I came across this germ of discourse from Steve Jobs referring to the consulting industry. In his ridicule of consultants for their lack of experience in the implementation of their projects, there was a strong message for owning and understanding the experience from an end-to-end perspective. He says:
I don’t think there’s anything inherently evil in consulting..I think that..without owning something over an extended period of time, like a few years, where one has a chance to take responsibility for one’s recommendations, where one has to see through all action stages and accumulate ‘scar tissues’ for the mistakes and pick oneself up off the ground and dust oneself off, one learns a fraction of what one can. Coming in and making recommendations and not owning the results, not owning the implementation I think is a fraction of the value and a fraction of the opportunity to learn and get better. And so, you do get a broad cut at the companies but it’s very thin, it’s like a picture of a banana, you might get a very accurate picture but it’s only two dimensional. And without the experience of actually doing it, you never get three dimensional.
So you might have a lot of pictures on your walls, you can show it off to your friends like “look I’ve worked in bananas, I’ve worked in peaches, I’ve worked in grapes” but you never really taste it. And that’s what I think. You’re also a variable expense in hard times and you’ll find yourself…(getting fired, is probably what he meant)
He’s thorough on many of his ideas, and to draw an analogy of consulting projects with fruits was so typically Steve-ish. Though having been a consultant in IT for several years I can authoritatively state that consultants are indeed responsible for the execution of their project strategy which is based upon how the client perceives the ‘implementation’ portion as delivering value to the overall scope of the consulting engagement. It’s thus imperative to relate with ‘consulting’ as a domain of subject matter expertise and not just for people who are driven by a passion to get things done. The consulting experience is very wide-ranging and methodically equipped in dealing with ambiguity at the highest levels of the business, so despite spending a considerable amount of time in projects with a diverse industry background, the individual expectations coupled with constraints in time, budget, and manpower could make every outcome challenging and interesting.
In contrast, products of companies such as Apple or Starbucks indeed require long-term commitment and ownership because they are inextricably linked to the vision of the company’s branding and market success. The subject matter expertise is therefore singularly focused on driving a brand’s value within an industry through new product development. It cannot be truthfully compared with consulting that looks at achieving optimum value for its end-users in a fast-paced project environment with a comprehensive outlook, one that’s constantly stimulated by divergent thinking which requires a tenacity for decision-making & clear judgement in making valid concessions. Lastly, there are ‘scar tissues’ in consulting too but those that are borne out of a consultant’s 360° industry experience.
