Characteristics of Management Consulting

Management consultants can assume their roles in knowledge transfer because they have accumulated, through study and practical experience, considerable knowledge of effective ways of acting in various management situations.

They have learned how to discern general trends and understand changes in the environment, identify common causes of problems with a good chance of finding appropriate solutions, and see and seize new opportunities. Clearly, management consultants cannot acquire such capabilities by theoretical study only, although this continues to be an essential source of new knowledge during their whole career.

They learn from the experience of their colleagues and from the consulting firm’s accumulated know-how. However, experience and know-how concerning management and business practices come mainly from working with clients. “Every consultant knows that his clients are his teachers and that he lives off their knowledge.

The consultant does not know more. But he has seen more. ”Thus, knowledge transfer is a two-way process: in enhancing their clients’ knowledge and capacity to act effectively, the consultants learn from them and enhance their own knowledge and capacity to advise their clients, current and future, more effectively, in new situations and on new issues.