Strategic Management in Consulting Firms

Introduction

Strategic management is the practice of managing the organisational operations in an innovative way by developing tactics and planning to run the organisation successfully. In the recent era of globalisation, there is economic development and enhancement of the company’s operations in the global platform, where the organisations are willing to review the internal and external market environmental and develop creative strategic planning for the benefits of the firms where it is possible for the firm to fulfil its vision and mission in long run (Rothaermel, 2016). The study aims at discussing the market structure of the consulting firms as well as the evaluating the clear purpose, vision and mission and objectives of the consulting business in the market. Through this study, it is also possible to demonstrate the competitive market structure through orders five forces analysis as well as VRIO framework to analyser market attractiveness and the organisational competitive advantage in running their business in the market. The study also provides a scope to conduct in depth analysis of external business environment in order to run the organisation sustainably in the market. at the last part, it gives the chance to review the strategy of the consulting firm, named Bain & Company, to understand the strategic directions of the firm to utilise the market opportunities and expand their business across the international markets.

Evaluating value of clear Purpose, Vision, Mission and Objectives

Bain & Company is an American management consulting organisation providing the efficient services to the public, private and non profit organisations in the market and it is one of the "Big Three" elite management consultancies (MBB). The organisation is efficient to serve its client and generate more than $4.54 billion revenue which further ensure financial stability of the firm in the market. It is one of the leading organisations in the consulting management industry, where total numbers of locations are 58, where the organisation is successful to expand their business. In the previous year, total numbers of employees are around 10500, and the employee base is strong and diverse to serve the client efficiently for fulfilling their needs and preferences (Bain & Company, 2020a).

The company is successful to help the client to achieve extra ordinary outcomes and the business is also unique where the management team and the employees are trying to create values for the customers by delivering them effective business outcome after effective consultation. The purpose of the organisation is to serve their clients worldwide and strengthen their position in the consultancy management industry across the international markets. The organisational vision to be the best managing consulting firm in the global consulting market where the client can find efficient services and outcomes to solve their business issues and other problems related to their needs and preferences (Bain & Company, 2020a). The mission of the organisation is to create values for all the stakeholders, including the employees, government, management team, customers, suppliers and the social communities as a whole. The organisational objective is to gain high competitive advantage in the global consulting management industry so that the business can secure future sustainable development and serve the customers in a better and unique way. The mission and visions of the organisation further influence the firm to develop effective strategic planning to sustain in the competition and strengthen their market share in the international markets. The purpose and the organisational objective are also effective where the leader aims at to share the organisational aim with the stakeholders and mainly with the managers and employees so motivate them and improve their interests to perform better and manage their clients efficiently across the globe (Bain & Company, 2020a).

Assessing a competitive advantage

For effective assessment of the competitive advantage, VRIO framework is beneficial to identify the value, rarity of the resources and capabilities of the firm, how costly to imitate the resources and the way to organise the organisational activities for capturing values. This framework is effective for the organisation to analyse the factors that are contributing to achieve the organisational competitive advantage (Aaron, 2018). It is beneficial to identify the competitive advantage of the organisation Bain & Company, where the company’s activities and resources as well as the strategies will be evaluated for understanding the sustained competitive advantage of the firm in long run.

As per the VRIO framework, the major success factors of the business Bain & Company are such as brand image, IT technology, service innovation, customer’s service efficiency and market share. The company is successful to improve their IT innovation and implement latest software for data management and critical analysis of the data for serving the clients with best consultancy solution. The brand image and reputation as well as strong market share are also effective for Bain & Company to sustain in the industry and run their operations efficiently. Hereby, the organisation is capable of gaining high commutative advantage over their competitive firms through service innovation and effective management of the organisational strategies (Adams, 2018).

External environmental analysis of the business

The external business environmental analysis can be conducted through PESTLE framework, where it is possible to evaluate the political stability, economic growth and social development, as well as technological advancement, legal framework and environmental protecting in the consulting business industry (Stout, 2017).

Hereby, through the PESTLE analysis, it is possible to identify the business environment for the consulting firms, and it can be stated that the organisation Bain & Company has the opportunity to utilise the latest ethics and legal compliances to set up their business and retain more long run clients for successful and creative business outcome. The political support and economic growth further boosts the performance of the consulting firms as well as the technological advancement and the environmental protecting acts area also helpful where the consulting businesses can establish their operations with latest technology and secure future sustainable business.

