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Practice of Consultancy Question and Answers
Practice of Consultancy Question and Answers
as Bain and Boston consulting groups have maintained a good reputation due
to their best strategy consulting processes. However, along with the expertise
comes a hefty price tag that many client companies are not so willing to pay.
The companies that are aware of their expertise continue to pay or the services
and their reputation continue to grow for a good reason and they continue
being influential. Despite their high charges, external consultants have more
learned personnel.
consultants are regarded to as experts and not peers. They are integrated to the
However external consultants research on the problem and are hired to make
more emphasis is enforced on the project at hand making clients to buy in.
consultants are not only specific about their area of specialization but the
an internal consultant. Therefore, they can apply experience from the past
are experienced hence, they have a greater knowledge of wider areas. They are
aware of the problem facing the whole industry unlike internal consultants who
relationship with clients should be professional. Consultants should not take their employees
accommodate all the activities necessary for the project. The timeline should be able to
accommodate schedule, budget and overall requirement. This quality mostly applies when
one is faced with pressure of working within the budget and budget constraints.
Consultants are required to have good judgment especially when confronted with a
problem or a challenge facing the subordinate. Consultants must learn to listen in and avoid
drawing into conclusions. Before having the final decision, it is effective to consider the
they are team players by working with their team members. Consultants should genuinely
value the input and expertise of others. It is necessary to establish a collaborative system
fluent in oral and written communication skills. Good communication skills instills effective
results of the work being initiated. In addition of being eloquent in English which is an
countries that use their local language, the consultant can easily communicate without
A consultant should be an expert in their work. Clients look for consultant since they
believe that consultants are well aware of the problem and how to impose effective solutions.
The clients may also lack time to solve their problems and implement their own projects. As
a consultant, the level of knowledge should be broad enough to know when to ask questions,
where to find solutions and where to look for solutions. A good consultant should be a good
reader. A consultant gets the information from reading books and staying updated on the
A consultant should have good listening skills. Clients are different and possess
different characteristics. Some clients will be verbose, others reticent. Having excellent
listening skills will encourage all to be free and explain their problems widely. The
consulting becomes more streamlined when the clients explain fully. Consultants should
never assume or hesitate to ask questions. Asking questions helps them to fully understand
the needs of their customers. This enhances them to reinforce better solutions to the
problems.
Consultants should understand their roles and responsibilities. They should as well
understand practices and parameters of the job. The consultant should understand how their
clients view consultants. Consultants should explain to their clients on the importance of
their clients implementing what is expected of them. Hence, both the consultant and the
clients have a role to play on the success of the project. It is important to be open to the
clients and explain what you can do and what you cannot fix. Some of the clients view
consultants a god who can fix all problems through the solutions and decisions they offer.
consultants who perform better on the problem challenging them. Consulting or referring
other consultants does not change prestige. For instance if a problem of a client involve legal
to get clients. Use of official names indicates transparency, responsibility and accountability.
Clients who are ethical should be avoided. It is important to select clients wisely.
A consultants should have self-confidence. It shows they are sure of themselves and
Lastly, a consultant should have the ability to simplify and explain a solutions. A
necessary to brainstorm possible solutions. It is the first step in the problem-solving process.
A good consultant should have the knowledge of involving the clients before offering the
solutions. One get a much wider variety of options if you include your clients in your
brainstorming sessions, and you begin building client buy-in to your recommendations. The
despite doubting its possibility. This means suspending judgment for the duration of the
session and welcoming everyone's input. Therefore, it is necessary to record every discussion
and suggestion.
Consider the implications of each possible solution. Every idea is important. Isolate
each alternative that was generated during your brainstorming sessions and follow it to its
Weigh alternatives and narrow your focus. After working through all possible
alternatives, weigh them against each other to determine which ones are most likely to be
relevant to the outcome. As a part of getting to your final recommendations, you have to
focus your efforts more sharply at this point and move ahead on a few fronts instead of
many. Do away with the alternative that has least impact to the problem.
Lastly, pick the best courses of action. At this time, ensure you have few alternatives
that are manageable.. Continue to work through this list with your client until you whittle it
down to no more than five of the best courses of action. At the end of this step you are ready
listening and transferrable skills of consultant. Good Listening Skills are important for a
consultant. During the consulting process, consultants will meet different people with
unique characteristics. Some will be verbose, others reticent. Excellent listening skills will
encourage all to talk freely, being patient with the clients to explain themselves is essential.
