Management Consultant Job Description: Responsibilites, Skills Required, Salary Range

What is Management Consulting?

Management consulting is ideally problem-solving in a nutshell. Today’s businesses must tackle numerous problems that can lead to various glitches in operations. The market sphere is continually evolving with the advent of technology. The ever-growing need to evolve is now a basic need to garner maximum profits. Management consulting provides the assistance required by companies to incorporate changes to enhance economic health. Management consultants have the expertise to aid clients’ companies with an optimized efficiency level by suggesting changes to improve their operations.

What Does A Management Consultant Do?

Management consultants are responsible for several expert-level functions like operational optimization, developing core strategies, risk advisory, deployment of new technology, and advisory on human capital. Management consultants, often called management analysts, helps organizations and government entities build strategies and execute them to bring forth profitable results that potentially increase competitiveness. To reach this goal, consultants can even recommend several strategies to help optimize operational methods to garner profits and improve efficiency.

Management consultants are trained to have expert knowledge about specific industries like healthcare, education, and manufacturing. They can specialize in financial restructuring, human resources, IT, or inventory management. Management consultants associate with the leaders to assess and identify problems, gather intel, and execute strategic solutions. They work in tandem with teams in consulting firms and are usually not on the payroll.

Types of Management Consultants

There are several avenues on where Management consultants can choose to base their specialization. 

Major Roles of Management Consultants

Other than the major roles associated with the particular specializations mentioned above, the general roles of management consultants are elucidated below:-

• Providing solutions: Management consultants, in a nutshell, enhance business operations and cater to solutions related to their business needs. Their roles mainly involve high-level implementation, strategy development, optimizing business processes and management, and introducing and implementing technology. 
• Documents and research: Management consulting firms emphasize producing legal documents and internally acquired research on relevant changes occurring in the business sphere and the economy in general. Management consultants are primarily involved in adding more and enhancing these pieces.
• Expert Advisory: Management consultants are often required to have in-depth knowledge about their field as well as the specific industry of choice they are specializing in. Specialization enables them to provide expert advice to develop optimized business solutions. They should keep abreast with all the new industrial and technological updates and changes in the industry to help both pre-existing and future clients.

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Management Consultant Duties & Responsibilities

Management consultants are required to perform multifarious tasks and duties. Some of the job duties they are primarily involved in are as follows:

• Learn about the client’s needs: Researching to know what challenges are faced by the client’s business challenges, as well as learn about technologies to comprehend business needs. This requires them to interview company employees.
• Go through the internal client data: Management consultants might need to review this data of the client’s company to gain a holistic idea about their actual needs to enhance business operations. This may include financial statements, computer systems, payroll information, etc.
• Map out the work scope: By mapping out the scope of work in a business, management consultants can easily identify and chalk out schedules, resources, and goals to meet business needs.
• Communicate: Consultants are required to identify, determine and finally communicate the product as well as the results of their work to the senior stakeholders, staff, as well as internal and external project teams of the company. This is usually delivered to the client after the completion of the project. They also need to provide feedback to the management team of the company.
• Train personnel: Consultants also need to conduct training classes if required for employees to incorporate the necessary changes they bring about in the company.
• Optimize operations: Consultants must encourage quicker adoption and better utilization of the new changes and ensure the best efficiency amongst employees.

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Management Consultant Skills & Competencies

Management consultants must have the necessary skills and competencies to ensure success in their field of work. Some mandatory skills are as follows:-

• Self-motivation and discipline: Management consultants are often required to perform their tasks at the client site where they cannot consult with their superiors. Therefore, they should have enough self-confidence in their skills and motivation to finish their work within time with minimal hitches in their work process.
• Organizational skills: Clients are significantly dependent on management consultants; therefore, they are required to be highly organized regarding their problem-solving methods. This is mainly because management consultants charge the company on a per-hour basis and should not waste their time being unproductive or unsuccessful in their method. 
• Analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills: Along with problem-solving skills, which is a core skill that management consultants are required to have, they also need to have the ability to process a tremendous amount of information related to the client’s organization, data analysis and in providing expert counsel and recommendations.
• Listening, interpersonal, and communication skills: Communication skills are a mandate for a management consultant because they need to interview the client’s employees at numerous organizational levels. They also need to be diplomatic along with efficient communication skills.
• Writing skills: Management consultants have to present the results of their work in report or document form or as manuals. Creating these hard copies requires excellent writing skills so that clients can easily understand and comprehend what they have presented.
• Time Management: Since management, consultants either work on a payment-per-hour basis or under an agreement of a fixed fee. To give clients value for their money, consultants need to be proactive consistently and manage their time efficiently to keep within the budget.
• Creativity: Consultants need to have flexibility and creativity to tackle situations that can potentially arise while incorporating their strategic solutions. It can be for instances like a proposed solution not working as intended or a problem that can have other circumstances that haven’t been forecasted before executing the proposed strategy.

Management Consultant Salary

The salary of a management consultant may depend on their field of expertise, education, experience, certifications, and others.

• Average Annual Salary: 83,610 USD (40.2 USD/hour)
• Highest 10% Annual Salary: Greater than 152,760 USD (73.44 USD/hour)
• Lowest 10% Annual Salary: Lesser than 48,360USD (23.25 USD/hour)

Education, Training & Certification

Aspirants looking to pursue a career in management consultancy will need the following:-

1. Education: Like most entry-level jobs that need a bachelor’s degree, to pursue Management consultancy, you will need a major in either of the following:-

• Business administration
• Finance
• Economics
• Psychology
• Marketing
• Management
• Computer or information science
• Accounting

2. Advanced degrees: Most employers will choose candidates with an MBA degree over ones who don’t have one.

3. Experience: Any industrial experience in the sector you want to work in will give you more leverage as a job candidate. However, if you don’t have experience, numerous consulting firms train freshers and recent graduates.

4. Certification: Although optional, a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) certification acquired from a professional certificate course will offer you an edge over other applicants

Conclusion

Management consultancy is a noble profession to work in not only because of the high pay package that comes with it but for the job satisfaction redeemed through it. Management consultants are in high demand because the market is constantly changing and adapting to newer technology. An Advanced General Management Program by upGrad is a great course to pursue if you want to opt for a management career. upGrad prides itself in bringing you the premium-most course. Sign up today.