Diploma in Business Consultancy
 
Course Synopsis:
This diploma course is aimed at providing a foundation in business consulting skills. It will particularly appeal to those who wish to enter the profession of Management Consulting. This may be pursuing a career in an international consulting firm, that offers business advisory services to clients or by taking up an internal consulting position within a business organization. The course equally provides a foundation for those looking at postgraduate studies in Management or Management Consulting.

Course Structure:
This course will provide the student with a post-graduate diploma in Business Consulting Skills. It will contain 10 sub modules [ termed units ] made up as follows:

Introduction to Business Consulting skills - Providing the foundation blocks for the entire course. This module will introduce the student to modern concepts of business consulting skills. The focus will be on business consulting and management consulting skills in the context of the global economy, working in the new information age.
The Business of Consultancy and advisory services - Focuses on the definition of consultancy, why consultants are employed, the type of services that they provide, the professional bodies, code of ethics and responsibility, gaining trust and professionalism
Effective Stakeholder Management - How to build key client business relationships, maintaining confidence and trust of clients, delivering quality services, managing client expectations
Key Consulting skills - Examines the techniques and skills adopted by the qualified business consultant, creating business networks, leveraging on the strength of the IMC profession, developing respected professional consulting skills
Managing Project Assignments - Managing third party and sub contract relationships, managing consultancy staff, record keeping, client progress reporting, seeking closure, maintaining client relationships
Planning Consultancy Assignments - Planning consultancy engagements, methods of costing assignments, how to manage the engagement
Data Collection and Analysis - Techniques for collection and assessment of information / data. How data is to be interpreted, sifting facts from opinion, creating objective and reliable information
Effective Report Writing skills - Writing effective management reports, techniques for board room presentations.
Making Client presentations - The art of making efficient client presentations, use of software, technique of delivery, different types of presentations and techniques to use
Rational Persuasion - The technique of gaining support for your arguments and winning through on business recommendations.
Upon completion of each unit in the course the student will be provided with an assignment, based upon short questions and answers, in order to test the understanding of the course presented. Upon completion of the final 10th Unit the student will be required to complete a 'thesis'. This will be a 5,000 word assignment, with the option to select from one of 10 different subjects.

Course Content:
Module 1 - Introduction to Business Consulting
This course will focus upon the development of business advisory or consulting skills. It will examine how the Administration function interfaces with external consultants and business service providers. It seeks to ramp up the business knowledge of consulting skills and provide an improved understanding of the importance of these skills, together with the service they provide. Consultants are normally used in the capacity of "Corporate Problem Solvers", provision of specialist services e.g. Strategy studies, business process reviews, HR consulting etc. and as a valuable aid to busy executives in the form of interim management services of a specialist nature.

Students will gain an appreciation of:
The business of consultancy
Conducting consultancy projects
Creating change
Effective report writing
Data collection and analysis
Rational persuasion
Making client presentations
Training Sessions and Workshops
The course will also explore the international dimensions of Management Consulting, with particular emphasis on the work carried out by ICMCI the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes and how this regulates the profession for CMC members on a world-wide basis.

Historically, the profession of Management Consulting has been widely misunderstood and in some cases misrepresented outside of the profession.

Recent years has witnessed some re-alignment of the profession. In the United Kingdom the Institute of Management Consultants has allied itself with the Chartered Management Institute. On the international stage the CMC qualification is rapidly gaining status as the definitive qualification for recognizing practicing management consultants who abide by a professional code of ethics, are properly qualified and subscribe to a practice of Continuing Professional Development. The need for expert guidance has seen an increasing number of publications in this area.

Management Consultants are expected to obtain a higher perspective of the business and thereby add value to the Corporate decision making process. They are often subject matter experts and contain a diversified range of business experience. The question of raising your head above the parapet also involves risk and this has to be managed in accordance with the benefits that are to be derived.

