Introduction
Handling a business can be quite tedious even with adequate staff, considering the lack of new perspectives and points of view. While all employees at every level will have enough responsibilities on their heads, third-party organizations can prove to be quite an extra help when the workload increases. Advisories and consultancies are professional organizations that help businesses get their operations in order, solve conflicts and provide guidance on various projects.
Advisory vs Consulting
The main difference between advisory and consulting lies in the services they provide. Advisors work with different organization and their projects by helping them predict uncertainties and risks. On the other hand, consultants work on particular projects or assignments by creating solutions with their expertise. Thus advisors work with organizations for longer periods whereas consultants leave after offering their specialized solutions.
Difference Between Advisory and Consulting in Tabular Form
| Parameters of Comparison | Advisory | Consulting |
| Service Offered | Advisors help in spotting and predicting risks and problems as such before they arise in projects. | Consultants are hired to offer solutions for specific problems or projects. |
| Duration of service | Advisors are usually hired for long-term projects and may also stay with the organization even after the project is completed. | Consultants can leave once the solutions are acquired by the company as they are only hired for that particular problem. |
| Business Practices | Advisors typically work closely with the employees of the organizations, sometimes even leading the team to developing efficient strategies. | Consultants usually work as firms that operate independently. However, this does not restrict them from working along with employees. |
| Primary Skills | Advisors gain their expertise for serving the organization through their knowledge of the coming that stems from their long years of service. | Consultants, however, use their business knowledge and current technology to approach a problem strategically. |
| Client Relationship | Advisors maintain a close relationship with the clients and maintain a friendly, less formal atmosphere. | Consultancies maintain a more formal and professional relationship with their clients. |
| Salaries | Advisors typically have lesser salaries than consultants. | Consultancies typically demand higher pay than advisors. |
| Work structure | Their work environment and timings are similar to that of the client’s organization. | Their work environment depends on the firm’s work timing which can include stretched hours with possible travel schedules. |
What is Advisory?
Organizations typically hire advisors for longer periods and work closely with the organization and its employees to provide their services. The categories that advisors fall into can be quantified as 12 in number, based on the field of expertise they serve for their clients.
Financial Advisors
Financial advisors can mean a lot of things as businesses will have more than one fields that’ll need to deal with money and transactions as such. As mentioned previously, financial advisors are typically hired to manage investments and apply their expertise to predict risks and manage resources appropriately. In case of additional capital, advisors can also help strategize how exactly this capital must be used to find the path that reaps the most benefits. However, in no way does this suggest that financial advisors must only be hired by businesses as they can also be hired to manage personal finances. Some of the common fields that demand advisory help are:
- Financial planning and strategy that helps in budgetary decisions, projections, and estimations of different elements of a project that can be both long-term and short-term.
- Handling bank accounts and other such transactional operations.
- Guidance through investments and designing portfolios.
Legal Advisors
Another crucial field that major businesses must take care of is the legal matters that concern the company. As a large business can be prone to potential lawsuits and claims that may or may not be true, one must always gear up with expert lawyers who specialize in providing legal services and pieces of advice. Some of their duties include:
- Fight and resolving cases to settle any kinds of disputes and conflicts.
- Draft all the required contracts and negotiations with their clients.
- Provide legal counseling for all sorts of management-employee disputes i.e., conflict resolution.
- Ensure that the businesses comply with all the laws and business standards set by local/international laws.
- Monitor and review all the acquisitions and mergers that occur in an organization through the implementation of policies and clauses.
Marketing Advisors
A business can get reap benefits when its services or goods start to sell. Businesses and entrepreneurs need a good customer base in the initial stages to boost their sales and this can happen only with good marketing. Marketing advisors can have heavier duties since they can have different customer bases and business strategies from company to company that they need to study first to develop strategies. Once they develop strategies, they can choose both traditional marketing techniques or digital initiatives to boost sales and put your businesses on the map! Some of their duties include:
- They work very similar to sales advisors and PR advisors to help in marketing.
- They study the targeted customers, their behavior, the company’s proposed strategy, etc. to develop strategies.
- Create slogans & advertisements that shape the gist of a company and convey the message to the right audience.
Operations Advisors
Operations advisors are typically hired to deal distribution of tasks, allotting them appropriately and seeing to it that all these tasks are served by the speculated time. Such hiring of marketing advisors is more prevalent in industries such as manufacturing and other e-commerce businesses that have tons of small operations instead of major functions and they include logistics, efficient shipping, resolving customer disputes and complaints, warehouse management, etc. Some of their duties include:
- Distributing and allocating tasks to each department.
- Monitoring day-to-day operations until they are accomplished.
- Resolve conflicts and obstacles that the company faces.
- Develop strategies that improve the efficacy of these operations.
Sales Advisors
Sales advisors can work very closely with the marketing department as both of these departments strive to boost the sales of the company. However, sales can include many other duties that involve several internal operations with the sales team. Since some companies are fully based only on sales, this field needs a lot of organization, interpersonal skills, important networks, and most of all, experience. Some of their duties are:
- Negotiating terms and prices with clients.
- Analyzing the best ranges of discounts and prices that suit the company.
- Guidance through sales pitches and product demonstrations.
- Increasing sales outreach by working alongside the marketing department.
