Provision of Information

Information is valuable to a business, as a result it has a cost. It is also a resource that must be manage.
What are the areas of information that are critical to a business?

 The business’s customers

 Their needs – Consultant offers information about what the customers needs and how they want your
product/service to function in order to solve their problem or satisfy their desire. (fair price, good
product, good service)
 Their buying behaviour – budget, when they buy? Does ur customer feel burdened when they have to
buy ur product must be a problem with price, do they buy a lot? Their intentions. Attitude. Preference.
 The business’s products
 Design – sales appeal, high quality low cost materias and method
 Technology-
 Development – say for example the company is thinking of releasing a new phone model, what about
its date consumption, internet speed, camera qualities?
 The market in which the business operates
 Size, growth and dynamics ( 5 types of business market : b2c business to customer direct selling, b2b
business to business, service market, industrial market which usually sells product to other business
industries like, steels and glasses, professional services market
 Outside organization that may offer support
 Includes suppliers
 Who are they? How to contact? What they offer?
 The business’s competitors – consultant offers competitive analyses (SWOT) to determine an effective
marketing plan and sales planning and forecasting that will benefit the company
 Strengths - advantage
 Weaknesses
 And threat they pose

Provision of Specialist Expertise

Consultants are sometimes needed in certain projects that require the application of technical knowledge and an ability
to use specialist analysis techniques.

Some important areas of management that can benefit from insights and ideas of a specialist are:

 Business strategy – set of competitive moves and actions that a business uses to attract customers, compete
successfully, strengthening performance to achieve the goals. It outlines how the business should be carried out
to achieve the desire end.
 Development
 Evaluation
 Planning
 Marketing strategy development
 Successful marketing mix – marketing tools that the businee uses to pusue their marketing objective in
their target market (Price, Product, Place, Promotion)
  Marketing research studies
 Research methodologies – specific procedures and techniques (critically evaluate the product reliability)
 Promotional campaign development
 Promotional drives must be effective and well design
 New product development programmes
 Converting customer needs to product offers
 Development proposals for financial support
 Identifying and approaching backers and making good case for their support
 Information systems development
 Enabling managers to get the information they need
 Planning, exporting, and international marketing
 Providing a valuable route to growth

Provision of New Perspective

Managers must analyse complex environments, use well-developed but necessarily limited cognitive skills and then
make a decision in the face of uncertainty. They often use cognitive maps, mindsets or dominant logic in making actions
which are not rational decision-making devices.

Consultants offer fresh mind to an issue. They contribute conceptual frameworks that develop the manager’s cognitive
schema. They also offer support individuals and groups become more innovative by using creativity techniques.