Consultancy with a new tinge of colour

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Kueh Joe Haur

KUCHING: Efficiency-driven management consultancy crucial towards corporate transformation.

The New Economic Model (NEM) may seem like an all-round big-scale government programme, but few realise that its formulation is the result of works by a big team of independent consultants.

The consultancy service is yet another back-office service that is often relied upon by major corporations or smaller entities to improve on company efficiency.

Unofficial revenue estimates placed the global consulting industry at a value of about US$366 billion last year.

“We are slowly being recognised in Malaysia where NEM is definitely evident of consultants’ role at work. The model is one of the most obvious example that demonstrates the crucial need for consultancy within the government,” highlighted Kueh Joe Haur, an engagement manager of Prudenz Consulting.

Set up in November last year, Prudenz Consulting’s practice includes providing business strategy and performance improvement services for clients. It comprises consulting professional with experiences in various sectors from established global firms including Deloitte Consulting, KPMG Advisory and AIA.

“Prudenz Consulting was established as a vehicle to unite the best talents available in the country for a common purpose, which is to localise international expertise to produce synergies that are pragmatic and profitable. We aim for ‘glocalisation’ (global and local),” said Kueh, whose past experience included consulting practice at Deloitte Consulting.

To date, Prudenz Consulting has engaged four major clients and plans to pull in another contract by the end of the year.

“Looking at revenue, we are aiming for RM2 million past our first anniversary this year,” he added.

On the consulting industry in the country, Kueh said organisations would want things to happen, in line with the nation’s ambition towards attaining a high-income status by 2020. He also noted that the role of consulting companies had changed dramatically over the years.

“In order to do this, the management has to decide it does have a problem and in response, strive to improve on it. That is where management consultancy comes in.

“It is more viable. Rather than permanently employ people within an organisation to address the issue, it is better to engage external consultants for a period of time to review the situation.

“A lot of companies, even those in the public sector, are doing this now.”

Kueh believed that consultancy nowadays had long abandoned the idea of consultants knowing everything and undertaking all efforts to change the company.

“Rather, we come to support any establishment which has identified the changes it needs towards higher efficiency. First and foremost, consultants need to know the company once the client opens up and decides to engage. It is important for the company to be transparent so that we, consultants, are able to understand its ‘wants’ and ‘needs’.

“It is a two-way relationship here. We exist to tackle inefficiency, simply because the world is not perfect,” he explained.

The growing globalisation of businesses and industries in general had inevitably led to the globalisation of leading consulting companies.

In particular, rapidly-growing economies in nations such as South Korea, Brazil, China, Singapore and Malaysia had been providing a wealth of new work for consultants. Nevertheless, Kueh did not dismiss the challenges faced by the industry, particularly its lack of presence in Sarawak.

“The challenge now is Sarawak, especially the SMEs (small and medium enterprises). Sabah has opened up recently, but Sarawak is yet to be untapped. We want to engage with more Sarawakian companies, because we want to be a part of the Sarawak transformation story.”

In closing his argument, Kueh strongly believed on the importance of image.

“Image is important. While we help companies towards revamping its image, we also want to enhance our own. In this case, we want pull in more good talents from diversified fields,” he concurred.