Commando Consulting, December 2011

Are You A Tradesperson Who Installs Or A Consultant Who Implements?

By Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur

Synopsis

Over the years many consulting firms have deviated from the traditional collaborative-implementation-based consulting model to the prescriptive-installation-based subcontracting model.

Using commissioned salespeople, they have started selling pre-fabricated off-the-shelf solutions that are to be installed by armies of competitively priced young MBAs freshly out of school.

And the result, as a per an old McKinsey study, is that 75% of solutions don't return a profit to the selling company, and 50% of solutions don't deliver the value that buyers have expected, bought and paid for.

And saying that consulting has lost its former prestige is a gross understatement. Even when they get hired, many clients treat consultants as hired hands, and consultants can expect roughly as much respect as a skunk at a lawn party.

But there is a way to turn the situation around...

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It may be just me, but it has always bugged me that in conventional wisdom consultants are regarded as surefire guarantees for achieving specific results for their clients.

You can look at many consulting websites, and what you see is that they guarantee the achievement of specific results, and they are willing to get paid for the improvement in profits or some other random dollar figures.

Many years ago, when I was still actively doing personal training, I had a client who wanted to pay me for the weight she would lose as a result of training with me. It also turned out that she had made many attempts to lose weight, but her somewhat dodgy discipline had always got in the way, and eventually she had always ended up gaining weight.

Initially she lost a little weight and then stuffed her face with chocolate cake and ice cream. Then she gained the weight back with some interest.

Then she told me I had to find another way to make sure she would lose weight. She tried to pin her weight loss on me. Her idea was that, as her personal trainer, I was single-handedly responsible for her weight loss, so it's only fair to pay me for the lost pounds.

Obviously I rejected her silly offer. She wanted me to guarantee a certain weight loss regardless of whether or not she would get her lazy arse out of bed in the morning and do any exercise.

She knew she wouldn't be able to lose weight, but decided to blame it on me.

To this day, she's a miserable lard bag trying all sorts of magic pills to lose weight.

The question this situation raises is how much consultants can control their clients' achievements of certain results.

And here let's start with...

The Concept of Installation And Subcontracting

Contractors have projects and do installations.

Installation is a process of setting up something that has already been designed and developed, and now all we have to do is to make another installation of that system.

When a plumber installs a new toilet, both the toilet bowl and the other required accessories are readily available systems. The plumber follows a blueprint that is 99% the same for every installation.

There is not much "big picture" knowledge needed for the plumber to do a great job of installing the loo.

With installations, clients have clear-cut requirements, as to what colour the bowl and the seat should be and whether or not the toilet can play music to entertain the user.

The clear-cut requirements and a blueprint also mean that all clients need is a pair of hands to perform the work as per predefined parameters.

The installation process has only one aspect, the technical aspect of doing the work.

The plumber doesn't have to worry about the social aspects of the toilet.

He doesn't have to worry about what happens to a high-level male executive's psyche when he has to sit on a pink toilet bowl. Yes, the pink loo can shatter the guy's self-esteem.

So, all in all, installation is a pretty straightforward process. It's also a "Do it FOR me and I'll evaluate you for it" process. That is, you and your work get evaluated by people who don't know how to do it.

And now let's continue with...

The Concept of Implementation And Consulting

I've used this example many times, but since it's so good to demonstrate the difference between consulting and contract work, let's use it again...

In Bill Kaine's cartoon strip, Family Circus, there is a little boy holding his homework out to his mother. She looks at him and says...

What she means is that she can work WITH the boy to help him to do his homework, but she won't do it FOR him.

And in case this example is not vivid enough, here is another one to demonstrate the difference between a consulting engagement and contract work.

If you have a fertility issue, what do you need?

Do you need a fertility consultant to help you and your spouse to find the best solution?

Or do you need a fertility contractor who does the honours act FOR you with your spouse?

When you look at the large, multinational consulting firms, you may recognise the contractors in them working with their clients on a "Do it FOR me" basis.

But...

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a consultant is someone who gives professional advice or offers professional services, and consulting is the process of giving advice.

Now, in order to give professional advice, consultants have to understand the big picture of the business they consult with. They are like dentists who have to see all your teeth in order to give you erudite advice on what to do regarding one specific tooth.

Consultants have to be familiar with the context which their advice fits into.

The other issue is implementation. In consulting, implementation is a transformation process. It's about improving the clients' businesses in two dimensions: Technical and human. Therefore it must be done collaboratively with clients' key people.

