In every industry, professionals can benefit from working together and creating organizations to look after their best interests. For management consultants, CMC-Global, also known as ICMCI or the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes, that fulfills that role. As a federation of institutes of management consultants around the world, the goal of ICMCIis to advance the profession in every possible way.
As the consulting industry is growing, it encounters both challenges and opportunities. It’s the mission of ICMCI to be the leader in the development of management consulting as a global profession that drives social and economic change. ISO 20700 certification is one of the initiatives led and supported by ICMCI that improves the quality of consulting services. How is ICMCI going to accomplish this, and how does ISO 20700 impact the consulting profession?
What Does ICMCI Do?
Currently, ICMCI boasts a network of some 60,000 management consultant members established in 51 Institutes around the world. Out of that number, there are over 8,000 Certified Management Consultants (CMC).
This network reflects the collaboration of consultants with a common goal of advancing the profession. ICMCI wishes to ensure that the ultimate goal of management consultants working together is being fulfilled: becoming able to provide extraordinarily good services to client organizations.
How Does ICMCI Ensure Good Services?
By promoting the importance of the CMC designation, ICMCI works on ensuring that more management consultants get their certification. However, that’s only one of the many avenues that contribute to improving the standards of the profession as a whole. There are plenty of benefits to creating a standard for management consultants to operate by, as clients can begin to expect more:
- Valuable advice
- Integrity
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Access to a global network
- Confidence
- Best value in terms of providing service
ISO 20700 Certification and Its Impact on Consulting
Other than promoting the importance of the CMC designation, CMC-Global contributes to the development of the industry in many different ways. One of the initiatives that will have a significant impact is the development and implementation of ISO 20700. This new standard aims to improve transparency and understanding between clients and management consultancy service providers, to achieve better results from consultancy projects.
ISO 20700 is the first ISO service delivery standard in the world, and management consulting services were selected for this honor. It marks an essential milestone in the further development of the industry, especially with regard to the ability to set clear expectations and provide the best possible services to clients. And it ties in with CMC designation perfectly, since the requirements of becoming a certified management consultants already include the ISO 20700 guidelines for working with clients.
ISO 20700 brings increased attention to this important aspect of transparency between the consultant, who is delivering the services, and the client, who is receiving the services. It’s beneficial to both.
Training is Now Available
ICMCI has now certified professionals in a number of Institutes to offer training to our existing 8,000+ CMCs to provide them training on the application of the guidelines. Certified Management Consultants can check with their Institute to see if this service is available to them.
The accredited trainers are also now in the process of developing programs for client organizations to introduce them to ISO 20700, and how it can improve the quality of consulting services that they receive.
Key Takeaways
With the support of ICMCI and their Institutes, management consultants can usher the consulting industry into continued growth. By ensuring that a baseline standard of service delivery is followed and that further improvements are made through the collaboration of a global network of professionals, we are likely to see a bright future for the industry.
ISO 20700 Project Self-Declaration Training Workshop – Now available in recorded version!
It is our pleasure to invite you to our first ISO 20700 Project Self-Declaration Training Workshop. This webinar is now available in recorded version using a Learning Management System (LMS) so you can participate in your time zone at your convenience.
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