Definitions of Management Consulting
Management consulting (sometimes also called strategy consulting) refers to both the practice of helping companies to improve performance through analysis of existing business problems and development of future plans, as well as to the firms that specialize in this sort of consulting. Management consulting may involve the identification and cross-fertilization of best practices analytical techniques, change management and coaching skills, technology implementations, strategy development or even the simple advantage of an outsider's perspective. Management consultants generally bring formal frameworks or methodologies to identify problems or suggest more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks. There is a relatively unclear line between management consulting and other consulting practices, such as Information Technology (IT) Consulting

Benefits of the Course:
Students will expect to derive the following benefits from the diploma course:

Understand different business consultancy models and why organizations emphasize leadership, change management and business strategy
Learn to determine the usefulness of management reporting, evaluate financial statements and receive tools to analyze and explain what these activities mean to upper management
Develop skills to deal with Executives in terms of both relationship building and maintaining effective client relationships. Embraces concepts of effective report writing
Gain an appreciation of the tools and techniques that Consultants use as part of their " toolbox" on client engagements
How to properly manage and structure client assignments, manage project teams and report progress to Executive level clients
Discover ways to improve organizational communications while utilizing and developing human resources, group effectiveness and employee satisfaction
Develop effective consulting skills and learn how to interact with Executives
How to collect and disseminate information, carry out research and differentiate between different data sets and information gathered
Learn how to make effective presentations to people and develop your confidence in public speaking and addressing executives at board meetings
A greater awareness of the international dimensions of business and how you will be expected to fulfil your role in the new global village. The art of communication & rational persuasion
An understanding of what drives organizational change, the implications for individuals and how aspects of change should be managed.

Module 2 - The business of Consultancy and Advisory services
This part of the course will focus upon the consulting process. How the profession of consultancy is changing within the context of the new global economy. The reasons that consultants are employed and the type of engagements that they will be expected to perform. Added focus will be on the roles of the professional bodies providing governance to the Consultancy profession and how they are evolving and changing within the context of globalization.

The course will examine the major attributes required by the professional Management Consultant and includes:

Code of Conduct
Consulting descriptions
Types of engagements
Professionalism - meaning of trust
Professional membership
International Consulting roles
Consulting assignments
Evolution of consultancy
Impact of the information age
The course will look at sample work settings and provide suitable illustrations from the following business settings:

Manufacturing and Industrial Organizations
Banks and Financial Institutes
Government and Public sector Organizations
Education Sector
Professional firms
Medical Sector

Module 3 - Effective Stakeholder Management
This course will be focused on how to build key client business relationships, maintaining confidence and trust of clients, delivering quality services, managing client expectations and achieving value-added contribution raising client satisfaction indicators.

Objectives for stakeholder management
Building the client / consultant relationship
Understanding the client
Building trust and confidence
Phases of the relationship
Use of intervention
Understanding problems
The meaning and importance of quality
Value-added contributions
Maintaining the business relationship
The course will contain a number of additional learning modules made up as follows:

Understanding client entry phase
Purpose of the entry phase
Stages of the entry phase
Brief and scope of assignments
Planning the project
Putting together a proposal
Presenting a proposal
Gaining consent
The student will gain an appreciation of dynamics, how little cogs can drive big cogs. Leveraging ideas from colleagues and utilizing best practice guidelines provided by the profession

Module 4 - Key Consultancy Skills
This section is all about techniques and skills that the qualified Management Consultant will employ on business engagements. The creation of business networks, leveraging on the strength of the IMC profession, developing respected professional consulting skills

Different approaches to consulting engagements
Use of proprietary methods
Building your own toolbox
The value of effective research
No substitute for training in acquisition of skills
Examination of key techniques and skills required
Students will gain an appreciation of:

Conducting interviews
Conducting Client meetings
Presentations to Executives
Problem Solving
Decision Making
Report Writing
Preparing Summary Reports
Types of research - conducting research
The meaning of truth - honesty in reporting
Instilling confidence
Effective listening skills
How to add value

Module 5 - Managing Project Assignments
Project Management is best defined as Planning, Organization and Control in a structured and managed environment. This unit focuses on managing third party and sub contract relationships, managing consultancy staff, record keeping, client progress reporting, seeking closure, maintaining client relationships

On successful completion of this course the student should gain an appreciation of:

