BUSINESS CONSULTANT JOB DESCRIPTION
The Business Consultant enhances business performance through standardization efforts, leveraging project management and Six Sigma expertise. They spearhead initiatives, providing process training, expert guidance, and metrics-based reporting for optimal outcomes. Additionally, they manage key reports, negotiate contracts, and drive data-driven engagements across industries, ensuring successful project implementation and policy compliance.
An Overview of Business Consultant Job Description Responsibilities and Qualifications
1. The Business Consultant leads corporate standardization efforts to maximize business performance through process improvement and training. They possess project management experience, Six Sigma certification, and excel in communication and leadership. Leads significant corporate standardization initiatives and is accountable for maximizing business performance by providing process training, subject matter expert guidance, follow up and metrics-based reporting to management.
Business Consultant Duties and Responsibilities:
- Understand, improve and standardize key processes resulting in improved financials.
- Introduce and replicate initiatives to drive significant customer and/or associate retention throughout the organization.
- Utilize a hands-on teamwork approach and persuasive communication skills to identify and leverage existing Best Practices to standardize processes across the company and improve business results.
- Lead and influence the overall standardization effort through consistent messages and actions with unyielding determination.
- Identify additional opportunities to improve current systems and processes to enable standardization of processes in a more efficient manner.
- Identify and implement, as directed, opportunities to develop new systems and processes (innovation) through dedicated projects.
- Provide training and mentoring to continuous improvement team members and/or field associates in the areas of statistical analysis, six sigma and process improvements.
- May lead and manage project team(s) to develop and execute initiatives focusing on business model innovation and/or process improvement, manage pilot programs for testing models and solutions, provide subject matter expertise for strategic decision making and change management, ensure initiatives are aligned and integrated with existing operations, and apply quantitative and qualitative analyses to assess, monitor, and evaluate results.
Business Consultant Requirements and Qualifications:
- Project Management Experience, or 5 years related business experience with a 4 year
- Undergraduate degree required or equivalent combination of education or experience
- MBA Preferred
- Six Sigma Black Belt certification preferred and/or the ability to perform meaningful statistical analysis are needed in order to confirm validity of identified Best Practices.
- A willingness to learn new process improvement tools is required as well. Broad strategic thinker with a change management mindset
- Knowledge of continuous improvement principles, methodologies, and practices preferred
- Business process analysis skills
- Willingness to be accountable for business results outside of their immediate control
- Excellent project management and time management skills
- Ability to work independently in order to meet deadlines
- Effective process training and excellent communication skills
- Demonstrated leadership skills to effectively guide front line Associates
- Ability to overcome any roadblocks to standardization that may occur
- Written and verbal communication skills, including delivering presentations
- Skill with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint)
2. As a Business Consultant, directly responsible for key management reports related to natural gas pipeline fuel quality, natural gas pipeline rate cases, natural gas pipeline operations/safety, natural gas storage, and state/federal regulatory filings on natural gas transportation, coal and rail transportation filings, fuel oil transportation, and procurement costs. Negotiates and administers fuel supply and transportation contracts as required. Communicates key attributes of all fuel, fuel transportation contracts to management and senior level employees, and to key internal/external customers as required.
Business Consultant Roles and Responsibilities:
- Work with clients to develop data modeling strategies, define and document stakeholders business requirements and build and maintain categorization models based on Clarabridge best practices
- Perform basic and advanced sentiment tuning for diverse sources of qualitative data
- Consult with clients to design, define, and modify insights analysis studies leveraging their qualitative and quantitative data.
- Implement the studies, provide insight findings, and collaborate with our clients to identify insights driven business recommendations.
- Play a critical communications role by interacting with clients to clearly and succinctly communicate insights both verbally and visually through presentations to the client and their internal stakeholders.
- Incorporate advanced analytics data analysis techniques into customer insights and properly package business insights and findings for customer consumption
- Provide enablement to clients on Clarabridge and Customer Experience Management best practices
Business Consultant Requirements and Qualifications:
- Bachelor's Degree or higher in Business, Economics, Statistics or a related discipline
- Strong focus on qualitative and quantitative data analysis including statistical techniques, general data analysis and trend analysis among others.
- Strong communication skills including written, analytical and verbal communication skills. (English- Most, Foreign Languages- Plus)
- Ability to learn quickly and willingness to help out wherever he/she is needed
- Ability to problem solve creatively and eager to learn new things
- Ability to multi-task as he/she will be expected to work on multiple engagements/initiatives simultaneously
- Expert in MS Excel and PowerPoint required
- Demonstrated experienced in Customer Experience Management, Business Analysis, Data analysis and/or Linguistic studies
- Experience with one or more Business Intelligence and Data Mining Tools desirable (MicroStrategy, Cognos, SAS, SPSS, Rapidminer, R, Minitab, STATA)
- Experience with statistical modeling and advanced statistics including descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive techniques
3. The Business Consultant reports directly to the Center Director and is responsible for providing small business counseling, training, and information services to owners or potential owners, in accordance with the guidelines and policies of the LSBDC. In carrying out the responsibilities of this position, the Consultant works directly with clients, other LSBDC staff, private sector individuals, local, state, and federal economic development organizations; and other interested parties that serve, support or interact with the small business sector.
