Business consulting (which comprises strategy consulting and operations consulting) refers to both the practice of helping companies to improve performance through analysis of existing business problems and development of future plans, as well as to the industry composed of firms that specialize in this sort of consulting. Management consulting may involve the identification and cross-fertilization of best practices, analytical techniques, change management and coaching skills, technology implementations, strategy development, or operational improvement. Oftentimes management consultants also rely on their outsider's perspective to provide unbiased recommendations. Management consultants generally bring formal frameworks or methodologies to identify problems or suggest more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks.

Business Management Consulting is becoming more prevalent in non-business related fields as well. As the need for professional and specialized advice grows, other industries such as government, quasi-government and not-for-profit agencies are turning to the same managerial principles that have helped the private sector for years.

While business management consulting refers to providing business consulting services, it can be hard to definitely distinguish between management consulting and other consulting practices such as Information technology consulting and human resource consulting because these fields directly support business operations and often overlap the field of management consulting.