This leads to more information sharing which, in the end, can make the consulting process
more streamlined. Consultants never assume and don’t hesitate to ask questions until they
A good consultant Good Communication Skills. Communication is the only way of engaging
with the customers. The consultant should have excellent oral and written communication
skills. In addition to English, it is beneficial to know the language widely used by the
employees of the company. In Kenya, employee from different regions may opt to speak in
Kiswahili which is the national language for better understanding among themselves. In
some countries, the documentation may be in a local language. Ideally, the consultant can
easily read this language without employing any translator. This helps in saving costs
A great consultant is able to apply learning across different situations to come up with
innovative ideas. The result should be practical new strategies that are credible. The
generation and those interested in being consultants. Hence, more consultants would be made
out of them.
questions indicate that an individual is aware of the topic presented. The responses will help
to identify areas where the audiences understood and where they did not understand. Correct
responses is an indication that the audience understood the topic. Engaging audience in a
question-and-answer session will help in pointing out some of the content that might be l eft
out.
Showing passion and connecting with the audience. I would ensure I am relaxed to
avoid nervousness. The subject on knowledge and skills will shine through when connecting
with the audience. Showing passion would encourage the audience to listen more and also
engage in the presentation through asking questions and noting down the necessary
information. Connecting with the audience is a strategy that can be used to eradicate
boredom to the audience. The audience would understand more when they are involved in
the presentation.
Put focus on the audience’s needs. I would ensure that the presentation focus on
what the audience can take back with them. I would put my focus on the major information
that the audience would like to know about consultancy and what they can apply within and
out of the college; this will be achieved through making it easier for the audience to
understand. I would keep the information simple and concentrate on the core message. I
would put my presentation simple by concentrating on the core information only. I would do
body language and eye contact effectively. Smiling and eye contact builds rapport. The
audience will connect with me easily. Moreover, eye contact will help in feeling less nervous
since I would be talking to individuals and not a mass of unknown people. I would ensure the
audience see me clearly as well as my slides. This will be achieved by turning off all lights.
3. a) Examine the reasons behind the growing needs for Consultancy services in
Kenya Today.
The growth of IT sector has influenced the need for creating more consulting agencies.
The evolvement of information technology has attracted more technology experts to research
on the latest technology. The increase of digitalization has attracted many business to
consider use technologies and hire IT consultants to offer them with digital solutions in the
software, applications and cyber security. Consultants have the right expertise. Consultants
have a track record that helps them to perform the tasks effectively. Consultant are involved
by their clients to provide expert knowledge in a particular subject. An IT consultant may not
Businesses thrive when they seek advice from specialized personnel. Business that seek
expertise from consultants become more efficient and profitable. Additional of more
consultant services will be beneficial due to the increase of business in the country. Business
Increasing startup culture. The youths in Kenya have shifted from being job seekers to
being entrepreneurs. Consultants are required to help the new business in management
marketing. Consultants save on costs. Most of the new business have less capital and they
have not gained from the business. Most organizations realize that they can save much from
hiring consultant once per week rather than hiring full time employees. Businesses also need
consultants to save on the money on benefits, hence additional costs is saved. However the
costs to hire a consultant is high but it makes good economic sense. Consultants that
imposed by the government of Kenya are such as Ajira. Ajira targets the youths to bridge the
gap of unemployment. This is an initiative that has attracted many youths. The initiative has
called for consultancy for newbies. The initiative calls for experts in computer hence experts
are involved to train the newbies. Consultants have been placed in every sub county for easy
Growth of industrialization has influenced the need to have more consultancy agencies.
The investment of the government on chemical, metallurgical and energy sectors require a
lot of consultancy. Industrialization require expertise in the specialization of the nature of the
the GDP of the country. Kenya has embraced industrialization as a way of creating jobs to
the unemployed youths and graduates. Consulting firms are some of the jobs created from
the growth of industrialization. Consultants ensure profits are incurred in the local and
suggesting better technology for industries in order to make work easier and more effective
The relation of foreign direct investments. Structuring of tax laws attracts more investors.