Strategy Advisors
As the name explains, strategy advisors are mainly hired to develop appropriate strategies for the company i.e., workflows, plans, projections, etc. that can help discipline the organization. Bigger businesses allow such advisors to work closely with the COO and in some cases the CEO to suggest initiatives that might shape the company better.
- Perform a SWOT analysis to apply business strategies.
- Validating and verifying the proposed business concepts.
- Employing the right processes to put these strategies and initiatives into effect.
Management Advisors
Management advisors may work similarly to strategy advisors that help plan the execution of all the initiatives and operations planned by the company. Most modern companies prefer an individual who’s studied MBA or carries a great experience in the field. Some of the roles that management advisors take up are monitoring startups, boosting their growth, and helping them grow their digital market.
PR advisors
While not the most popular job role, having a PR advisor can greatly improve a business’s image and reputation. Also known as image shapers, PR advisors help create a good image for your brand while working closely with the marketing department.
- Elevating the current status of your brand.
- Rebranding and building strategy for the same, if ever required.
- Connecting the business to the right media or hiring popular celebrities for the same.
- Resolving issues that taint the brand image.
Tax Advisors
While filing taxes for an individual can be tedious, filing taxes for a major company can be overwhelmingly more strenuous. Hiring a tax advisor help to maintain compliance with the income tax department but also choose the right options that can decrease company expenditures. Most of their responsibilities include:
- Maintain compliance with all the income tax department requirements.
- Resolve any issues with the tax filing and returns.
- Providing advice regarding finances and legal issues.
IT advisors
The responsibilities of IT advisors are quite simple and fall into these categories:
- Guidance through product developments
- Develop and maintaining infrastructure
- Make sure they maintain compliance with all the security agencies and governments.
Recruitment Advisors
Large companies such as MNCs perform frequent mass recruitments that will need advisors and extra staff for the smooth running of operations.
- Advice on listing the requirements for candidates according to the company.
- Organize interviews and select promising candidates.
- Headhunt, screening, advertising job vacancies, etc.
Digital Transformation Advisors
Most businesses that follow traditional marketing practices require advisors in this field to help build a digital market for their business. Thus they help:
- Digitizing services and building websites for the same.
- Training employees to adjust to these changes.
- Establishing all these systems in the cloud.
What is Consulting?
Consultancies are generally hired for specific solutions in projects i.e., shorter periods, and work independently of the organization through consultancy firms.
There are six types of consultancies that are present in the market based on the services they have to offer, similar to advisories.
Operations consultant
Operations consultants are hired to make the flow of operations smoother and consistent. While the primary functions of operations consultants are to monitor sales, marketing, production and other such major operation with relevance whereas secondary functions typically are relevant to HR, legal, Finance, etc.
Financial consultant
Most companies hire advisories when it comes to financing, consultancies are hired to solve problems that require quick-fixing since they specialize in that. Finances consultancies are also one of the most commonly established firms since most newly established businesses prefer to fix their conflicts as soon as possible.
IT consultant
IT consultants, as the name explains, are hired to solve and resolve their day-to-day operations that are relevant to IT. Also, referred to as ICT or digital consultants, they help in resolving and guiding through specific fields on specific projects that require their expertise. For instance, their duties may range from assisting in redoing and monitoring protocols to helping to implement projects hands-on, especially during system integrations.
Management consultants
Also referred to as business consultants or organizational consultants, management consultants are usually hired based on their experience or education. Management techniques are usually what cause a great impact on how a business functions since strategic management results in great efficiency and productivity. Management consulting can also be used as an umbrella term to describe operations, HR consulting, and strategy consulting. Thus, we can say that most advisory operations come under management consultancy.
Human Resources consultant
Human resources consultancies deal with helping the employees with their personal and professional problems that affect their work directly. Some of these common operations include guidance through major organizational changes such as shifting to different locations, work environment changes, changes in work culture, employment terms, change in management or other leadership roles, training during new IT infrastructure, etc. While HR consultancies are demanded the lowest, most companies require such services in this post-covid phase where employees find it extremely difficult to switch back to the offline mode or maintain hybrid mode.
Strategy Consultant
Strategy consultants are usually hired to carry out work assigned by the management of the organization, typically the senior managers, directors, COOs, etc. Strategy consultants require the most effort as they need to first study the business’s techniques and resources to develop appropriate strategies for them. In addition to this fact, consultancies usually work independently of the organization and thus will need to put in extra effort to learn about the company.
Main Differences Between Advisory and Consulting In Points
- Advisories help in spotting problems and risk management whereas consultancies help in developing solutions for specific projects.
- Advisors stay with the organizations for long periods, sometimes even after the project is completed. On the other hand, consultants usually work until the solution is developed and leave after that.
- Advisors usually maintain a close relationship with their clients that is usually friendly and less formal whereas consultants maintain a more professional and formal relationship with their clients.
- Advisors generally have lesser salaries than consultants in the present market.
- Advisors generally use their years of experience in serving the company as an advantage to provide their service with more convenience and accuracy whereas consultancies have to depend solely on their expertise and experience with their previous clients as an added advantage.
Conclusion
Upon summarizing the above discussions, we can conclude that both advisories and consultancies are third-party organizations that provide helpful services to companies. However, advisories stay longer with companies and help predict risks before they arise whereas consultancies work independently and solve specific problems of the company.
References
- https://smallbusiness.chron.com/differences-between-consulting-advising-42301.html
- https://looka.com/blog/types-of-consulting/
