Five reflections on five years of Chartered Management Consultant accreditation

“Five years ago, [Chartered Management Consultant accreditation] was just an idea with great ambition. Today it’s a real thing with momentum, credibility and a growing impact across our industry.”

So said Marco Amitrano ChMC, senior partner at PwC UK and Middle East, at last week’s celebratory event to mark the five-year anniversary of ChMC status. Held at PwC’s London headquarters, the event saw speakers reflecting on how important this accreditation has become to both the consulting industry and clients.

Several of the award’s creators said they struggle to believe it’s been five years since its launch.

“It seems like yesterday that I sat down with [CMI chief executive] Ann Francke and a blank piece of paper to shape the accreditation,” said Tamzen Isaacson, chief executive at the Management Consultancies Association.

Yet the figures show just how far things have come: 5,000 consultants are now on the ChMC journey; 2,500 are fully Chartered, which is 50% higher than last year; and nearly 50 firms have adopted the accreditation.

Here are five things we learned at the event:

1. Embracing Chartered status is giving individual firms a competitive edge

At EiB, which offers bid management and writing support, every team member has either Associate or Chartered ChMC status. According to Caitlin Murphy CMgr MCMI ChMC, the firm’s deputy chief executive and its people director, that has become a powerful differentiator for the organisation and a driver of its 86% win rate.

“Our clients know that not only are we accredited and Chartered as a business, but each individual within our team is. So they know that whoever is supporting them is working to their highest professional standard, and I think that’s what’s given us our real competitive edge.”