Questions are often posed as to the actual contribution of management consulting as a profession. Amarket researchfirm headquartered in London recently noted that the industry was worth more than US$ 40 million in 2014 alone. However some reasons exist which support the validity of this line’s contributions. Client feedback is more often than not positive especially if it is centred around coaching orcorporate training. The challenge exists because no specific certification exists to qualify one as a consultant, there are few barriers to entry and thus the ones who succeed need to generate value. There are those who question the validity of the consultant’s ‘solutions’ and feel they do little more than frame the problem properly.  Ultimately, the truly conscientious consultant knows his/ her firm’s worth as trusted advisor and will not let this image be tarnished by falsified reports.

Products of all kinds face depreciation, be it cars or electronics. Similarly data faces decay and organizations need to upgrade the same in order to execute effective CRM. Business research conducted proves that customers protect data with utmost care, using all forms of digital gadgets. In case firms do not update data, they will be faced with duplicate leads, lost sales opportunities, brand decay, wrong segmentation and thus poor service to user. The firms will thrive only if they do the things correct.

Big data has a major role to play in digital marketing. Giants such as Facebook and Google are generatingbusiness analytics which marketers wish to track at a premium. Earlier records gathered about customers were transactional in nature, but now they have evolved to track behavioral among clients. Even secondary data derived often comes in handier than the primary intent of the market research. Personal blogs and online review forums allow another tool to track consumer ‘conversations’. The data generated is then used to develop consumer engagement tactics. The databases of prospects are then guarded zealously and used to align loyalty and incentive schemes.

Getting management jobs is today almost like winning a sales pitch. While automation has worked across industries, it has complicated recruitment matters. While companies advertise for jobs, convincing the hiring managers is a complicated procedure and often the pitch cannot even be made and the process is over due to poor channels of communication. A more effective approach could involve identifying the organization where the job seeker’s skill sets match with requirements. Within that firm, one has to gauge the identity of the hiring manager. Business research must then be conducted to understand which firm is weak at which point which can be met by the job-seeker. Then a relevant cover letter must be sent to the exact person who will execute the hiring. Following up then personally is crucial.

Digital marketing is focusing increasingly on mapping content. Due to the existing trends of sharing even banal stuff on social media through check-ins and posts, and the race for inducing others’ likes or comments, the amount of content getting published has increased exponentially. Add blogging as a concept, and it becomes clear that the world is getting more narcissistic. Market research suggests that on average a blog has a readership of 1.2 people. Thus conversation marketing has entered our lexicon where conversations are being tapped for inserting thinly veiled advertising. As word-of-mouth has escalated through social media, marketers are taking advantage and including conversation marketing as part of corporate strategy.

Blogging has now become a critical part of digital marketing. Certain ideas have been proven through business research to have lasting impacts to inspire such postings. Trending questions must be answered first. Posts which seem to give solutions and have phrases such as ‘how to’ always inspire the readers. Announcements must be made on blogs from time to time. Occasionally even question-answer sessions must be posed on them. Firm’s employees must be featured frequently. New products launched can be reviewed recurrently. Various products may even be measured against each other. Customers must be provided with proper training to use the same. Top ten lists are among most trending blogs in present times. Even YouTube videos may be launched with some refurbishment.

The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is changing the way members of the C-Suite are functioning. CEOs have become more technology savvy and incorporating business analytics tools like Kissmetrics increasingly as part of their corporate strategy. CFOs are increasingly taking into account behaviors of customers online and not just operations and sales teams’ reports as was the earlier case. The CMO profile has experience most drastic change having incorporated digital marketing into campaigns. COOs are involving CTOs in their planning and decision making with big data being now a critical part of operations. CTOs meanwhile have seen a rise in their importance at firms. Their profile is no longer based on daily operations but are now part of revenue planning like the rest of the C-Suite