Consulting work in bite-size options

“The Consultants Tool Kit”
Edited by Mel Silberman
McGraw-Hill, 2001


Consultants abound in the business world – and are, in the main, truly of help to organizations seeking the cutting edge in their strategy, managing change to cope with a profoundly altered environment, realizing new efficiencies in operations, making inroads into new markets – and a host of other solutions.

While most consultants, no doubt, have a place in the scheme of things in business, some are favorite targets of wit and jests – especially when they prove themselves superfluous in a world where the bottom line is non-negotiable.

A humorists, Jeanne Robertson, defines consultant as “someone who borrows your watch and charges to tell you the time” -- a definition that points to consulting work that, at best, overstates the obvious or, at worst, needlessly doubles the work.

Arnold Glasow points to consultants’ fees, saying: “A consultant is someone who saves his client almost enough to pay his fee.”

Be that as it may, consultants will be around for a long time. Their importance in the corporate mainstream is such that U.S. business spends over $3 billion annually on consultants. We don’t have the figures on consultants’ compensations in Philippine business, but the proliferation of auditing firms doubling up as consultants – aside from counselors in marketing drives, IT, change management, risk handling, corporate communications, etc. – proves that our consultants are also handsomely paid.

Which should really be the case, if you ask me, if such consultants prove to be corporate turnaround artists, marketing wizards and productive experts with positive impact on rising revenues and falling costs. The message, therefore, is for consultants to continually prove their worth – and thus continually sharpen their skills, expand their scope and deepen their knowledge of the business.

There is a book that will prove useful to consultants hereabouts – “The Consultant’s Tool Kit.” Veteran players in the game need it to assure them that not a single consultancy service is missed. New entrants in the consulting business will need it, not only to start right, but to know the full range of services they can offer.

For example, Part I alone, provides the reader 13 assessment questionnaires – from finding out if the firm’s business strategy makes sense” to establishing the “client’s leadership competencies.” Consultants are in the best position to make such assessments – first, because they have the advantage of detachment and objectivity; and second, management at times would not dare “rock the boat” themselves.

From evaluating the firm’s operations in various areas, the consultant is also treated to “hot-to-guides” for solving client’s problems. There! Consutlants are supposed to have a “bag of tricks” of a “panacea” to companies’ lingering problems.

You may not cure all, but at least your methodology creates the climate of an entire company geared for solutions. Before you know it, proving once again the theory of “self-fulfilling prophecy,” the company is well on its way to stumbling into the ultimate solution.

You have a menu of from “how to lead effective meetings” (do you think it’s ever easy?) to “how to move your client from training to performance improvement.” This proceeds from the established fact that “training alone is insufficient to bridge most performance gaps.” Editor Mel Silberman, Ph.D., points out that “trainers need to develop more comprehensive interventions that include incentive systems, communications technologies, environmental redesign,” etc.

Finally, Part III, offers 17 “intervention activities to increase your client’s effectiveness.” This is a section for facilitators for various group activities that enhance their skills and deepen their insights on quality, tem-building, organization change, dealing with resistance, etc. Who says business is not fun? These exercises lead them to solve puzzles, read people’s minds and hurdle many forms of resistance – ala- “Survivor Africa.”

This book of 354 pages is full of insights, suggestions, illustrations all the way into the 354th page. The editor, featuring 45 top professionals in their fields, wasted mo space in giving the veteran or start-up consultant needs to start with a strong beginning, sustain his consulting practice, and make him or her enjoy every engagement that follows.

Did you ever think consulting work is the refuge of the retiree, the unemployed, the “corporate isolate”? Think again. If you get hold of this tool kit, you will realize consulting work is a world of vast possibilities where you can try almost anything. But, first things first:

Make a persuasive pitch for your prospective client to try your “new idea.” And then, when you get the client’s green light, give the job you best shot, decide that you will enjoy the entire exercise, truly bring your client to a new level of success or growth. You will realize that the financial rewards are simple side benefits.