Use of Professional Management Consultants to enable attainment of MDGs

Transcription

1 2014 ECOSOC High Level Segment (HLS) OFFICERS for NGOs in ECOSOC consultative status Use of Professional Management Consultants to enable attainment of MDGs Submitted by: Brian Ing CMC, PhD Secretary of ICMCI April 2014 Chairman Tim Millar CMC Australia Treasurer Dwight Mihalicz CMC Canada Secretary Brian Ing CMC United Kingdom Vice Chairs Rob Bodenstein CMC Austria Sorin Caian CMC Romania Elena Yuzkova CMC Ukraine Kim Karme CMC Finland Chayaditt Hutanuwatra CMC Thailand Immediate past Chair Francesco D'Aprile CMC Italy Reema Nasser Executive Director Jordan

2 Introduction This paper has been produced by ICMCI (The International Council of Management Consulting Institutes) in response to the Open Call for Written and Oral Statements for 2014 ECOSOC High- Level Segment. ICMCI ICMCI is an international membership organisation and a network of the management advisory and consultancy associations and institutes worldwide, who have a common purpose and shared values and goals. The goal of ICMCI is to promote a closer working relationship between all management consulting institutes or organisations primarily dedicated to the registration or certification of individual management consultants. The purpose of this closer working relationship is to accelerate the achievement of mutual goals of the national institutes, particularly to assist them in raising the standards of the profession of management consulting and to create worldwide recognition and acceptance of the CMC (Certified Management Consultant) mark. Our core activities, focused on the promotion and improvement of the CMC value proposition, are to: Achieve common objectives to improve the profession. Elevate standards of management consultants worldwide and increase acceptance of management consulting as a respected profession. Encourage reciprocity between national institutes with recognised universal standards and adherence to an International Code of Conduct. Promote the value of the CMC to international bodies who influence the selecting and use of management consultants. ICMCI was granted Non-Government Organisation (NGO) status with Special Consulting Focus by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2001.

3 Approach As Management Consultants we can only provide advice within our competence. That is focused on being well versed in assisting others to decide what to do and how to do it. In this short paper we highlight what can be achieved using indigenous, professional, competent management consultants. The potential improvements will lead to increased opportunities to achieve the MDGs: whether and to what extent to use these opportunities are applied to achieving the MDGs is a political choice. Our advice below concentrates on enabling the opportunities. This is not a self serving proposal by the professional body. It represents a genuine desire, demonstrated by our continuing extensive work to establish professional institutes in developing countries, to be able to share the advantages shared by the economies of our core membership of Institutes in the developed economies for the benefit of the world society. As individuals, we are often amazed and delighted by the positive improvement we can make for others. We are privileged to be able to gain such satisfaction through our professional lives; we sincerely wish others less fortunate to be able to receive the same benefits. We comment below on: We are, and are not, the same Professional, competent, trustworthy consultants Development projects Technology myopia Management consultants as effective interventions National capability in management consultancy Building capacity and capability in an economy Achieving MDG programmes National characteristics and the impact on requirements to achieve the MDGs ICMCI is pleased to note that whenever we have international meetings that the management consultants have, incredibly to some, a common set of values. The focus is on the client. There is a shared commitment to a common understanding of professionalism. The competence frameworks required to be a qualified management consultant are closely equivalent. The code of ethics is very similar. These commonalities are independent of nationality, culture, gender, religion, economic system, degree of economic development and time. Hence ICMCI is able to maintain cohesion between its national Institute Members and to be able to award a single competence based qualification, The Certified Management Consultant (CMC) across the 60 countries covered by its Members: these Members cover the home territories of at least 85% of the estimated three million management consultants across the entire world.

