Edito Janvier 2004

Fédéral >> 21-23 mai 2003 Conférence Annuelle de la FEACO à Lublijana, Slovénie Lublijana 2003: Rencontre entre le conseil local et les acteurs mondiaux Sous la houlette de son nouveau Président Remi Redley, la FEACO organisait au mois de mai sa conférence annuelle à Lublijana, Slovénie. Ce qu'il est désormais convenu d'appeler la "Suisse des Balkans" accueillait ainsi de très nombreux congressistes. Un choix géographique fort à propos à quelques mois de l'élargissement européen Organisé par l'AMCOS, la fédération slovène, et de son Président Janko Arah, les congressistes de la Feaco ont quelques jours durant pu disserter dans les magnifiques salons de l'Hotel Union, assurément l’un des plus beaux et des plus anciens édifices romantiques de Lublijana. Ville antique située sur la route alpine qui va de Rome à Byzance, Lubliana est aujourd’hui l’étape incontournable de ceux qui de l’Adriatique à Vienne mettent en place les têtes de pont de la future économie Est-européenne. La Suisse des Balkans formait donc le lieu idéal d’un congrès dont le thème pour 2003 était «La rencontre entre le conseil local et les acteurs internationaux». Occasion remarquable pour les consultans slovènes d’être en prise directe avec les grands du conseil mondial, la thématique choisie s’accordait surtout avec la réalité du conseil en Europe pour les prochaines années : Quelle ouverture à l’Est? Quelles opportunités? Quels partenariats? Remi Redley, Président de la fédération allemande BDU, nouveau Président de la Feaco, et dont les liens familiaux avec la Slovénie étaient mis à contribution, devait s’appuyer sur l’organisation sans faille de l’AMCOS qui recevait à cette occasion ses hôtes de manière fort élégante, la réception d’accueil à la forteresse qui domine la ville, la soirée de gala au Musée National de Slovénie, le dîner d’adieu sur l’herbe à la maison des arts culinaires et le tournois de golf de clôture formant les temps forts d’un événement aussi studieux que convivial. Quelques 140 personnes devaient assister au colloque dont une délégation japonaise comptant près de quarante personnes, bien décidées à comprendre l’évolution de l’Europe. Un colloque déterminant en effet mais pour lequel les cabinets français brillèrent une fois de plus par leur absence. Seules 3 personnes avaient fait le déplacement : Jean Luc Placet, administrateur de la FEACO, lequel devait intervenir sur un sujet qu’il connaît bien, l’éthique, Philippe Jean, associé du cabinet Altime et fils de Gérard Jean, administrateur de Syntec Conseil en Management et enfin votre serviteur, qui en représentant de la presse compensait à peine l’absence française. Fort heureusement la splendide troisième place de Philippe Jean au tournois de Golf, dans une épreuve où les joueurs locaux avaient pu se frotter à des joueurs mondiaux... était là pour faire oublier le presqu'incident diplomatique de l'absence française en un pays où est tout de même enterré Charles X. Les marchés et les pratiques au coeur du colloque Devaient au cours du colloque être abordés les thèmes suivants : Le marché européen du conseil, Le marché mondial du conseil, La rencontre entre les acteurs locaux et les « joueur internationaux » (ce thème incluant de long débats sur les meilleures stratégies à suivre pour s'associer ou se mettre en partenariat), L’hétérogénéité et la dynamique du secteur, Les typologies des firmes, L’éthique des affaires, Les clients institutionnels (dont l'aspect européen au sens de la Commission)... Parmi les intervenants, des contributeurs de «gros calibre» tel que Bradford Smith, Vice Président de la Recherche de Kennedy Information Inc., qui courbes à l’appui ne manquait pas de rappeler que si le conseil allait mal aujourd'hui c’était en partie parce que ces 15-20 dernières années il avait « sur-performé » ; Andrew Brown, conseil auprès de la Feaco pour les affaires européennes et la Commission et Fiona Czemiawska d’Arkimeda, une des toutes meilleures analystes anglaises des marchés, laquelle devrait publier bientôt un rapport sur l’Offshoring par les sociétés de conseil. Nous rapportons dans la suite les conclusions des diverses sessions et tables rondes. Ce compte rendu n'est temporairement disponible qu’en anglais, veuillez nous en excuser. Les Conclusions de la conference selon la FEACO: European Management Consulting Market: A slight increase is expected in the MC market in 2003 The general economic slowdown that began in 2001 has brought significant changes to the European consulting market. After growth of 11.5 % in 2001, the MC market shrank by 2.0 % in 2002. The Scandinavian countries, Portugal and Germany suffered most, the French market also shrank, but less markedly (down 1.0 %). By contrast, the UK and Italy succeeded in maintaining a very moderate growth (0.5 to 1.0 %), and Spain grew by 3.2 %. However, at 19.0 %, the highest growth rate within the EU countries was in Greece. Although, the CEE countries on average seemed to have a 0.8 % decline, some, such as Hungary and Romania, enjoyed positive growth. Slovenia had the highest rate of growth at level of 10.0 %. The European MC market totalled 46.5 billion €. UK and Germany are the major markets with more than 13 billion € each, followed by France (6.2 billion €), Spain (2.4 billion €) and Italy (2.1 billion €). IT and System Integration and Operations Management represent the largest areas of the MC market (28.0 % each), Corporate Strategy Services (with 20.0 %) is the next largest. Outsourcing is the fastest growing area (13.0 %). Human Resources Management represents 11.0 % of the market. The key sectors in MC continue to be banking and insurance (totalling 21.8 %, Non–profit & Government (10.2 %), Communication, Media & Entertainment (9.3%) and Energy, Utilities & Natural Resources (9.2 %). The traditional boundaries between MC areas and sectors are disappearing. Creating value for clients is becoming the key factor in a complex environment, and being able to offer complete business solutions has become an important way in which consulting firms are differentiating themselves. Consolidation will continue to be a major driver of the market, primarily between the large global multidisciplinary MC firms and smaller niche players. Ethics and trust will play a decisive role in achieving success. The market is not expected to pick up before 2004 at the earliest. EU enlargement is expected