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Chapter 7 Management Concultancy by Cabrera
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2. Analytical approach and process refers to the systematic, objective and rational method of solving business problems. It involves a professional-level ability to ascertain pertinent facts and circumstance, define problem, evaluate the alternative courses of action and present conclusions and recommendations to solve the problem.
3. What are the basic stages of a management consulting engagement?
14. It is an advisable first step in most MAS engagement. It is written communication between the CPA and the client setting forth the terms and conditions of a proposed consultancy work.
69. Give 5 internal sources of data and the corresponding data that may be obtained from such.
70. SourcesFactsCorporate planning-Corporate objectives-Expansion plansEngineering-Engineering schedule for productsResearch and development-New product development schedulesManufacturing-Inventory statusAccounting-Product pricing and costing-Operating expenses
71. Describe the 4 approaches that a consultant may use in analyzing facts gathered in relation to the problem at hand.
72. Decision-Level Analysis – has the purpose of depicting the varied interrelationships among the decisions made throughout the segments and levels of organization.
74. Structured Analysis – organization is comprised of a number of well-defined functions, which in turn are made up of a group of activities.
75. Less-Structured Analysis – could be employed to a counteract some limitations of the structured approaches such as (1) difficulty in application and (2) stifling of creativity of the consultant.
77. Problem identification and desired outcome – begins with initial recognition of a symptoms pointing to the problem and ends with the complete problem description.
78. Identification of suitable and accurate sources of information and data-gathering - deals with fact sources and identifies places where the consultant can look to find facts associated with the operation of a client.
79. Data analysis and Diagnosis – consultant needs to apply a variety of fact analysis techniques to determine the effectiveness of each decision made.
84. Give 5 external sources of data the kind of information that may be drawn for them.
85. SourcesFactsIndustry reports-Corporate data and analysis-Industry newsCompetition-Products-Products literatureDistributors-Market conditions-Customer AnalysisCustomers-Profile facts-SalesData base retrieval systems-Product, market and industry news and analysis-Economic forecasts
86. Discuss briefly (at least 5) most commonly used techniques in gathering facts.
87. Interviews – considered the best way to zero in on problems. It can be conducted at all levels of the organizations.
88. Questionnaires – restricts channel of communications and should be used with great care for the purpose of fact finding.
89. Observation – useful in gathering facts prior to an interview, in verifying statements made during an interview, and in ascertaining relationships between individuals.
90. Document gathering – collect all relevant documents to gain an understanding of what is presently done and how it is organized, what is not available, and perhaps what the client considers being important.
91. Charting – fact gathering that provides a pictorial representation of a dimensions of the client’s organization or of its activities.
93. Decision-Level Analysis – has the purpose of depicting the varied interrelationships among the decisions made throughout the segments and levels of organization.
95. Structured Analysis – organization is comprised of a number of well-defined functions, which in turn are made up of a group of activities.
96. Less-Structured Analysis – could be employed to a counteract some limitations of the structured approaches such as (1) difficulty in application and (2) stifling of creativity of the consultant.
112. Delphi approach: This employs an idea generation concept similar to brainstorming. Experts are individually polled for ideas and subsequently summarized and presented to each participant. Each participant reviews the feedback and the consultant again polls the experts to establish collective responses and the process is reported until the responses have stabilized.
113. What are the activities in the implementation phase of the problem-solving process?
121. Why is there a need to make an evaluation of the implemented solution?
122. There is a need to make an evaluation of the implemented solution to know if the implemented solution is operative effectively in the client’s business. It is also needed because users needs change over time and these changes will lead in time to the need for further improvements. In economic review, it is useful by learning the reasons for variances in cost. Operation review is evaluated to consider how well they function with particular emphasis on inputs, error rates, timeliness of outputs, and utilization of outputs. And lastly in future performance review, it identifies potential improvements to the implemented system and estimates the effort required to implement the improvements.
123. What is the rationale of conducting a post – engagement follow-up?
124. Usually programs and systems appear to operate effectively during the first few months of implementation but later run into difficulty because of many reasons like the change in operating conditions and/or the design may prove to be faulty and that is the very reason there is post-engagement follow-up. It is the observation of a CPA to the client’s programs and systems that are installed for a sufficient long period in order to early uncover deficiencies and to make the necessary modifications.
125.
126. It will provide data for determining required resources for subsequent similar engagements.
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