Business Consultant Duties and Responsibilities:
- Provide management assistance, technical advice, and problem-solving help
- Conduct financial analysis, research and preparation of cash flow projections, and assist in preparing debt/equity financing packages
- Answer questions and requests for information
- Provide research to assist clients in finding effective data or reference materials
- Refer clients to other resources when appropriate
- Perform outreach to communities in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron and Jeff Davis parishes to build awareness of LSBDC services among bankers and the economic development community.
- Support organizational training activities, which may include design and development of workshop content
- Presents business workshops and seminars in consultation with other staff that is responsible for training activities.
- Maintain and document client records and related work activities in a manner consistent with program guidelines.
- Assist LSBDC in sustaining support of its activities and communicating its successes by providing narrative reports on activities and accomplishments for inclusion in progress or other special reports to the public, sponsoring agencies, host institutions, and other stakeholders.
- Counseling may be provided on the LSBDC site at McNeese State University or the client’s location as required.
- Be required to meet specific performance goals, to be set each year, including hours of counseling provided each fiscal year
- Involve developing and expanding cooperative working relationships with public and private entities, and improving public awareness of the program and its services.
- Represent the LSBDC and McNeese State University as a public speaker to community groups, private sector partners, co-sponsors and similar entities.
- Be expected to assist organizational actions to promote positive publicity and recognition of the LSBDC program.
- Assist in the development and recommendation of new or revised program activities consistent with the LSBDC mission, its strategic plan, and his/her individual work plan.
- Be required to maintain and enhance counseling capabilities and technical knowledge through ongoing professional development, personal study and other activities that expand his/her skills set.
Business Consultant Skills, Abilities and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree with significant course work in business
- Direct experience with business planning, marketing and financial management
- Strong financial skills
- Computer software proficiency
- Ability to develop and teach small business seminars
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Dependable means of transportation to visit clients within Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jeff Davis parishes.
- Master’s degree, experience as a small business owner, experience as a business consultant
- Experience preparing loan proposals for financial institutions
- Experience working with programs designed to assist small businesses at the federal, state, and local levels.
4. The Business Consultant is comfortable working across strategy and delivery-focussed work, leveraging their problem-solving experience to act as a force multiplier in our data-driven client engagements across multiple industry verticals. This role requires exceptional interpersonal skills as you engage with technical and business stakeholders equally - executives through to operational roles - to help understand and define business problems, design solutions and roadmaps, and drive projects from inception (or impasse!) to successful implementation and/or live service.
Business Consultant Roles and Responsibilities:
- Ability to work on different styles of engagements such as product development, technical delivery and advisory
- Working alongside technical experts to deliver recommended solutions and bridge the gap between the business and technical teams
- Collaborating effectively with clients to solve key business problems and challenges by framing the problem, developing a vision, and building a roadmap to deliver
- Able to identify the root cause business problems within the scope of an engagement
- Effective in their engagement of stakeholders through workshops and interviews
- Utilises a variety of business analysis and data representation tools and techniques
- Becoming a trusted advisor by building long-term relationships with clients, working with them on developing long-term strategies around data and technology and helping bring them to fruition
- Thinking broader than just the question or problem being presented
- Seeking out problems, and distilling them into digestible concepts
- Operating in detail, without losing sight of the bigger picture
- Capable of identifying the true pain points within a client's initial ask
- Working in diverse, multi-disciplinary teams
- Aligning and influencing people to gain a consensus
- Being inquisitive and curious about new technologies You might have had the following experience:
- Significant experience working in a professional services company or as an applied knowledge worker
- An interesting data, advanced analytics, data science, technology, and business intelligence background
Business Consultant Requirements and Qualifications:
- Have a strong core consulting skillset: problem solving, framing complex ideas, and thinking strategically
- Experience working with clients to solve key data and technology challenges by providing actionable recommendations
- Be a force multiplier within our multi-disciplinary delivery teams, by identifying strengths and capabilities of each member and helping them execute
- Capable of fulfilling a Project Manager or Scrum Master role on smaller engagements
5. The Business Consultant will be responsible for basic level quality supplier assignments. This role assists with activity supporting the GxP Supplier Assessment service, providing guidance, review and approval of GxP IT suppliers to ensure compliance with policy.
Business Consultant Roles and Responsibilities:
- Accountable for input of supplier documentation into a documentation management repository.
- Track and update supplier deliverables over the duration of the project.
- Generate, review and provide feedback on various documents related to supplier evaluations.
- Schedule and provide minutes for meetings, including action items, risks, issues and decisions.
- Provide periodic status updates at regular intervals, tracking progress through completion of deliverables
- Assist with generating key performance supplier metrics
- Ensure GxP IT Suppliers are identified and compliant with applicable policies and procedures.
- Manage resolution of issues, following up with responsible quality representative until resolved.
Business Consultant Requirements and Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Information Technology, or an Engineering discipline
- Relevant work experience on business projects
- Must demonstrate history of working on multiple projects simultaneously
- Exemplary communication skills
- Fast learner who grasps the essence and can change course quickly where indicated
- Detail-oriented aptitude
- Strong organizational skills
- MS Office/Excel required
- Familiarity with Microsoft Office 365 – particularly Excel
- Familiarity and understanding of key performance metrics
- You worked in a quality, regulated environment previously – a bonus, not required