I started this journey by considering all of the talent that is now out ‘there’ due to the economy downturn and a workforce that is facing an unprecedented number of retirements. That is a lot of experience that could be for sale and, when looking at traditional consulting engagements from “brand name” firms, are customers buying potential, when they could be engaging highly-experienced and been-there, done that practitioners?
I put out a set of exploratory questions to see how people see this.
Through a number of direct conversations, comments to this and other blogs and the use of other forums, some very good ideas came forth. To be sure, I am going to be hunting for more. Surprisingly, there does not seem to be much in the public domain on this subject.
Consider Google search results for May 6, 2009 where all of the words appear :
- 95 million for web pages that have the word: consultants
- 57 million for web pages that have the words: do consultants
- 23 million for web pages that have the words: do consultants deliver
- 10 million for web pages that have the words: do consultants deliver value
Now, Consider Google search results for May 6, 2009 where the exact phrase appears:
- 95 million for web pages that have the word: consultants
- 14 thousand for web pages that have the words: “do consultants”
- 88 (eigthy-eight) for web pages that have the words: “do consultants deliver”
- 62 (sixty-two) for web pages that have the words: “do consultants deliver value”
Interestingly, 53 of the 62 referred back to this blog.
So, suffice it to say that whether this is a top-of-mind question or not, it isn’t asked (and answered) very much.
There are certainly other questions that offer insights, such as “What do consultants really do, anyway?” or “Why did I hire the consultant anyway?”.
You can gleen from many of these that either people were satisfied customers or they weren’t satisfied. A generalization can be made that consultants give consultants a “bad name”. That is, all consultants get painted with the same brush. There have been enough overpriced, arrogant, know-it-all, blow-hards that the truly good ones can be overshadowed, at least initially, by the collective angst of organizations who feel betrayed when senior management brings in experts to tell them what the internal staff has already told them.
But, things are changing. One is that the economy has driven more people from retirement back into the workforce. While it is a tough job market, the best and most experienced are recognizing that putting up a shingle of their own and contracting out their knowledge and experience as a consultant, temporary worker, project resource or other paid contributor.
I will be conducting further research on this trend and what consulting firms and their customers have to say about it. In the meantime, please read the comments that were generously contributed by John Moore, Tracy Austin, Virginia Steinberg, and Chris Bunnett.