BM562 Consultancy in Practice: A Reflective Report on Skills Growth

This report reflects on the skills developed and enhanced during a business consulting project, including communication, teamwork, and time management. It identifies the knowledge gained regarding PEST analysis and its application, as well as improvements in confidence through interaction with p...Read More

Business Consulting

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Which skills have you developed and/or enhanced as a result of the project?.......................2
What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start of the process?.............................3
To what extent has your level of confidence improved?........................................................3
How could you use your learning in your future career?.......................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
Identify skill gaps where you consider that further development would be useful in business
career. Propose a plan of action for filling these gaps/developing these areas......................4
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6
Appendix-........................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
It is essential for every individual to learn from their projects for their future
developments. Every project help a individual to learn few skills and enhance their desired skills
and knowledge which will further help them to develop their personal and professional life
(Nissen and Seifert, 2018). The following report will covers reflection on the skills developed
during module, the knowledge which is developed now that does not have earlier. This report
also covers the improvement of confidence after completing the project and the ways to use the
learnings in future career.
Task 1
Which skills have you developed and/or enhanced as a result of the project?
There are few of the skills which I have developed during conducting this project and these skills
are mentioned below-
Communication skill- While conducting this project I have developed communication
skill where I have to interact with more people and collect information. I have developed
communicate with my team members and analyse which task should be given to whom. I listen
their suggestions and advices appropriately and then respond in a corrective manner to share
actual facts and figures of the content. Hence, this helps me to develop my communication skill.
I also supposed to clear my doubts and vision with my teacher regarding project so that I will get
to know that I am on the right track to complete my project (Greenwood and Freeman, 2018).
Team working skill- I have also developed team working skill during this project
because I was working with a team where I have assigned roles and responsibilities to my team
members according to their available knowledge and skills. This will help to complete the
project with efficiency. I have also resolve few team conflicts properly and motivate my team to
complete the project before due date. I convey complete message to my team members and make
them understand the vision and mission of the project.
Time management skill- I have also developed time management skill by completing
the whole project on time. Here, I have measured the time given by teacher to complete this
project and then I have divided the task according to given period of time to reach the goal of the
project. I make a priority list of tasks where I mention most important task on the top and least

important task at the end so that I will make sure that most important task should be completed
first on time and the whole project will be finished before due date.
What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start of the process?
I was lacking behind to know that few factors also impacts the performance of an
organisation (Mihailović, Radosavljević and Popović, 2021). I am lacking behind to know that
political factors also impacts the education institute. I have gained knowledge well regarding
PEST analysis and how it is implemented upon a organisation for analysing the factors of
external business environment and how they impacted the business. Now I can implement the
PEST analysis model appropriately in various projects. Secondly, I was also not known about my
team working skill earlier. I have not worked with a team before but the way I managed by team
and solve their issues will help me to analyse my strengths as well as weakness. Hence, my
leadership skill for managing a team and influencing my team members to perform well is
enhanced after doing this project which was unknown earlier.
To what extent has your level of confidence improved?
I have developed a good level of confidence after completing the project and this has
happened after interacting with more people to collect marketing information such as targeted
market of institute, their issues, their competitors and many others (Nissen and et. al., 2019).
Earlier I was unable to interact with unknown people openly and ask my doubts but now after
completing this project I am feeling very confident to interact with people openly and collect the
data regarding my projects. Secondly, when this project was given to me I was afraid that how
could I will manage a team and complete the task on time. Making appropriate planning for the
module, solving each quarries appropriately and assigning task to group m,embers properly will
help me to enhance my confidence level that I am able to manage a team appropriately.
How could you use your learning in your future career?
I have developed various kinds of skills and knowledge while conducting this project which can
help me in developing my professional career. Few of the skills and their usage at my
professional career is mentioned below-
Communication skill- I have developed communication skill while conducting this
module and this can help me to clear interviews where I will apply by showing my

