CIORant

Hi George,

I love this question. As a Consultant (and managing to keep going for 10 years until this down turn) I am always concerned about my own performance when measured as you've described in Q5 and Q6. As has been mentioned in a previous response, I often feel that I am not managed properly and left too much to my own means and devices. Whilst it is very liberating, it is also frustrating if you are not give a commensurate degree of authority to make the changes you are trying to engineer. In these cases the in house team I work with will listen attentively and then ignore all my recommendations or ideas. In more than one case, the team have actively worked against my input and in one instance, I was told by the Director (not the one who employed me) to find work that didn't involve his staff! It was his environment I'd been asked by the CEO to help with.

In the cases where I'm only asked to research things, again, a proper brief is the most important thing. It is so easy to get the wrong end of the proposal and go off looking up interesting things and not solve the problem. In the brief, tell us why you're looking for things, what is the issue, what needs to be solved, have other people looked before? I spent 2 months investigating a situation and writing it up only to be given, as I presented my report, an almost identical report written by another consultant the previous year! Even the images were almost the same! Though I'd managed to prove that the previous chap was right, it was terribly soul-destroying to realize that my report was probably also going to die on the same pile!

And in my current job... I'm a scribe! A very expensive scribe. I go to all the meetings (in an environment where I am the most qualified person in the room!) and I listen, suggest, even argue and write my documents. Then the two companies' representatives tell me what they don't like, though neither has done the proposed work before, and insist I change it. I should storm out, but work has become very hard to find, so this job I'm just doing for the money. Then they'll blame me when their process doesn't produce the goods properly.

And even as Virginia says "I’ll take practical experience, thoughtful questions and compelling, actionable proposed initiatives any day over theories.", now that I'm 46 I know that a number of the jobs I'm pitching for go to the "newly-minted MBAs. It's just that they can't say "You're too old!" directly to me.

I've loved consulting these years, but I'm conscious that maybe I need a permanent rôle to actually get something done!

Chris Bunnett

Hi George--

Tracy provided an excellent reframing of the question you asked and got at the heart of the matter. Her thorough answer addresses and thoughtfully answers the compelling questions you asked.

I would caution against the traditional way of looking at newly-minted MBAs from elite schools as a main source of potentially valuable consultants. So often, they offer minimal experience (though perhaps that is changing as more biz schools seek candidates with at least 5 year sof wk exp) and have little insight into day-to-day business. Most importantly, in our experience, they may offer fine theories based on case studies from biz school with little practical assistance as to how to implement some fine ideas.

I'll take practical experience, thoughtful questions and compelling, actionable proposed initiatives any day over theories.

Best,
Virginia

George...thanks for the questions. Good topic to make me think.


"Do Consultants Deliver Value?"



I believe the ultimate answer is yes. I’d look at re-positioning the question: Do we know how to select and manage consultants to ensure value is delivered?

1. Do you use consultants?

As a CIO and senior IT executive, I often used consultants. Currently, I am a consultant.

2. If so, why do you use consultants – because of the lack of internal expertise; because of the lack of internal 'bandwidth'; because a strategy, project, etc. needs a boost of credibility?

I used consultants:

• To compensate for lack of internal expertise. Warning: have a knowledge transition plan as part of your goals and objectives when you bring in a consultant for this reason (unless there is a one- time need for the knowledge). If you’ve ever had the experience of taking over a group where the only people that knew a critical application or platform for the company was a group of highly-paid consultants that have been there for 3 years, you know that a)the staff is frustrated with lack of career growth; b)finance is agree with the costs, and c)you have a critical dependency.

• To increase bandwidth. Definitely. When a time pressure mounts, and more staff is needed.

• For a boost of credibility. I haven’t hired a consultant for that personally; but I’ve been involved when non-IT executives have done that to the CIO. It was my observation in this case that this caused long-term damage to the overall IT function/morale and business relationships and that some simple conversations about performance between the CIO and his management would have been quicker, less expensive, and more to the point. In this case, it was kind of like punishing the entire classroom because one student put a tack on the teacher’s chair.

• To reduce risk: If time and value or critical to the ROI of a project or task, or to make a strategic decision. Sometimes you can use a project as a growth opportunity for a team member. If you don’t have the luxury of some mistakes, or the ability to ‘safety-net’ the person given the business expectations of the project, you may need someone(s) that have written and produced the movie already.

• To ‘verify and trust’….both my decisions and recommendations from others. Whether it be an audit, security issue/risk, design/architecture review. Sometimes you just need a third independent view.

3. What do you look for in a consultant?

• Verifiable track record that demonstrates the skills I want to hire

• Excellent communication/follow-up

• No stalker marketing. No over-emphasis on how the consultant(s) want to expand the engagement. Self-promotion and offering to provide more is fine; but a ludicrous focus by the engagement partner on how they expand something before they’ve even finished it is annoying and tells me my ‘blended hourly rate’ is covering the sales job for more work.

• Someone that wants a good fit for the job as well and asks many questions about what is expected, what is to be delivered, and how they will get an ‘A’ on the assignment.

• Stays independent. Doesn’t go native.

• Focuses on deliverables vs non-specific value add.

• Relationship focused vs transaction focused.

4. How do you determine ROI for a consulting engagement?

• I don’t like at an ROI on a consulting engagement. I look at a)ROI on the project or task based on total cost of ownership; b)the cost of the risk of the project or task goes awry; c)the time element required to get the project or task ROI. Not all of this is quantifiable. But if I look at time, value and risk, I consider options for achieving the project or task, including consultancies, body shops, internal staff and weigh the options.



5. How do you hold consultants accountable after they are gone?

• This one kind of stumped me. If they are gone and I didn’t get what I needed, I’m thinking I didn’t manage the engagement correctly. If there is a follow-on warranty or post-project review, I’d ensure that follow up is managed and monitored.

6. Is it all about the size of the engagement or the perception that it is less risky to engage a name brand?

• Both (but I would also include time and risk in the engagement size as big considerations). Some non-IT execs are not comfortable with anything less than a name brand that advertises during the Super Bowl, even if you know a smaller group would be better, faster, and less expensive. As an independent, I’ve advised clients to avoid small one-person companies like mine if the project time frame is absolutely dependent on deep pockets of human capital. If the project or task needs some deep pockets of experience, I’ve recommended and used a mix bag of large companies and small ones, and maintained ‘general contracting’ internally.

Interesting questions. I think, at the end of the day,

-You need to have solid IT governance processes around project management frameworks, system development life cycles, and how investment decisions are made in IT that you have your consultants follow in order to ensure what they do is useable in your environment for the long haul. Too many IT groups let the consultants follow their own methodologies and no internal staff can interpret, or easily apply the results. These processes aren’t bureaucracies…they allow the CIO to scale without maintaining a high labor load when it isn’t needed.

-Strong focus on managing value (with total cost), risk and time

-Skilled staff that know how to manage and negotiate consultant contracts



Best, Tracy

It's a good question, George. I am not a fan of using consultants for short engineering projects because the ramp up time is often too long, resulting in a high investment in training which ultimately leads to:


- Decrease in performance for rest of team during the training period.

- Low positive impact of the consultant.



I've had this discussion with many peers who fail to understand the challenge of pursuing this course.



For longer term engineering projects you ultimately do see a solid return on investment but you must be smart in determining the pay-off period, otherwise you are just flushing good money down the drain.



John

http://johnfmoore.wordpress.com

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