Consulting services are part of the tertiary sector and represent a significant portion of the global economy.
Management consulting
firms are the core of this industry, with all SIC codes beginning with 87. The final digits of the code can provide more information about the type of company. For example, management consulting services use the SIC code 8742, while business consulting services use 8748. One of the most important forms of business consulting is strategic consulting. In this role, a consultant acts as an advisor to a company, helping them create and follow a strategic plan or long-term vision.This plan outlines the direction the company will take in the long term, as well as providing a roadmap for short-term objectives. This includes working with financial advisors to ensure that projects are financially viable and that all plans can be achieved with current resources and assets. Strategic consultants typically work with high-level executives, such as the CEO, CFO, COO, and CIO, to ensure that all long-term objectives, financial goals, operational projects, and IT infrastructure components are in line with the business vision. Some of the most well-known firms in the strategic consulting space include McKinsey, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group. Other firms such as FirmsConsulting also offer these services.
E-commerce consulting is another type of business consulting that provides expertise to companies selling products online. This includes marketing and sales advice, operations guidance, and supply chain management. Customers hire sales consultants when they have difficulty attracting sales staff, designing sales teams, training salespeople, monitoring performance, or anything else related to selling their products or services. Process consultants are hired when companies want to grow and scale but their current systems and processes are disordered, inefficient, disorganized, or non-existent. Additionally, anyone can call themselves a strategy, management, business, finance, human resources or IT consultant since “consultant” is not a protected professional title like most other professions. Financial consultants assess a client's financial position to present a plan for how to better manage their finances.
Senior marketing experts (usually marketing consultants) can help a company discover new opportunities for more advantageous marketing processes. This could include identifying new demographic groups to market to or creating a buyer personality plan associated with marketing regions. Operations consultants help clients improve the performance of their operations by providing advice on how to best use technology. Consulting firms and experts offer companies access to a “group of experts” asset that allows them to leverage years of experience and knowledge. In recent decades, associations and analysts in specific sectors have developed different definitions to classify the various types of consultants active in the field. Ultimately, being able to access different forms of experts ensures that your company is covered regardless of the problem you are facing.
