The advisory firms act as consultants for the business and guide them about their strategic and operational direction.
The advisory services may differ depending on the agreed scope and purpose of the engagement. Well-known advisory services include but are not limited to risk, financial, strategy, management, tax, legal, sales, and advisory for digital transformation/IT.
Let’s glance over these services and assess how these firms make money.
Risk advisory
The risk advisory service providers carry out a detailed review of the internal operations and controls.
These advisors identify the risk during the review process and advise the business about the probable impact of the risk. Often their reports indicate the nature of the risk if it’s high, medium, or low.
The responsibility of the risk advisors is not limited to identifying the risk but advising on the appropriate action to be taken by the management.
They charge the client for the services of review, assessment of the controls, and making recommendations to smooth the process.
If the required services are related to some specific areas of the business, the billing is limited; however, if engagement is about the comprehensive risk assessment of the business, the scope of the work and the fee to be charged increase.
Financial advisory
Financial advisory is the most popular form of advisory service. The advisors/consultants deeply analyze the financial structure and investment portfolio to advise management to control the cost of financing and enhance the investment return.
Financial advisors play an essential role in analyzing investment opportunities, including the formation of the projected cash flow, assessing the feasibility of the projects, and the payback period.
However, their fundamental approach to the advisory is based on the appropriate financial management.
In other words, how should the business manage its finance?
Overall, financial advisory services lie in the investment portfolio, management consulting for bank accounts, making estimations, projections, financial planning, and managing other aspects of finance.
Financial advisory firms charge the business based on the agreed scope of the work and the extent of the work to be performed for making advice.
Tax advisory
Tax advisory firms help businesses control tax expenses by planning and applying the principles that help mitigate tax expenses.
The tax advisors are certified tax professionals with an in-depth understanding of the taxation principles and loopholes of the taxation laws that puts them in a position to advise their clients about tax savings and another legal way of obtaining maximum tax exemptions from the system of taxation.
The tax advisory falls in areas including but not limited to personal tax, corporate tax, customs duty, optimized filings of the tax records, compliance with the tax legislation, and advisory on the financial and legal matters by considering the impact on the taxation structure of the business.
Tax advisory firms often work closely with business executives and charge their clients periodically.
The periodic charges include filing for tax returns and other calculations. On the other hand, firms may also set the business for some special project/special invoicing.
Legal advisors
Managing the legal aspects is one of the essential features of business operations. Larger businesses often hire in-house lawyers as they have regular work.
On the other hand, medium and large companies usually outsource their legal functions to lawyers/legal advisors.
The legal advisors, internal/external, provide different services of legal aspects that include drafting ad negotiating the contractual terms for the purchase and sale of the goods and assisting business management on matters of corporate secretarial compliance.
It is also helping the company secretary with issues related to regulatory requirements of the board, assists businesses in the conduct of legal research and finding the case references for the formulation of the legal response, and assists the company in the settlements of business-related disputes and other matters of the legal proceedings.
Legal advisors are considered to charge a handsome amount for their services. The charges are based on the complexity and sensitivity of the legal matters under consideration.
If the dispute/legal matter/contractual drafting/formulation of the legal responses is complex and lengthy, the fee to be charged increases and vice versa.
IT advisory
The scope of IT advisors has increased exponentially in recent times. The IT advisors provide services in infrastructure development, networking, product development, digitalization of operational processes, and other aspects of business integration.
The prime example of the IT advisory is implementing the ERP that brings massive digitalization by integration and increasing the pace of the business processes.
The IT advisors earn money by charging the client for the work performed. Their billing depends on the time and size of the team in performing specific IT-related tasks.
IT advisory is considered to be more expensive and complex than normal advisory services.
Sales advisory
The sales advisors make in-house changes to improve the process of sales. They streamline the internal processes, optimize the sales funnel, formulate the marketing teams and refine the prices to help the businesses get enhanced deals.
