The Practice of Professional Consulting



Conclusion

This chapter has attempted to answer the question: why are consultants needed? We have seen that in light of powerful external global forces, the “survival of the fittest” nature of free market capitalism requires the management of all business organizations to be adaptive; searching for ways to help them gain what Michael Porter terms “a sustainable competitive advantage.” Porter (2009) sees strategic success as a company’s ability to choose a unique set of activities that create value for customers and to deliver that value in ways that differentiate it from its competition.

Choosing the right set of activities is an area in which consultants play a big role. In a certain sense, the major strategy consulting firms—like ...