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Management
Consulting News
Interviews with consulting leaders,
articles, research results, job data,
and news. This month:
» Interview:
Fiona Czerniawska on the present and
future of consulting.
»
Articles: the important
distinction between what buyers need
and what they want by Alan Weiss,
handling crucial confrontations, how
to craft the direct mail marketing
letter, start a consulting business,
and engage senior executives in any
client organization.
Guerrilla
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The
Guerrilla Consultant –
a newsletter dedicated to applying the principles
of Guerrilla Marketing to the work and lives of
consultants.
A
Consultant’s Worst Nightmare
When he was President of Columbia University in
the 1950s, Dwight Eisenhower engaged the services
of a consultant to review the collegiate organization
and make recommendations on how to improve its
performance. Upon receiving the report, Eisenhower
commented that the report was “the most
expensive and least-read document the University’s
library ever acquired.”
Ouch.
Sadly,
that kind of consulting nightmare didn’t
end when Eisenhower held his post at Columbia.
Since then, countless stories of consulting project
meltdowns have hit the grapevine, leaving the
“responsible” consultants—and
their clients—with bitter feelings, payment
disputes, and a lot of unfinished business.
The
fact is that both client and consultant are responsible
for projects that go wild. This month, we’ll
discuss a few steps clients can take
before hiring a consultant that can prevent a
project disaster.
Enjoy
the article, and let
me know what you think.
Mike
McLaughlin
Co-Author, Guerrilla Marketing for Consultants
Leave
This in Your Client’s Office
It
doesn’t take an elaborate Google search
to find page after page recounting the failures
of consulting projects. Most sagas have a similar
ring—the consultant failed to complete the
project on time, on budget, or with expected results.
In
an ideal world, we’d never face such a debacle.
After
all, there isn’t a consultant in the market
who wants a runaway project—not one. Consultants’
motivation is to create value for the client—and
their consulting practices—by delivering
services flawlessly. No marketing strategy packs
the power of a satisfied client, and every consultant
understands that. So, most consultants will leap
backwards through flaming hoops to solidify a
client relationship and bag a great reference.
Client
decision makers don’t want projects to tank
either, at least in 99.99% of the cases. A client
executive who is tarred with a reputation as a
poor manager faces a bleak future.
The
downside of a project calamity is too steep for
clients or consultants to accept. Before diving
into a consulting project, here are a few simple
steps that clients can take to smooth the path
to a positive outcome.
Define
the End at the Beginning
|
“Setting off on a consulting project
without a clear view of the anticipated outcome
is like heading out to sea without navigation
gear. Chances are you’ll get lost, starve,
and sink the ship.” |
Just
as consultants are exhorted to define the value
they provide, clients must also articulate the
desired results they expect, not the means to
those ends. Setting off on a consulting project
without a clear view of the anticipated outcome
is like heading out to sea without navigation
gear. Chances are you’ll get lost, starve,
and sink the ship.
Too
many projects are plagued by missteps because
of fuzzy objectives at the outset. It’s
easy for a supply chain consultant, for example,
to start a project to help a client “improve
the efficiency of a distribution center.”
But that’s a recipe for failure because
the object of the desired improvement is drawn
too broadly, which invites the consultant to overlook
the real problem while “fixing something
that ain’t broke.”
Clients
must take the time to settle on an unambiguous
definition of the problem to make a good judgment
about the type of consultant who is best suited
to help. Some clients pay lip service to this
essential step and regret the outcome.
Who
Is the Client?
Every
experienced consultant knows about the “Out
of Left Field Syndrome.” As a project sprints
to its conclusion, an unknown stakeholder emerges
and wants to influence some, or all, of the project’s
outcome.
The
well-meaning stakeholder could be a newly hired
person, a representative from another division,
or someone who just found out that the project
was underway. Often, the consultant is forced
to scramble to accommodate the new stakeholder’s
needs at a time when it’s toughest to do
so.
Most
projects are structured to handle last minute
changes in direction, or they should be. But,
in many cases, attempts by a client from left
field to make fundamental changes to the scope
of the effort at the eleventh hour risk a full-blown
project meltdown.
The
antidote for this malaise is for the client to
define who the “client” is, that is,
to identify as precisely as possible—before
the project begins—all potential stakeholders.
This initial step is particularly important if
the consultant’s work extends to multiple
organizational units in the company. Clients should
keep in mind that one person’s trusted adviser
can be another person’s albatross.
Clients
are in a better position than consultants are
to seek out stakeholders and clarify the project
and their roles in its execution and management.
Create the communication channels that allow timely
and relevant project course corrections, instead
of simply reacting to the emergency of the moment.
You
Want What…When?
Public
company executives are often slammed for maximizing
short-term earnings at the expense of the long-range
health of the business. Such short-term behavior
can also slip into a client’s thinking when
defining a consulting project.
Most
clients want results immediately and, given the
fees they pay, who can blame them? Consultants
often fall into the trap of acceding to client’s
wishes by finding short-term improvement opportunities—quick
hits to satisfy the need for speed. Clients who
go for the “low hanging fruit” are
focused on the immediate, not the most important,
business improvements. The easy targets get fixed
while the systemic problems fester.
The
result is often a disgruntled client, who ends
up realizing that the short-term results are paltry,
while unresolved strategic issues remain unaddressed.
Taking a longer view of consulting projects means
the client accepts the consultant’s role
as a program designer and facilitator—not
necessarily an implementer—of long-term
change. The responsibility for cultural change
lies squarely with the client.
Of
course, some clients want consultants to help
implement change programs, but it’s unrealistic
to assume the consultant can do more than help
create an environment that’s conducive to
change. To expect anything else will likely result
in cost overruns and dashed expectations.
William
Clay Ford Jr., chairman and chief executive of
Ford Motor Company, once complained about consultants
by saying, “If I never see one again, it
will be too soon.” His comment exposes the
bleak side of the client/consultant relationship.
What’s worse is that Ford’s people
and the consultants probably moved mountains to
create valuable outcomes.
And
don’t think Eisenhower’s consultants
didn’t do some contortions before laying
out their recommendations. If consulting blowouts
can happen to former presidents and captains of
industry, they can happen to anyone.
But
any client can capture the collective power of
internal and external resources to get a predictable
result, on-time, and within budget. It’s
simply a matter of knowing what document you are
designing for your “library” before
it’s written.
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