communication skill and responding their questions appropriately. Hence, communication skill
also help me to enhance my personality in front of others.
Team working skill- This skill is also learned for future profit. I can manage my team at
professional career by proving my leadership and team working skills effectively and influence
other employees to corporate well for achieving the task goal (Donchenko, 2020).
Here, I have also developed the knowledge of few marketing model such as PEST analysis and
STP analysis where I can apply these models appropriately in future projects of different
subjects. On the other hand, I have also developed evaluation of data by choosing most useful
data and eliminating useless data for making project more attractive. This can help me in my
professional career by relying more on evidences rather than humours for making any effective
decision.
Task 2
Identify skill gaps where you consider that further development would be useful in business
career. Propose a plan of action for filling these gaps/developing these areas
After completing the project I get to know that my few of the skills need to develop well for
business career and these skills which is my weakness are mentioned below-
Analytical skill- I am lacking behind to analyse the current environment and make effective
strategies alone for completing task. Most of the plans which I made are not effective because I
am unable to focus on every factor which must be included within a effective plan. I must make
sure that it should be improve as soon as possible to make business career effective (Lauritsen,
2021).
Problemsolvingskill- Due to bad analytical skills I am unable to analyse my environment well.
Due to this I am unable to analyse the problem and make effective solutions to mitigate the risk.
Hence, I am lacking behind to gain problem solving skill which is important for my business
career because conducting business activities have various kinds of risks and issues which is
need to be solved as soon as possible before it impacts productivity of business.
Plan of action- I have developed a action plan to develop these skills well.
Weak skills-
 Analytical skill
 Problem solving skill

Actions to improve skills-
 I must make sure that I will maintain a written document for my analytical skills and
mention the whole plan of every activity after completing the task I musk record
strengths and weakness in planning so that next time make sure that I will not repeat
same mistake (Cook, Harris and Barber, 2021).
 I can start solving case studies related to business issues so that I can analyse that whether
I am understanding issues well or not. Case studies must be related to business issues so
that I can gain knowledge that how problems arise in corporates and what should be done
well to mitigate them.
How I measure success-
 When I reach target of each task as per the expectation then I can measure that I have
learned this skill.
 When I am able to solve every issue related to my academic life as well able to
understand corporate issues and make effective suggestions to solve them then I can
consider success to learn this skill.
Time taken to complete the task-
 8 months
 6 months
Task 3
I have seen advertisement of Tesco company on social media platform where they advertise
about HR manager hiring for their Scotland based store. This is my dream job to have a secure
job like HR manager within a high reputed company.
Cook, R., Harris, M. and Barber, D., 2021. Management Consulting Projects: A Step-by-Step Experiential
Guide. Routledge.
Conclusion
From the above information it is concluded that various skills can be learnt from completing
project such as communication skill, team working skill and many others. These skills are
essential for professional career and help a individual to learn weak skills effectively by
preparing their action plan where they have to mention the actions taken to improve the weak
skills.

References
Books and journals
Cook, R., Harris, M. and Barber, D., 2021. Management Consulting Projects: A Step-by-Step
Experiential Guide. Routledge.
Donchenko, K., 2020. Business consulting in Russia: business development plan for company X.
Greenwood, M. and Freeman, R.E., 2018. Deepening ethical analysis in business ethics. Journal
of Business Ethics, 147(1), pp.1-4.
Lauritsen, S., 2021. A Sweet Future for Sugar Makery: A Deeper Dive into Small Business
Consulting.
Mihailović, B., Radosavljević, K. and Popović, V., 2021. BUSINESS CONSULTING AS A
FACTOR OF KNOWLEDGE IMPROVEMENT IN HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGEMENT. KNOWLEDGE-International Journal, 47(1), pp.31-36.
Nissen, V and et. al., 2019. On the current state of digital transformation in the German market
for business consulting. In Advances in Consulting Research (pp. 317-339). Springer,
Cham.
Nissen, V. and Seifert, H., 2018. Digital transformation in business consulting—status quo in
Germany. In Digital Transformation of the Consulting Industry (pp. 153-190). Springer,
Cham.
Appendix-
Task 3-
Person specification- It is the written document of having all skills expected by company within an individual.
Person specification for HR job role is mentioned below-
Essential skills-
 Communication skill
 IT skill
 Time management skill
 Decision making skill
Required skills-
 Problem solving skills
 Team working skill

 Writing skills
 Leadership skills
Job description- it is the job summary given by organization for vacant job role. Job description of HR position is
mentioned below-
Job title- HR Manager
Reported to,- Executive officer
Job summary- The responsibility of job role is to make effective decision for maintaining organisational culture and
policies.
Roles and responsibilities-
 To make effective decisions for organisational benefit.
 To communicate with employees and analyse their issues and mitigate them.
 To record employees performance on unbiased manner.
 To provide benefits to employees.
Qualification and requirement-
 Degree in MBA with HR course
 More than 70% marks from high reputed University
 At least 5 year experience within HR department.