to be one of the drivers of recovery, as Eastern Europe offers new opportunities for the consulting industry. World Management Consulting Market: There will be no big recovery in a global scale Deteriorating economic conditions have been experienced worldwide and have had a considerable impact on the MC market. Globally, the MC market is characterised by overcapacity, low corporate earnings and a lack of investment. Demand and spending on Information Technology has been significantly lower, and more demanding and sophisticated clients are looking for shorter-term, tangible solutions rather than for strategies. Consulting fees remain soft. A significant recovery is unlikely. The 119.1 billion $ global MC market is expected to stay at the same level in 2003, while growth in 2004 and 2005 is likely to be only 3 % growth on average. The highest growth will be in Human Resource Management (4.4%), followed by Operations Management (3.6 %) and IT (3.1 %). Strategy services are expected to have less than 2 % growth. How can consultants succeed in such a restraint market situation? Deep industry experiences, client value as “ROI”, unbundled engagement, aggressive firm management, and alliances and partnerships are key success factors. Local Management Consulting Meets Global Players: Building networks, alliances and partnerships will be a key success factor in the future. More important than being either global or local will be partners’ ability to make complementary contributions.With different forms of alliances appearing in the MC market, a kind of a collective competition is emerging. MC firms are looking at how to enter new (local) markets and fulfil their strategy and business development interests in the best possible way. The presentations at the FEACO 2003 Conference illustrated how important it is for the goals of partners to be aligned, well defined and fully and uniformly understood. Partnerships also have to take into account partners’ existing values, needs and vision if they are to ensure the partnership’s long-term success. Expectations need to be clear, realistic and honest. Co-operation is a process of learning and understanding each other. Thus, it demands continuous, detailed and extensive sharing of information, open discussion and a high level of mutual respect. Cultural differences must be overcome via on-going co-ordination and, if necessary, by defining the partnership itself. Alliances cannot succeed without the investment, management of the HR implications, knowledge sharing, adoption of best practices and/or image, complementary market share, existing business network and the highest commitment of the partners.Partnerships can be mutually beneficial in numerous ways : - For the global partner: - Efficiency, through the implementation of the same methodologies with all partners; - Permanent and reliable partners; - Access to local experts; - Better services to international clients; - Growth; - For the local, smaller partner: - Transfer of knowledge and best practices from a large multinational firm, new methodologies; - Protection against unfair competition; - Access to information; - Improved image, higher fees, - Facilitation of further growth; - Funding for investment. Consulting markets continue to be very heterogeneous Individual consulting markets are developing, each in a distinct way and with different growth rates. Globally, this very complex and heterogeneous market with more sophisticated clients pushes MC firms into forming cross-border alliances, the better to cope with new challenges and opportunities. Many factors have been revealed to be crucial to the development this kind of co-operation, such as HR, local culture, organisation culture etc. The MC market will consist of three types of consulting firms: global, local and the specialised firms. Three types of international consulting 1)Global consulting firms will have offices at many locations thus ensuring the consistency required by their clients. Most of their business will come from IT, supply chain and process improvement work. Standardization will be central to these firms, enabling them to compete on price by pulling in resources from countries where the cost of labour is low. However, standardization will have its own cost: by necessarily homogenizing the markets in which they work, these firms will find it hard to cope with the nuances of local cultures and will increasingly find themselves partnering with local firms when it comes to training and implementation. 2)Specialist firms will compete, not on price, but on the extent to which they can offer world-class advice on particular topics. From the clients’ perspective, it will not matter where the specialist firm is located, clients will be prepared to go to them. However, although specialist firms may not have global outputs (offices in every city), in order to operate at this level they will require global inputs (knowledge). Some firms have to acquire this knowledge through their own proprietary network; others will find local firms that will carry out research on their behalf. Specialist firms will, when co-operating with global firms, focus on the issues such as the allocation of resources. 3)Local firms (which may focus on a single country or a region) will excel in the areas such as market research and change management, where the understanding of customers and/or employees is paramount. Although working with both global and specialist firms, local firms will find it hard to compete with them, lacking the standardized processes and coverage of the former and the geographical network of the latter. Crucial to the success of consulting firms in the future will be to know which of these three categories they fall into and to make the appropriate, complementary alliances. As the face of Europe changes, and as a new competitive landscape emerges, Vaclav Havel’s statement ‘everything is possible, but difficult’ should perhaps be expressed in the opposite way ‘everything is difficult, but possible.’ Management Consulting Firms and Business Ethics Ethics are central to the Management Consulting. Management consultants must be at least as ethical as their clients.Ethics must be at the heart of management consulting. Consulting is not only a problem-solving process but one in which involves building a confident relationship between consultant and client. For consulting firms, ethics’ means learning how to be more than a supplier, and to do business in partnership with clients. What is at stake is the creation of “intangible value”, the importance of which is now eclipsing more conventional tangible assets. This shift brings more opportunities, but also far more risks for both clients and consulting firms. In this respect, ethics are closely linked to Business Risk Management. What are ethics? There can be no single and precise answer, because so much depends on the local environment, regulations, business rules and practices – all of which are connected to culture. Each country, region and firm has to find its own answer to questions, like: What is corruption? How to solve conflicts of interests? What is marginal behaviour? Promoting a higher standard of ethical behaviour is key and MC has to show the way. Especially during transition periods, business models evolve rapidly (e-business for example), so ethics will always be a dynamic issue, a matter of continuous challenge and improvement. A shrinking market for consultancy and other, recent environmental changes pose new problems for management consultants. Many can no longer claim to be independent and transparency is crucial. Although it is hard to turn work away in such a market, one fundamental guideline should prevail: reputation and brand image is the key to success: genuinely sustainable strategies for business development can only be built on this foundation. The transition countries, because their legislation and/or working practices are immature, and because their rules regulating the work of new structures and new values are still developing, are very vulnerable to non-ethical behaviour. Short-term profit objectives drive managers to neglect their long-term interests and social responsibilities. State institutions do not always behave ethically either and may tolerate corruption or even act in a corrupt manner. Codes of ethics become useful and important instruments in the process of defining common values and standards for ethical business behaviour and ensuring their implementation in practice. But beyond these codes, ethical behaviour has to proceed from a fundamental acceptance (on the part of both clients and consultants) that behaviours and cultures are major competitive levers for companies, which need to be understood and managed. Management Consulting and Institutional Clients EU enlargement brings new challenges and opportunities to management consulting firms, both global and local, with a large set of funding schemes for accession countries. As clients, EU institutions will play an important role in the new member countries. The EU structural funds and other finance schemes (about 90 programs, funds and initiatives in total) present challenges for management consulting firms in the accession countries. The contribution of management consultants to this process should be both multilateral and multi-purpose. Because of consultants' knowledge and experience, their input may also be crucial if the aims of these initiatives are to be realised for the following reasons: - Consultants know how to work on EU projects as they understand the general principles of European Union programmes and procurement procedures and can manage the difficulties related with their implementation. - Consultants are able to anticipate the necessary changes in companies, assist them with the definition of their needs and help them getting prepared for structural, organisational and other changes; - Consultants are acquainted with the EU legislation and rules, standards, methods and procedures; - Consultants may advise on relevant tenders, assist with understanding tender instructions and give recommendations during the application processes; - Consultants may help companies with the establishment and composition of strong teams and partnerships for the implementation of the EU programmes, advise in contract negotiations and assist in project coordination; - Consultants may help the institutional clients with the preparation of appropriate support schemes, development of terms of reference and ensuring the transparency of procedures. Management Consulting firms have to take into account some important general rules. In order to assure fruitful and efficient consulting work, management consulting firms have to take into account some important general rules, which apply not only to EU funded projects and institutional clients, but are essential elements of consulting: - Project goals should be clearly defined, documented, communicated and understood; - It is the responsibility of client’s management to control the project and implement the necessary changes; - All the decisions have to be made by client’s management, no management consultant can take over this responsibility; - Where an institutional client and a global consulting company are working together, language and intercultural issues have to be addressed and resolved. This presents a special opportunity for local consulting firms. EU projects present an opportunity for global and local MC firms and for co-operation in different forms and on different levels. Many EU programmes – especially the most integrated and demanding ones- require collaboration on an international scale. This involves forming international consortia for implementation, gaining familiarity with other environments and working methods, and adjusting mutual learning processes in order to exchange knowledge and experiences. The challenges and opportunities for co-operation are undoubtedly linked. The question of how to split the responsibilities and the fees, which are considered to be relatively low in the EU funded projects, seems to be one of the biggest challenges. Conclusions were prepared by the workshops’ moderators Fiona Czerniawska, Constantin Turmac, Cato Museaus, Jean-Luc Placet, Viljenka Godina, Mirko Mušic and summarised by Majda Dobravc. Bertrand Villeret Pour info: www.feaco.org Copyright : FEACO 2004 Published by ConsultingNewsLIne Courtesy from FEACO Bruxelles Qantorg 2004 All rights reserved Reproduction interdite	Un colloque remarquablement organisé par Janko Arah, Président de l'AMCOS qui remet ici son trophée à Philippe Jean classé 3ème du tournoi de golf Un Président Arah touché visiblement par la grâce au moment d'appliquer son Put et un Philippe Jean magistral	Planetecologie.org

