing
must be noted in this case that every work done by students is to be reviewed very
carefully.

Students are benefited from the consultancy projects as they are involved in lots of
activities. Before passing the formal degree they get to know lots of realities of
corporate life. The consultancy projects enhance their knowledge in context of case
solving, real life problem solving, professional report writing and presenting and so
on. Further the students get a very strong point in their resume as they were involved
in a real life project.

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Faculty Members compromising with Classes for Consultancy: Some faculty only
give consultancy and compromise with the classes. This can never be considered
ethical. The first and foremost duty of a teacher is to impart knowledge. Moreover a
teacher can not be exclusively a consultancy provider. The full fledged consultancy
services do not come in the scope of a faculty. Consultancies in management
institutions means that faculty members will use their experience of consultancy
services with the students without compromising with the code of conduct and
restrictions of knowledge sharing by the client. Further the faculty members are also
encouraged to involve students in the consultancy projects for their overall
development.

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES

Management development programmes are the programmes organized by the
management institutions for the corporate executives. The programmes may be fully
customized or they may be standardized. This solely depends upon the educational
Institutions. Most of the MDPs are in the institutions campuses, but the MDPs can
also be organized in the premises of corporations also. The resource persons are
faculty members of management institutions.

Management development programmes have become very important in todays
competitive environment. According to a survey, those companies that align their
management development with tactical planning are more competitive than the
companies who are not.

Major Topics Covered by Premier Institutions in MDPs

Sr.
No.
Name of the
Institution
Major Topics Covered under MDPs
1 Indian Institute of
Management
Ahmedabad (IIMA)
General Management, Specialized MDPs on Financial
Management, Marketing, Organisational Behaviour,
Communications, Computer and Information Systems,
Production and Quantitative methods, Business Policy, Personnel
and Industrial Relations, Public Systems & Centre for
Management of Health Services, Management in Agriculture,
Educational Innovations Etc.
2 Indian Institute of
Management
Bangalore (IIMB)
Some of the major MDP topics IIM-B covers are: Strategic
Leadership Programme for IT Companies: Embedding Strategic
Thinking, Advances in Business-to-business Marketing (B2B
Marketing), Creativity Reinvention & Self Enhancement for
Practicing Managers, Risk Management of Commercial
Contracts, Embedding Leadership Excellence, Marketing and
Branding - A Three Pronged Approach, Outsourcing
Management: Creating Value through Collaboration, Managing
People in Software Projects, Doing Business with India (DBI)
3 Indian Institute of
Finance
Accounting and Financial Management, Stock Markets and
Forecasting, Capital Markets Structures, Developments,
Operations etc.
4 XLRI Jamshedpur Managing Technology and Innovations, Financial Planning and
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control, Real estate marketing, Demand and Business forecasting,
Basic Leadership skills, Balance Scorecard, Training Function,
Strategic Management and much more
5 Symbiosis Center for
Management and
Human Resource
Development

The center provides customized programmes in addition of open
enrollment programmes. The customized programmes are based
on organizations needs and requirements.


Pedagogy for Management Development Programme:


Pedagogy used for the MDPs is very important. Dealing with the corporate executives
institutions have to develop and maintain the additional and latest pedagogical tools
apart from the basic pedagogical techniques. In the management development
programmes usually very sophisticated simulations exercises through specifically
designed software are used. These give a real life experience through exercise. The
basic methods of MDPs are more or less same as in other development programmes
and workshops but here the instructors (faculty members of management institutions)
have to be more careful and attentive Figure 1.1 refers to the various processes and
methods used.

.


Figure 1.1 Methodology Applied in MDPs at SCMHRD

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As the executives come from higher designations and pay a huge fee for the
management development programmes, so it the quality aspect is also very important
to be taken care of by the institutions. The quality of MDPs comes out from the all
360 degree efforts from the side of institutions, coordinator and resource persons.
Figure 1.2 deals with the determinants of a successful management development
progarmme:




























Figure 1.2 Factors Affecting the success of an MDP


Setting up Centre for Excellence:

There are so many factors which contribute in the establishment of a successful
structure for management development programmes and consultancy services. The
structure will include a full commitment from all the factors mentioned in the figure
1.2. Top management of educational institutions should provide all the support and
motivation to the faculty members for setting up an infrastructure for MDPs and
consultancy activities. The senior faculty members have a great role to play in the
programmes. First of all they are the motivators for the same and secondly they guide
the junior faculty members for the critical success aspects of these activities.

In brief we can conclude that consultancy and Management Development
Programmes have become very important for management institutions. These
Determinants
of a
Successful
MDP

Quality of
Supporting
Services
Available

Quality of
Infrastructure
Available
Top
Management
of the
Institution

Programme
Coordinator
(Institutes
Faculty)

Resource
Persons
(Institutes &
outsourced
faculty

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programmes can only define the real meaning of academic activities as an
academician has four major tasks viz. Teaching, Training, Research and Consultancy.

References:

http://traininganddevelopment.naukrihub.com/methods-of-training/management-
development.html
http://www.indianmba.com/MDP/MDP1/mdp1.html
http://www.indianmba.com/MDP/MDP2/mdp2.html
http://www.xlri.ac.in/scripts/mdp_list.php?acy=2010-2011