The sales advisory firm might charge the business based on the sales increment or any other scheme agreed upon between the advisors and the business.
Similarly, strategy advisors and management advisors work closely with the management to set a certain direction for the business.
Their services lie in advising management about the strategic direction of the business, product development, diversification, market development, or some shift of the strategy, etc.
Overall, we can interchange the term advisor with consultants as they do not directly help the business but advise management on different aspects.
Sometimes, the advisors/consultants must closely monitor the processes to get into the advisory position.
For instance, to advise on the risk position of the business, the advisor has to perform extensive procedures for understanding/making keen observations about the business processes.
Most of the advisors are external consultants that are highly qualified and experienced in their field, which enables them to advise their clients by understanding their operations and needs for improvement.
Top 10 Advisory Firms in The World
- Deloitte: Deloitte is one of the “Big Four” accounting firms and one of the world’s largest professional services networks.
- Ernst & Young (EY): EY is another of g Four” accounting firms. It provides assurance, tax, and transaction advisory services to clients worldwide.
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC): PwC is the third “Big Four” accounting firm. It provides assurance, tax, and advisory services to clients in 158 countries.
- KPMG: KPMG is the fourth and final “Big Four” accounting firm. It provides audit, tax, and advisory services to clients in 155 countries.
- McKinsey & Company: McKinsey & Company is a management consulting firm that serves various businesses and organizations worldwide.
- The Boston Consulting Group (BCG): BCG is another leading management consulting firm that provides advice to companies in all industries and markets around the globe.
- Bain & Company: Bain & Company is another top management consulting firm that advises companies on strategic issues such as mergers and acquisitions, organizational design, and marketing strategy.
- Booz Allen Hamilton: Booz Allen Hamilton is a management consulting firm that provides services to governments and large corporations in defense, intelligence, and security.
- Accenture: Accenture is a professional services company that offers a range of services in strategy, consulting, digital transformation, technology, and operations to its clients worldwide.
- Oliver Wyman: Oliver Wyman is a management consulting firm that focuses on helping financial institutions improve their performance by addressing strategic, operational, risk management, organizational, and technological issues.
What Are the Top 10 Advisory Firms in the Asia Pacific?
With the increasing demand for advice in various industries, Asia Pacific has become a hub of advisory services.
Here are the top 10 advisory firms in the region, based on their years of experience, client satisfaction ratings, and industry reputations:
- Deloitte Advisory Services – Deloitte’s global network of advisors provides integrated risk management solutions to companies across the Asia Pacific.
- EY Advisory Services – EY is a leading provider of strategy and operations consulting services in the region, with over 4,000 professionals helping clients improve performance and drive growth.
- McKinsey & Company – McKinsey’s Asia-Pacific office provides tailored solutions to clients across the financial services, healthcare, energy, and manufacturing sectors.
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Consulting – PwC has 26 offices across 17 countries in Asia Pacific and offers a range of assurance, tax, and consulting services to regional organizations.
- Accenture – Offering strategy, technology, and operations support to major regional corporations, Accenture is one of the most trusted consultants in the Asian continent.
- BCG Consulting – This Boston-based company continues to expand its presence in Asia Pacific, with offices in 13 countries offering industry-specific solutions for clients.
- KPMG Consulting– KPMG is well established as an advisory firm in Asia Pacific, providing audit services as well as operational transformation initiatives for businesses operating there
- Mercer Consulting — With a strong presence in 15 economies throughout Asia-Pacific, Mercer has been supporting organizations by providing innovative benefits solutions and analytics capabilities on how best to recruit people into their organization.
- Alvarez & Marsal — A&M has proliferated since it entered the APAC market some years ago, now working closely with clients across key industries such as healthcare, financial services, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and hospitality.
- Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC)– MMC has expanded its footprint across 15 cities throughout APAC since establishing its first office in Singapore more than 25 years ago. They have become known for their strategic financial risk management advice and insight into Human Resources consultancy best practices.
