Definition Vs Functional Areas 

Defining the term 'developmental consulting' is a tricky issue. Considering the scope and size of market for professional services as universe and cutting out a piece out of it to term it 'developmental consulting does not seem feasible because of the absence of any clear cut dividing line between developmental consulting and nondevelopmental consulting as such. Therefore, instead of jumping in the definitional quagmire at the outset, this paper tries to spell out the concept in terms (Fig. 1) of what is being offered in the market packaged as developmental consulting. 

This approach of comprehending the developmental consulting market in terms of major functional areas and functionalities is even more important as it, further, provides conceptual foundation for market segmentation and a structured analysis of the subject matter.

Developmental Consulting - A Broad Typology 

The consulting firms can be classified under a broad typology keeping in view what these firms explicitly like to be known as or implicitly have been emphasized something of similar nature in their corporate profiles. 

We browse through profiles of about 2000 consulting firms scattered throughout the world and prepared a long list of firms' typology. The lengthy list was further deliberated by our research team and reclassified under twenty categories. Going by such broad typology like engineering consulting, management consulting, law firm etc., these firms fall under the following categories: 

• Agricultural Consulting Services
• Architecture and Designing Services
• Business Advisory Services
• Economic Consulting Services
• Educational Consulting Services
• Engineering Consulting Services
• Environmental Consulting Services
• Financial Consulting Services
• Health Care Advisory Services
• Hospitality Advisory Services
• Infrastructure Consulting Services
• IT Consulting Services
• Law/ Legal Advisory Services
• Management Consulting Services
• Planning Advisory Services
• Quality System (ISO) Consulting
• Security/Defence Advisory Services
• Spatial/Geological Information consulting Services
• Technology Advisory Services
• Others

The above classification is not a tight compartmentalization of the consulting market because some of the firms may be put under more than one category while few others may seem not to fall under any clearly visible category except their inclusion in the list a under heading 'Others'. For example, we came across the firms which are strongly focused on a particular market niche and term themselves accordingly like 'water consulting', 'leather consulting', 'oil spanning consulting', 'veterinary consulting' and 'brewing, beverage, food & packaging consulting'. 

Service Sectors/Areas 

The exercise of classifying the developmental consulting market in broad typology is not sufficient to create a foundational framework for further analysis and elaboration. Thus, keeping in view this need, the corporate profiles of the same sample of firms were analyzed from a functional perspective. The objective is to identify specific service sectors/areas and services (functionalities) offered by consulting firms in order to gather a comprehensive idea of what is being offered as developmental consulting in the world markets. A dissection of corporate profiles of sampled consulting firms brought out the following services sectors/areas catered to by these firms: (The list given below is unedited.) 

Energy 

• Alternative energy sources, solar energy
• Electricity
• Energy systems, power systems
• Energy, Electricity Sector and Education, Training in it
• Energy, Oil and Gas Sector, Petrochemicals
• Geology, geophysics, petrophysics, reservoir and petroleum engineering
• Geosciences, petroleum engineering and economics
• Oil and Gas Industry
• Oil and Gas Pipelines, Power
• Oil and gas production, gas processing, oil refining and energy industries
• Oil and Gas Production, Pipelines
• Oil and gas, biostratigraphy, geochemistry, reservoir geology
• Petroleum Sector
• Power generation, nuclear industries, on and off-shore oil development, hydropower, Energy Procurement, renewable energy, Energy and Sustainability, coal, electricity, gas, oil, Hydroelectric, power (electrical and other);
• Power projects, renewable energy projects. electrical utilities and power plant operations
• Power Sector

Transport 

• Air transportation industry/services; air transportation infrastructure;
• Aircrafts & Airfields Support
• Aviation Sector
• Aviation, Roads, Airports,
• Highways, railways, maritime and water
• Land use and transport planning
• Port and Harbour Development, ship mooring,
• Port Management
• Rail and shipping
• Submarine pipes and tunnels
• Traffic engineering
• Transport and traffic planning and management, Railways, Airports
• Transport Planning, Highway Engineering
• Transportation (highways and bridges),
• Transportation, road transportation infrastructure, urban transportation,
• Transportation, road transportation industry, sea transportation industry,

Environment 

• Air/water/marine/soil pollution,
• Coastal & Marine Environment; Freshwater & Terrestrial Environment
• Coastal and maritime works
• Coastal zone management, Flood defence
• Coastal zone/wetlands
• Contaminated land reclamation and wastes management
• Environment Consulting
• Environment general; air/water/marine/soil pollution; industrial pollution;
• Environment, Solid Waste, Pollution
• Environment, Wild Life, National Parks
• Environmental economics
• Environmental schemes
• Fisheries, aquaculture and environmental management]
• Forestry, forest resources
• Legal skills and backgrounds in the natural resources sector, minerals-general (natural resources unit
• Marine environment
• Marine environment, air/water/marine/soil pollution
• Minerals
• Natural resources management
• Sewerage, sewage treatment, sanitation,
• Waste Management & Habitat Restoration
• Waste treatment
• Wastewater and solid waste
• Water quality monitoring, natural resource protection

Water Supply 

• Water Industry
• Water Resources Infrastructure
• Water supply and dock installation fields, drainage infra-structure
• Water supply infrastructure
• Water Supply Schemes
• Water supply, dams, irrigation, reservoirs 

