Celebrating International Consultants Day
June 13th, 2022
Today, the global business environment and management consulting landscape continues to rapidly evolve, driven by technological innovation, socio-economic trends, changes in consumer behaviour, international trade, climate change, and the movement of people and ideas across borders. As a fairly recent example, the coronavirus pandemic caused a significant shift in the ways we consume, collaborate, and communicate with each other. The current pace of global change has certainly presented a multitude of risks to enterprises and ecological systems, but it has also furnished us with opportunities to address those risks and assist our communities, clients, and their customers in the cultivation of a more resilient and sustainable future.
On June 2nd, the Caribbean Institute of Management Consultants (CIMC) celebrated International Consultants Day alongside CMC Global and other management institutes from around the world. With an online event entitled, “The Future of Consulting: The Opportunities and Risks,” CIMC brought together a number of accomplished, inspirational, and pragmatic professionals from around the world to speak into some of the opportunities standing before us.
Dr Claire Nelson, Futurist and Sustainability Engineer, delivered the feature address. In a truly spirited presentation, she challenged us to not only consider where we are today with all of its attendant challenges, but many of the potential advancements to be realised in future, in the areas of agriculture, healthcare, technology, communications, climate change, and technology; and how we as consultants can better see the opportunities and position ourselves as change agents helping to guide vision, strategy, and shared goals.
Mr Christian Saunders, UN Assistant Secretary General for Supply Chain Management, shared pivotal insights from his work at the United Nations (UN). Recognizing the need for transformation efforts to match or exceed the global rate of change, Christian gave us an indepth look at the structure and operations of the UN and where key opportunities for individual consultants, as well as firms, resided. For those seeking to partner with the UN and take advantage of these opportunities, he not only provided some useful tips, but noted most importantly, that both patience and persistence were required in order to be successful.
Mr. Eric Zinyengere joined us from Southeast Africa on behalf of the Zimbabwe National Institute of Consulting (ZINC). He spoke to the need for greater collaboration among regional and international consultants, noting that smart cooperation and partnerships represented a significant opportunity for the future of the profession. Eric carefully illustrated how this collaboration would help us to build out more robust systems, share lessons learned, and take on more complex problems and challenges in the future. Some of the practical opportunities he shared for collaboration included cross-cutting knowledge think tanks, case studies, and guest consulting. Leaving us with much of his wisdom to reflect on, Mr Zinyengere said collaboration was not about us eating alone, but eating together.
Cementing much of the insights shared by our other speakers, Dr Noel Watson spoke to the opportunities inherent in our collaborating on the execution of projects throughout the Caribbean. He outlined many of the risks involved in our not doing so, including the missing out on good opportunities, reduced earnings, and us not further developing our knowledge and capacity. Dr Watson also detailed a number of imperatives for collaboration, meant to safeguard and promote the growth of consultants, the profession, and region.
The event was well attended by persons from around the world, including Greece, Dominica, Guyana, the Netherlands, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, Zimbabwe, Barbados, Canada, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. The CIMC would like to extend its sincerest thanks to the various sponsors which made it possible, including that of our treasured partner, the Caribbean Export Development Agency, our team, and ICMCI (CMC-Global).
For event highlights, video clips will be shared to our website and social media at https://caribbeanimc.com.
About the ICD
The International Consultants Day was announced by ICMCI back in 2005 to fall on the first Thursday of June and to be celebrated thereon annually in recognition of the achievements and contributions of management consultants worldwide.
About the Caribbean Institute of Management Consultants
The Caribbean Institute of Certified Management Consultants (CICMC) was established in 2007 as a non-profit organisation to regulate the practice of management consultancy, advocate for the profession, and advance the effectiveness of management consulting practices and processes in the region. In 2020 the organisation was rebranded as the Caribbean Institute of Management Consultants (CIMC). Since inception, with the institutional support of Caribbean Export Development Agency and other regional stakeholders, CIMC has expanded its footprint throughout the Caribbean region and is regarded as the champion of advocacy, networking support, capacity development and education for the region’s consulting professionals.