Consultancy – its had its day…..?

Found myself reading the Sunday papers – many of which carried further details about the Government’s stated aims in their manifesto to halve the spend on ‘unnecessary consultation’ fees. And the eye watering figures that public bodies spent on external consultants leads the reader to see why. As did many of the perjorative statements used to describe ‘consultants’ – young bright graduates, who know nothing, come in for a few weeks and leave you with an off the shelf plan from their host organisation. The assumption being that the big consultancy firms continue to dominate.

And to an extent I am sure that’s true – indeed for muh of my career I was sceptical at best about the potential impact ‘the big four’ could have within our sector. Crass assumptions about business efficiency and or processes being applied to complex people driven systems with all the added complications of politics, prejudices and stigma never really flew.

Then of course I entered the world of consultancy and tried to carve a different path. Even though I was asked for photo ID in a pub last month (true story) I can’t really picture myself (or any of my colleagues) as young or particularly bright. What we do though is be really focused on where we can add value, who we can work with and often who would actually be better at it.

I also set out from the start to not be one of ‘those consultants’ who swanned in – pointed out what was wrong and left wandered off into the sunset leaving you with a cut and pasted report.

Hopefully that’s worked for the many people I’ve been privileged to have worked with over the years. It has certainly broadened my horizons and helped me build new networks of colleagues with complementary (& sometimes competing) skill sets.

So an alternative approach to consultancy is available – one that focuses on values, works alongside you, steers / encourages and challenges – and which stays for the journey.

It’s a much less lucrative career than joining the ‘big 4’ I am sure (not that they’d ever want me) – but much more gratifying.

And I really did get asked for photo ID to order a pint last month…..