Maximizing the Value of Consulting: A Guide for Internal and External Consultants Hardback - 2015

By consistently delivering and maximizing value for clients, professional consultants have become an integral and permanent part of organizational landscapes. Maximizing the Value of Consulting offers internal and external consultants an essential resource for managing, measuring, and delivering consistent results that are valued by their clients. Sponsored by the ROI Institute and the Association of Internal Management Consultants, and written by a team of experts, this important guide provides a roadmap for consultants who must deliver promised results when operating in today's fast-paced and ever-changing global environment. Comprehensive in scope, the text shows how to use resources properly and manage an investment efficiently, connect successfully to the business, secure appropriate levels of commitment, and ensure adequate levels of support.

The text describes the current opportunities available to consultants, shows how the field has evolved, and reviews the profession's key issues and challenges. Maximizing the Value of Consulting then puts the focus on how value is delivered throughout the consulting process--from the beginning of a project to the end. The authors demonstrate how to manage an organization's consulting investment, ensuring that a consultant's work is efficient and delivers optimal ROI. The text also offers guidelines for setting clear objectives at multiple levels and shows how to monitor and report on the success of consulting as an entire function or as an entire organization for external consulting. In addition, the authors reveal what it takes to deliver value in a project, illustrating how any consulting project can be measured all the way through to the long-term impact and total ROI.

Designed as a practical resource, Maximizing the Value of Consulting includes important suggestions on how to report results to senior executives, so they can see collectively how well consulting is working, the value consulting is adding to the organization, and how it connects to critical issues and business outcomes.

The ever-growing need for highly trained internal and external consultants continues in almost every functional business area, ranging from human resources and technology, to auditing and risk management. Maximizing the Value of Consulting provides a manual for relevant, value-driven consulting, grounded in world-renowned expert insight.