University Consultancy Project Essay: Consulting Research Evaluation

This essay provides an in-depth examination of consultancy research tools, with a particular focus on the evaluation and management of projects. It explores the practical value and benefits these tools offer to both clients and consultants, emphasizing the importance of linking research with practical applications to improve practices and ensure successful consulting activities. The essay uses the SWOT analysis as a key example of an effective consulting research tool, applying it to analyze the business of Tesco in the United Kingdom. It discusses the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and how the analysis informs policy changes and regulations. Furthermore, the essay highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the SWOT analysis itself, and how the consulting research tool can be used to address the needs of stakeholders, improve resources, and facilitate growth.

Running head: CONSULTANCY PROJECT
Consultancy project
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Essay
The essay or piece of work has been prepared to discuss about the evaluation and
management of a consulting research tool, which has helped in the management of a project
and analyse the strengths and weaknesses in regard to a particular situation. This should offer
potential practical value and benefits to the clients as well as the consultants of the research
and the regulations of policies too. The essay should allow the researcher and consultants to
link the research and practices and ensure betterment of inform practices along with ensuring
successful consulting activities and benefiting the clients, consultants, buyers or purchasers
and the tax payers too (Markham 2019). For example, the evaluation of SWOT analysis has
been considered as effective consulting research tool for the evaluation in this case.
According to O'Mahoney and Markham (2013), the concept of management
consultancy holds special importance as nowadays, most of the individuals have sought out
this as a major career choice and also for the businesses. Huge amounts of money have been
spent on the consultants, which facilitated single outsourcing as well as management the IT
development projects, which further has created an impact on the Government structures as
well as on the provision of educational facilities and for consumers (O'Mahoney and
Markham 2013). Not only does the consultancy has helped in fostering the management of
good relationships between the people such as the customers, consultants and senior public
officials as well.
As stated by Baaij (2013), the management consultancy has not only been prestigious,
but also has helped in resolving internal organisational issues through analysis of
organisational strengths and weaknesses and even determining the macro economic factors
responsible for impacting the business. The management consultancy projects, as stated by
Wickham and Wilcock (2020), also happened to be effective for gaining insight about the

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management of clients as well as the various stakeholders and their interests addressed
properly, both inside and outside the organisation. The consultancy related to the
management projects has also benefited the large sized companies and also the medium sized
organisations to undertake approaches for dealing with complex client problems and also
assess the weaknesses, opportunities and threats that might be required by the business to
produce the expected outcomes in the end (Baaij 2013). Also stated by Markham (2019), the
management consultant has risen far beyond expectations, as it has not only allowed the
companies to generate higher revenue, but also has helped in making the primary products
remain more competitive within the marketplace. To accelerate the performance, the business
organisations have taken help from the management consultants so as to facilitate changes
and ensure all the communities to get involved too for greater good (Wickham and Wilcock
2020). The consultancy research tool has been used for not only improving the sales and
delivery process for the products and services of a company, but also ensured assessment of
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that might have been experienced (Craciun
2013).
To be precise, the evaluation of SWOT analysis tool has been taken into consideration
as an example of the consulting research tool. Considering it as an example of the research
consulting tool, the SWOT analysis framework has been applied to analyse the various
aspects influencing business for Tesco in United Kingdom. Tesco has always been a major
supermarket retail chain, which has been known for its great quality grocery items as well as
other products and services to cater the needs and preferences of people all over UK. The
SWOT analysis has been used to provide a critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses
with reference to the potential values and benefits for the consultants, clients, etc (Jha-Thakur
and Fischer 2016).

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For example, while applying the SWOT analysis framework, it was found that
Tesco’s strengths have been about being the largest grocery retail chain in the United
Kingdom, due to its bigger market share, higher sales and generated revenue too. The
company holds 28 percent market share and the geographical diversification has helped in
opening up more than 6800 stores all over in 14 nations (Bull et al. 2016). The diverse
marketplace comprising of customers with diverse sets of needs and a wider product line has
helped in higher satisfaction among the customers while the superior use of technology has
helped the company to remain technological advanced, thus ensured efficient network of
supply chains and distribution too (Markham 2019).

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The major weaknesses experienced here on the basis of the evaluation of SWOT
analysis included the failure in targeting the right audiences in Japan and USA while the
accounting scandal in the year 2017 further created negative brand image too. The high debts
and credit card liability proved to be problematic whereas the low cost strategy implemented
resulted in steep fall in profit level for the past few years. Considering the supervision of a
consultant, it would also help in addressing these issues resulting from the weaknesses,
furthermore, turn those weaknesses into strengths for acquiring more opportunities to excel in
terms of business performance and profit level achieved (Babin and Zikmund 2015).
Based on the analysis of the tool, Tesco’s opportunities came into limelight, which
included strategic alliances with other brands so as to expand the range of products while at
the same time, create joint ventures to gain outreach to new market segments, This has also
benefited the company to enter the emerging markets and also to make sure that the low cost

