How do strategy consultants successfully deploy tools? A qualitative study on the successful strategy consultant's toolkit

The purpose of this master thesis is to understand the underlying mechanisms of a successful strategy consultant’s tool deployment. Additionally, a conceptual framework shall be developed that can give guidance on what variables to consider when choosing an appropriate tool de-ployment strategy in the consulting process. The research objective is achieved using qualitative semi-structured interviews and the data is analyzed using template analysis. Five distinct themes describing the factors influencing strategy consultant’s tool deployment are found: activity-related, client characteristic-related, industry-related, consultant background-related and remote work-related factors. Further, implications for a possible tool deployment strategy are drawn synthesizing theory with the findings. The thesis adds to the theory on strategy consulting tools as the gap could be bridged between the conflicting character of strategy tools and how strategy consultants actually enable tools as a success factor. The practical contribution is found in the self-assessment questionnaire for consultants derived from the findings. Limitations can be found in the small sample size, limit to Germany as a geographical region and focused look on strategy consulting. Future research should verify the results of the study with a larger sample size, extent the scope to a broader geographical region and compare to other consulting fields.