Sous la houlette de son nouveau Président Remi Redley, la FEACO organisait au mois de mai sa conférence annuelle à Lublijana, Slovénie. Ce qu'il est désormais convenu d'appeler la "Suisse des Balkans" accueillait ainsi de très nombreux congressistes. Un choix géographique fort à propos à quelques mois de l'élargissement européen

Organisé par l'AMCOS, la fédération slovène, et de son Président Janko Arah, les congressistes de la Feaco ont quelques jours durant pu disserter dans les magnifiques salons de l'Hotel Union, assurément l’un des plus beaux et des plus anciens édifices romantiques de Lublijana. Ville antique située sur la route alpine qui va de Rome à Byzance, Lubliana est aujourd’hui l’étape incontournable de ceux qui de l’Adriatique à Vienne mettent en place les têtes de pont de la future économie Est-européenne. La Suisse des Balkans formait donc le lieu idéal d’un congrès dont le thème pour 2003 était «La rencontre entre le conseil local et les acteurs internationaux». Occasion remarquable pour les consultans slovènes d’être en prise directe avec les grands du conseil mondial, la thématique choisie s’accordait surtout avec la réalité du conseil en Europe pour les prochaines années : Quelle ouverture à l’Est? Quelles opportunités? Quels partenariats? Remi Redley, Président de la fédération allemande BDU, nouveau Président de la Feaco, et dont les liens familiaux avec la Slovénie étaient mis à contribution, devait s’appuyer sur l’organisation sans faille de l’AMCOS qui recevait à cette occasion ses hôtes de manière fort élégante, la réception d’accueil à la forteresse qui domine la ville, la soirée de gala au Musée National de Slovénie, le dîner d’adieu sur l’herbe à la maison des arts culinaires et le tournois de golf de clôture formant les temps forts d’un événement aussi studieux que convivial. Quelques 140 personnes devaient assister au colloque dont une délégation japonaise comptant près de quarante personnes, bien décidées à comprendre l’évolution de l’Europe. Un colloque déterminant en effet mais pour lequel les cabinets français brillèrent une fois de plus par leur absence. Seules 3 personnes avaient fait le déplacement : Jean Luc Placet, administrateur de la FEACO, lequel devait intervenir sur un sujet qu’il connaît bien, l’éthique, Philippe Jean, associé du cabinet Altime et fils de Gérard Jean, administrateur de Syntec Conseil en Management et enfin votre serviteur, qui en représentant de la presse compensait à peine l’absence française. Fort heureusement la splendide troisième place de Philippe Jean au tournois de Golf, dans une épreuve où les joueurs locaux avaient pu se frotter à des joueurs mondiaux... était là pour faire oublier le presqu'incident diplomatique de l'absence française en un pays où est tout de même enterré Charles X.

