The business consulting services landscape has changed drastically over the last 10 years. A decade ago, a clever consultant could rely on methodology alone. That's changed. Today, consultants must have specific industry knowledge in order to be effective, and companies must create clear markers of progress against which performance can be measured.
Key to taking on any consultancy is a rigorous set of selection criteria. A good consultant will understand the lingo, processes as well as local and international practices of the industry in which they're working. If they don't, they'll be learning on site and will compete on price rather than proficiency. When it comes to consulting, quality people tend to come at a higher cost, but the value provided will more that make up the additional cost.
In many cases, companies choose consultancies based on price, not on capability or cultural alignment. Ideally, consultants should know your industry, have done similar projects before, have technology expertise and have demonstrable methods that will accelerate the implementation and - crucially - be a good cultural fit in your organisation by understanding your people.
Whether it's helping create a roadmap for new services or refining processes and methods, a good consultant will help a company crystallise its thinking about what it ought to be doing next, and will fit in - or "culturally align" - with the company's existing staff.
Cultural alignment doesn't just make for a more amicable working environment, it's essential for delivering a successful project. No consultant works alone. Every successful consultant relies on partnerships. You may employ consultants for their capabilities, but you don't want to have to fire them for their attitude or because your staff can't stand them.
A company that chooses people it wants to work with first and discusses the cost of the project second tends to see better results.
Of course, despite good intentions and stringent selection criteria, companies sometimes make bad decisions, which is why exit clauses are as essential when hiring any consultancy as definitive stakes in the ground against which progress can be measured.
During any consulting process, a transfer of skills is essential. No company wants to be dependent on consultants forever, and no company should be.
Consultants lose effectiveness the longer they spend in an organisation, and the longer they're there, the higher the total cost of ownership. That's why it's so important that strict timelines are outlined at the start, and - as far as possible - adhered to. A good consultant gets things done and moves on.
Companies have to create their own capacities internally to facilitate this, so it's hugely problematic if a consultant creates a barrier in an organisation or keeps information to themselves rather than empowering employees to eventually assume the roles the consultant fills.
To avoid problems where projects run on longer than they should, companies taking on consultants should pay for specific deliverables. A good consulting house will know what it will be able to deliver by when, and shouldn't need or demand an open-ended contract.
One of the ways to ensure efficiency is to give a consultancy accountability along with responsibility. One can't strip management capabilities from a consultant and expect accountability. Instead, assign task, remove barriers to it, hand over accountability, and if the consultant doesn't deliver, they simply don't get paid.
Where companies are reluctant to relinquish control - perhaps because they've encountered problems having done so in the past - projects often end up costing far more and taking far longer than they should.
Another obstacle companies often encounter when employing consultants is resistance from within. Staff may question a decision to bring in consultants and argue that, instead, they should be trained with the necessary skills. However, depending on the project, this may not be efficient and can result in a project taking significantly longer than it would had consultants been employed.
This is why companies have to ask what the most effective way is of achieving their goals.
Companies should also be wary of the "hype cycle", where fear of falling behind their competitors or missing a trend results in deploying unnecessary technologies and processes. An example is the many companies that have created mobile applications for the sake of it, rather than understanding how an application really adds value to their customers or their core business.
If a company is planning to use multiple vendors on a project, it is also imperative that there is alignment between all vendors and the company because of their interdependency.
We also recommend that companies roll-out new projects using waves of implementation and iterative approaches. It's better to enhance smaller projects than start with enormous ones, particularly because with larger projects - especially those that may take years - it's easy to lose sight of the background that brought the project to a particular point.
When taking on a consultancy there's one golden rule: think big, start small.
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