03/03/10
Sometimes, the easiest way to get an answer is just to ask the question.
That’s the conclusion we came to when we looked long and hard at the issue of what value consulting brings to clients. Many people suggested to me that we would struggle to get a coherent result. A lot of what consulting is about is inevitably difficult to measure. And how should we apportion credit when the essence of good consultancy is a close partnership between consultant and client?
So we decided to cut through these issues and ask clients themselves what they think. We discovered that most have a very clear idea of how much value consulting has generated – and they can put a number on it. It is an interesting and powerful story that they tell.
We don’t claim that our report is the final word on this topic. I hope it will spark further enquiry and more debate. But we now have clear and significant evidence of the scale of the contribution that management consultancy is delivering.
It is time that we changed the conversation we have about consulting. Don’t just ask how much it costs; make sure you also ask about the value that it generates.