Les marchés et les pratiques au coeur du colloque
Devaient au cours du colloque être abordés les thèmes suivants : Le marché européen du conseil, Le marché mondial du conseil, La rencontre entre les acteurs locaux et les « joueur internationaux » (ce thème incluant de long débats sur les meilleures stratégies à suivre pour s'associer ou se mettre en partenariat), L’hétérogénéité et la dynamique du secteur, Les typologies des firmes, L’éthique des affaires, Les clients institutionnels (dont l'aspect européen au sens de la Commission)... Parmi les intervenants, des contributeurs de «gros calibre» tel que Bradford Smith, Vice Président de la Recherche de Kennedy Information Inc., qui courbes à l’appui ne manquait pas de rappeler que si le conseil allait mal aujourd'hui c’était en partie parce que ces 15-20 dernières années il avait « sur-performé » ; Andrew Brown, conseil auprès de la Feaco pour les affaires européennes et la Commission et Fiona Czemiawska d’Arkimeda, une des toutes meilleures analystes anglaises des marchés, laquelle devrait publier bientôt un rapport sur l’Offshoring par les sociétés de conseil. Nous rapportons dans la suite les conclusions des diverses sessions et tables rondes. Ce compte rendu n'est temporairement disponible qu’en anglais, veuillez nous en excuser.

Les Conclusions de la conference selon la FEACO:

European Management Consulting Market:
A slight increase is expected in the MC market in 2003

The general economic slowdown that began in 2001 has brought significant changes to the European consulting market. After growth of 11.5 % in 2001, the MC market shrank by 2.0 % in 2002. The Scandinavian countries, Portugal and Germany suffered most, the French market also shrank, but less markedly (down 1.0 %). By contrast, the UK and Italy succeeded in maintaining a very moderate growth (0.5 to 1.0 %), and Spain grew by 3.2 %. However, at 19.0 %, the highest growth rate within the EU countries was in Greece. Although, the CEE countries on average seemed to have a 0.8 % decline, some, such as Hungary and Romania, enjoyed positive growth. Slovenia had the highest rate of growth at level of 10.0 %. The European MC market totalled 46.5 billion €. UK and Germany are the major markets with more than 13 billion € each, followed by France (6.2 billion €), Spain (2.4 billion €) and Italy (2.1 billion €). IT and System Integration and Operations Management represent the largest areas of the MC market (28.0 % each), Corporate Strategy Services (with 20.0 %) is the next largest. Outsourcing is the fastest growing area (13.0 %). Human Resources Management represents 11.0 % of the market. The key sectors in MC continue to be banking and insurance (totalling 21.8 %, Non–profit & Government (10.2 %), Communication, Media & Entertainment (9.3%) and Energy, Utilities & Natural Resources (9.2 %). The traditional boundaries between MC areas and sectors are disappearing. Creating value for clients is becoming the key factor in a complex environment, and being able to offer complete business solutions has become an important way in which consulting firms are differentiating themselves. Consolidation will continue to be a major driver of the market, primarily between the large global multidisciplinary MC firms and smaller niche players. Ethics and trust will play a decisive role in achieving success. The market is not expected to pick up before 2004 at the earliest. EU enlargement is expected to be one of the drivers of recovery, as Eastern Europe offers new opportunities for the consulting industry.

World Management Consulting Market:
There will be no big recovery in a global scale

Deteriorating economic conditions have been experienced worldwide and have had a considerable impact on the MC market. Globally, the MC market is characterised by overcapacity, low corporate earnings and a lack of investment. Demand and spending on Information Technology has been significantly lower, and more demanding and sophisticated clients are looking for shorter-term, tangible solutions rather than for strategies. Consulting fees remain soft. A significant recovery is unlikely. The 119.1 billion $ global MC market is expected to stay at the same level in 2003, while growth in 2004 and 2005 is likely to be only 3 % growth on average. The highest growth will be in Human Resource Management (4.4%), followed by Operations Management (3.6 %) and IT (3.1 %). Strategy services are expected to have less than 2 % growth. How can consultants succeed in such a restraint market situation? Deep industry experiences, client value as “ROI”, unbundled engagement, aggressive firm management, and alliances and partnerships are key success factors.

Local Management Consulting Meets Global Players:
Building networks, alliances and partnerships will be a key success factor in the future.

More important than being either global or local will be partners’ ability to make complementary contributions.With different forms of alliances appearing in the MC market, a kind of a collective competition is emerging. MC firms are looking at how to enter new (local) markets and fulfil their strategy and business development interests in the best possible way. The presentations at the FEACO 2003 Conference illustrated how important it is for the goals of partners to be aligned, well defined and fully and uniformly understood. Partnerships also have to take into account partners’ existing values, needs and vision if they are to ensure the partnership’s long-term success. Expectations need to be clear, realistic and honest. Co-operation is a process of learning and understanding each other. Thus, it demands continuous, detailed and extensive sharing of information, open discussion and a high level of mutual respect. Cultural differences must be overcome via on-going co-ordination and, if necessary, by defining the partnership itself. Alliances cannot succeed without the investment, management of the HR implications, knowledge sharing, adoption of best practices and/or image, complementary market share, existing business network and the highest commitment of the partners.Partnerships can be mutually beneficial in numerous ways :

- For the global partner:
- Efficiency, through the implementation of the same
methodologies with all partners;
- Permanent and reliable partners;
- Access to local experts;
- Better services to international clients;
- Growth;
- For the local, smaller partner:
- Transfer of knowledge and best practices from a large multinational
   firm, new methodologies;
- Protection against unfair competition;
- Access to information;
- Improved image, higher fees,
- Facilitation of further growth;
- Funding for investment.

Consulting markets continue to be very heterogeneous
Individual consulting markets are developing, each in a distinct way and with different growth rates. Globally, this very complex and heterogeneous market with more sophisticated clients pushes MC firms into forming cross-border alliances, the better to cope with new challenges and opportunities. Many factors have been revealed to be crucial to the development this kind of co-operation, such as HR, local culture, organisation culture etc. The MC market will consist of three types of consulting firms: global, local and the specialised firms.

Three types of international consulting
1)Global consulting firms will have offices at many locations thus ensuring the consistency required by their clients. Most of their business will come from IT, supply chain and process improvement work. Standardization will be central to these firms, enabling them to compete on price by pulling in resources from countries where the cost of labour is low. However, standardization will have its own cost: by necessarily homogenizing the markets in which they work, these firms will find it hard to cope with the nuances of local cultures and will increasingly find themselves partnering with local firms when it comes to training and implementation.
2)Specialist firms will compete, not on price, but on the extent to which they can offer world-class advice on particular topics. From the clients’ perspective, it will not matter where the specialist firm is located, clients will be prepared to go to them. However, although specialist firms may not have global outputs (offices in every city), in order to operate at this level they will require global inputs (knowledge). Some firms have to acquire this knowledge through their own proprietary network; others will find local firms that will carry out research on their behalf. Specialist firms will, when co-operating with global firms, focus on the issues such as the allocation of resources.
3)Local firms (which may focus on a single country or a region) will excel in the areas such as market research and change management, where the understanding of customers and/or employees is paramount. Although working with both global and specialist firms, local firms will find it hard to compete with them, lacking the standardized processes and coverage of the former and the geographical network of the latter.

Crucial to the success of consulting firms in the future will be to know which of these three categories they fall into and to make the appropriate, complementary alliances. As the face of Europe changes, and as a new competitive landscape emerges, Vaclav Havel’s statement ‘everything is possible, but difficult’ should perhaps be expressed in the opposite way ‘everything is difficult, but possible.’

