Are consultants a waste of money?

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Large abuse of trust: but generated a new industry

I work in the "Security" field, and have done so for years. But to do this job well you need an above average sense of ethics, which conflicts directly with the sales strategies of the larger consultancies: sell into ignorance, fix 80% of the problem and make sure the client comes to you when the leftover 20% has started to cause new problems. To quote one top exec of a company doing very well in public sector: "for 2 million a week, screw the ethics policy" (you know who you are, think Xmas party 2006). Also note that these people sell on a very important argument: if it goes wrong, the consultancy takes the hit, not the person who ordered the programme. It isolates especially politicians from the consequences of bad decision making, and taking that heat creates a debt (because it can always be documented what really happened) - resulting in new work. A classic example of abuse is letting a feasibility study perform by the consultancy who would stand to get the work if the project was deemed feasible: the result rarely holds surprises (as it so happens, the programme that the above quote relates to followed that exact path)..

The fun thing is that this has created a new industry for me. I wrote a full exec coaching package for which there is HUGE interest. Yes, I review consultancy projects for abuse and inefficiency, but I also coach execs into understanding IT, Security and how consultancies and vendors sell their products. In other words, I don't fix this breach of trust by just adding another layer of consulting, I inject knowledge at exec level to avoid repeat abuse. Our clients trust us because we really do not lie to them (even if the message isn't good) - "no BS" is almost our USP.. A nice side effect is that we pick up all the real high value consulting because we have proven to our clients they can trust us, and we based ourselves in a country that allowed us to protect client confidentiality to the maximum possible (ie. outside the US and outside the EU). Clients value that discretion too.

Needless to say, the interest from politicians is fairly low (cough , but I now even have insurance companies coming to me for licenses as injecting knowledge at exec level amounts to substantial risk reduction for a company - trust insurers to spot that first..

So, I think I can say we are NOT a waste of money - but it took that very wastage to create our opportunities..

Posted by: cheros   Posted on: 06/23/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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