Management consulting exists within a paradigm of its own! I have been consulting in the hospitality and construction industries for some years now, and every job that I take has presented its own set of challenges and intricacies. I have endured the freedom that is derived from the business, and I enjoy the demanding nature since I thrive off of having to be spontaneous and quick on my feet. This stems from years of being a Chef…

Overall, the field of management consulting is rewarding! Monetarily, it could be better… but what couldn’t (besides the job of a CEO that takes a severance package of 24 million without blinking)!!! As a professional, there is nothing that I’d rather be doing! I’m an expert in my field… I have contacts… I have the business acumen… and most of all; I have the support from my family to take on demanding jobs that are time consuming. For those that don’t have such luxuries, I can assume that the business would be difficult to break into! I remember my first year when I made the decision to jump into it head first. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling when desperate times came into play and I had to scramble for new business. This is why I made the decision at that point to diversify and look into something to fall back on in case of emergencies. I chose teaching… and it’s been well worth it! Teaching online and consulting make a great combination!!!

Personally, I can only speak of how it has changed over the last 12 years. While I worked as a Chef, I did land a few consulting jobs on the side that were quite lucrative! In 1996, the consulting game in the hotel and restaurant field in NYC was really the place to be… At that point, I should have made the jump right into the business… but I didn’t! I finally made the jump into full-time consulting in the year 2000. It was a great time to get involved as well…

Soon after, 9/11 happened. Being in the consulting field during such a catastrophe was not a great experience. All of my business seized up, and the economy went downhill. I’d have to say that depending on one’s area of expertise, contingency planning is definitely suggested. If you’re on your own as an entrepreneur, you have to be ready to deal with times of disparity.

“For over four decades leading up to 2000 and the new millennium, the management consulting industry experienced explosive and continuous growth, approximating an increase of 15 to 20 percent per year” (Greiner & Poulfelt, 2005, p. 3). In the year 2000, things began to change drastically in the management consulting arena. The dot.com bubble busted into an economic downturn, and the telecom industry crumbled as well. This put a great deal of management consultants out of business (Greiner & Poulfelt, 2005). In addition, the Enron debacle, 9/11, and various other negative down turns resulted in a severe decline of the need for management consultants. Even today, we are seeing such terrible economic stresses that are depressing the need or desire for management consultants in specific fields.

However, in certain fields, we are seeing that management consultants are still doing quite well! This is particularly true in the areas of Customer Relationship Management, and Information Technology (Greiner & Poulfelt, 2005). I don’t foresee this changing for quite some time, as the needs and desires to harness the benefits of IT and CRM are in high demand.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with management consultants both as an employee, and in a co-consulting capacity. Concentrating in the hospitality industry as an expert in service delivery and customer relations, I tend to have to work alongside numerous other consultants to get any one particular job done. This is especially true in the case of working with start-ups… when a new operation concept is being developed… it’s almost always a meeting of the minds. I work within a consortium of consultants… and we always try to pass jobs onto one another. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and I’ll have to work with an outsider… I have found difficulties in doing so, but for the most part, it’s fun to work and learn from new consultants. If you’re not learning and changing with the trends, then you’re going to get left behind! Another benefit of working with other management consultants is in growing your network! This is so important to an entrepreneur… especially when it comes down to economic difficulties as we’re experiencing now!

Thanks for reading!!!

Greiner, L. and Poulfelt, F. (2005). The contemporary consultant: Insights from world experts, Canada: Thompson South-Western.