Agri-business &

Development Consulting

Prof. Samar K. Datta

Adjunct Faculty, IIM, Lucknow &
Retired Faculty, IIM, Ahmedabad
skdatta.iima@gmail.com
Session-1, June 24, 2017
 Overview
About this course
Definition & importance of
management consulting
Brief history, landmark
developments & trend
Perspectives on consulting
Short digression on Transaction
vs. Transformation Cost, Theory
of the Firm, F-connection
 A brief about this course
Why studying management consulting?
Broad objectives:
Understanding the profession & the industry
Its potential, especially in Indian agriculture &
development sector
Understanding the theory, concepts & tools
Getting exposure to various functional areas,
especially in agriculture & development,
through numerous live examples
Developing skill, capability & confidence to seek
entry into this segment
Readings & evaluation system designed
accordingly
 A brief about choice of topics
for class presentation
Students to form groups (preferably of 3 to
maximize in-group interaction) and choose topics,
on which theyll do some search/client result-
oriented research, brain-storm, conceptualize &
come up with a neat study proposal for
presentation
Some examples may be discussed in class
The proposal must have a clear goal and purpose
for the client organization, sufficient
justification, strong and rigorous methodology
with sampling frame (if any), type of
data/information to be collected, processed and
how, together with expected outcomes and their
significance
 Meaning, canvass & importance
of management consultancy
practice of helping organizations to improve their
performance, operating primarily through the
analysis of existing organizational problems and
the development of plans for improvement
Purpose of seeking this service:
Getting external (presumably, objective) advice;
Accessing consultants specialized expertise (through
their frequent exposure to & relationship with industry)
Getting organizational change management assistance
Development of coaching skills
Process analysis for operational improvement
Strategy development
Technology implementation
 Importance of management
consulting
Industry revenue grew from $3bn to $330bn
during 1980-2008 i.e., by 10000% in 28 years;
then got affected by recession
Growing importance also manifested in
Spread of management education and consultancy as
first choice by graduating students & huge publications
Companies willing to pay large sums;
Government spending too increasing rapidly;
Previously immune segments like health, education,
charities, arts also being catered;
Closer relationship with political masters, bureaucrats,
influencing political agenda, spending pattern etc.
New concepts, innovations like TQM, share price rise
Spread of neo-liberal practices to induce privatization,
deregulation etc. even in developing countries
 Brief history, landmark
developments & trend
Though initially grew in 1886 as partnership as
response to demand for mass production, the
domain expanded gradually to cover almost every
aspect of management.
Especially significant growth during 1980s & 1990s
@20%, but shrank during 2001-03, but grew
steadily again until 2009, then again stabilized.
With increasing online platforms to access
knowledge, information & relevant consultants,
role of traditional consulting firm changing from
strategy only to strategy-plus services.
Emerging areas: machine learning, artificial
intelligence, sharing economy, block chain etc.
 Emerging allegations
Overuse of buzzwords, reliance on & propagation of management
fads
Failure to develop plans, which are executable by clients thus,
mismatch between advice & executive ability
Most advice given found to contain gaps & inconsistencies in closer
examination thus losses
Delivering empty promises despite high fees and/or stating the
obvious
Few or no innovations instead offering generic or prepackaged
strategies or plans
Failure to prioritize responsibilities placing own interests before
those of clients
Disassembly of business in a bid to cut costs
Ambiguity over deliverables in contract thus providing only
analysis reports w/o customizing specific research
Overbilling, speed w/o quality, reselling similar reports to multiple
clients
 Four perspectives provided
by MMs textbook
Descriptive perspective different types of
consultancy services provided
Practitioner perspective (1) focusing on
consultants needs, (2) tips on preparing
proposals and managing projects, (3) tools,
methods & skills required, and (4) how to run a
consultancy
Critical perspective responding to sociological,
political & ethical critique of the industry
Career perspective process students must
follow to maximize their chance of entry and
success in the industry (students should read on
their own)