Consulting -Beyond the norms

Simply termed, Consulting is providing advice in a particular area of expertise. This area can range from Biotechnology, Information technology, Environmental, Faculty, Franchise, Human Resource, Performance, Political, Supply Chain, Engineering, Management consulting etc.

A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge of the subject matter. A consultant usually works for a consultancy firm or is self-employed, and engages with multiple and changing clients. Thus, clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired. For a typical management consulting firm these services can range across industries and functional areas such as business technology, corporate finance, marketing and sales, operations, organisation and strategy spread across different industry practices ranging from banking, high tech, pharmaceutical, private equity, health care, public sector, retail, telecommunications etc.

At present the world of conventional management consulting is dominated by giants such as Mckinsey, Booze Allen Hamilton, Boston Consulting Group, Bain and company, AT Kearney, Ernst and Young, Arthur D little, Accenture, KPMG and many more in the never ending list. Upon analysing the factors which have greatly contributed to their success in powering solutions for corporate houses are various consulting frameworks and practices which these organizations follow.

These frameworks range from Basic SWOT analysis to Mckinsey’s 7S model to many other different frameworks which vary according to complexity and applicability in a situation.

SWOT Analysis is a basic, yet very powerful technique for understanding a business’s Strengths and Weaknesses, and for looking at the Opportunities and Threats it faces.  Used in a business context, it helps in determining the company’s points of leverage, problem areas, vulnerabilities, and constraints.

Coming to Mckinsey’s 7S model the seven factors it stresses upon are:

Strategy	A set of actions that you start with and must maintain
Structure	How people and tasks / work are organised
Systems	All the processes and information flows that link the organisation together
Style	How managers behave
Staff	How you develop managers (current and future)
Super ordinate Goals	Longer-term vision, and all that values stuff, that shapes the destiny of the organisation
Skills	Dominant attributes or capabilities that exist in the organisation

Like these tools many other frameworks and practices have been developed by various consulting houses. But with the advent of Globalization and plethora of issues facing the human race such as Climate change, depleting sources of conventional energy, increasing competitiveness, food security, inclusive growth etc the consulting industry cannot be limited to its conventional areas.

As discussed above the industry has to broaden its horizons and make the best minds to work on the newer challenging areas.

Taking one such challenge is of shifting dependence from Conventional to Non-conventional resources of energy. Recent studies have estimated that the amount of Oil and Gas reserves excluding the shale gas reserves may not last more than 40 years from now. With the economies booming and developing world making strides to match the developed countries, this speed can even reduce the estimated time. What will happen if our economies our not fed with required energy for growth? As energy industry is directly or indirectly related to different sectors the repercussions can be unprecedented. Keeping these things in mind the evolution of Renewable energy industry is inevitable. Our natural resources such as Sun, Wind, and Hydro, Geothermal etc can help us attain independence from Black sources of energy. This will not only help in saving climate and warmth of our planet but also make life sustainable for future generations. As the research and development has gained pace in last few years and brought this option viable. Now the need of hour is to develop a mechanism which brings these solutions to forefront and mass productions.

There are many renewable energy consulting services around today, as a result of increase in popularity of natural energy sources. One may need a help of an energy consultant for a large scale renewable energy project for his home or business. These consultants can provide an array of services, information and expertise in many of the aspects surrounding the use of natural energy sources and the available financing options.

The services of renewable energy consultants can range from general advice, to plans for integration and checking of renewable energy plans.

The various consulting practices for this sector can include:

1)     Strategic Consulting: Emerging alternative energy and sustainability business definition, diversifications into alternative energy, identification of attractive segments.

2)     Business Recommendations: Specific steps for benefiting from the alternative energy opportunities, recommendations for strategic tie-ups and partnerships.

3)     Customized research: Need-specific data collection and analysis, situation and scenario analysis.

4)     Renewable Energy Project reports: Pre-feasibility reports for projects on Solar, Wind, Bio fuels, Hydro and waste to energy. Also Coordination for feasibility studies.

To meet the future energy needs, India will have to invest over $800 billion by 2030, estimates International energy agency. Some estimates put the required levels of investment even higher. This is an opportune time for Consultants to step up and evolve this new paradigm of energy consulting services.