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Why does Kazakhstan need "consulting"?
A state programme aiming to develop consulting in Kazakhstan was recently launched under the leadership of Asset Isekeshev.
Over the past few years, against the backdrop of Kazakhstan's active development, an acute shortage of competencies has become clearly apparent in various areas of business. Any development calls for expertise to be upgraded, or for it to be attracted from elsewhere in the event there is none to be found locally. Having said that, research of the consulting market in Kazakhstan indicates that 70% of businesses have absolutely no idea what consulting is, and among those who do know, for 61% of them the main obstacle is the difficulties encountered when trying to select highly-qualified consultants.
In my opinion, consulting is first of all the ability to analyse a situation and correctly define the problem. Second is the ability to analyse all the existing and available external expertise and offer a range of viable solutions. For this reason there are limitations on those who can claim to be consultants.Consultants should possess analytical skills and the ability to work with material, with facts, and the ability to ask questions. In addition, they need to have varied and actual experience, ideally global, which will enable them not to repeat the mistakes of others and not to reinvent the wheel. This is why I always look at what a person is really capable of, at what he has already achieved, his own personal experience, how he thinks and reasons.
In addition, it is important to match the views of consultants to the corporate culture of the company. The consultant should be suitable for you and understand your goals, your philosophy. He will then really be able to enrich your knowledge and propose solutions that are best suited to your business.If I had to select consultants for a business in Kazakhstan, then I would choose those with diverse international experience; those who have access to international practices, but have already applied it all in Kazakhstan - who understand the local specifics and have a good sense of the country. I think that building expertise today in a particular area in Kazakhstan means first of all attracting qualified specialists from other countries, as well as creating optimal conditions for those expatriate professionals to share their skills and experience with the people of Kazakhstan. This method has been tried and tested in many countries and states. A vivid example of such a state is Singapore.
Consulting is an extremely important element of the market infrastructure in developed countries. In general, the existence of domestically-developed consulting is an accurate indicator of the maturity of a country's economy and the presence of business institutes.