4 Having emphasised the similarities, it is most important to note the differences. The aims objectives and competence may be very similar but the ways of working will be very culturally sensitive. This cultural sensitivity is noticeable within countries as well as between countries. One consultant reports in their career working within a bureaucratic government organisation, an Arab owned construction company, an Israeli bank, a New York based Jewish owned fashion company, a not for profit organisation for the visually handicapped, a German manufacturing group, an innovative software provider and a major civil engineering consultancy all within a mile radius in Central London. For consulting in different countries. The range is more diverse. ICMCI emphasises that for consulting assignments, the necessity of the consultant to be adaptive and adaptable to the cultural and national characteristics is key to success. This applies to a whole range of assignments from strategy formulation through mentoring and coaching to implementation assignments. Indeed, often management consultants title themselves as Change Agents rather than as management consultants. All change involves people. To be effective in making change happen the methods and approach must be sensitive to the people, either currently or in the future, involved. ICMCI holds that it is an axiomatic truth that indigenous consultants, that is those developed and practising within the culture, are in the privileged position of being able to understand the demands that the cultural sensitivity, and current organisational and commercial practice, and there be more effective as management consultants. Hence ICMCI is proactive in assisting countries develop their own national Institutes to develop a body of competent professional management consultants within the country (where membership of the Institute includes adherence to a code or professional conduct and ethics with attendant disciplinary arrangements for breach of these codes). Consultants from other countries do have a role in both challenging assumptions that are embedded in the culture as is and in sharing global best practice (and ICMCI would expect in transferring this awareness to indigenous consultants). However, IMCI strongly supports the development of the local profession so that the requirement for imported talent is concentrated on the two aspects stated at the head of this paragraph. In the following paragraphs, ICMCI discusses aspects of the use of management consultants to achieve the MDGs: throughout the advice to develop and nurture a body of professional competent management consultants is underpinning to all the proposals made.

5 Professional, competent, trustworthy consultants ICMCI has been party to research on the expectations of clients on the characteristics of a consultant that they would prefer to hire. They need; Knowledge (of management, the sector, the economy, the function, the approach) Skills (inter personal skills and analytic skills) Competence (demonstrated ability to conduct similar assignments with clients) Trust (for instance a code of ethics and conduct reinforced by a disciplinary arrangement with real powers) The items listed are in increasing order of importance. It is noted that the holders of the CMC qualification have demonstrated the first three and are subject to the required codes for the last requirement. Enabling Development Projects succeed Development projects, that is projects defined to be essential for the increased progress on major developmental shortfalls for a nation or major region, are by definition large and complex. Often they are substantial programmes and with significant finance provided by development agencies. In line with the discussion above, ICMCI notes that often these projects have ex-pat consultants (and often from the aid giving country). Indeed, if the intention is for transfer or adoption of best practice elsewhere into the target country, this is often a sensible approach. However, most development projects have considerable change agendas (change that is of the way people work and are organised) and for those aspects, ICMCI would strongly recommend the use of indigenous, professional, competent management consultants. Technology Myopia Technology (of all types) is often promoted as a means of achieving economic development, increasing health and welfare and generally achieving development objectives including the MDGs. ICMCI wishes to repeat its advice to UN groups in the past. Experience shows that it is necessary to have the people, process and technology aspects of a project aligned and in balance. The People investment can include: Roles, Job definitions, Functions, Competences required, Initial training, On-going training, Personnel development, Knowledge requirements, Skill requirements, Structure, Reporting mechanisms, Career path

6 design, Performance assessment, Knowledge, skills, attitudes, Beliefs, Values, Behaviour, Working conditions, Social environment, Political environment, Culture and Legal considerations. Process includes redesigning the entire operation. Investing in a disproportional manner in the three areas (and investing includes spending time, effort and cash whether that is classed a capital or revenue expenditure) can lead to sub-optimal result for the project. In the extreme case of ignoring one of the three normally results in a failure to gain a return from the investment in the other two. To illustrate the consequences from an imbalance in one in turn of the people, process, and technology trio, consider a project which invests in Technology and Process design but inadequately invests in the people aspects. This results in: not enough people change, people confused, and inability to operate the process/technology all which encourages a reversion to the old process wherever possible. The outcome is reduced long term gain and a sub-standard performance. Similar disappointing results are seen if the technology investment or process design investment is inadequate. ICMCI recommends that, in line with accepted best practice, every development project needs to ensure that the investment is balanced. It is appreciated that it is often the technology which is tangible and demonstrable early in the project and thus is naturally appealing to the funders of the project. The lack of long term performance through underfunding the process or people aspects is usually only apparent later. Using Management Consultants as cost effective interventions Having successful development projects, and effective organisations in an economy depends on management ability. ICMCI would support measures to increase the effectiveness and impact of the management profession in the developing countries. Unfortunately, there is considerable scope for improvement. Well informed commentators estimate that in the developed economies that managers on average are about 55% effective. ICMCI would be surprised if the managers in the developing economies were more effective. The scope of support provided by management consultants continues to increase but in this context project and programme management and evaluation, adoption of best practice, coaching and mentoring, organisation development and change management are clearly relevant. Instead of aiming to be able to make all mangers competent in all the topics, it is often effective to use consultants who are expert in a field, and for these experts to move from assignment to

