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How do management consulting / professional services firms use A) 3rd-party contractors, B) freelancers, and C) crowdsourcing to deliver work to clients or internally?
Hello! Thank you for your questions regarding management consulting delivery solutions, project types and staffing sources. The most useful resources I found for your question are Freelancer FAQs, McKinsey article, and Crowdsourcing process. The short version is there are increasingly more options for those seeking management consulting assistance.
WORK DELIVERY OPTIONS
Consulting firms offer a spectrum of talent in which to provide services. Firms like Bain have junior research analysts to provide support to the middle managers for the client. McKinsey provides a consultant who will travel to the location, meet with a solutions team and provide a collaborative solution to the engagement manager who in turn submits the final product to the client.
Freelancers submit work through a variety of methods depending on client or third party need such as DropBox, Google Drive, Email (with a recommendation they offer an HTML version), sharing through Google Docs and sending ZIP files for images.
Crowdsourcing communities such as Upwork often times use an internal messaging system to gather creative work and data for clients.
PROJECTS AND FUNCTIONAL AREAS
Consulting firms provide services that support the client's overall strategy in the areas of accounting and finance, business analytics, technology, marketing, design, risk, transformation, implementation. They utilize third party, freelance and crowdsourcing to provide execution services that involve creativity and academics. "This includes writing, marketing, accounting, research, editing, creative design."
STAFFING MODELS AND SOURCE PLATFORMS
Consulting firms look for talent that prove to be analytical, collaborative and flexible. Bain offers professional development and mentoring to develop their highly collaborative teams. The Big Three recruit from high-performing undergrad and graduate institutions. Third party, freelance and crowdsourcing talent is found on a variety of sites that are client-direct or vetted through a third party.
SUMMARY
Traditional management consulting firms not only hire their own employees and groom talent internally, but they also work with/though third party, freelance and crowdsourcing. Delivery methods vary per category, but all offer solid, collaborative work. Thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!