Consulting: Context, Concepts and Practice

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• communicate and express your analysis in a written format.
• craft consultancy proposals and present them in a well-structured manner;
• work as part of a team to present your ideas orally;
• conduct independent research using a range of information sources;
• use a wide range of intellectual ideas, tools, techniques and analytical thinking to enrich and advance your arguments;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• effective methods for planning and proposing consultancy projects; diagnosing and approaching client problems controlling and delivering consultancy projects.
• the context, major events and trends in the history of consultancy, including the basics of consulting, the growth of the profession, some of the more critical and ethical issues in consultancy;
• the consultancy industry, consultancy firms, consultancy projects, and forms of capital (human, social, client) that are used in consultancy;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• develop and present a consultancy proposal;
• critically analyse and apply the consultancy life-cycle, including the concept of life-cycle and the stages it incorporates;
• apply suitable consultancy tools, skills and techniques.
• explain the importance of, and approaches to, managing client and network relations;

The topics covered in this module will include:

• Introduction & evolution of the sector
• The uses of various forms of intellectual capital
• The consultancy lifecycle
• Client-consultant relationships
• How the proposal process works
• Delivering a proposal
• Approaches methods and tools of consulting
• Managing consultants and their careers, and managing consultancies.
• Independent consultancy.
• Ethics
• Critical perspectives on consultancy and the lived experience of consultants

The module will be taught through a range of methods including lectures, class discussions, guided reading, small group work followed by group presentations and discussions, exploration of interactive case studies/papers, and videos. There may be guest appearances by former or current consultants.

Students are expected to play a highly interactive part in teaching and lectures.

As with all programmes in the Faculty, student learning will also be supported by published course materials and Blackboard: the University's virtual learning environment.

There are two formal face-to-face spaces for learning on the module:

Weekly sessions – These are large group sessions where the main theme of the week/ lecture will be discussed. Everyone enrolled on the module will be expected to attend and contribute to the weekly sessions.

Group meetings – These are with the module leader for you to ask any specific questions and address any problems. These will be organised on a case-by-case basis. There is also a (non-assessed) group meeting with clients as part of the role-play scenario that makes up the assessed presentation.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.