Consultant’s Skills Essay

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the corporate world, there is always a need to structure the best possible process of production. In this integral approach, a consultant’s skills can be utilized in order to provide a different or better insight about the needs of the company as well as to guide it for a better path of development.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A consultant is someone who has gained expertise about a particular field of study, research or work. He provides an advice in order to proceed with a particular action (Wikipedia, 2007). In this aspect, consultants are invited in most company functions to share his thoughts and assumptions about a certain business dilemma. Of course, these assumptions do not always reflect that of an enterprise solution but can also be used for some research and development principles.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are several responsibilities that a consultant needs to accomplish for a company. First, he needs to provide the most effective ways of dealing with a problem to the fullest of his knowledge. Second, he should communicate in the best possible way, probably in layman’s terms, what he thinks is the best approach in getting a resolution for a particular concern. Third, he must have quite a number of credible materials or resources that he can present to support his claims. Of course, there should be minimal questions about his skills since the company has hired him to become a consultant. But in order to gain a wider perspective of his talents, supporting materials must be available.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is a general classification of consultants, the internal and external ones. The main difference between the two can be identified on the way their skills are used for the company processes. It may be thought that external consultants work as freelancers who may then be regarded as a â€Å"contractor† (Friedl) while the internal counterpart is an in-house consultant engaged in direct company decisions.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the aspect of contributions, there might be a slight difference between the two categories. Internal consultants are more exposed to company operations which is of great advantage in sending information efficiently and in a faster way. They can utilize the core skills needed for a resolution (Robertson). On the other hand, external consultants may also provide the same quality of logical problem solving but it would probably take longer since he needs to first see the big picture of the problem before coming up with a solution. References Friedl, S. N.D. â€Å"So you want to be a consultant?† Unixwiz. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://unixwiz.net/techtips/be-consultant.html. Robertson, S. N.D. Experiences in Growing Internal Consultants with Object-oriented Skills. The Atlantic Systems Guild. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://www.systemsguild.com/GuildSite/SQR/internal_Consultants.html. Wikipedia. 2007. Consultant. Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 11, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultant.