New journal for IMC
I am delighted to welcome readers to the new journal of the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) now incorporated into Management Consultancy magazine. It is a fitting alliance as we enter IMC’s 35th anniversary year in 1997, to bring together Management Consultancy, the independent voice of the consulting industry and IMC, the most extensive management consulting brand in the UK.
IMC is the largest constituent member of the 22-nation International Council of Management Consulting Institutes which awards the worldwide Certified Management Consultant designation (CMC). CMC reflects a uniform standard of competence in management consulting, defined by a common body of know-how and examined through the corporate and individual qualifications of the member institutes. The IMC awards and defends the CMC qualification in the UK. Through the Institute’s education policy and training programmes, it also approves, accredits and endorses education and training providers and oversees the accreditation of prior learning and experience of individuals towards achieving IMC-recognised qualifications in management consultancy at certificate, diploma, graduate, masters and doctorate levels. So the Institute sets the standards and qualifications for individual management consultants.
It also provides a network for all those interested in management consultancy including clients, consultants, sole practitioners, brand name practices, academics and those in other professions exercising consulting skills.
In order to underpin the continuing relevance of management consultancy as we approach the Millennium, IMC has dedicated itself to a fresh approach.
The new strategy clearly identifies our purpose as that of defining management consultancy and the standards, qualifications and means of promulgating best practice wherever it is carried out. IMC will reorganise itself to pursue the professional, trade and commercial, regulatory and entrepreneurial expectations of our various stakeholders. IMC’s strategic review was completed at a Council awayday at the Civil Service College at Sunningdale in April. Action plans and programmes were approved at Council’s 17 September meeting which endorsed the strategic leadership proposals of the Transitional Management Board. These contain a set of 12 organisational themes or lines of business change to underpin a radical programme which will help the IMC equip all Certified Management Consultants and all IMC network members for the challenges of the Millennium.
In order to practise what we preach, and to ensure that we follow through our plans to implementation, Council received the voluntary professional facilitation help of three experienced change management consultants: Tony Page of Page Consulting, Jeremy Keeley of Partners for Change, and Vyla Rollins of Kinsley Lord; the Institute is most grateful to them for the high levels of competency and contribution they have provided in the conception and launch of our change programme.
Council has now retained Roger Hughes FCA FIMC CMC as a programme manager to help the Institute to plan and integrate the 12 lines of business change identified by Council into a programme for implementation.
Our plans for the future will build on the success of those existing activities which support our revised strategy.
IMC is embarking on an exciting period of change and we welcome the input and advice of members, whilst encouraging non-member consultants to join as Associates immediately so that they can benefit from and contribute to the challenges ahead.
Barry Curnow, IMC President 1996/7.