Management consultants should only be used when they are really needed. Strategy consulting is the supreme discipline of consulting, and consultants experienced in strategy consulting are the best in their profession. But nowhere is it more dangerous to try to save on consultant fees than when it comes to the question of the company’s strategic direction. Two questions are at the heart of this: “What are we today and what do we want to be in the future?” This inevitably leads to the question: “What do we have to do to achieve the defined goals?”

External strategy consulting: good reasons

External management consultants can be found in almost all companies today. What are the advantages of working with external consultants in the area of ​​strategy consulting?

Neutrality thanks to external strategy consulting

A good example of the impact of external strategy consulting is the search for the right way to structure a company according to business areas – a topic on which there are usually different opinions within the company, often to the point of ‘camps’ with dogmatically entrenched opinions. Every business area structure has its advantages – for the company, but also for the managers. A change in the business areas brings both winners and losers. The question of the best possible business area structure is about power, influence and the jobs of the future. Every manager involved cannot be neutral in this case, cannot only worry about the fate of the company when their own role and function is at stake. Only external people are neutral, i.e. committed to the company. A good reason to get strategy consulting from outside.

Strategy consulting: against operational blindness

A second argument speaks in favor of bringing in an external strategy consultant to accompany, perhaps even drive, the strategy process: the widespread corporate blindness. The patterns of the past that were so often successful become sacred dogmas that only external people can shake up without falling out of favor with top management.

Strategy consulting: best practices

If you do something rarely, you usually don’t do it well. If you do something repeatedly and use the multiplier effect, you do it better. Strategy consulting is no exception. Best practices and professionalism in analysis and strategy design should not be neglected.

Strategy consulting for implementation deficits

But don’t forget that external strategy consulting usually has implementation deficits. Results do not come from concepts, but are the result of persistent, continuous management work. In this respect, your own managers and employees are usually far superior to the consultants. This makes it all the more important to optimally integrate strategy consulting and the management team.

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