MCA and CMI launch new Chartered Management Consultant Award (ChMC)

• Over 600 Consultants, Business and Government leaders attended the new Chartered Management Consultant Award today
• Key speakers included Lord Grimstone, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Anne Boden MBE, CEO of Starling Bank and Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Chairman at Lloyd’s
• Attendees heard from leading clients and members about the new award and the importance and impact it will have on future consultancy buying decisions.

Over 600 Consultants, Business and Government leaders attended the launch of the new Chartered Management Consultant Award (ChMC) created in a joint partnership between the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), the trade association for the UK’s leading consulting firms, and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the UK’s leading chartered professional body for management and leadership. The initiative has been developed for the purposes of setting and maintaining the highest standards in the management consulting profession and creating an award which recognises consistent and high levels of professional competency and achievement. The launch event captured and highlighted the importance of this award for the industry and the value that it can bring by inspiring higher levels of client trust and confidence.

Guest speakers and clients represented at the meeting include Lord Grimstone, Minister of State for Investment at the Department for International Trade and BEIS; Anne Boden MBE, CEO of Starling Bank; Bruce Carnegie-Brown, Chairman at Lloyd’s and Nick Griffin, Crown Representative from the Cabinet Office – all of whom have experience of working with the consulting industry to help firms grow and develop their businesses.

Lord Grimstone, Minister of State for BEIS said at the event:

“Chartered accreditation is a significant milestone in the development of an industry. It is a milestone that denotes that an industry is mature enough to set the highest standards and hold itself accountable for maintaining them. It is a milestone that recognises that management consultants deliver quality services to their clients driven by high ethical standards and behaviours. This accreditation in the management consultancy sector will further enhance the UK’s services sector, building on the strengths of our other chartered professions such as accounting and engineering.” 

Gareth Rhys Williams, Government Chief Commercial Officer, commented on ChMC:

“Professional accreditation is a real underpinning for any industry. An accreditation likes this is really good for the profession as a whole because it lifts the level of everyone. We hope to see all firms offering people who join them a route to this accreditation. It is a viable way to doing CPD on an ongoing basis, which will make the profession more viable, more consistent and more useful. And for the person it makes them more marketable, even if they are within a firm. Why would a large customer with a procurement function not start asking to know from the people offering to do work what percentage of their team has Chartered status? It is such an obvious question.”

A guest panel of Consultants chaired by Ann Francke and Chief Executive of CMI, formed to discuss the merits of the new award which included Marco Amitrano, Head of Clients and Markets at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC); Mark Palmer, CEO of Gobeyond Partners; Yunus Ozler, Energy Consulting Lead Partner at EY and Jen Hipkiss Senior Management Consultant at IBM. The panel heard from individuals’ experiences on the journey and from those who have been accredited as well as providing their own personal reflections and insights. Areas of discussion included what the award means for the industry and why now, what it means from an SME Perspective and whether the award will help to attract and retain talent.

To date, over 380 consultants have been awarded Chartered status, 1,500 are on the journey and 30 firms are involved. The aim is to secure greater recognition for the professionalism of management consulting and ensure that it is valued and respected by the industry, as well as by clients seeking professional and qualified consulting support. This award has been supported by the government from the outset and representatives from Crown Commercial Services currently sit on the ChMC Oversight Board.

Ann Francke, Chief Executive of CMI, said:

“We are delighted to share this momentous acknowledgement for management consultants across the world. I am so very proud of everyone who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this vision a reality. This new Chartered status, as a respected hallmark of quality and professionalism, will make a huge impact in the confidence of the professionals, and their clients, who can demonstrate that they meet the highest standards of practice in the industry.”

Tamzen Isacsson, Chief Executive of the MCA, said:
“The best way to maintain standards in our profession is always to seek to raise standards and that is, as an industry, what we are doing with the launch of this award. As people who deliver step changes in so many sectors, we should deliver a step change for our own profession and it is one I believe will deliver for firms, consultants and importantly clients.”