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strategy bring positive results, the ecommerce platform has been created. This has
revolutionised the way of shopping and allowed people to buy products online, which
reduced the operational costs and other cost incurred to a large extent for Tesco (van Hoek et
al. 2013). Few major threats were the high competition within the market, Brexit referendum,
presence of new entrants and substitutes in the marketplace as well.
Therefore, based on all these strengths and weaknesses, it could be understood that
these information had been of importance for the consultants and also the clients, which
could influence policy changes as well as the rules and regulation implemented within the
company. Based on the tool, the necessary research findings have been presented, which
should enable the business organisations to take help from the consultants and also address
the needs of various stakeholders involved in business (Rogers and Davidson 2015). By using
the consultancy tool not only does the various findings have been easily addressed, but also
the company has gained scopes and opportunities to improve certain areas such as human
resources, physical resources and assets’ acquisition, financial resources and also assessed the
need for funding, future trends, policy changes to be implemented along with the ability to
grow globally (Smyth 2014).
In spite of this, it is to be noted that there are few strengths as well as weaknesses of
the SWOT analysis tool itself. The SWOT analysis tool itself has some major advantages or
strengths such as it brings the best match between the environmental trends including the
opportunities and threats and also analyses the internal capabilities, which can be helpful for
achieving the goals and objectives. In spite of that, there are few weaknesses as well such as
it is only favourable during the management of business planning and due to this, the lack of
a proper hierarchy could lead to major issues and problems. The SWOT analysis tool also
tends to be more subjective, rather than being objective, which might be difficult to
accumulate the accurate information and data always.

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Based on the different interests of the various actors, it has been found that the
customers are to be influenced the most considering them as the most vital stakeholders in
business. Thus, the consultancy research tool, focused here, seemed to be effective for
analysing the areas of weaknesses and also the opportunities, based on which, necessary
changes and informed practices have been undertaken. The company has introduced an
ecommerce platform for easing down the way of shopping made by the clients, which has
created convenience while making purchases online by sitting at home and then products
have been delivered at their doorsteps (Molenaar 2013). The consultants have found this tool
to be purposeful for supporting the strategic decision making that could keep the clients
happy and at the same time, prioritise on the management of human resources too. To do so,
the company has to be cautious in monitoring each and everyone’s performance and then
undertake necessary approaches to address their needs and provide them with training and
development programs for improving their skills, knowledge and expertise. The
maintenance of good quality work would be possible in such way while the consultancy
research tool had the potential to increase the brand reputation too through greater
management of stakeholders and also by implanting necessary changes in policies,
legislations and regulations to maintain good standards (Hiller and Rosborough 2015).

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Also stated by O’Leary (2013), that the use of this consultancy research tool has dealt
with resolving threats and issues and allowed the consultants and other researchers to
implement change management practices too. This has been possible with the help of
enabling innovative measures to raise the scopes for survival in the competitive business
environment, thereby, reduce the likelihood for threats and issues that might be experienced
in the near future. The managers have been involved to acquire improvements in performance
with the help of facilitation of change through research and development practices too
(O’Leary 2013). Thus, all these findings of the research have been of importance for the
consultants and thus the acquisition of skills and competence has been a common feature for
them while pursuing the postgraduate business courses too. The enhanced knowledge and
information about consulting by gaining insight into the consultancy research tool, further
helped in delivering potential values and benefits for the consultants as well as for the clients,
customers and other groups (O’Leary 2017). Thus, the research consultancy project tend to
be useful for the consultants to consult on business matters and make decisions while even
reflect on the experiential learning during the management of marketing education too.

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References
Baaij, M., 2013. An introduction to management consultancy. Sage.
Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015. Essentials of marketing research. Nelson Education.
Bull, J.W., Jobstvogt, N., Böhnke-Henrichs, A., Mascarenhas, A., Sitas, N., Baulcomb, C.,
Lambini, C.K., Rawlins, M., Baral, H., Zähringer, J. and Carter-Silk, E., 2016. Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats: A SWOT analysis of the ecosystem services
framework. Ecosystem services, 17, pp.99-111.
Craciun, C.S., 2013. Quality of business consulting services. International Journal of
Academic Research in Economics and Management Sciences, 2(1), p.53.
Hiller, A. and Rosborough, J., 2015. Brief encounter: the use of consultancy projects to
enhance the learning experience of postgraduate marketing students.
Jha-Thakur, U. and Fischer, T.B., 2016. 25 years of the UK EIA System: Strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 61, pp.19-
26.
Markham, C., 2019. The Art of Consultancy. Legend Press Ltd.
Molenaar, C., 2013. E-Marketing: Applications of information technology and the internet
within marketing. Routledge.
O’Leary, S., 2013. Collaborations in higher education with employers and their influence on
graduate employability: An institutional project. Enhancing Learning in the Social
Sciences, 5(1), pp.37-50.
O’Leary, S., 2017. Developing entrepreneurial and employability attributes through
marketing projects with SMEs. Journal of Research in Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

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O'Mahoney, J. and Markham, C., 2013. Management consultancy. Oxford University Press.
Rogers, T. and Davidson, R., 2015. Marketing destinations and venues for conferences,
conventions and business events. Routledge.
Smyth, H., 2014. Market management and project business development. Routledge.
van Hoek, R., Wagner, B., Bak, O. and Boulocher‐Passet, V., 2013. Connecting industry and
supply chain management education: exploring challenges faced in a SCM consultancy
module. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal.
Wickham, L. and Wilcock, J., 2020. Business and Management Consulting. Pearson Higher
Ed.