Assessing the effectiveness of business consulting in operations development projects

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to address the question of the effectiveness of businessrnconsultants in operations development projects. It does this by analysing the results of collaborationrnbetween a multinational firm and business consultants who applied the theory of constraints to a series of development projects.rnDesign/methodology/approach - Following the presentation of an overview of businessrnconsultants and the need to measure the effectiveness of business consulting practices, the paper presents empirical data on the return on investment achieved from 20 development projects in the multinational company under study.rnFindings - The findings indicate that the involvement of business consultants in developmentrnprojects has a positive impact on outcomes and can be justified in financial terms.rnResearch limitations/implications - The generalise ability of the results in service sectorrncompanies remains to be tested. The data is limited to a set of internal operations developmentrnconsulting projects within one multinational company. Management consultants and managers willrnbenefit from the results of study.rnOriginality/value - The study provides important insights into the assessment of the effectivenessrnof business consultants in operations development.