Introduction:

Management consultancy is one of the aspects that have become beneficial to modern

organizations. It consists of organizations or entities that assist other organizations to enhance

their performance by evaluating problems and different and better ways perform activities.

Management consultancy can enable organizations to access specialized expertise and obtain

valuable external advice. The main advantage of management consultants is that they have

specialized and extensive knowledge regarding industry best practices. There are many other

services that can be provided by management consultants, including operational improvement

services, strategy development, technology implementation, process analysis, development of

coaching skills, and change management assistance (Avakian, 2012). The consultants often have

frameworks or proprietary techniques that assist in identifying problems and recommend for

more efficient ways of accomplishing organizational tasks. In order to effectively provide the

above services, management consultants should have certain competencies. Although all of them

are required, the most important competency of a successful management consultancy is the
analyzing competence. This is because the essence of management consultancy is to identify

organizational problems and provide working recommendations.

Body:
One of the main important aspects of analytical competency is the analytical component. This is

an orientation and awareness component that enables management consultants to effectively

undertake organizational diagnosis to form the basis of solving problems. According to Clark

and Avakian (2012), management consulting is more than giving advice to organizations.

Diagnosis and identification of a problem in an organization facing challenges can be a difficult

task. In some delicate situations, management consultants might be required to come up with a

great deal of techniques and tactics in order to identify organizational challenges. There are

many factors within an organization that can lead to operational challenges. According to

Greiner and Poulfelt (2010), an organization is a system that contains many other subsystems

and components. Although each of these components has its unique function, there is no

component that can work in isolation or on its own. In a typical organizational setting, the

components interact in a complex way to facilitate operations. When an organization seeks then

services of a management consultant, it means that there are some relationship aspects that it

does not understand about its operations. Therefore, a management consultant must have

analytical skills that will enable critical evaluation of a situation in order to identify the root

cause of a problem. There are many analytical tools that can be used during the diagnosis of an

organizational problem. Their application might depend on various factors which must be
determined by a consultant and applied in the context of the organization in question. These are

the tools that allow simplification of a complex problem by breaking it down into its component

parts. This allows effective connection between events and structures so as to seek possible

causes of a problem.

Analytical competency also encompasses the element of conceptual thinking. This is the process

of engaging in a creative way of looking at things so as to establish patterns or connections. The

diagnosis of a problem cannot be complete without the assistance of conceptual thinking.

Management consultants should have the ability to integrate factors and issues from a wider

perspective so as to create a conceptual framework that contains connections or patterns that can

be used to identify underlying issues (Clark and Avakian, 2012). In most cases, management

consults approach conceptual thinking through their previous technical or professional training

and experience, intuitive processes, inductive reasoning, and creativity to identify issues and

create viable alternatives or potential solutions. Basically, conceptual thinking provides a deeper

or wider understanding of problems or situations by connecting them with other information or

by applying another frame of reference. For instance, a company might contract the services of a

management consultant in order assist it manage problems with organizational change. In such

case, a management consultant must identify the possible relationships and causes of resistance

to change. They consultant can decide to conceptualize the situation by referring to various

external models of change. For example, they can relate the factors to McKinsey 7-S model,

Lewin's change management model, or Kotter's 8-step change model (Clark and Avakian, 2012).

Each of these models will provide possible ways of dealing with the problem. The choice to use

a specific tool or a combination of tools will depend on the context and experience of a
consultant. Basically, management consultants cannot succeed if they do not have the

willingness to explore or if they fail to open to new ways of conceptualizing events.

The analytic competence of management consults is also related to their ability to adopt a

learning orientation. Organizational problems that they deal with are unique because

organizations are never the same. Therefore, a solution or model that might work in one

organization might not necessarily mean that it can work in another organization. However, they

can combine ideas from their past training and experience to develop a unique solution that can

fit into a problem in a specific organization. According to Wickham and Wilcock (2012),

management consultants might fail if they take a solution from one organization and impose it on

another. They should take in new developments or ideas and apply them effectively. A

management should also adopt a learning orientation because of the increasing rate and

complexity of organizational dynamics. There are many developments that take place in the

corporate world that management consultants should be aware of. This will enable the consultant

to provide analytical solutions that are up to date and based on the industrys best practices. For

example, a company can have challenges with its internal businesses process and require the

services of a management consultant. The consultant might discover that the company requires

an information system to streamline its operations. Therefore, the consultant should have to date

knowledge regarding information systems, such as data analytics, cloud computing, and business

intelligence solutions in order to provide effective consulting services to the company. Interest in

learning enhances the capability of management consultants in providing effective analysis of

organizational situations and providing solutions that are up to the modern standards and

expectations. Otherwise, obsolete solutions will not work and will affect the success of a

management consultant.
Creativity is another important analytical element of a management consultant. One of the main

reasons why organizations seek the services of management consultants is because they believe

that can provide fresh thinking and objective advice. As a result, companies tend to look for

consultants who demonstrate experience in solving various challenges that they might face.

Basically, creativity involves devising new ways of doing things and suggesting original

solutions that are specific and relevant. Therefore, creativity is an important element in analytical

competency. According to Buono (2009), the main objective of management consults is to

diagnose organizational challenges, understand underlying conditions, and recommend solutions.

Throughout this process, a consultant cannot succeed without creative and holistic thinking. The

process of creative thinking is inductive, which is an open-ended exploratory that mainly

emphasizes observations as foundations for theory. The main advantage of using this approach is

that it enables a management consultant to identify solutions that might be otherwise be

overlooked. The creative though process of a management consultant has a potential of providing

short term and long term solutions to organizations. It is important to note that creativity is not a

concept that is applied in isolation because it is an inherent part of analytical competency. For

instance, creativity should be part of conceptual thinking as it will allow a management

consultant to identify connections and provide effective solutions. Since organizations are

looking for new and competent solutions, a management consultant that lacks creativity might

not succeed in the market. Creative management consultants are those that are able to take in a

lot of incoherent data or facts and integrate them to produce a consistent narrative.
 Conclusion:

The above reflection and analysis supports the idea that analytical competence is the most

important competence of a successful management consultant. This is because organizations that

seek their services are looking for creative solutions to their problems. Without analytical

competence, a management consultant will not be able to effectively diagnose problems or

provide well-thought and up to date solutions. As discussed above, analytic competence includes

analytics, conceptual thinking, learning orientation, and creativity. In order to succeed in the

market, a management consultant should ensure that all the above elements are integrated in its

analytical competence.