FOREWORD

Management consulting has long been recognized as a useful professional service that helps managers to analyse and solve practical problems faced by their organizations, improve organizational performance, learn from the experience of other managers and organizations, and seize new business opportunities. Hundreds of thousands of private businesses and public organizations throughout the world have used the services of management consultants, separately or in combination with training, project management, information technology consulting, financial advice, legal advice, audit, engineering consulting and other professional services.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has been active in management and small-business development, and employment promotion since the early 1950s. Management consulting and the promotion of effective consulting practices were quickly identified as powerful tools for the ILO’s activities. Through its technical cooperation projects, the ILO has assisted many member States to establish local consulting services for the various sectors of the economy, and to develop management consultants and trainers. At present, the ILO, through many different programmes, is an important user and developer of consulting services.

To respond to a pressing demand for a comprehensive, practically oriented guide to management consulting, three editions of this book were published between 1976 and 1996. The book quickly became a basic reference work and learning text on management consulting, published in 12 different language editions in addition to the English original (Chinese, Czech, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish), and used worldwide by thousands of management consultants, educators and clients of consultants. Universities, business schools and management institutes in the United States and other countries have used the book in their management and consulting courses. Many associations and institutes of management consultants have recommended it to their members as essential reference and study material.