It is against this backdrop that the BDU, as a sectoral association, offers all man- agement consultants in Germany – irrespective of whether they are BDU members or not – tailor-made further training in the form of congresses and seminars. In its seminars and workshops the BDU provides for basic training as well as further
training courses. Both offers are interesting in particular for self-employed man- agement consultants or consultants employed as project leaders by management consulting firms.
Since 2001 the BDU cooperates closely with Prof. Dr. Christel Niedereichholz, academic director of the Heidelberger Akademie für Unternehmensberatung (HafU) [Heidelberg Management Consulting Academy] and founder of the MBA university course "International Management Consulting IMC" at the FH für Wirtschaft in Ludwigshafen [Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences].
The further training offers concentrate on working techniques, methodological questions, and the strategic orientation, but also the professional questions consult- ing firms are dealing with. All workshops are designed so as to be of great practi- cal value and easy to implement. The "Basic Training Course for Management Consulting" includes i.a. subjects such as consulting marketing, how to get a con- sulting job, how to advertise for your services, professional drafting and calcula- tion of an offer, analysis techniques and contents or consulting methods in the course of the implementation of the assignment. In the "Further Training Pro- gram" the latest research and practical findings on subjects such as "Innovative models for company financing", Lean Consulting with a "Balanced Scorecard",
"Change Management Methods" or "Project Management for management con- sultants" are being taught. About 30 such seminars are organized by the BDU every year with changing focuses.
The BDU's further training offers are fully tuned to the basic and topical re- quirements of the management consulting sector. This is ensured by carrying out surveys among the market participants. With the help of direct mailings informing about 10,000 management consulting firms about the BDU seminar offers-people are being asked about ideas for further training seminars. From the replies and the frequency of mentioning certain subject a part of the new program will be devel- oped.
The selection of the trainers is strictly done on the basis of professionalism. Our trainers all have long years of training and branch experience. This guarantees that the seminars are exclusively providing know how that has already proven relevant for the practical work of consultants. A huge majority of our further training teachers possesses the international renowned title "Certified Management Con- sultant CMC", which is proof of excellent quality and professionalism in the eyes of the consulting sector and the clients. The CMC title is awarded by the Interna- tional Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) that has its place of business in California. The ICMCI sees itself as a global association for quality assurance in management consulting. Upon conclusion of the seminars and work- shops an anonymous written survey is carried out among all participants with re- gard to the organizational quality of the seminar as well as professional and meth- odological competence of the trainer. Only seminars that get excellent ratings will continue to be in the catalogue of BDU further training offers.
Two renowned sectoral congresses which are organized by the BDU – the
"Beratertag" [Consultants' Convention] and the "Deutscher Personalberatertag"
[German Management Consultants Convention] – add to the further training offer for the consulting industry in Germany. While the former rather addresses man- agement and IT consultants, the latter is explicitly a platform for further training and for an exchange of experiences for management consultants and human re- source managers. The 1 ½ day events are always addressing topical trends and de- velopments of the market segments and the related requirements and challenges for the market players and provide for an intensive discussion of the substantive issues by means of lectures, panel discussions as well as workshop fora. The aim of both types of event is to give the participants new ideas as well as practical so- lutions which can also be used by management consulting firms in their day-to- day business. Against the background of weak market demand the last two 'Per- sonalberatertage' in 2003 and 2004 e.g. dealt with the search and selection of pro- fessional and management staff in particular with a view to alternative or supple- mentary consulting services. Information and discussions about subjects like outsourcing of human resources services, interim management, coaching or man- agement audits were central issues. On the basis of 6 trend theories and associated future scenarios the Beratertag 2004 dealt intensively with the needs of and changes in society, the economy and politics and discussed what that meant for management consultants. The main questions raised were
x Which demands are the clients often formulating vis à vis the management consultants?
x How are the clients changing?
x How is society changing?
x The role of management consultants in the future;
x changes in the consulting market;
x organization and bionics;
x relationship innovation management and creativity.
The presence of highly renowned experts from the management consulting sec- tor, from the business community, from science and research, politics and admini- stration guarantees a high quality level at our sectoral congresses.
Management consulting companies that are members of the BDU, moreover benefit from the ongoing exchange of information and experience which takes place in the framework of 15 professional groups (e.g. for controlling, marketing, human resources management or restoration management) within the BDU in which all members can actively participate. Consultants from the members' asso- ciations are working on the further development of the areas of activity of the pre- sent management consulting market and thus ensure an ongoing improvement process for the business community, industry and the public sector.
The members of the BDU's professional groups are normally meeting three times per year for one to two-day working meetings, mostly at four months' inter- vals, i.e. in spring, summer and autumn of any year. These meetings are prepared in organizational and professional terms by the BDU main office. The agenda in- cludes topical subjects from the various consulting specialists. The collection of topics to be included in the agenda is done by the professional groups at the be- ginning of the year and is supplemented and adjusted throughout the year, where necessary. The exchange with external experts from the economic and science community at the working meetings guarantees the necessary critical considera- tion of permanently changing challenges which are encountered in daily consult- ing activities. This close cooperation often leads to the publication of books or studies, some professional associations draft and publish their own publications including interesting papers for consultants. The Handbuch Personalberatung (BDU-Fachverband Personalberatung) and the Handbuch Controlling (BDU- Fachverband Unternehmensführung und Controlling) are considered as manda- tory reading for consultants.
The members of the BDU's professional group 'personnel management' are dealing with topical questions concerning human resources twice a year in their half-yearly publication „Bausteine zur Personalentwicklung“["Building stones of HR development"].
The BDU's professional group 'Public sector clients' is also publishing a half- yearly magazine called „Für den Dienstgebrauch“ ["For official use only"], a col- lection of consulting projects in the public sector. Both publications have an edi- tion of approx. 5,000 copies and are distributed free of charge to decision makers in HR departments and/or administrative departments.