If not… why do you hire them?  For their good looks and their bargain basement prices?  The rest of this statement was “we hire them to deliver (what we asked for).”  Ouch!

I’ve been in consulting (in some form or another) for most of my career and I can appreciate what a client is thinking when he says he just wants someone to deliver what he’s asking for.  Too often, consultants swoop in wearing their $1200 suits, conduct some high-level interviews, leave a 50,000-foot report on the table and fly off (collecting their air miles as they go) to the next one.  It’s unfortunate that consultants are generally painted with the “we don’t do what we propose” brush (remember the UPS commercial?).

So, yes, there is all kinds of fun to be made of the “consultant.”  However, in my experience (and I suspect yours as well), clients usually don’t really know what they need because they seldom have the people or take the time to analyze their situation and develop a real case for doing something.  And to implement real, lasting change, you need to have a good rationale for it in the first place… Otherwise, you’ll be the hamster on his little wheel thingy… spinning your wheels… spending lots of money on, well, who know.  Now that’s a shame.

Anyone can hire an implementation specialist to come in and do what you say.  But if you’re wrong, you’re SOOL.  A good consultant will provide you insights based on solid analysis of your problem(s) and their experience with similar problems in different organizations.  That can be incredibly valuable.

So the next time you’re simply looking for a body-shop to provide a coupla drones to carry out your latest order, take a moment to be sure YOU know what you need.  Otherwise, you will not win… and it’ll become something else you blame on the consultants.  You may not want their advice but you certainly need it.