Consider your position as a standalone consultant running your own business, working with a consulting firm or whether you are a generalist, work in a specific industry, consult in a specialized area or alternatively, are you the client and the person seeking to hire a consultant to assist with your business / organization? Be clear whether you are the client or the consultant. Your position should be consistent with Assignments 1 and 2. Your position determines the narrative and the perspective you undertake when designing, structuring and writing this assignment.

• If you are the consultant then you are developing a plan to attract, maintain and grow clients to work with in your business.
• If you are the client then you are developing a plan to attract, maintain and grow consultants to work with in your business.

This Capstone assignment builds from previous assessments. In Assignment 1 you developed your position within the consulting industry. In Assignment 2 you developed a written proposal for how you plan to work with a client / consultant on a project. In this assignment you are taking a broader view and looking at how you plan to operate within the consulting industry over the next 12-months (as a consultant/client).

The consulting plan considers your position within the consulting industry, your value proposition, the types of clients/consultants and projects you are seeking, the length of projects and how you will manage these various projects. Consider how many projects you are likely to seek in a year given that most projects last for between four and eight weeks in time and there is the lead up time before commencing the project and the follow-up /debriefing time following the end of a project. Ensure you take information from at least Modules 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 into account when developing your plan. There is an expectation that the consulting plan includes information on how you envisage you will attract business, networking strategies, operational and diagnostic strategies, strategies for surviving the first year, billing strategies, frameworks, templates and process strategies and strategies for managing business relationships all of which you will find information on in Modules 2-10.

Whether you are the consultant or the client, much of the consulting plan content will be the same. What will differ will be the perspective of the narrative. If you are the consultant, you are writing the plan looking at how you will attract and build your client base. If you are the client, you are writing the plan from the perspective of the person seeking a consultant (or a few consultants) to assist your business enterprise. The only change with the plan is the perspective and the narrative. The perspective and the narrative will depend on whether you are framing it from a) a business consultant seeking clients or b) the client seeking business consultants.

The consulting plan should include the selected consulting processes and project management plan, systems and billing and other requirements necessary to be successful in the consulting industry. These processes and systems should be justified (and referenced). After reading your consulting plan, the reader should understand how you plan to successfully conduct your business within the consulting industry for at least the next twelve months.

Learning outcomes

This assessment addresses all four of the Subject Learning Outcomes:

• Learning Outcome 1: Demonstrate advanced understanding of contemporary business consulting theory, process and practice.
• Learning Outcome 2: Apply leadership and collaboration skills for ethically coordinating, designing and planning innovative business practices.
• Learning Outcome 3: Evaluate complex business and enterprise concepts and issues to make evidence-based recommendations.
• Learning Outcome 4: Communicate business consulting knowledge, skills and ideas to others clearly, persuasively and credibly.

Format

• In terms of structure, presentation and style you are normally required to use:
  • AIB standard report format
  • AIB preferred Microsoft Word settings
  • author-date style referencing (which includes in-text citations plus a reference list).

These requirements are detailed in the AIB Style Guide.

• Reference lists for AIB assignments normally contain the following number of relevant references from different sources: 6–12 (for MBA assignments).
• All references must be from credible sources such as books, industry related journals, industry websites, company websites, company documents and recent academic articles.
• Your grade will be adversely affected if your assignment contains no/poor citations and/or reference list and if your assignment word length is beyond the allowed tolerance level (see Assessment Policy available on AIB website).

Requirements

The required word length for this assignment is 2500 words (plus a 10% allowance), excluding references.

To start we recommend you methodically look back at Modules 1-10. When looking back consider the industry, what you are offering, your value proposition and where you fit within the industry over at least a twelve-month period. Consider the type of consultant/client relationships you want to build and critically analyse the information in all the Modules in relation to your goals, value proposition and these relationships. Carefully select the elements from the Modules that resonate with how you plan to run your business, taking into consideration the various consulting frameworks, processes, billing and systems you want to utilise and implement in your business. Identify, which aspects from each of the Modules you plan to use and then organise them in a way that makes sense for your consulting plan narrative.

Provide a rationale for each of your choices. Use references as the evidence in your rationale to support your decisions/strategies used within the plan.

The plan should be consistent with your vision and your value proposition.

• Look back over Module 1 to identify your value proposition. Ensure you articulate what you have to offer the client/consultant.
• Look back at the business plan you created in Module 1.You may want to refresh this business plan so that it is consistent with your current thinking and where you plan to go (as a consultant or the client).
• Consider the learning activities you completed throughout this subject and which of these you will utilise in your consulting plan. Did you have a favourite or some that you resonated with and thought you could use in your business?
• Consider the different types of consulting approaches, frameworks and processes discussed in the Modules. Which of these are you likely to use in your business? How do you plan to use these frameworks and processes in your business?
• What systems, processes and templates will you put into place?
• How will you price your offerings?
• Consider the networking plan you created, the relationships you want to build, any relevant marketing tips or branding you plan to utilise in your business.
• Have you justified and developed a business relationship portfolio plan and segmented the business relationships into platinum, gold, silver and bronze (or similar), showing the relevant strategies for each of these relationships?
• How do you plan to grow the business?

Grading Criteria

Your Consulting Plan will be marked according to the criteria outlined in the assessment grading criteria rubric. (See link below)