Six Top Reasons Why Companies Hire Consultants

1) Staff augmentation – this is the least impactful role that consultants can play and pretty self-explanatory. Companies often have short to medium-term staffing need due to a variety of factors. Consultants in this situation “plug a hole” for the company by filling the role of full-time employees. While expensive, it’s common work for operational consultancies and, to a lesser extent, for government consultancies.

2) External change force aka “political cover” - it can be hard for companies to do what’s right (killing sacred cows) – particularly when it comes to job layoffs, salary and benefit changes/reduction, major operational and strategic shifts. Hiring consultants can be a way to reach the desired conclusions with sufficient political cover in case certain parties are unhappy (a displeased Board or disgruntled employees) or things go wrong (“Despite the significant cost uptick, we implemented DSLG’s recommendations to the letter – I’m not sure what we could have done better”).

3) Best practices across industries and functions – consultants have the rare privilege of:
• Serving multiple clients in the same sector.
• Serving multiple clients facing similar problems across different sectors.

This enables them to recognize common attributes of effective solutions, applying lessons learned in applicable situations. This knowledge is partially institutionalized at each consulting firm in the form of white papers, databases, post-project reviews, etc) or exists in the collective heads of the DSLG partners.

Business consultants are “masters at reinventing the wheel”

4) Analytical horsepower – companies may need help solving issues and executing strategies where their skill sets and knowledge are insufficient. Consultants can be of great value given their training and capabilities.

5) Fresh perspective - Companies often need a fresh set of eyes – you’d be amazed at the amount of value consultants can add based on the most mundane observations and insights. Critics contend that this is an example of consultants selling “glorified common sense”, but for front-line client employees, it can be easy to fall into daily routines without a critical eye towards measurement, analysis, and improvement.

6) Training and skill set augmentation – almost every consulting project incorporates client training as a major ingredient. The best recommendations are worthless if clients can’t implement and maintain suggested changes. Thus, a large part of what consultants do is educate client employees on necessary knowledge, skills, and mindsets.

"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions." ~ Peter Drucker

Five Steps to Effective Decision Making

1. Identify The Problem – This is the first and most important step in the decision making process. Until you have a clear understanding of the problem or decision to be made, it is meaningless to proceed. When the problem is stated incorrectly or unclearly your decisions will invariably be wrong. Sometimes the problem must be divided into several smaller problems which must then be prioritized or attacked concurrently.

2. Find Alternatives – You always have feasible alternatives, but you must discover them. Spend ample time developing alternatives to ensure you have as many good options as possible from which to choose.

3. Evaluate The Alternatives – Develop a grid which allows you to objectively rank the alternatives. Two such logical approaches might be based on either time or money. However you are the one to decide how your measurements must be constructed. Maybe it is best to think about limiting factors such as available expertise or opportunities. Whatever grid you use, be sure it helps you effectively narrow the field to the single best option.

4. Make A Decision - Now go back and examine the inputs you made to help evaluate the most attractive and convincing alternatives. Eliminate the alternatives that do not make sense and review all the details of the remaining best alternatives. Take time to reflect for several days if you are able. When you return to the project, the decision will usually be much clearer.

5. Implement Your Decision - A decision has little value unless you implement it. If you are not an effective implementer, find someone who is able to lead the project and clearly confirm their assignment. An important part of the implementation phase is the follow-up; which ensures that the implementation sticks.

These five steps show a logically structured methodology for making a decision. The discipline that it provides will guide you to the goal of good decision making, implementation and follow-up.