CONSULTANTS IN A CHALLENGING ECONOMY:
Consultants are generally viewed as “doctors” who diagnose your organization and suggest the relevant remedies. These could be in terms of revisiting organizational strategic priorities and making necessary modifications to the current business model. In effect consultant’s job is to bring significant business change within short timeframes. Thus the flexibility to attack a multitude of problems with the consultants’ area of specialism is imperative for the success of any consulting intervention.
Within the current fast paced, dynamic almost unpredictable economic environment; speed of execution and simplicity of the solutions are two critical ingredients of success for the consulting venture. The need to bring new insights and pertinent best practices from the industry along with the ease of making numerous decisions on the hoof whilst quickly taking a stock of difficult situations (both internal and external) are essential components to propose an effective solution ready to be implemented for the desirable outcome.
World over companies are ‘laying off’ employees and slashing budgets to deal with the current economic situation. Gone are the days when a consultant would stay for months using his/ her set “6 steps” or “14 topic modules”, today consultants need to conduct effective needs analysis to ensure that they hit the bull’s eye and customise the methodology to quickly turn around the organizational condition. Of course expecting consultants to come with a magic wand to make your company the rising star in this age of “halted growth” is not a pragmatic view either. It is therefore critical for consultants to help the client set realistic expectations and explain exactly what value would their advisory services bring; helping the organization differentiate mere wishes from what should be the ideal goal in quantitative terms. Thus collaboratively working together with a greater degree of trust and a common goal of improving the organization so that it not only survives during these tough times but instead uses it as an opportunity to get the customers of its dying competitor! It is important more than ever for consultants to not get enmeshed in their methodology but instead offer a new refreshing perspective to the current gloomy scenario in which our companies are drowning.