At the symposium of the Federal Association of SME Consultants, which took place on 26 and 27 June 2025 in Berlin, Dr. Boysen derived the requirements for management consultants from the economic developments and the resulting challenges for entrepreneurs and managers. Dr. Boysen differentiated between basic skills and technical skills.
Among the basic skills, Dr. Boysen counted the ability to specify meaningful projects and structure them appropriately. The ability to correctly grasp business contexts and the professional handling of financial key figures should also be a prerequisite. This requires a good understanding of relevant markets, products and technologies as well as a profound knowledge of the operational functions (product management, product development, marketing, sales, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, etc.), preferably with a specialization. Equally important are strategic competence in knowledge of the key strategic concepts, process competence and an understanding of sustainably effective feedback mechanisms along the business process, both within and between processes, as well as leadership competence to motivate teams and lead them to goal-oriented performance. For Dr. Boysen, the knowledge of the usual expectations of commercial banks is also a basic requirement for management consultants.
A good understanding of the role of a consultant as a source of inspiration, objective and independent sparring partner, coach, enabler and driver of important change processes is also a basic competence is important as well. As unbiased external consultants, good management consultants recognize opportunities and prospects as well as weaknesses in their clients’ companies and name them clearly. Experienced management consultants know that there are always two reasons: a good reason and the real reason, to quote a saying attributed to Winston Churchill. Finally, management consultants can also be expected to have strong communication skills. Dr. Boysen considers to include in the topic of communication skills also the ability to create well-structured, compelling concepts and to involve relevant stakeholders in change processes to achieve jointly supported results quickly.
The technical skills include, according to Dr. Boysen, methodology and experience in project management for stringent implementation support. Shopfloor management skills are also required (lean management, value stream mapping, Kaizen, 5 S, etc.). The graphic representation and documentation of processes should also be a prerequisite, as should the creation of comprehensible business concepts and expert opinions. You should also be able to handle ERP systems, collaborative IT applications and the efficient use of AI applications both for your own practice and for advising clients.
For Dr. Boysen, the “freestyle” of management consulting is demonstrated in special skills that begin with quickly formulating hypothesis-driven approaches to solutions and then validating or refuting them in order to quickly achieve results that are sufficiently far-reaching. The ability to establish strategic discourse in client teams is also a special skill. The ability to lead clients to a confident handling of uncertainties is particularly important and at the same time highly demanding. This requires a common ability to think in scenarios, a realistic assessment of probabilities of occurrence and impacts, and the ability to hedge unavoidable risks effectively. In addition, good management consultants can ensure that work in the “here and now” is combined with the pursuit of strategic goals, for example through the use of methods such as Hoshin Kanri. For Dr. Boysen, the pinnacle of the requirements for management consultants is the ability to promote the understanding of dynamic and complex relationships in companies, to model them and to simulate scenarios.
Specialist know-how is just as important as the ability to work in a holistic network.
And the world keeps turning, which means that once acquired, knowledge has a half-life value. Management consultants in particular need to constantly develop their skills in order to be useful to their clients. However, it is a symbiotic give and take: In every mandate, consultants not only support, but also learn. No two mandates are the same, and that is what makes the profession of management consulting interesting – and experienced management consultants valuable partners for their clients.