Management consulting indicates both the industry of, and the practice of, helping organizations improve their performance, primarily through the analysis of existing business problems and development of plans for improvement Consultancies may also provide organizational change management assistance, development of coaching skills, technology implementation, strategy development, or operational improvement services. Management consultants generally bring their own, proprietary methodologies or frameworks to guide the identification of problems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks.
In general, various approaches to consulting can be thought of as lying somewhere along a continuum, with an 'expert' or prescriptive approach at one end, and a facilitative approach at the other.
In the expert approach, the consultant takes the role of expert, and provides expert advice or assistance to the client, with, compared to the facilitative approach, less input from, and less collaboration with, the client(s). With a facilitative approach, the consultant focuses less on specific or technical expert knowledge, and more on the process of consultation itself. Because of this focus on process, a facilitative approach is also often referred to as 'process consulting,
There are many different ways that internal auditing may be approached: some are investigatory/ transactions-based while others move towards a systems approach. There is an argument that the most efficient use of audit resources occurs where one concentrates on reviewing systems as opposed to examining individual systems' transactions.
It is possible to use force-field analysis to weigh up the factors that together define the actual audit approach that is applied in any organization.
Internal auditing performed in many different ways and there are a variety of models that may be applied to discharging the audit role. The organization will define its audit needs and this will help to establish which types of audit services are provided. Moreover, an audit department will contain different types of auditors who collectively discharge the audit function. Internal auditing is about evaluating risk management and internal controls and this should be a central theme in most audit work; internal auditors have toyed with providing a form of internal consulting service for many years. The IIA standards now make it crystal clear that internal audit may provide consultancy as well as assurance work to an organization.
Professional Practices Framework suggests six types of consulting work:
1. Official appointments: planned and written agreement.
2. Informal engagement: routine information exchange and participation in projects, meetings etc.
3. Crisis services: temporary help and special requests.
4. Evaluation services: information to management to help them make decisions, e.g. proposed new system or contractor.
5. Facilitation services: for improvement, example- CSA, benchmarking, planning support.
6. Corrective services: assume direct role to prevent or remediate a problem, e.g. training in risk management, internal control, and compliance issues drafting policies.
In additional: It is important to make clear exactly what constitutes consulting work since IIA Implementation Standard says: ‘The nature of consulting services should be defined in the charter.' One difficulty is type one consulting which consists of a formal engagement with a planned and written agreement. The IIA encyclopedia series goes on to distinguish between optional consulting work and mandatory assurance services:
Assurance: adequacy of entity internal control, adequacy of process or sub-entity internal control, adequacy of ERM, adequacy of governance process, compliance with laws or regulations.
Consulting: improvement in efficiency or effectiveness, assistance in design of corrective actions, controls needed for new systems design, benchmarking.
Individual internal auditors may have knowledge, experience and skills other than their internal audit skills which management would like to exploit. For instance, internal auditors may also have particular training, experience or qualification in IT, accountancy or legal issues. If a consultancy assignment is to be delivered in which these skills will be of particular benefit it will, However it will be necessary to make clear in the agreed Terms of Reference for the assignment that the Head of Internal Audit can only be accountable for ensuring due professional care is taken in developing advice offered on risk and control issues. If management choose to place reliance on specialist advice drawing on skills beyond the internal audit skills set this will be at their own risk in respect of due professional care and it should be made clear that the work is carried out outside of the core internal audit remit. All acceptances by management of advice given to them, of course, involves acceptance by management of accountability for the consequences of implementing the advice
Relationships with management, other auditors and other review bodies are especially important in consultancy work. Consultancy work relies on working in partnership with management and internal auditors engaged on consultancy assignments should pay particular
Attention to building effective relationships with managers. The scope and objectives, timing,
And reporting arrangements should be agreed for consultancy assignments in the same way as
For assurance assignments. The objectives should make it clear that the internal auditor's involvement is a consultancy role. The Head of Internal Audit will reserve the right to audit any risk management, control and governance process developed with Internal Audit acting in its consultancy role.