Measuring the value of consultants

To achieve consulting results consistently and reliably you have to measure, monitor and manage the successes being achieved at all stages of the process. You also need, incidentally, to create way stations, or milestones, at which some elements of business success become tangible. The challenge In a perfect world, every consulting project would... Read More

Managing management consultants

There are ten useful rules for firms to bear in mind when hiring and managing consultants: Stay up with the experts: You can outsource many things, but it's dangerous to have blind faith in an outside expert. The less you know about a important topic, the more time you are likely to waste with consultants and the more dependent you will be on... Read More

The consulting paradox

"Consultants, it seems, are everywhere: management consultants, tax consultants, security consultants, technology consultants, health consultants, personnel consultants, transport consultants. Even consultants have consultants. Blimey! What's happened to British management? When did it stop taking decisions and start dialling up a help-line? How... Read More

Evaluating consultants' proposals and presentations

Some suggested criteria: Background to the project To what extent has information provided by you been accurately captured by the consultants? Has new information above and beyond that which is likely to be available to you been presented by them? To what extent has this information been interpreted specifically in relation to your... Read More

Choosing between consulting firms

Just about every book on consulting proposals is written from the consultants’ perspective. Typically, it focuses on how consultants sell work, not how clients buy it; it works on the assumption that consultants have a pre-defined service they’re trying to sell, rather than that clients have a problem they’re trying to fix; its... Read More

How to select a consulting firm

Having discussed and agreed the underlying value you’re seeking from consultants, what kind of process should you follow to ensure that the consultants you choose are best suited to the job? Create a brief for the consultants It’s unrealistic to expect consultants to guess your mind, so the first stage in any purchase process has to... Read More