The strategic orientation of communications consulting firms in Colombia

This article reports the results of a research conducted among a group of 55 CEOs of public relations and communication consulting agencies in Colombia. It aims at determining if strategic orientation predominates in the services for which these agencies are hired. As it has been found, some of them focus their business on this perspective. Nevertheless, there is a higher volume of technical services, such as free press and journalistic media relations. The increase in services in recent years has been due, among other reasons, to the good moment of Colombian economy. The reasons for hiring an agency are its prestige and reputation. However, this result contrasts with the argument presented by the interviewed executives as the main impediment to their practice as consultants: the lack of knowledge of their work on the part of clients.