Finding a way to ensure high professional standards in consulting is one of the main talking points of an international conference being held in Dublin this week.
Delegates from 40 countries are attending the Irish Times-sponsored International Council of Management Consulting Institutes' (ICMCI) World Congress, which began on Wednesday evening and finishes tomorrow at the Radisson Hotel in Stillorgan.
The Republic held off stiff competition to earn the right to host the biennial event, which brings together some of the leading figures in management consulting to discuss the challenges facing the profession.
There are 43 institutes of management consulting around the world and the heads of these organisations are attending this week's conference.
In the Republic, the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers (IMCA) estimates that the Irish consulting market is worth some €300 million a year and has more than 3,000 full-time professionals working in both the public and private sectors.
According to 2005 figures, in Europe alone the market is worth €60 billion, employing more than 500,000 staff in more than 54,000 firms.
IMCA president David Duffy explains that the focus of the conference is on improving standards in what is a growing business. "The big issue for consulting globally is that anybody can call themselves a management consultant tomorrow if they want to," he says. "So what we are trying to do is develop one standard for global qualification."
The Certified Management Consultant (CMC) is that standard. As well as ensuring a standard of excellence within the profession, this designation is designed to help clients select an appropriate consultant by offering a guarantee of competence and professionalism.
There are 10,000 CMCs globally, with between 300 and 400 in the Republic.
For consultants to become CMCs in Ireland, they have to be accredited by the IMCA.
"You go through a process that looks at your business, the way you hire people, but more importantly how you train and develop people and how you keep their skills up to date," says Duffy.
"If you can satisfy the institute here or in the UK that you have a credible supportive environment for professional staff, you will get the accredited certification here and all your staff become CMCs."
Duffy says that this week's conference can help the IMCA to promote the value of a CMC designation to consultancy firms, to consultants themselves and, most importantly, to clients.
The results of a survey of the IMCA's 450 members on management consulting in the Republic show that growth in the sector is running at 14-15 per cent. Three-quarters of the respondents expect further growth here over the next three years.
The three main issues facing consultants, according to the survey, are providing a quality service to clients at an affordable price, improving clients' perception of the profession and helping clients to think creatively.
Duffy says that creativity is something he would not have seen mentioned five years ago. "That really is, I think, the coming challenge for consultants," he says. "Every client is resource-constrained, so you have got to be creative."
Client perception of the profession is also one of the topics being discussed. "What this conference is all about is that when you buy consultants you're buying a certain standard. There's a confidence from the client's side that, yes, the consultants know what they should know, they've got the requisite business acumen, they have a particular body of expertise, they have ethical principles," says Duffy.
Another topic of discussion is a global survey conducted by the IMD Business School in Lausanne, which identified the trends expected to have the greatest impact on business in five years' time. The shifting of global economic power to Asia is top of the list, while the changing landscape of industry also figures prominently.
"They're kind of a context for the conference, too, because that's the world we live in," says Duffy.
"We cannot ignore these trends. So organisations here, if they want to open up a base in Asia or China, what do they do? We should be there, able to help them."
As for consultancy in the Republic, Duffy, who is also managing director of Prospectus Strategy Consultants, sees supporting the development of the knowledge economy as a key task.
"A very practical challenge there is that we are spending an inordinate amount of money on research, which is fantastic, but our ability or the skills we have here to manage that research are limited," he says. "The other big challenge is extracting value from that research."