Consulting as a process has to consider both the mechanical and the social infrastructure of the client's company, and even if a solution would be great mechanically, it may be a total disaster socially.

And let's note one other significant difference.

Plumbers, architects, builders and electricians have projects, but consultants have engagements. And consulting engagements are very similar to romantic engagements. Engagements mean a lot more than "Do it FOR me and I'll evaluate you for it".

What To Choose: Implementation Or Installation?

Consultants can choose to work in two different ways.

Although the definition of consulting is giving advice, but realistically, consulting must result in improvement in the client's condition.

So, consultants have to stay around and guide their clients to put the new advice into practice, that is, to implement the new advice.

And here is a huge difference.

Consultants can choose either the implementation or the installation of a solution.

The difference is that implementation is a collaborative process under the guidance of the consultant. Implementation is always a first-time event, meaning that this specific solution has never been used before. Remember that implementation operates in two dimensions: Mechanical and social.

Your clients may hire you to facilitate a strategy session, which you've done hundreds of times, but every company is different both mechanically and socially, so every session you facilitate is unique, thus the first time ever by default.

So, this is how you implement a strategy session.

So, now let's see how to install a strategy session...

You ask your pre-created questions, clients answer them and that's it. There is no deviation. You have a strategy session blueprint and you just plough through the questions.

While implementation is open to new insights, perspectives, self-discovery and self-exploration, installation is a buttoned-down rigid process.

Now, let's look at the graphics below and see how consultants can position themselves in this grid.

Contractors Who Install Their Solutions

These are the most commodity contractors. These are the contractors who expect their clients to perform self-diagnosis, and then taking that diagnosis on face value, they develop solutions.

But they develop their solutions in isolation, and then bring them back and present to their clients as ready-made things.

Clients' only involvement in the process is to hire the contractor and then to accept the work after it's been done. Or to criticise the work if it's not up to clients' expectations.

Lots of large consulting firms operate this way because they don't want to get involved in their clients' complex social issues. So, they prefer to remain trade barbarians.

In terms of perceived value, this is the lowest end of the scale. These contractors offer nothing unique and can be replaced on a moment's notice.

Contractors Who Implement Their Solutions

These are the high-paid contractors. They require active client participation in their projects. One part of that participation is that they start their projects with extensive diagnoses which they conduct with their clients' key people.

Projects are well balanced in terms of inputs and work from clients and contractors.

Yes, some people say, this can't be done because clients don't want to participate.

And they're wrong because clients do want to participate.

Being December, this is a busy time for me to slaughter and process my East European friends' Xmas pigs to make sure they are ready for the dinner table on Xmas Eve.

But being one person, I have to involve my clients to do the work with me. I just can't do it FOR them.

So, after having done the killing itself on my own[1], I involve everyone in the work. I become a sort of consulting butcher. I coordinate the work every step of the way, but everyone is actively participating in completing the project.

And believe it or not, this has higher perceived value than doing all the work all alone FOR clients, while they're passively watching me work.

Active involvement has huge value.

I have several friends who, instead of their doctors or midwifes, personally cut their newborn babies' umbilical cords, but none of them had complained that the hospital staff had made them work. They were overjoyed to get involved so actively, and they would have happily done more if they had been asked.

By the way, some 10, 20 or even 30 years later, they are still happily married. Maybe it has something to do with the active participation. Hell knows for sure, but perhaps.

Consultants Who Install Their Solutions

This is what many consulting behemoths do.

They sell their projects based on competitive hourly rates, but then flood their projects with junior MBAs and other greenhorns who can learn the craft on the client's dime.

With the large headcount, they make a huge and impressive song and dance about the project, and then present another off-the-shelf, shrink-wrapped solution.

I've read somewhere that if you can't dazzle your client with brilliance, then baffle them with bullshit. Hence the big song and dance and the tonnage of documentation that's created in the back offices of the consulting firm.

And what of the solution?

Not much...

According to an old McKinsey study:

• 75% of solutions don't return a profit to the selling company
• 50% of solutions don't deliver the value that buyers have expected, bought and paid for

What really happens is that billable hours add up, so the client has to pay. And the project is impressive because it's generated a truckload of paperwork, manuals, surveys and hell knows what else.

And what is the result?

Very often nothing.

And regardless of how many Harvard or Stanford MBAs the consulting team has, this is not really consulting but contracting to perform something that the client has already decided that needs to be done.

