Management consultants receive circa $2 billion for their services annually. Much of this is paid for impractical data and poorly implemented recommendations. To reduce this waste, clients need a better understanding of why it is important to have the right team and what consulting assignments can accomplish.
Hire a consultant for a genuine reason and not for political correctness.
Ground rules of hiring a consultant:
Use a bidding process: Bigwigs will sermonize you on how different they are, though they hire from the same talent pool. If they eventually wiggle out by defining the problem differently or changing the milestones or taking you out to dinner. You have failed as a leader! This is where startups win, we charge substantially lower (thanks to low running costs) and we also have the knowledge.
Partner time: It's your money, ask for partner time. I’d rather spend my time with someone with 10-20 years of consulting & solution delivery experience rather than a 22-year-old graduate who knows nothing about my industry.
We value and deliver subject matter expertise with actual decisions.
