The Business Consulting and Support Standards Mapping Project Dr Kion Ahadi Head of MSC

Introducing the MSC  Government recognised standards setting body for Management and Leadership.  Guardians and promoters of the management and leadership National Occupational Standards.  Manage and certificate the Management Apprenticeship programmes.  Provide secretariat to the Management and Leadership Qualifications Forum.  To publicise and promote the Management and Leadership Qualifications and Learning Strategy.

About IBC  The Professional Body for Business Consultants (management consultants & business advisers).  An organisation within the Chartered Management Institute.  A member of the International Council of Management Consultancy Institutes (ICMCI).  About 7000 individual members and 160 corporate (practice) members.

Consultant or Advisor Some degree of overlap. IBA advisers tended to focus on start up and small companies. Consultants more likely to be involved with larger organisations. Distinctions less clear over time. Advisers tend not to implement solutions. Consultants may both diagnose and implement solutions.

Project Stages Phase 1: Map the 8 SFEDI Business Support standards against: - The Management Leadership NOS; - The Institute of Business Consulting Management; - Consultancy Competency Framework; - Investors in People Competency definitions. Phase 2: Consult on the gaps that emerged from the mapping. Phase 3: Incorporate the consultation responses into a final set of recommendations, which define the next phase of work.

The Key Objectives Short term: To identify the linkages and confirm the gaps between the present set of standards. Mid Term: Development of new standards for use by consultants and advisors. Long Term: New standards published that will enable consultants and business advisors to meet the needs of business, increasing UK economic productivity.

Methodology Step 1. Use SFEDI as the control and map by affiliating the titles within each Framework. Step 2. Look for affiliations between the core standard title, the description underpinning each standard and the descriptions which underpinned each title in each of the other frameworks. Step 3. Accept/Reject data for mapping and identify gaps in the standards. Accept/ Reject. Tempered decision using judgment, interpretation and experience. Our decisions were based on the words written into each standard; no attempt was made to make assumptions about any information that was not stated in each framework.

Constraints of Mapping The standards or frameworks omit any consensus over what they should contain. The fundamental strengths, compatibility and practical usefulness of the standards were obscured by variations on common themes. Some of the standards are competency frameworks, whilst others are competences that build on skills and knowledge. Assigning reliable measures to the competency frameworks to show the differences between high and average performance is difficult. The standards obscure their true benefit for business.

Interim Recommendations The development of a single framework of standards for the future that is common to all business consulting and advisor specialisations. They should be easily transferable between and within different sectors. These future standards should build on the gaps identified from this mapping once refined after consultation.

Further Information MSC: IBC: MAON:

Next Steps Consultation phase ongoing till the end of February Collation and incorporation of feedback by the end of March Production of a final report and dissemination of findings by the end of April Start next phase in May 2008.