What outside consultants provide for their clients:

1. A Disciplined Problem-Solving Approach:  In the face of vexing challenges in developing and growing revenues, keeping costs in line, delivering a satisfying customer experience, and developing an energized, self-motivated team, organizations need to know three things.
   
    
   1. To know what is happening.  Consultants call this data and analysis.  I like to call this piece “insight”, since usually clients are buried in data, but have little useful information.  This step answers five questions:
      
       

                                                              i.      What do we need to know?

                                                            ii.      What do we know?

                                                          iii.      What must we do to get the information we need?

                                                           iv.      Why is it happening? (Root Causes)

                                                             v.      What does it mean?

 

During this initial phase, consultants will gather and analyze data using a variety of tools including:

Process Mapping

Benchmarking

A.P.I.E.

Failure Mode Effects Analysis

Human Performance Analysis

Human Factors Analysis

Financial Analysis

Primary Market and Competitive Research
Secondary Market and Competitive Research

2. To know what to do about it.  This step is commonly called “strategy development”.  This is where an excellent consultant taps into the insight and mind-power of the organization to identify workable solutions.  This step includes:
   
    

                                                              i.      Identifying and analyzing best practices inside and outside the client organization.

                                                            ii.      Formulating improved approaches and processes for doing work.

                                                          iii.      Analyzing the costs and benefits of alternative approaches.

                                                           iv.      Presenting recommendations and obtaining sponsorship for proposed changes.

                                                             v.      Team development

 

Tools used in this phase include:

 

Process Redesign

Analysis of Time/Cost/Errors

Market Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Handoff Analysis

Organizational Structure Analysis

Marketing Plan Development

Financial Modeling

Team Building

3. To take action about it.  Most well-intentioned consulting projects deliver little or no value because the recommendations are never fully implemented.  Implementation means executing the plan and following up to ensure that the desired results are realized.  This step generally entails:

                                                              i.      Task:  Successful implementation demands a thorough planning process whereby tasks, timings, costs, and responsibilities are established with accuracy and detail.

                                                            ii.      Team:  Successful implementation results from having the right mix of talents, personalities, and power on the project team.

                                                          iii.      Sponsorship:  Successful implementation always comes from good sponsorship, that is, a strong relationship with powerful individuals who can allocate resources and eliminate barriers.

                                                           iv.      Management:  Plans are nothing unless they are followed up on before, during, and after each task.

                                                             v.      Evaluation:  The team must establish measures of success and make mid-course corrections throughout implementation.

Tools utilized during this phase include:

Project Management and Time Lines

Communication Planning

Project Measurement and Follow Up

Team Based Processes

 

2. Objectivity:  While we would like to imagine that employees, managers, and even leadership team members speak openly and objectively about their most serious problems, history shows that anyone who is internal to the client system has too many incentives to filter what they say.  When people are worried about their careers, reputations, compensation, or political power, the pressure is frequently just too great to risk talking about the cold hard facts in order to make things better.
   
   The consultant, coming in as an outsider to the client organization, is free to speak openly about what he or she is seeing.  If the consultant has integrity, he or she will speak the hard truth even if that truth is offensive to the client.  If the client wants a “yes” man or woman, the client should not hire a consultant. 
   
   Often, the consultant must face an ethical dilemma, that is, what makes the client “comfortable” is often the opposite of what the client needs in order to get better.  A physician who speaks candidly about a patient’s bad habits is addressing the real root cause, but the physician who simply provides pain-killers while ignoring the real disease will be more popular. 
   
   An excellent consultant has the ability to observe the important facts, draw the appropriate insight, and communicate difficult truth to the client in a way that encourages action.  Great consultants know how to be extraordinarily open and honest, while simultaneously being encouraging and supportive.  They temper disillusionment by conveying hope for a positive solution.
   
    
3. Expertise:  Frequently, organizations need access to particular skills, expertise, industry or customer knowledge, or models for analysis not resident in the client organization.  Rather than hire a full time person for a temporary need, a client can hire a consultant to supply the required expertise in “real-time” with the client only paying for the value received.
   
    
4. Horsepower:  Clients can bring in a “pinch hitter” to get a very specific project done when there is not enough internal bandwidth and/or headcount.

5. Managing People:  Clients often need outside resources for training, coaching on leadership skills, team building, or improving morale.

6. Planning:  Consultants facilitate strategic planning processes using tools and techniques that help people pull their ideas together into a cohesive whole.