A consultant is a person who provides expert advice in their area of expertise, such as business, management, accounting, human resources, law, marketing, information technology, engineering, and more.
These consulting professionals use their education, training, and experience to provide business advice, and are often referred to as business advisors.
A business consultant or management consultant helps businesses and organizations improve their performance by providing expert advice to solve problems and implement solutions to realize goals.
Sometimes referred to as business strategy consultants, these experts work closely with a client’s senior management team to develop and improve their organization’s business strategy.
In the health and wellness industries, these business consultants often adopt the title practice management consultant, healthcare consultant, medical consultant, dental consultant, chiropractic consultant, and others.
According to Harvard Business Review, there are eight general functions that a business consultant or management consultant can provide, including:
The business consulting industry is being disrupted. In the last 100 years, consulting companies have consolidated into the ‘Big 4’ generalist consulting firms. But, technology and innovation are disrupting the consulting industry:
We have come to the conclusion that the same forces that disrupted so many businesses… are starting to reshape the world of consulting.
These big generalist consulting companies are losing market share to highly specialized, boutique consulting firms that can deliver better value to their clients. Technology and innovation provide access to information that used to be only accessible by traditional and expensive consulting firms.
Today, boutique consulting companies can be competitive at delivering better value:
As access to knowledge is democratized, opacity fades and clients no longer have to pay the fees of big consulting firms. Some of these [specialist] providers are moving upmarket by providing their own boutique consulting services, offering advice based on the research they specialize in gathering.
In other words, these generalist consulting companies are losing market share to consulting firms that specialize in a particular area of expertise that their client needs. Some business consultants specialize in a product, service, industry, technology, process, or other area.
Some business consultants or management consultants specialize in the health and wellness industry, often as a result of their personal interests or professional backgrounds. These consultants have adopted specialized titles, including practice management consultant, healthcare consultant, medical consultant, dental consultant, chiropractic consultant, and others.
The Business Clinic is a business consulting firm that specializes in supporting the health and wellness industry in Alberta. As a result, we understand the industry, your business model, your unique health products and services, your patients’ needs and the regulatory environment through extensive research and experience.
Many business consultants will be eager to implement tactics, often making assumptions about your practice and patients.
Instead of taking a guess, we take a scientific approach.
Before implementing any business consulting recommendations, we take a step back and look at our big picture strategy. We follow a three-step process:
To learn more, read our guide:
Business Consultant: Practice Management Consulting for Health & Wellness