Why Internal Consulting?
Internal Consulting is the area of consulting where organisations employ business consultants internally either within consulting roles or organised into internal consulting practices. In the UK around 30% of large organisations have an internal consulting function and most have individual consulting roles. This is an important area of consulting and is growing and the Institute is the only organisation actively representing this body of professionals.
The IC Expert Group on Internal Consulting is led by a Committee that meets around 10 times a year and organises activities and a growing body of resources to support the development of this area and those consultants working in it. Although funded and governed by the IBC this Expert Group seeks to represents all internal consultants whether members or non-members and whether internal management consultants or more specialised internal consultants. The Committee comprises internal practice leaders and other senior internal consultants – all are active leaders in internal consulting.
The activities currently comprise:
- An IC Internal Consulting Forum which is held every 9 months and is the only UK event that brings together internal consultants into a conference dedicated to their field
- Best practice guides are being developed for internal consulting
- Commentary is provided on internal consulting to the media to contribute to the wider awareness and understanding of the growing contribution being made by internal consultants
- Research is being supported into internal consulting both by the Expert Group and by the Economic and Social Research Centre (ESRC) and Warwick Business School
- Through involvement in other IC committees, members of the Expert Group ensure that the needs and issues of internal consultants are represented in the wider work of the IC including discussions with government.
IC Internal Consulting Project of the Year Award
A new addition to this year's IB Consulting Awards is the IC Internal Consulting Project of the Year Award. This category acknowledges the importance of projects carried out by internal consultants. Projects should normally be of substantial size utilising greater than four weeks of consulting resource and the project should be led and resourced exclusively or primarily by consultants who are permanent employees (full or part-time) of the client company. For this award, external consultancy and capacity provided by contractors should not be regarded as internal consultancy.
Entries will be assessed on the ways in which the project can be shown to have delivered service value and quality to the client, and via client testimonial.
To learn more about the criteria for the Award, please click here or see the IB Consulting Awards webpage.
If you would like further information on the Expert Group in Internal Consulting then please contact welcome@iconsulting.org.uk