The fundamentals of Project Management
An overview of the planning process
Understanding sub contractor relationships
Dealing with third party relationships
Managing client engagement teams
Project Controls - setting up a project
How to manage risks
How to establish change control procedures
Configuration Management
Aspects of due diligence
Resource Management

Module 6 - Planning Consultancy Assignments
This course will focus upon the Planning consultancy engagements, methods of costing assignments, how to manage the engagement. A logical extension of the previous unit but directly focused on the business planning of consultancy engagements

Students will gain an appreciation of:

Project Planning techniques
Use of Excel
Use of Microsoft Project
Estimating
Managing resources
Importance of critical path analysis
Fixed duration contracts
Incremental delivery
Mitigating client risk

Module 7 - Data Collection and Analysis
Techniques for collection and assessment of information / data. How data is to be interpreted, sifting facts from opinion, creating objective and reliable information. The course will cover the following components:

Types of information and data
Determination of what data to collect
How to determine the data capture method
Analysis of data
Presentation of data
Dissemination of data
Sourcing data
Researching data
Importance of Evidence
Data Integrity
The student will gain an appreciation of the complexity of information and data. How to deal with large volumes of data and information and filter this into a set of precise requirements in order to meet management objectives. The techniques for dissemination of information and providing reliable sources of information with data integrity. The techniques for presenting information including use of tables, statistics, graphs and business models

Module 8 - Effective Report Writing Skills
Writing effective management reports, techniques for board room presentations. The course will cover the following components:

Is a report really needed?
When to write reports
Types of Reports
Executive Summaries
Quality in reports
Presentation of information
Use of diagrams and illustrations
Writing the report
Delivering the report
Concept of hard and soft copies
The student will gain an understanding and appreciation of writing consultancy style management reports. How to gain Executive "buy in" and management inclusion in the submission of final assignment reports. Particularly exploring aspects of quality and presentation

Module 9 - Making Client Presentations
The art of making efficient client presentations, use of software, technique of delivery, different types of presentations and techniques to use. The course will cover the following components:

Constraints on presentations
Preparing for presentations
Environment
Media for presentations
Effective speaking
Audience participation
Judging the mood
Delivering the presentation
Learning from mistakes
Dressing for the occasion
The student will gain an appreciation of how to prepare for and conduct business presentations. A look at the consultancy techniques that make this means of visual /oral communication so powerful.

Module 10 - Rational Persuasion
The technique of gaining support for your arguments and winning through on business recommendations. The course will cover the following components:

The anatomy of rational persuasion
Preparing for persuasion
Techniques of persuasion
Conducting a meeting
Listening skills
Balanced arguments
Inspiring confidence
Planning an outcome
The student will expect to gain an understanding and appreciation of how people will react in varying situations. How consultants have to explain decisions to clients, the rationale behind judgements and business recommendations. How to persuade a client to take a specific course of action in order to achieve a desired result.

Entry Requirements
Basic English reading and writing skills, as full tutor support is given.

Study Hours
37 hours per unit (370 hours approx in total).

Assessment Method
Continuous graded assessment. Please note that from 1st April 2009 all students registering will also need to complete an online examination, in addition to the continuous graded assessment.

Qualification
Diploma in Business Consultancy

What's Included
Unlimited full tutor support for two years

Course Fee
£395.00

Further Information
On successful completion of this course, you can apply to join The Institute of Management Specialists

Please note that this is an online course and your materials are delivered within the College web site in PDF format.

You will require to have one of the following packages to access your course online:

Windows: Windows 98, 2000, XP - Acrobat Reader 4.0 and above
Macintosh: Mac OS X, Mac OS 9.2 - Acrobat Reader 4.0 and above
Please note that this is an online course and your materials are delivered within the College web site in PDF format.

In the student 'Common Room' you are also able to receive the latest course updates, extra materials and information. You will also be able to take part in the student chat room and forums as part of our online student community.

After enrolling online you will receive your username and password to access your materials within 5 working days. You will also receive your personal Oxford student number via email.

Courses in paper/file format are still available at an additional fee of £45.00 and must be enrolled upon via telephone. This service is only available to those students studying within the United Kingdom. All students outside the United Kingdom will receive the online format.