The nature of the consultant’s engagement with the client will change over time as priorities are refined and projects develop. This normal process should be managed well to keep the project focused and stop it becoming an open-ended arrangement.
It is therefore essential that the client retains a clear recollection of the initial purpose of the consultancy. It is important that subsequent changes in goals and directions are subject to an assessment at least as rigorous as the initial decision to contract for consultancy.
A consultancy assignment may contain some or all of these elements simultaneously. In other cases there may be a clear sequence, essentially a serial consultancy, working from the strategic, through the tactical, to the purely operational. This may well mean changing consultancies, or adding other practices to the team: The practice best placed to advise on, for example the strategic implications of business-to-consumer e-commerce across European markets, is unlikely to be the most competent or cost-effective when advising on the consequential re-organisation of a particular warehouse.
The benefits of using consultants should include:
- • unique solutions reflecting the particular circumstances and aspirations of the client.
- • speed of action (because the consultancy team, unlike the in-house management, is not being constantly distracted by other tasks).
- • knowledge of ‘best practice’ and effective solutions from within the client’s own industrial/commercial sector.
- • exposure to expertise derived from other industries and sectors, or indeed other countries.
- • provision of specific technical skills that are either non-existent or in short supply in-house, and often the transfer of such skills to in-house staff.
- • change management skills, enhanced by the consultant’s position as independent, objective and ‘above the fray’.
This should all lead to ‘value for money’ from the consultancy assignment, demonstrated through improved performance by the client.
The client can increase the likelihood of a good outcome from the assignment by establishing with the consultant what the final report will include and how it will be written and presented. They also need to have a clear understanding of the time commitment of the consultancy and who will be carrying out the work.
It is also important to have a clear agreement about knowledge transfer from the consultant to the client’s organisation and to ensure that the organisation is well briefed about the project to preclude obstruction or lack of commitment within it.