Supply chain

The complete set of suppliers of goods and services required for a company to operate its business. For example, a manufacturer’s supply chain might include providers of raw materials, components, custommade parts and packaging materials. Supply chain management refers to the management of supplier relationships in order to gain competitive advantage in cost, service, and quality.

Systems integration

Assembling complete systems out of many components, and integrating them so they all work together.

Thought leadership

Refers to the process by which consulting firms preserve and institutionalize their intellectual capital. In much the same way college professors are expected to teach and publish, consulting firms are expected to advise companies and think big thoughts.

Thought leadership refers to a company’s intellectual capital— for instance, it might refer to a tool or a framework used to solve a business problem that can be applied to other consulting engagements. A company’s thought leadership content is often preserved internally, but firms routinely share their ideas and frameworks with the broader business community through white papers, journal articles, and other publications.

BCG’s growth-share matrix and Watson Wyatt’s human capital index are examples of thought leadership; these consulting firms developed frameworks for solving business problems that were then shared with the broader business community.

Toolkit

A collection of methodologies or tools consultants can use to help solve a problem.

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