Abstract
For many product-oriented companies, establishing a corporate consultancy can be a good first step toward a more solutions-based orientation. As Ericsson, Shell and AT&T, among others, illustrate, the consulting unit can take a number of forms dictated by its key knowledge and its relation to the product businesses' value chain. The challenge is to determine how similar the consulting unit should be to the parent company in identity, mission and structure. Expert corporate consultancies support the product business by exploiting professional knowledge. Their choice of strategy depends on the nature of the ties between the product business and the consultancy. The four types of corporate consultancy - spearhead, expert, integration and know-how - are continuous rather than rigid. Some consultancies switch types as their mission changes. For managers, engaging in a solutions strategy by establishing corporate consultancies means building a conflict into their organization, a conflict between a product-oriented logic and a customer-oriented one.