Financial Sector 

• Audit, Account, Taxation and Financial Sector
• Banking Sector, Finance
• Banking, finance and commodity sectors, financial market operations; capital markets and stock exchange; sector regulation and supervision
• Banking, Insurance
• Banking, Treasury systems, Dealing Room Systems
• Corporate Finance
• International finance and banking 

Industries 

• Agri-business Industry. Sugar Industry
• Brewing, beverage, food and packaging industries
• Cane sugar sector
• Civil Engineering Industry
• Forest Industries Sectors
• Health and health care services
• Health Sector
• Healthcare
• Infrastructure
• IT
• Leather Industry
• Leisure industry
• Sport and Recreation
• Telecommunications, Media, Broadcasting and Radio Navigation
• Tourism
• Tourism, Hotel and Leisure Sectors

Education 

• Adult and other types of education
• Education and Training
• Education materials, media; teacher education
• Higher Education
• Instructional and curriculum development
• Research and Training
• Technical/industrial/vocational Training 

Urban Planning 

• Sector utilities
• Urban design
• Urban Development
• Urban renewal
• Urban sanitation
• Urban services, sector utilities
• Utility Sector 

Real Estate 

• Architectural, planning, interior design practice
• Built Environment, Buildings and their Linking Infrastructure
• Civil Engineering, Architecture
• Commercial real estate
• Construction management
• Construction materials           (wood/products);          technology        (wood   in         construction);             shelter/housing (wood+approp. materials)
• Engineering, architectural and building sectors
• Industrial building structures
• Property Development
• Residential, government buildings and commercial sectors

Agriculture, Fisheries, Forestry

• Agriculture general; farm production crops/products; food and kindred products Agriculture, forestry, livestock production and fisheries
• Agronomy
• Forestry (industries and utilization)
• Horticulture
• Irrigation
• Land management
• Land Reform, Land Resources
• Livestock production
• Veterinary consulting
• Veterinary medicine

Economic, Business & Management Consulting 

• Business Management and Economics,
• Collections Management & Communication Systems
• Communications, data, leisure, commercial, retail and industrial projects
• Corporate Governance
• E-business
• economic development
• Economic regulation,
• Free Trade Zones
• HRD
• Information management systems communication
• ISO Standards
• IT strategy and economics
• litigation, tax and intellectual property
• Management Consultancy, Commercial and Contractual Management, Strategic Planning Studies
• Manufacturing and Enterprise Development
• Media & Technology
• Planning, economic and developmental
• Project management, manufacturing, media and communications
• SME
• Supply Chain Management, e-Procurement
• Technology Parks 

Social Development 

• Crime, risk and security
• Diversity, equality, social inclusion
• Human rights
• Police and Security
• Public Administration
• Regional development, Rural Development
• Security Services
• Sociology and Politics, rural livelihoods 

Science & Technology 

• Computing, Chemistry, Electronics and Engineering, Geology and Geophysics, Life Sciences, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology
• Earth Observation imagery, GIS
• Life Sciences
• Minerals technology
• Remote sensing and geographic information systems
• Reservoir, Drilling, Seismic technology

Mining 

• Geotechnical engineering
• Mining and base metal process industries
• Mining, Ceramics 

Defence & Others Related 

• Coastal defence works
• National reconstruction general 

Service Offerings 

Further analysis of service offerings in terms of type, nature, financial dividends, technical configurations etc. is in progress and soon will be available on this website (www.visionri.com). 

Market Segmentation - A Framework for Further Analysis 

Further analysis of market in terms of its scope, size, nature and opportunities asks for its workable segmentation. Market segmentation has been conceptualized in terms of functional areas and geographical regions. Functional segmentation hinges on identified service sectors/areas while geographical segmentation has been defined as broad regions like South Asia and its constituents countries. The resulting combination of these two segmentation parameters slices the market in individual units, for example, energy consulting in Bangladesh, for analytical purposes. Functional and geographical segmentation of the developmental consulting market as well as framework for multiple segmentation (Fig 2) is given below.

Functional Segmentation 

• Energy
• Transport
• Environment
• Water Supply
• Financial Sector
• Industries:
  • Agri-business Industry. Sugar Industry
  • Brewing, beverage, food and packaging industries o Cane sugar sector o Civil Engineering Industry o Forest Industries Sectors o Health and health care services
  • Health Sector o Healthcare
  • Infrastructure o IT
  • Leather Industry o leisure industry o Sport and Recreation
  • Telecommunications, Media, Broadcasting and Radio Navigation o Tourism
  • Tourism, Hotel and Leisure Sectors
• Education
• Urban Planning
• Real Estate
• Agriculture, fisheries, forestry
• Economic, Business & Management Consulting
• Social Development
• Science & Technology
• Mining
• Defence & Others Related

Geographical Segmentation (Regions) 

• East Asia and Pacific
• Europe and Central Asia
• Latin America and Caribbean
• Middle East and North Africa
• North America
• South Asia
• Sub Saharan Africa

The Epilogue 

The research further will divulge an in depth analysis of market for developmental consulting covering its size, nature, players and their strategic play. A comprehensive model to explain the dynamics of developmental marketplace will be spelled out based on the research study.