Steph Yates Blog: An Idiot’s Guide to…Management Consultancy3rd April 2013

When I submitted my first blog post to Property News in February, I wrote a short biography to go with it. Richenda, the editor, came back to me and asked if I could include a brief sentence about what it is that my company, a management consultancy, actually does. It got me thinking...

The subject is a tricky topic for me. I was in my current job for at least six months before I understood what it was we actually did, and even now I still have trouble explaining it to people.

In a nutshell, the role of a management consultant is to improve business performance. But that’s a very airy fairy statement, and applies to almost every job going.

So let’s get specific. Management Consultants tackle several aspects of property related business:

• Business process - we will analyse a client’s current processes and suggest how they could be improved. This can be scaled up or down depending on the company and their needs. Sometimes it might just be a purchase order process, or it could be the whole business;
• IT and systems - now a big and expensive, but often baffling part of most businesses, we will come in and guide a client through the specification, selection and implementation of a new system. An all-singing, all-dancing system can cost millions of pounds and a bad choice or implementation can result in financial loses such as uncollected rent, missed lease events or unpaid bills. Systems are a vital part of a modern day business and it’s important to get them right;
• Research - this could be research into clients/competitors, or market research with the aim of producing a report to further business knowledge. The ultimate aim is to improve the business, either through perception or giving our client an edge over the competition.

Due to the combination of short and long projects, and a varied assortment of different clients, no two days are the same. If you like variety, then maybe management consultancy could be the job for you.

PS. Things NOT to do after reading this post:

• Don't look up management consulting on Wikipedia - I don't understand half of the stuff written on that page. Sentences such as “Consultants can function as bridges for information and knowledge” probably don't help our cause
• Don't watch American TV series House of Lies – “Since when was management consulting a real job?”. We aren’t the slimy sleezeballs they portray us as, I promise (although it is good TV).

About Steph Yates
Steph is an Assistant Consultant at Remit Consulting, an independent team of European management consultants helping real estate firms find solutions and improve their business. Remit specialise in property systems, property management process improvement and real estate finance.

Steph has worked on a wide variety of projects from market research to property management retenders to IT system implementations. She is also working towards gaining her APC and in her spare time she enjoys photography and rifle shooting. You can find her on Twitter at @remitsteph.