Market attractiveness analysis

For analysing the external competitive analysis, in the consulting business industry, it is necessary to implement the Porter’s five forces model, through which it is possible to evaluate the market condition and competitive threat for the organisations (Grant, 2016). As proper the model, the five forces are such as the threat of new entrants and the threats of substitute products internal competitive rivalry, bargaining owner of the customers as well as the bargaining power of the suppliers. The forces will be evaluated further in the consulting management industry, where the market condition for the company Bain & Company can be evaluated.

Reviewing the organisation’s strategy

The organisation Bain & Company is one of the famous consulting business firs in the UK as well as the company is also successful to expand their business activities across different international market place and strengthen their customer’s base for future. The major strategy of the company is to satisfy the clients and create values for them. For delivering the high quality consulting services, the organisational representatives try to improve the understanding among the clients, where they develops strong corporate relationship and improve mutual trust and loyalty (Groesser, and Jovy, 2016). The organisation also tries to empower the clients in the decision making practice and advise with best outcome to the business clients where proper empowerment and high communication in the company further help to acknowledge the actual requirements of the clients and cooperate with them for developing the best outcome by ensuing high quality services. Hereby, the organisation focuses on proper empowerment of the clients in the business consultancy services as well as they try to develop client centred services, where the clients can share their feedback and provide their perception about the services what they need actually (Bain & Company, 2020b). In addition to this, Bain & Company also focuses on enhancing communication with the clients through implementing the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) which is effective to interact in the client as well as improve communication with the market. The cooperation with the clients as well as managing ethical practice by protecting their information and personal data are also effective to develop trust and loyalty among the clients, where the business of Bain & Company is successful to serve the clients efficiently and manage safety and security of all the clients across the international markets. These practices are effective for the organisation Bain & Company to satisfy the clients and maximise their values by providing client centred services which is technological updated. In this regard the organisation is successful to implement latest software and statistical tools to analyse the business information as well as other market related information for providing consulting services and this is further boost their performance in long run. The technically updated services and the 24*7 services to the clients are hereby beneficial for the organisation to gain high competitive advantage in the global consulting industry and it further provide a chance to the business to secure future sustainable development in long run (Westphal and Sohal, 2016). Moreover, the organisation also focuses on managing the employees, which are the major stakeholders of the business to provide the best outcome to the clients and manage the organisational operational activities in long run. In this regard, the leader aims at encouraging the employee’s creativity to perform innovatively and provide the unique services to the clients and apart from hat, the leader is also supportive and the directive (Bain & Company, 2020b). The leader of Bain & Company tries to support the staff and technical team with attest information and news as well as direct them with high cooperation and communication. On the other hand, the monetary incentives such as structured salary and performance related pay are also motivating the employees at the workplace. The leader also focuses on creating organisational culture for managing the diverse workforce and in this regard managing safety and security of the employees, proper recognition, open communication, partnership working practice at the workplace as well as managing transparency and accountability and respect and integrity at the workplace which further helps the management team to handle the workers and encourage them to perform better of ensuring organisational excellence. For becoming environmentally sustainable business, the organisation Bain & Company is also efficient to apply environmental laws, be responsible for waste management and disposal, conservation of non-renewable resource as well as reduction of greenhouse has and other emissions harmful to environmental. These are the practice through which Bain & Company is successful to provide green environmental footprint. Obeying the business rules, demonstrating the existence of the procedure to prevent money laundering, fraud and data security issues, to protect he business clients and serve them efficiently. For community development activities, the organisation is also efficient to develop partnership with local government and invest in social developmental projects, education and charity programs to ensure social community development. These are the major strategic planning of the organisation Bain & Company, where the business is successful to establish it in the global consulting industry and gain high market share by strengthening their customer’s base (Bain & Company, 2020b).

Conclusion and recommendations

As per the external environmental analysis, the business circumstances of the global consulting industry are sustainable for the consulting firms to establish their business in the market and protect the data and information to serve the customers in a better and unique way. The organisation Bain & Company is successful to expand their business activities across the international markets and it is also efficient to strengthen their client base and empowers the clients for developing proper consulting services. Though there is intense competition in the global consulting industry, the strategic planning of the organisation Bain & Company such as proper management of the employees, creating values for the customers, business performance improvement, and service innovation are effective for ensuring organisational excellence.

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