Management Consulting – A Profession or an Executive between Jobs?

The question has been answered.  Management Consulting is a Profession alongside of Accounting, Law, Medicine, Engineering and other clearly recognized professions.

On June 1, 2017, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) issued ISO 20700:2017 “Guidelines for Management Consultancy Services”.  ISO 20700:2017 establishes a global standard for management consulting.  The standard provides guidelines for delivering management consultancy services.

The aim of ISO 20700:

• “is to improve transparency and understanding between clients and management consultancy service providers …
• to achieve better results from consultancy projects …
• to provide better value for clients and reduce risk in management consultancy assignments.” -- ISO 20700:2017, p. 4.

ISO 20700 “… is based on good practice from the management consultancy industry.”  -- Ibid.

“By improving quality, professionalism, ethical behaviour and interoperability of management consultancy, [ISO 20700] … is intended to enhance the effectiveness of the management consulting industry and accelerate the development of the profession.“  -- Ibid.

This is truly a milestone in the development of management consulting, which traces its roots back to at least Frederick Taylor and the beginning of Scientific Management in the 1890s.

For more information, see the following sources:

https://www.iso.org/standard/63501.html

https://www.cmc-global.org/content/iso-standards-consulting

I encourage you to purchase a copy of the standard from the ISO.

--  Jerry