The Rise of Management Consulting in Britain by Ferguson Michael;

Author:Ferguson, Michael;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

In effect, this was an all or nothing approach to re-designing business processes to realign the company in order to effect wide-ranging improvements to performance. As the authors stated, this was a radical change management step on parallel unprecedented in relation to the whole organisation.

Consultants were not slow at getting into BPR, but client companies were not always willing to take such a leap of faith and consultants developed other services along similar lines whereby existing business processes were either modified (process improvement) or rationalised (process simplification). Therefore, BPR became both a service and a methodology; it ideally suited consultancy as an agency for change because of the flexible nature of the approach. Additionally, BPR as a technique was used in support of other consultancy services, linking together individual processes within companies to effect overall improvement. Some of these other processes or practices relate to the development of outsourcing regimes linked to the non-core competencies of the client firm. In the consultant context, outsourcing is a reference to the consultant acting as an agent in identifying and securing outsourcing agreements for clients where there are greater advantages and economies to be made through passing over the responsibility for specific functions and services. Some consultancies also directly provide outsourcing services themselves, largely within specialised fields related to information technology (see Chapter 9). Therefore, management consultants have played a significant role in the whole business of outsourcing, including outsourcing IT that has become a major role for many of the technology-based consultancies (see Chapter 9).

Because BPR is generally classified as a technique by many consultancies it is not publicly described as a form of service, but as a methodology employed within many of the areas associated with management consulting. A search through the literature of all the major consultancy companies worldwide would indicate case histories where BPR has been successfully applied, although equally examples could be found where assignments were less successful.18 Business Process Reengineering, process improvement and process simplification assignments can also be found linked to supply chain management, another innovation of the 1990s. Supply chain management, in its broadest context in but a few words, is the management of the chain of processes, events and activities that, when combined, consist of a whole seamless process from start to finish. For example, the chain of events that lead to the production of a physical good could consist of a process that includes the ordering and supply of raw materials, the manufacture of component parts, the assembly of those parts into a complete product, marketing and distribution, final consumption and payments. In its broadest sense supply chain is a methodology that links organisations, companies and individuals through a network supported by multi-directional flows of information and monetary payments. Within that overall process can be found a series of subprocesses and value chains, both within organisations and between them.

Supply chains need not result in the distribution and consumption of physical products; they may result in delivery of services or the supply of information.

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