CHAPTER ONE
WHAT IS CONSULTING?

What is a consultant? Today many people call themselves consultants: corporations formulate their strategies with the support of management consultants; a graduate employed by an information technology (IT) company developing software is called a software development consultant; travel agencies are manned by travel consultants; gardeners call themselves landscaping consultants; and a person selling double-glazing introduces himself as a sales consultant. All of these people have quite different roles and skills. On another note, many young graduates freshly employed by companies in the consulting industry are proud of the title 'consultant' on their business card but struggle to explain to their friends and relatives from a holistic perspective exactly what it is that they do for a living.

To be successful in consulting you will need to understand its essence: What consulting is, and what it is not. This is particularly important today due to the abundant use of the consultant title. Many of the people bearing the title may not be consultants at all, or at least consulting may only constitute a small part of what they do. The unravelling of consulting and its complexities is not trivial. Consulting is a diverse activity delivered in many different contexts. We will therefore use an incremental approach to reveal the cornerstones of a consulting service as well as the obstacles and conflicts that can be associated with it.

CONSULTING: THE BASIC PROPOSITION

To begin our journey into the world of consulting, consider the following statement:

Consulting is a helping relationship provided based upon expertise and experience.

Consulting is, indeed, a helping relationship and a consultant's primary focus is to help his or her client to achieve a desired objective or outcome. Helping a client may involve many different activities, according to the need and context. Advising, conducting analysis, formulating strategies, designing processes and implementing technology-based solutions are some of the most common examples of consulting help today.

The statement also suggests that the help provided by consultants is based upon two key ingredients: Expertise and experience. Together these form the basis of what we will refer to as the basic consulting proposition.

Consider the following example.

A client plans to build a new house and decides to employ the services of an architect. For the purposes of our discussion an architect could be considered as a type of consultant with specialist knowledge in the design and construction of buildings. Charging on an hourly basis, the architect inspects the client's plot of land and helps her to design her house. His advice is based firstly upon the expertise that he acquired in a school of architecture, and secondly upon the experience that he brings from having designed many similar buildings over the last ten years. In effect, it is the product of these two components that defines his consulting proposition: The value that he can deliver, and in essence the value that the client is getting for her money.

The balance of expertise and experience that forms a consultant's individual proposition can vary tremendously. A graduate new to the consulting business will usually add value based largely upon expertise or skill, such as being educated and certified in a particular business, technology-related or scientific domain. The proposition of a senior consultant, on the other hand, is more likely to be experience weighted, drawing upon the handling of diverse business situations, participation in complex projects or the findings of research accrued over a number of years. Irrespective of the balance, we have introduced the two most important variables that define a consultant's proposition, expertise and experience, which if applied effectively can result in a powerful and high-value service.

If you are working as a consultant it is important that you clearly understand your proposition as an individual. You will need to articulate it to clients and then apply it with accuracy to a variety of problems and situations. Today clients have high expectations of consultants and may challenge you, putting your proposition to the test with questions such as 'What industry certification do you have enabling you to consult in this area?' or 'How long have you worked in this solution domain? Can you give an example of a similar case that you have worked with, and the outcome?' These are fair and reasonable questions from a client, and a good consultant should be able to answer them clearly and professionally. In Chapter 3, Establishing Credibility, the skill of articulating the consulting proposition will be explored with a view to building a credible consultant-client relationship.

WHO IS QUALIFIED TO BE A CONSULTANT?

We have already highlighted the broad use of the consultant title. Consulting is a largely unregulated profession and, with the exception of certain specific regulated disciplines, there are usually no minimum qualifications attached to the title. Anyone who chooses to brand themselves as a consultant therefore becomes a consultant, and anyone whom a consulting company chooses to hire, albeit according to their own selection criteria, becomes a consultant. The resultant diversity of people acting in a consultant role brings with it many consequences.

Compare consulting with a strictly regulated profession, for example the accounting profession. If you want to call yourself a chartered accountant and print the title on a business card there are a number of professional exams that you must pass, even after completing a university degree. The title is protected. If you were to go to a local copy shop, print business cards bearing the title and start practising without attaining the mandatory qualifications, sooner or later the regulatory agency governing the accounting profession in your country would come along and sue you. The same principle applies to other regulated professions such as medicine. You cannot just call yourself a doctor and start practising on people. The implications would be disastrous.

In consulting there are generally no such regulations. Due to its diversity, consulting is more difficult to regulate than certain other professions and as a result a wide variety of firms and individuals present themselves to corporations as consultants. The performance of these people is generally mixed. Some may be very good, some mediocre and others may perform very badly, unable to deliver to their promises, and consequently rarely earning the opportunity to work for the same client more than once.

Consider now the impact of this dilemma from the client perspective. For clients there is a risk associated with engaging a consulting firm for the first time. The consultants may bring impressive references and present interesting proposals, but until you have seen them perform and produce results you never know exactly what you are going to get. When a client hires a chartered accountant they can be guaranteed of a basic level of skill and performance. Consulting is much more subjective, and the reputation and demonstrated track record of a consultant are therefore key to his or her success. Most well-seasoned clients can refer to at least one occasion when they had a less than satisfactory experience dealing with a consultant. In extreme cases you may encounter organizations that do not like consultants at all. If you face this situation you are likely to encounter resistance from client personnel based upon their scars from the past. The example below highlights one such case.

Some years ago I was flying from Newark International Airport in the United States to Stockholm, Sweden. The flight was approximately eight hours in duration and departed Newark in the early evening. The gentleman sitting next to me on the aeroplane was smartly dressed in a suit with the appearance of a senior executive. As we arrived at our seats we exchanged courtesies. During the first hours of the flight we both focused on our work, until the crew appeared to serve a meal. We placed our computers aside and engaged in light conversation over dinner. I rarely talk much about my work in such situations and generally steer towards lighter social topics of conversation.

The gentleman turned out to be a senior manager for an automotive company, based in Michigan. For many years his key area of specialization had been the design and production of heavy-duty gearboxes, a subject that he clearly relished to talk about. During the course of the next 20 minutes I learned a lot about gearboxes - everything from sensor technology to industrial lubricants and their response to different temperature gradients. My travel companion was pleasant, enthusiastic and told an interesting, although somewhat technically detailed, story.

At a certain point in the discussion the gentleman changed the subject and asked what I did for a living. I responded without hesitation, 'I am a senior consultant, working with an international firm'. The mood of our conversation changed immediately. 'Oh - a consultant!' he exclaimed with a pronounced sigh. For a moment I paused, but as usual my curiosity got the better of me. I was keen to discover what had happened to this gentleman in the not so distant past that had provoked such a reaction. 'I sense that you have some experience working with consultants', I...