Metamorphosis of Decision Management Process

There are numerous players in the market providing consulting services that mainly focus on solving company’s problems and help the senior executives to take optimal decisions. These consulting services within the Decision Management space fall in one of three categories:

1. Analytics Consulting
2. Market Research Consulting
3. Management Consulting

There was a time when Consulting mean Management Consulting. Consultants were heavily paid individual from MC companies like Mckinsey and BCG. Companies and big Business groups often called them and asked to their suggestions.

But Consulting was not that alone. Fair Isaac has been providing Analytics based Consulting services for the last 50 years and they have helped companies grow in their own way. Analytics Consultant helped business managers to understand the existing operations, the pros and cons of the decisions made etc.

The third too existed, Market Research Consulting. This is somewhere between the first two. This is about knowing Market and competitors, and planning ahead to catch the opportunity that Market throws. TNS and AC Nielson are the major players in this area.

All three have existed and done well. They did not compete but worked together to help companies grow. But they never talk with each other. This has created a huge problem for the long term prospects of the company.

Every company waits for the issue to come and then call for the decision management service. There is however no sustainable solution. And each time one issue gets over, another problem is awaited.

If a sustainable solution is to be found, it needs to be started right from knowing the existing business scenario with good MIS Reporting System. Even though most of the companies have good reporting system, it lacks efficiency. It is better to automate such services so that little time and manpower resources are wasted.

Next comes knowing the operations in a better way and identifying the major decision points. This follows replicating the profitable decisions and eliminating the unprofitable ones.

Once this phase is overcome, the stage is ready to understand the market and the competitors to come up with highly optimized decisions.

At the end, when everything is streamlined and understood. The forward looking thought needs to be formed with all the necessary information ready. This is the stage for calling the Management Consulting services.

Until this process is not implemented by the companies today. Every year they will face a new problem in their business and will have to call Management Consultants to find the escape route. And the Management Consultants go away with a huge fee showing companies a quick solution, which in itself is based on lack of actual information of the existing business.