CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Today, the relative modern professional such as engineers, manager instrument analysts etc, organize themselves in single units called management consultant firms.

Management consulting in this sense started as long as man, as reported by David Jornem 1983, that among early practitioners of the profession we legends in management such as Tarlor, Emerson, Gilberth and Gantt. He reported also that management  consulting received a fill up at this era, through the work of luminaries such as Mckenzie and (much later) Roethlisberger and  Elton Mayo of the famous how throne studies in the 1940, since its Jebut, management consulting has remained a consistently growing industry. The growth and existence of management consulting continues increasing at different parts of the world. Judging by the rate of growth, Jormen reported a possibility of more than 100,00 consulting in America today.

In Nigeria, figures are hard to come by, but the last count by the institute of management concultants put the number of management firm around 700. apart from these firms, there may be 1,000 individuals offering consultancy services n their own personal capacity.

Management consulting has long been recognized a useful professional services that helps managers analyze and solve practical problems faced by their organization and to earn from the experience of other management and those managers continue to influence the establishment of management consulting in heir organization or where this is not viable, advice the board of directors on the need to make use of external consultancy services, or manages themselves, at homes act as consultants by providing advice  to pears and subordinates. Management consulting is practices in many different ways. These reflect the drivers of the business and contexts in which consultants operate, the different personalities on the clients and consultant, and the reviewed conceptual approaches and intervention methods developed by consultants.

According to steels, consulting means any form of providing help on the content, process, or structure of a task or service of tasks where the consultant is not actually responsible for doing the task itself but is helping those are, in other words, consulting is strictly providing help for others.

Block also suggested that one is consulting anytime he/she is trying to change or improve a situation but have no direct control over the implementation. The purpose of this research is to look at the impact of management of management consultancies on the business section, but emphasis will be on small scale businesses. This is justifiable not only because small enterprises provide a logical starting point for big businesses, but also because they serves as a springboard and training ground for the latter.

 Small-scale businesses are vital parts of the economic and social life of any community.

It is very difficult to define exactly what a small-scale business is. The government small industry development defined it as any manufacturing process or service industry with a capital investment not exceeding N150,000 in machinery and equipment alone.

The united states small business administration (SBA) defined small manufacturing timers as one those average number of employees manages from 250 to 1,500 people. In another definition contained in the SBA.

A small business was defined as one which is dependently owned and operated and is not dominant in its field, despite the differences in definitions both with that of Stanley and Moise as well as others, they all share a common idea of the criteria which includes the number of employees, the sales value type of industry independent ownership and comparison with its past standards.

 For the purpose of this research the definition of the 1989 industrial policy will be adopted in which small scale industries was defined as. Those with the total investment of between N100,000 and N2,000,000 exclusive of land but including working capital.

 1.1     THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF DOWN FUNCTION GROUP OF COMPANY NIGERIA LIMITED.

Down function which was sited at 8 Nza street Independence Layout Enugu established in 1970 for the purpose of public relation services. This involves such things as advertising and promotional services, that is they help firms and organizations: they wee into the consultation with people who could represent what they actually want to portray as per calendar advertisement and business advice and services. Through the years, it becomes important and necessary that they should engage into management consultancy, which deals with fundamentals management concerns as business policy and management of organizations. The reasons for diversion is to enable graduates of management who needs some years of practical training and managerial leadership to properly mature and graduates into management  consulting profession.

 When it became known of their consulting services that is, towards management upliftment, they now started   practicing as management consultants tendering independent advice and existence to their clients. But them, there was no code of conduct bye-lack to regulate the moral and ethical standard of individual consultants.

In view of this, the firm continued on consultancy services till date at list  to make sure that management  in their management problems could reach out for their services. Once they play the role of improving the quality and enhancing the duty of the management consulting, research and training and also for the performance of his duty providing management advises and consultancy services to organization both large, medium and small  as well as to achieve their objectives.

 1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Management  consulting has long gained prominence in many organizations where small or large. Due to importance and relevance of management consultancies, it becomes necessary to properly analyze its element procedure and deduce its efficiency. In view of this impact of management consultancy, the researcher decided to research on those problems encountered by Macon Bread industry.

1. One of the major problems encountered by Macon bread industry is industry problems of sourcing capital to enable them procure machinery and raw materials for manufacturing of their  product. Poor management by inexperienced manages who do not understand and are unable to forecast the environment is one of the problems Macon Bread.

Industry is undergoing. The daily average output of Macon bread is very low resulting in higher prices for their product.

Insufficiency of workers and the quality of their products are not comparable to the factory product because of lack of  fund and government support.

 1.3    OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aims of this study includes:

1. The evaluation of the activities of management consultancies, on the performances of small-scale business in the area of organizational competence performance and excellence.
2. This study will also reveal it management consultancies are truly “company doctors”, trouble shooters” or “business healers” as claimed by some managers.
3. It will also find out if small-scale businesses are aware of the services of management consultancies and can afford it.
4. Finally, if small-scale business can get the services if and when need at a reason cost.

 HYPOTHESIS

1.      Ho:    Management has no major  impact in the performance of the          business.

         Hi:     Management has major impact in the performance of the business.

2.      Ho:    The purpose of management consultancy in business is not   beneficial  to the business.

Hi:     The purpose of management consultancy in business is beneficial  to the business.

3.      Ho:    management consulting does not helps to improve the performance of workers.

         Ho:    management consulting helps to improve the performance of  workers.

4.      Ho:    The benefits derived from management consulting are not  numerous.

         Ho:    The benefits derived from management consulting are numerous.

 1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study of the impact of management consultancies small-scale business will be beneficial to managers, businessmen and administration wishing to use consultancy services more effectively or to apply some consulting skills in problems solving within their organization. This study will be of immense advantage to consulting departments of national and sectional institutions concerned with the business enterprises development.

The result of this study will also contribute to the growing literature available on management consulting.

 1.6    SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study intends to examine consulting as a method and consulting is a professional without any regard to the sigh difference attached to them for the purposes of this study.

 1.7    LIMITATION

The study was carried out under a number of limitations:

i.       Material:     Books borrowed to follow students from library either returned late of not at all. This made the availability of references very low.

ii.      Time: Time available was grossly inadequate to carry out such a study into details.

iii.     Finance: This was yet another main constraint on this research. The cost of stationary, transport etc, has affected the study 50 much that the research was not carried into details.

iv.     Also the company officials were reluctant to make data available.

 1.8    DEFINITION OF TERMS.

i.       Consultant:          Person who gives expert advice to others, that is somebody that guide and helps others or people on areas they are ignorant of, such as in business, medical areas etc.

ii.      Clients:       These are personnel that get help or advice from any professional man.

iii.     Clientele:    Collective customers that seek help from those in high authority that is professional on certain fields.

iv.     Professional:        The skill, etiquettes, the special conventions forms of politeness etc as doctors, educational consultants, lawyers etc, practicing as to make a living.

 REFERENCES

Ama T.U (1975) America Management Association Making the Most of Management Consulting Services, USA.

 Austin W.F (1967) Management Service By Accounting Firms, Ronald Press Co. New York.

Lock P. (1981) Flawless Consulting, A Guide to Getting Experience Guide  Tax As USA.