Being an independent consultant isn’t easy, to start with. At the onset, one is answerable to several corporate structures, and being an SME conclusively makes you lonely within a team. It’s obvious, therefore, that the role of a consultant is looked upon with a lot of scepticism, with no less than the legendary Steve Jobs who had his personal take on the topic of consulting.
For some vague reasons, consultants have garnered a notorious reputation for themselves for the misplaced belief in the industry that they do not focus on the outcomes and for “not owning the results”, and costing dollars to the companies for nothing. Quite evidently, that’s not true. While there cannot be any debate on the role & responsibilities of an internal consultant (full-time hire) which is well-defined and aligned with the company’s overarching vision it’s the vast majority of the external consultants working on contracts that come under heavy criticism and undue scrutiny. It isn’t about seeking tangible outcomes alone, but the constraints of budget and time sometimes render the viable goals of the engagement (yes, it’s treated as an “engagement”, short-term or long-term, not a project) out of reach. Consultants, therefore, favour tasks that they feel would clearly deliver the value proposition for the company in the long run. On the other side, companies hire external consultants with the sole purpose of squeezing multiple outcomes in a limited timeframe, expect that consultant deliver practically on the vision which has been laid out, and more so, without justifying the value of the process and the investment in human resources. While the expectation is not completely misplaced, a third-party consultant comes with a fresh pair of eyes and is able to weed out insufficient and incoherent tasks which may not deliver the outcomes the company is striving to achieve. Hence, there might be a review of the processes and team structure to bring the efficiency back. Moreover, outcomes are as achievable and as valuable as the process would be.
In handling the complexity of project outcomes are the consultant’s deep-seated sensitivity for handling tough decisions in providing a credible direction to a proverbial ‘sinking ship’, besides being an expert on the subject, and the gamut of strategic skills they possess — from presales to research and from implementation to launch, that this individual could harness. It just showcases the level of their flexibility with responsibilities getting redefined during the course of an engagement. Bottomline, most external consultants are centrally focussed on salvaging programs with their all-encompassing competence and leadership qualities.
The 3 Roles of A Consultant
From the experience of being a consultant, there are broadly 3 scenarios where external consultants could become part of a regular project exercise.
- Scenario 1 – Firefighting: a project is running the risk of getting stalled and is on the brink of a break down in its schedule due to unresolved issues, that could range from chronic technical or design-related issues requiring the stature of a consultant to investigate and sort them out within the constraints of time and budgets. So, basically, the consultant must demonstrate ‘fire-fighting’ potential to lift a project from a point of stagnation.
- Scenario 2 – The Subject Matter Expert: the client has finalized a strategic approach for product innovation, for instance, although, there are some strict strategic or tactical pieces within the RFP/plan which are beyond the scope of the team’s expertise and would require the intervention of a subject-matter expert to either draft the approach or verify the plan. It is likely that a consultant’s expertise might prove to be decisive in this case.
- Scenario 3 – The Executor: let’s suppose, within the realms of the ongoing project, the schedule and the strategic approach has been drawn and going too well, however, it has been noticed that the strategy implementation from a critical domain is being ignored due to gross oversight by the leadership team. This has created a ripple effect on the scheduled delivery of other pieces of the project. This requires the expertise of an external consultant to take over the delivery of the affected part of the project within a stipulated period of time.
The common factor within the framework of the 3 scenarios is the value of the outcome that the client is seeking to obtain from the consulting services. Unfortunately, in today’s era of “agile” methodology and a so-called fast-paced development and nurturing “talent” which only delivers “end-to-end”, in other words, engaging exclusively with the ‘jacks of all trades’ has risen to mammoth proportions and given the specialists in the industry a somewhat bad reputation and a somewhat minority status. I concur, that consultants don’t come cheap but consultants supply the right amount of value proposition without compromising the quality because they are not just fixated with removing bottlenecks but developing frameworks that influence a favourable outcome. All things considered, this is justified when the value of the consultant’s deliverable is gauged in practical terms after the culmination of an engagement.