7 assignment. expertise, This is particularly apposite for economies with reduced numbers with a given In addition, competent management consultants are aware of practices in other economies so can be aware of emerging best practice and new approaches. This enables a developing economy to be more (or not to become less) competitive. Internationally connected management consultants who typically are involved in several assignments (perhaps by use of their associates in the consulting firm) can ensure quicker, earlier adoption and this again contributes to achieving a competitive economy. National capability in management consultancy A capacity in management consultancy can slowly develop organically with returning nationals from overseas having gained training and experience, but there are opportunities to accelerate the process. The last AMR paper from ICMCI was shared by the UN with the World Bank, who further shared the paper with The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). EBRD incorporated the concepts into their strategy for their development of business advisory and support services in the transition economies within their ambit. ICMCI originally collaborated with EBRD in Kazakhstan with a member donating world class training material (which EBRD translated into Russian) and undertook a train the trainer programme. In the first three years the original dozen trainers had provided on a commercial basis training and development to over two hundred who became competent management consultants, this training programme won international awards. ICMCI and EBRD have since undertaken significant collaboration in Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Lithuania, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia and Latvia. Plans are in progress to extend this several to other former soviet bloc territories and the countries of North Africa. The combination of ICMCI and EBRD has produced national professional institutes, some already active on an international stage. The institutes also hold conferences and training events which has enabled the introduction of best practice and new approaches from other countries, which has assisted the indigenous profession to play its part in the modernisation of the local economies. A professional body committed to develop the size and competence of the profession in an economy is a significant accelerator for economic development.

8 Building capacity and capability in an economy A professional management consultancy element in an economy adds capability and capacity. This is achieved through an understanding of the effective use of consultants and building a national institute and developing the indigenous consultants. ICMCI is delighted to report that this has clearly been seen to be effective, especially with the SME sectors, in the transition economies in which ICMCI has partnered with EBRD as mentioned above. MDGs: Achieving Goals At the time of setting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) it was proper to regard the turn of the millennium as a key point in the social history and development of the entire world and to set challenging objectives for improvement in the human condition for those not enjoying what has been achieved elsewhere. There was at that time also a management philosophy that it was better to set challenging targets (in the vernacular of the time BHAGs Big Hairy Audacious Goals or similar base words of the acronym). Often quoted was better to aim very high and fall a little short, than to aim low and achieve just that. ICMCI cannot say if this in the minds of those setting the MDGs, but many MDGs are still short of full attainment over a decade later. Because these goals were often challenging and significant from the current situation, ICMCI notes that for challenging programmes (a programme is focused on goals and objectives) that the achievement can only be achieved in increments, sometimes including setbacks in one area to achieve in others. ICMCI would expect to see programmes of initiatives and projects (each with target achievements) to be prepared in order to eventually achieve the MDGs. As time passes and experience accumulates, the initiatives and projects should be amended in light of achievements made and events occurring (e.g. the global recession triggered in the 2008 period) but all the time comprising an overall programme towards the MDGs. Many of the MDGs are aspirations within crucial areas of society (such as education). It was ICMCI's view in a previous AMR submission, that putting together a programme for achievement of the MDGs, and adjusting as circumstances changed to continue towards the agreed goals was a specialist branch of programme management. The specialism should be focused on the nature of the programme, with personnel required to be able to understand the change cultures in their own environment. Lessons would be learnt amongst these specialists and a world-wide sharing of lessons learnt and ideas was paramount to these specialists being successful.

9 ICMCI proposed in the previous AMR paper the formation of a cadre of MDG programme management specialists. ICMCI has not seen any arguments that persuade them to change their advice. Conclusion We know many calling themselves Management Consultants have a propensity to cloak their advice in detailed, often polysyllabic, descriptions. In this paper, ICMCI has tried to openly present our core ideas in an accessible clear manner. We strongly believe the core messages we have presented here to be almost self-evident: the issue to us is that the core lessons are not followed as often as they should be. The author was once told by a Nobel prize winning physicist that If you cannot make something simple, you yourself have not understood fully and properly. ICMCI hopes that we have indeed demonstrated that we have understood the situation properly; our suggestions are practical enablers to the achievement of the MDGs.