This article will discuss the main differences between Consultancy and Training and how they have changed due to (or thanks to) the Covid-19 emergency.
More and more often, there is confusion between Consultancy and Training and this causes the inversion of expectations and the development of ambiguities that do not benefit professionals or organizations.
What do we have to do and how has it to be done? Advisor’s answer
The term CONSULTANCY defines the support service offered by an expert (a professional with assessed and acknowledged competences in a particular field) in order to provide the customer with assistance through advices, opinions, solutions, strategies, ideas and initiatives already known by the Advisor or conceived based on his know-how or his experience. All this is to guarantee customers to reach their targets.
The Advisor is a professional who knows and who knows how to implement. Basically, the Advisor answers the questions “What do we have to do?” and “How do we have to do it?”.
The Advisor plays a fundamental role within the medical sector, that is a complicated field from an organizational, legislative, normative and applicative viewpoint. Moreover, this area, is in need of a very practical arrangement of the theorical concept in order to assess the impact on the organization. Regulatory Advice is often Management Consultancy or Strategic-Regulatory Consultancy since it helps establish strategies to access the markets, to determine the internal operational implications and it affects the relationships with the main stakeholder of the business/industry.
Thema is well aware of this issue and for this reason, for years, it has been offering services of Strategic-Regulatory Consultancy to manufacturers and distribution companies of Medical Devices (MD) and in vitro diagnostic medicaldevices (IVD).
What do we need to learn? Trainer’s answer
The TRAINING aims to transfer knowledge, develop expertise and train individual abilities or team skills, cross-cutting (soft skills) or technical (hard skills) skills. The Training can take advantage of many different modes of coaching provision: INDOOR or OUTDOOR for example. The aim of Training is not finding solutions and not even implementing them, but just teaching and acquiring both concepts and technical knowledge.
The Trainer is a professional with competence in theoretical knowledge, but he does not have the responsibility to put it into practice, to implement it.
The Trainer answer the question “What do we need to learn?”
In order to operate in the medical sector, Training is not optional, it is a necessity. When it comes to quality/regulatory activities, the variety of requirements and their continuous change, lead to the need to create new roles that require new competencies and to keep themselves constantly educated and updated with the purpose of owning the theorical base required to guarantee the efficiency and the conformity of the company system.
MD24, Thema’s brand, is concerned with educating successful professionals who have all the necessary expertise to manage quality and regulatory activities and that bring an incredibly high benefit to the organizations to whom they collaborate.
COVID-19 as an opportunity for innovation
Due to the COVID-19 pandemia, the focus shifted towards digitalization. The emergency, indeed, offered the possibility to experiment and to implement new operating methods taking advantage of the available technological devices, proving themselves to be interesting and successful.
As regards Consultancy, videoconferencing and virtual meeting replaced face-to-face meetings.
In spite of the penalization of interpersonal relationship, those methods still manage to create and keep the relationship, the virtual connection, turning it into ties of values, optimizing costs and saving time (which is not bad). For the Advisor, it means less alarm clocks at dawn, less hours spent in the car; for the Customer it means fewer travel expenses, more concentration and attention for immediate relevant issues. Furthermore, what should not be overlooked is the environmental impact of it.
As regards Training, well organized webinar, live streaming courses and virtual conferences are optimal for notion sharing while maintaining a high level of involvement. Moreover, they allow a considerable cost saving and psycho-physical wellness. Precisely this period, thanks to the smart working and to the consequent decrease of stress from desk job, gives the unique opportunity to dedicate ourselves to our own learning through “convenient” and “from home” methods, like online courses. Everything without penalizing at all the quality of the formation received.
Do not confuse Consultancy with Training: distinct and complementary
In conclusion, even in the days of Covid-19, Consultancy and Training do not exclude each other; they are complementary and they feed on themselves: Consultancy may lead to training needs, Training could lead to the need to put into practice thanks to an Advisor.
However, we must not confuse Consultancy with Training! 3 good reasons below:
- UNFULFILLED EXPECTATIONS: combining Consultancy with Training means combining, messing with expectations. For example, this happens when after attending a training event, you pretend to have acquired application methods and solutions.
- LOSS OF TIME: understanding the difference between Consultancy and Training means being able to create a sequential and effective action plan that allows to optimize the phases necessary in order to attain the target in time.
- INDIVIDUAL AND COMPANY SUCCESS: Consultancy and Training are the perfect instruments to reach our own successful goals.
So, rely on our experts for valuable Consultancy and Training!
Thema is available for your need for Counseling. Send an e-mail to: sales@thema-med.com
MD24 takes care of your Training plan. Send an e-mail to: formazione@md-24.net