Management Consulting Firms and Business Ethics
Ethics are central to the Management Consulting. Management consultants must be at least as ethical as their clients.Ethics must be at the heart of management consulting. Consulting is not only a problem-solving process but one in which involves building a confident relationship between consultant and client. For consulting firms, ethics’ means learning how to be more than a supplier, and to do business in partnership with clients. What is at stake is the creation of “intangible value”, the importance of which is now eclipsing more conventional tangible assets. This shift brings more opportunities, but also far more risks for both clients and consulting firms. In this respect, ethics are closely linked to Business Risk Management.
What are ethics? There can be no single and precise answer, because so much depends on the local environment, regulations, business rules and practices – all of which are connected to culture. Each country, region and firm has to find its own answer to questions, like: What is corruption? How to solve conflicts of interests? What is marginal behaviour? Promoting a higher standard of ethical behaviour is key and MC has to show the way. Especially during transition periods, business models evolve rapidly (e-business for example), so ethics will always be a dynamic issue, a matter of continuous challenge and improvement. A shrinking market for consultancy and other, recent environmental changes pose new problems for management consultants. Many can no longer claim to be independent and transparency is crucial. Although it is hard to turn work away in such a market, one fundamental guideline should prevail: reputation and brand image is the key to success: genuinely sustainable strategies for business development can only be built on this foundation.
The transition countries, because their legislation and/or working practices are immature, and because their rules regulating the work of new structures and new values are still developing, are very vulnerable to non-ethical behaviour. Short-term profit objectives drive managers to neglect their long-term interests and social responsibilities. State institutions do not always behave ethically either and may tolerate corruption or even act in a corrupt manner. Codes of ethics become useful and important instruments in the process of defining common values and standards for ethical business behaviour and ensuring their implementation in practice. But beyond these codes, ethical behaviour has to proceed from a fundamental acceptance (on the part of both clients and consultants) that behaviours and cultures are major competitive levers for companies, which need to be understood and managed.

Management Consulting and Institutional Clients
EU enlargement brings new challenges and opportunities to management consulting firms, both global and local, with a large set of funding schemes for accession countries. As clients, EU institutions will play an important role in the new member countries. The EU structural funds and other finance schemes (about 90 programs, funds and initiatives in total) present challenges for management consulting firms in the accession countries. The contribution of management consultants to this process should be both multilateral and multi-purpose. Because of consultants' knowledge and experience, their input may also be crucial if the aims of these initiatives are to be realised for the following reasons:

- Consultants know how to work on EU projects as they understand
   the general principles of European Union programmes and
   procurement procedures and can manage the difficulties related
   with their implementation.
- Consultants are able to anticipate the necessary changes in
companies, assist them with the definition of their needs and help
them getting prepared for structural, organisational and other changes;
- Consultants are acquainted with the EU legislation and rules, standards,
   methods and procedures;
- Consultants may advise on relevant tenders, assist with understanding
   tender instructions and give recommendations during the
application processes;
- Consultants may help companies with the establishment and composition
of strong teams and partnerships for the
implementation of the EU programmes, advise in contract negotiations
and assist in project coordination;
- Consultants may help the institutional clients with the preparation of
appropriate support schemes, development of terms of
reference and ensuring the transparency of procedures.

Management Consulting firms have to take into account some important general rules.
In order to assure fruitful and efficient consulting work, management consulting firms have to take into account some important general rules, which apply not only to EU funded projects and institutional clients, but are essential elements of consulting:

- Project goals should be clearly defined, documented, communicated
and understood;
- It is the responsibility of client’s management to control the project
and implement the necessary changes;
- All the decisions have to be made by client’s management,
no management consultant can take over this responsibility;
- Where an institutional client and a global consulting company are
working together, language and intercultural issues have to be
addressed and resolved. This presents a special opportunity for local
   consulting firms.

EU projects present an opportunity for global and local MC firms and for co-operation in different forms and on different levels. Many EU programmes – especially the most integrated and demanding ones- require collaboration on an international scale. This involves forming international consortia for implementation, gaining familiarity with other environments and working methods, and adjusting mutual learning processes in order to exchange knowledge and experiences. The challenges and opportunities for co-operation are undoubtedly linked. The question of how to split the responsibilities and the fees, which are considered to be relatively low in the EU funded projects, seems to be one of the biggest challenges.

Conclusions were prepared by the workshops’ moderators Fiona Czerniawska, Constantin Turmac, Cato Museaus, Jean-Luc Placet, Viljenka Godina, Mirko Mušic and summarised by Majda Dobravc.

Bertrand Villeret

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