The international players have considered investing in Kenya. For marketing purposes, there
is need for more consultants. Foreign investors require accounting and tax consultants. These
consultants are involved in analyzing a company’s financial statements and records to ensure
they comply with laws and regulations, suggesting ways to reduce costs and increase
revenue, and computing taxes and preparing tax returns. Consultants in the finance sector
specialize on a given sector such as healthcare. Foreign investors require marketing
Recitals and background is the first step. It is the opening section of a contract. This
step precedes the main body. It contains the general information about the contract. It
contains:
within the contract. Recitals exist to explain agreement of the contract. Scope of services is
contained in the contract to show the services rendered by the consultant. The services are
outlined in a general way. However it is necessary to exhaust more on the services the
in any business. The ownership of intellectual property sets the terms and conditions of the
right to use the assets. If the services a consultant provide involve creativity, they will
consulting fees and all information related to payments. Some of the information in this
section is such as when and how to expect payment. This section majors on how consultants
charge their customers. Some of the elements written in detail are such as the type of the
structure, forms of payment you expect, budgetary restrictions and how to handle
reimbursements.
between a consultant and a client. Some of the problems to be resolved are such as breach of
contract, arbitration, mediation and non-payment of services a consultant may opt to use a
indicate if the contract can be terminated anytime and the conditions to terminated.
Methods of communication is a step that indicates how you want to handle issues.
For instance use of notices and media. Others prefer a letter being emailed in their business
address. The change of the communication sector allows the two parties to use digital means
should be between the consultant and the client only. No third party should be involved.
Legal action is taken to the party that breach confidentiality. Indemnification is necessary in
protecting the consultant from third parties. Some consultants opt to involve third parties that
then pass the work to the clients. This clause is used to protect a consultant from potential
contract breach cause by inclusion of third parties. Non- compete is a section that prohibits
competing with clients. Non-compete include whether a consultant can work for a client’s
customers. Enforceability is a section that makes any unlawful part of the contact lawful.
This section protects the client and consultant from baseless termination.
Signatures and dateline is essential for the contract to be valid. A lawful contract
must have signatures from both parties. The signatures indicate an agreement. This section
contains a blank line for signatures, dateline for each signature, name of the signer.
Witnesses are not necessary. Lastly, it is essential to have law attachments as a way of
fastest growing counties in Kenya. Explain various techniques you are likely to use
to
will be to find the clients I can assess - clients that I know and clients that I do not know. In
order to market to the clients that I already know as part of my friends who managed to
establish their own companies or work in other well-established firms, I will have a schedule
of meeting them face-to-face. During the meeting, I will offer myself to demonstrate my
skills by working on their projects for a few days. I will begin by working on the
relationships that I already have with a few of my friends. I will avoid focusing my efforts on
the industry, sectors, or the person to serve. I will request company executives and managers
working on different problems to assist them think through problems and come up with
appropriate alternative solutions that can achieve performance that matter. This approach
will allow me to gain experience, get referrals to other companies, or be deployed to begin
working on internal projects in the same company. Consequently, this will lead to billable
I will use a hook to target clients that I do not know well. For this groups of clients, I will
target at sharing insights with them concerning the industries they operate. For example, I
will do a survey of supply chain issues in specific industries. Other areas can also include
electioneering period. Moreover, other areas will include conducting literature review on
digital marketing and developing a new approach to assist companies adopt e-commerce.
I will then use summaries from such studies and use it as an opportunity to meet meetings
working for companies such as Brookside, Heineken, TATA Chemicals, Bidco, KWAL,
Unilever, or EABL. The approach will provide me with an opportunity to gain insights about
the industry trends around problems that confront many of companies in Kenya. This will
also make client see me as someone who can assist them research into problems and come up
I will adopt the use of owned media to create and share content with potential clients. I will
begin by outsourcing a small company to design my website at a small fees. The website will
act as my online office indicating the general information around all the consulting services I
provide to client. The website will also create a place where I can sell my services, build a
strong relationship with prospects, provide them with information about me and my
consulting. Moreover, I will use it to provide a place where clients can come to update
I will also list the website on Google my business and Yellow Pages. In order create and
grow my visibility on Google, I will create a Google Business listing (Business profile).
Besides, I will also create a free Google My Business account to allow my website appear in
Google maps and local searches in Kenya in Google Search results. I will use the Google My
business for local marketing to engage with clients, highlight my services (provide houses, a
link to the website, services, pricing, attributes, and other unique details associated with
consulting. I will also gain insights on my clients and local search performance such as
b). Explain effective negotiation skills that a consultant could use during consultancy
exercise.
Listening skills - Effective negotiation among parties in a contract to have effective listening
skills. The negotiator must ensure they discover their field of interest. Through this, the
parties will stick to grasping and understanding of their matter/content before them.
Negotiation brings together parties that seek to achieve their interests. In this case, one must
remain calm without losing temper. Any attempt to lose temper hampers and inhibits
communication. whenever one become angry, there is a likelihood of jam the mind to words
of others.
