Please wait while the search results are loading...

Major Corporations and Organizations Develop Internal Consultants and Seek Outside Clients, Business and Industry Trends Analysis

Leading corporations such as Pfizer, UPS and USAA have built internal management consulting staffs.  The goals of such moves vary, but they include maintaining better control over the consulting process, improving internal communications, enhancing the understanding between staff and consultants and creating a consulting staff that has first-hand experience and knowledge of company culture and procedures.  However, the top goal on the list must inevitably include cutting consulting costs, which can run thousands of dollars per day for highly experienced management consultants provided by major outside firms.
In some cases, internal consultants may hire external consultants on an as-needed basis.  The internal consultant trend has grown to the point that a professional association has been created, the Association of Internal Management Consultants, Inc., aimc.org.  The group has an annual spring conference and an impressive membership roster that includes people from blue-ribbon firms.  On an organization chart, some firms may classify their internal consultants as part of “planning” or “strategy” departments.
One interesting offshoot of this trend is that the internal consulting units at a few companies have begun offering consulting services to outside clients.  This not only creates a new profit center for the company, it also promotes the brand reputation of the parent company.  This is increasingly common in industries such as hospitality that are focused on high levels of customer service.  At the Walt Disney Company, long famous for customer satisfaction and innovative employment practices, a consulting unit called The Disney Institute (disneyinstitute.com) is now teaching other firms how to better engage their customers.  Clients in a wide variety of industries are calling on consultants from The Disney Institute to show their executives how to implement more effective practices or to train employees in higher levels of service, teamwork, the creation of brand loyalty and innovation.
Likewise, The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, a unit of Ritz-Carlton Hotels (itself a luxury property subsidiary of hotel giant Marriott), is teaching client firms how to provide superior service.  The Ritz-Carlton Advisory Services unit teaches leaders at client firms how to benchmark their own practices against the proven theories in practice at Ritz-Carlton.  In addition to pure consulting, the firm schedules classes for employees and executives of outside firms.  Courses offered by Ritz-Carlton include “The Ritz Carlton Experience.”  Billed as a class for non-managerial staff, it focuses on the vital steps in delivering excellent customer service.  The program takes place at selected Ritz-Carlton hotels and includes a two hour “Service Excellence Culture” presentation and another two-hour session called “Memorable Customer Service.”
At the federal government level, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) runs its own IT consulting arm.  It’s called Federal Acquisition Service or FAS (formerly the Federal Technology Service (FTS)), and it provides consulting, systems integration, design and purchasing services to federal agencies.


A Representative List of Organizations that Have Used our Research and Products:

Testimonials

I’m amazed at how much information is available and the various ways to access it. This will be a major resource for our serious job seekers.

Career Services, Penn State University

Plunkett Research Online provides a great ‘one stop shop’ for us to quickly come up to speed on major industries. It provides us with an overall analysis of the market, key statistics, and overviews of the major players in the industry in an online service that is fast, easy to navigate, and reliable.

Wendy Stotts, Manager, Carlson Companies

I really appreciate the depth you were able to get to so quickly (for our project). The team has looked through the material and are very happy with the data you pulled together.

Hilton Worldwide, Marketing Manager

We are especially trying to push Plunkett since all of our students have to do so much industry research and your interface is so easy to use.

Library Services, St. John’s College

We are especially trying to push Plunkett’s since all of our students have to do so much industry research and your interface is so easy to use.

Gary White, Business Materials Selector, Penn State University

Your tool is very comprehensive and immensely useful. The vertical marketing tool is very helpful, for it assists us in that venue, as well as targeting customers’ competition for new sales…The comprehensive material is absolutely fabulous. I am very impressed, I have to say!

Tammy Dalton, National Account Manager, MCI

The more I get into the database, the happier I am that we’ll have it–REALLY happy!!! Between the quality and affordability of your product, its appeal to and value for our users, and the inestimably ethical and loyalty-guaranteeing conduct of your business, I will always have more than sufficient praises to sing for Plunkett Research.

Michael Oppenheim, Collections & Reference Services, UCLA

Plunkett Research Online is an excellent resource…the database contains a wealth of useful data on sectors and companies, which is easy to search and well presented. Help and advice on how to conduct, export and save searches is available at all stages.

Penny Crossland, Editor, VIP Magazine
Real Time Web Analytics