Breaking down the business as usual approach to consulting

The world of consulting covers a wide arrays of services, but at its core is the dispensation of advice to a client and a provision of assistance in realizing that advice in the form or program management. Corporate entities large and small bring consultants on board to help craft solutions that will improve their organization, streamline business processes, generate savings, improve customer experience, and more. This is often at considerable expense to the client and by extension demands that advice and recommendations by the consulting firm be effectively implemented.

The dilemma of the “big box” consulting firm

There are several large and established consulting firms, the “big box” firms that work almost exclusively with and provide consulting services to large corporations. However the typical experience of a corporation hiring a big box firm is months of meetings with the heads various departments to collect anecdotal and oftentimes compromised information, culminating in a well crafted and polished presentation of the consultant’s recommendations to senior management of the corporation. This is often followed with a quick exit by the consultant, the dumping of implementation on an unaware middle management at the corporation, and a robust invoice from the big box firm after several weeks.

The business as usual approach of big box consulting firms has been to develop solid internal resources, such as presentation templates and standardized calculators, and acquire underpaid talent to fill in the blanks and perform consulting work, while continuing to avoid technological innovation due to investment costs. While this often exhibits itself in the form of polished and graphically pleasing presentations, what clients ultimately wind up paying for is packaging, the operational overhead costs of a large and lethargic firm, with a fraction of the amount being allocated to the consultant being tapped for critical advice.

Client churning is another common approach by big box consulting to ensure continuous need for consulting services, the profit is in the treatment not the cure. What this typically means for clients is that they devote resources in the form of fees, lost productivity and in return receive a presentation and Microsoft PowerPoint or Excel files. Following this the consultant is incentivized to move on to the next client to rack up billable hours. It is not difficult to see the appeal of this model, for the consulting firm, but client should be seeking success not becoming a notch in the billing cycle of a big box firm.

End to end consulting

Smaller consulting firms have stepped in to cover two gaps left by the big box firms. Firstly, they are able to open up the world of consulting to smaller corporate organizations and sole proprietors due to their ability to quickly adopt and adapt to new technology, price effectively, and without the oppressive overhead of a big box firm they pay their consultants better. This greatly shifts the dynamic for small and medium sized business seeking assistance in adapting their operating models, reducing activity response time and and other numerous activities that can be improved and bettered.

Secondly, smaller consulting firms and groups are able to focus on end to end consulting, the process of working directly with their clients, developing a deep understanding of their business practices, making recommendations, and then managing through the implementation with their clients. While final costs are often on par with that of a big box firm, the key difference is that clients wind up at the destination instead of being left with a roadmap.

Success matters

When determining if your organization needs consulting services, invest some time into determining what the organization truly needs, talk to your team members about their previous experience with consulting firms and if it was successful. Spending a few hours conducting an internal review can be an eye opening experience, especially if your organization has routinely used big box consultants.

Ask the hard questions. Does your organization have a strong track record of internal implementation? Have you tried and failed at change management? How is shareholder value best met with an investment in a consultant? Does having a local consultant matter? Is packaging a major concern from a senior management or shareholder perspective? Is price the only important factor?

Once your organization has been through some light soul searching, vet multiple firms and choose the one that will actually help your organization be successful. Because in a consulting relationship, success is the only thing that matters.