Management Analyst

When Athletes want to run faster, jump higher, or kick harder, they typically turn to a Coach, who educates, motivates, and mentors them until they reach their goals, giving them new equipment to use, new diets to follow, new exercises to do, and new milestones to meet.

As a Management Analyst, you’re a Coach for businesses, helping them reach their goals with a combination of information and inspiration.

Also known as a Management Consultant, Management Analysts help clients achieve their objectives by acting as a third-party observer, advising them from the vantage point of someone who’s outside looking in. When you work with a client, therefore — a small or mid-sized business, or even a large corporation, which might hire you to consult with an individual department or with the entire enterprise — as the Management Analyst, you typically start by watching the business, taking note of how it’s structured, managed, and run. In addition, you may consult with employees, interview customers, and review company records, the goal being to analyze and understand the company’s inner workings so you can identify its problems and develop potential solutions.

Depending on the company’s objectives — common goals are cutting costs, increasing revenues, capturing market share, and improving efficiency — those solutions might involve hiring or firing employees; restructuring company departments; pursuing mergers and acquisitions; implementing new policies and procedures; investing in new facilities, technology, or equipment; or launching new products and retiring old ones.

Whatever the company’s problems, and whatever your solutions, your job as the “Coach” is turning a flabby company into a lean, mean business machine!