So, all those MBAs get hired as pairs of hands.

It's a tad deflating, isn't it?

Consultants Who Implement Their Solutions

Now, we've arrived to the approach with the highest perceived value.

Most consultants mistakenly believe that if they create solutions and hand them over to their clients, that's the most valuable option.

It's not.

The most valuable option is to jointly diagnose problems with clients, jointly develop solutions and jointly implement them.

And the more clients are involved in their projects, the more they are willing to pay for consultants' services.

So, let's see what the steps are that consultants and clients have to do together.

First, let's remember that you, the consultant, are the coordinator and facilitator of the project, simply because you've done it many times, but clients must fully participate.

I also emphasise to my clients that, while you're the facilitator of the project, your clients must provide the manpower to do the work. If the client tells you to bring your own people because he can't give you anyone for the project, then you'd better run.

That client expects a solution to be handed over to him on a silver platter, and that is always a problem. Sooner or later, the client starts complaining about the received solution.

So, it's your job to maintain a healthy balance of who does what. Clients hire you for your knowledge and expertise, so don't let them turn you into a contract labourer.

So, here are some of the collaborative processes you can expect to do with clients...

• Establishing who participates in the project and at what capacity
• Establishing ground rules
• Clarifying the decision-making process
• Diagnosing the problem - Most clients are stuck at symptom level
• Deciding whether or not to proceed to solve the problem
• Selecting and collecting vital data
• Compiling data into meaningful charts and tables that can be interpreted and analysed
• Designing the ideal solution
• Deploying the ideal solution
• Testing, tracking and tweaking

Now look at this list and see how you could do these activities more collaboratively. Even if you offer your solutions in a one-sided, doing it FOR the client fashion, I'm sure you can tweak your operation in such a way that clients get more deeply involved in their projects.

On Summary

Once upon a time consulting used to be an exciting career. Sadly, over the years, it's become more and more of doling out pre-packaged solutions.

Consulting has been simplified to such a degree that large "consulting" (???) firms hire commissioned salespeople to sell pre-packaged solutions. And these firms call themselves innovative and cutting edge. Hm.

Many consultants complain that consulting has been commoditised over the years, but it's the consulting industry that has commoditised itself by shifting from implementation of custom-tailored solutions to the installation of pre-fabricated consulting packages.

The fact that those packages are peddled by career salespeople, who sold used cars yesterday and will sell bibles door-to-door tomorrow, only adds oil to the fire.

The essence of consulting is those who sell the gigs also do the gigs.

But what do so many large consulting firms do? They hire installers who can install pre-fabricated solutions at competitive hourly rates, so the firm can make good money on volume.

And in the age when Avon peddlers call themselves beauty consultants and MLM distributors regard themselves as health or wealth consultants, it's not surprising that the prestige of consultants and consulting have dropped lower than a whale shit at the bottom of the ocean.

Is it surprising that, in so many companies, consulting firms are selected and engaged by procurement agents not by real decision-makers?

Buyers would be involved in engaging real consultants, but they can't bother with peddlers or contract labourers.

A while ago The Economist published a book entitled Business Consulting, and it also states that what most consulting firms sell nowadays is not real consulting but peddling off-the-shelf solutions. Knowledge work has become factory work of producing preconfigured bits and bobs and having commissioned salespeople peddle them.

The way I see it, real consultants get wealthy by helping to get their clients wealthy. Firms' own wealth is built up in direct proportion to the value they create for their clients.

Many firms fail to put their clients' interest first, because they are worried about their own profits. But wealth-creation lies in creating value for others. Those firms are just so obsessed with the quick buck that they can't think beyond their petty self-interest and self-serving activities.

So, what can you do now if your firm has fallen into the installation trap?

Well, you may have to review the whole process of bringing clients on board and conducting your engagements. How can you make your engagements more collaborative with implementation in mind, instead of prescriptive and installation-based?

I'm not saying that prescriptive-installation is the wrong approach, but there is more value and enjoyment in collaborative-implementation.

So, think about which one you prefer, and tweak your firm accordingly. The main point is that both you and your people enjoy what you do, and you get paid according to the value you bring to the client's table.

Come and let's discuss this newsletter issue on my blog...

[1]I'm a strong advocate of humane slaughtering practices, so I prefer to do it myself using the quick, clean and painless methods that I've developed over the years. Continue where you've left off...

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