Appropriate problem analysis - Effective negotiators need to have the skills to allow them
analyse problems and determine interests of each party during the negotiation. More
importantly, a detailed problem analysis offers the opportunity to identify an issue, interested
Emotional control - Negotiators are likely to experience intense debate to secure their
interests. However, everyone must understand ways of keeping emotional checks at balance.
Negotiations involving contentious issues is likely to be frustrating. Any party that allows
emotions to take control at the time of meeting Could lead to unfavourable outcome.
A 5 phase consulting model provides five different phases that explain consultancy cycle.
Phase 1: Discovery - a consulting project begins with a discovery phase that involves
collection of intelligent about an organization. Some of the areas where consultants collect
this phase is used to provide clarity. It is also important to note that this is an important phase
out of the five phases. It is critical to gain the ability to tell stories and sell the idea to
company executives. In specific, consultants need people skills to create a strong rapport,
Phase 2 - situation analysis - This is the phase when a consultant need to analyse internal
and external climate of a business. This is done in order to develop a clear understanding of
organization and its capabilities. Other areas of understanding includes customers and
business landscape. The American Marketing Association refers to a situation analysis as the
process for systematic collection and studying of past and present data of a company in order
come up with trends, forces and conditions that are likely to influence future performance.
An indepth analysis cut across looking into communication with the public through social
media.
Phase 3 - Planning - This us where the real begins between the consulting and client
organization. In some cases, a client can come up with a number of recommendations. for
Moreover, most of the planning will cut across working with client internal teams, legal,
human resources, or support teams. Other areas would include content strategy such as
creation of content, stored internally between cross function and global teams. Other areas
might also cover escalation workflow such as supporting customer issues and crisis
management.
planning phase. When the social media is through, the client will then create and share policy
with the client. The client would become sensitive and empathetic in order to ensure that an
establishment of social media policy does not come out as being a big brother type of an
initiative. After the client approves the training curriculum, then it becomes easier to roll out
the implementation to the next step. For example, a client could use job function,
department, or region.
Phase 5: Measurement - The step focuses on closing the project and celebrating their
successes and accomplishment. Failure in this step implies that stakeholders also fail to take
client or employees of client. A consultant should avoid any manner of express or implied
ii. Maintaining privacy of client information - A consultant should not disclose any kind
of information that relates to their clients to other parties when conducting sales and
marketing activities. Moreover, consultants should avoid disclosing information about the
iii. Conflict of interest - consultants should not have any nature of conflict of interest in
the client's business. The conflict of interest might range from vested interest in buying
shares, benefiting from the contract after the implementation. A consultant should not
accept to work on assignments that conflict with prior or current obligations to other
clients.
iv. Avoid behaviors clients might consider unethical - Client expects a consultant to do
the right thing when the law is not extended to cover some areas. Because if the law had
already been extended to cover such particular area, they cannot be worried about it. The
client expects the consultant to always have the best interest for them.
I. Cost-plus pricing. A consultant adds a profit margin on the average costs of offering a
service. The cost-plus refers to the use of a standard mark-up on unit costs. It also depend on
either a company or an industry where the consultant operates. A consultant considers all
costs associated with offering the service - fixed, variable, overheads, among others. For
example, some of the costs can cover rental, utilities, administrative, and other general
overhead costs.
ii. Perceived value-based pricing - This technique involves pricing on the basis of monetary
value that the service has for the client. It involves the extent to which a client perceives the
benefits from an offering with respect to the price. The logic requires a consultant to focus
more on the value a client is likely to get as opposed to focusing on cost of services and its
attributes. It is demand-oriented technique that assumes a client can determine what a client
is willing to pay for the service. The consultant they design the so-called optimal formulation
of a service. Another approach would consider the service as given, hence estimating
iii. Going rate pricing - A consulting firm that uses this technique charges similar price as
other competitors in similar industry. The charges also depend on the strength that a market
has. Therefore, a firm uses cost structures as secondary to the industry practices.
iv. Sealed-bid pricing - Consultants select prices of a service by considering the costs and
expectations about what competitors are likely to do. It is also based on the expected profit
that a consultant is likely to generate from the bidding strategy. The client rather than a
consultant determines the price. The technique seeks out clients who request for the service
through sealed bids and encourage consultants to take a sealed bird approach.
v. Negotiated Pricing technique - The consultant and client negotiate to determine the
overall price of a service. It is a profit oriented method whereby the negotiation process
seeks to work out an optimal price for the parties on a case-by-case basis.