Consultancy Management

Consulting as a profession, has taken roots in the past couple of decades in India,
evidenced by the recruitment data of MBAs (Master of Business Administration
graduates) from prestigious institutions such as IIMs, (Indian Institutes of Management)
and is becoming more and more a sought after career option, for professionals in several
disciplines, particularly for management graduates. Those who have opted for this career
have found attractive openings in top Multinational as well as Indian companies.

Some of the more prominent lines of business in consulting in the present scenario are
Information Technology - Software development and associated services, financial
services (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance - BFSI), (Investment banking,
Portfolio management, Fund raising, Investment opportunities and feasibilities studies,
mergers and acquisitions, ), organizational studies such as restructuring, organizational
transformation, strategic management, capacity improvement, and Management
consulting (market studies, competition analysis, operational diagnostics and
improvement, BPR (Business Process Reengineerng) and IT (Information Technology),
process streamlining, organizational alignment, HR (Human Resources) related,
training…), Sector appraisal studies, Monitoring & Evaluation, Technical support,
capacity building, training, surveys and assessments, … for funding agencies. The clients
can be from within the country as well as across borders. To work in an international
environment, one need to be aware of standards, practices as applicable to the respective
class of clients and in the global environment.

The consulting profession has attracted serious attention from practicing consulting firms
as well as professionals particularly, management professionals, due to its several
attractive features such as highly remunerative, opportunity to learn throughout one’s
career, travel and networking opportunity, the respectable nature of the profession,
opportunity to interact with high ranking and powerful officials in organizations and the
attendant advantages and its white collar nature.

1
However, it is still not an adequately understood profession for those outside it. In fact
the term consulting is one of the most misunderstood term, that could mean many things
to many people. So are the knowledge about the expectations from those who aspire to be
in it.

It is also not recognized that, to practice the profession, one need to understand its
nuances and be trained formally, to be able to seamlessly move into it and derive the
potential value. In matured economies, one cannot practice the profession, unless the
practitioner is certified and authorized to practice, by a recognized certifying agency
within the consulting profession. Certification brings along with it recognition by the
professionals and confidence to the practioner, acceptance by the client community,
structure and predictability to engagements, a common body of knowledge and language
of communication in its practice, provides an element of protection to the practitioner
against legal action by client for deficiency in service and other attendant disputes,
enables one to take professional indemnity insurance, enhances ones ability to quote
respectable fees, respect within the community, professional networking, and so on.

Consultancy is a very demanding as well as rewarding profession. It is yet to be

recognized as an area of specialization needing formal coaching to practice, in
professional institutions such as those offering MBA programs, legal services etc. It is
essential for those who consider consulting as a career option, to be familiar with the
professional domain and nuances, operational practices, individual consultants’ expected
attributes, how one should prepare for it, how to scout for business opportunities, what
are the key drivers for success, what is the industry structure, how one should prepare to
be in the profession, professional terms such as RFP (Request for Proposal), EoI
(Expression of Interest), Proposal, deliverables, schedule, elements of cost, pricing
models and components and structure. Consulting is considered as a service industry
quite different from tangible products.

The proposed short course is expected to fill some of these gaps through experience
sharing, and knowledge enhancement for the aspiring MBAs on the nature of the

2
industry, how to locate opportunities, how to write a proposal, how to price one’s
services, what are the risks and how to guard oneself against the same, how to handle
clients and the team, how to assemble a team, the concept of networking and associates,
entering into contracts and how to draft contracts with client as well as with external
collaborating agencies / individual professionals, the various commercial models to quote
and billing, templates and checklists, common methodologies, and unwritten but
understood code of conduct.

Course structure and content

The course will comprise contact sessions with participants through presentations on the
subject of Consultancy practice and management covering the topics listed below, among
others.

Total course duration is proposed to be one month (20 contact days, totaling 80 contact
hours). This will be split into 20 hours of subject matter presentations, 40 hours of
project work / hands on training (RFP (Request for Proposal) analysis, EoI (Expressions
of Interest) preparation, Proposal preparation, costing, pricing, role plays, presentations
on RFP, PBM (Pre bid meeting) and answers to queries, raising questions / clarifications
for PBM, EoI/ Bid analysis and short listing of firms for submitting proposal, defining
evaluation criteria, proposal evaluation and technical & financial ranking, finalizing
vendor, negotiations, draft contract preparation, contract negotiations and finalization,
consultancy progress monitoring / periodic reviews, review committee, review
recommendations, preparing minutes of review meeting, governance practices in the
administration of the consultancy, report presentation, client coordinator role, client
feedback handling, output finalization, presentation of final report, consultancy closure,
wrap up and commercial closure, client feedback / appreciation letter.), 20 hours for
feedback on participant activities / learning process.

The faculty for this course will be a team of two or more (Engineer, IIM fellows /
equivalent) with substantial senior level consultancy and management experience in the

3
Information Technology and non Information Technology (Government (central, state
and local bodies), Manufacturing, regulatory, infrastructure space), private sector,
international funding agencies such as WB (World Bank), UN (United Nations), EU
(European Union), domestic and overseas experience covering the whole spectrum -
prospecting, proposal, EoI, marketing, execution, client management, contract
management, commercial and team management, assignments carried out individually as
an individual and an organization, bids submitted jointly and executed, …

This will be followed by participant team work on searching, filtering, accessing RFPs,
analyzing the same for key points for consideration for proposal making, developing a
proposal structure and content, collecting relevant content for proposal, preparing CVs,
preparing content for each chapter and section, costing, manpower estimates and
scheduling, pricing, and analysis as a customer of another proposal, presenting a proposal
to the client audience, arriving at evaluation criteria, proposal evaluation, assigning marks
for tech and fin proposal, conducting a prebid meeting (both client side and consultant
side exposure), preparing questions for clarification, answers to questions, project kick
off meeting, progress reports, report writing practices / standards, various methodologies
to carry out the assignment such as holistic approach, systems thinking, surveys,
brainstorming, secondary / published data sources, data from the client organization,
drafting terms of reference, mutual roles and responsibilities of client and consultant, ..

The students will be made into teams of 3 to 4 for group exercises to mimic a real life
situation, and each team will have to perform one or more of these tasks based on
preference and lots.

1.
2.

4
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

5
6