Consulting 101
101 Tips for Success in Consulting
By Lew Sauder
Copyright 2010 Lew Sauder
ISBN 978-0-9830266-1-7
LCCN 2010916158
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Contact Lew Sauder at:
Lew@Consulting101Book.com
http://www.Consulting101Book.com
Dedicated to my family:
Emily, Sam, Holly and Heather
“Like I’ve always told you, if you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.” - George McFly
Acknowledgments:
The stories and advice in this book are the direct result of my association with many gifted and intelligent people. Over the years I have had the privilege to work with incredible individuals who taught me effective consulting techniques. I would like to thank the following people for their leadership and mentoring throughout my career: Michael Curran and Leslie Ottavi, my first consulting managers, for giving me my start and helping me to develop the tools and confidence to work in a consulting environment; Richard Gibbs Vandercook for his guidance and leadership. His war chest of great stories and even better advice are present throughout this book; Robert Simplott, President of RCG Information Technology, for teaching me that strong management and great leadership can be attained without sacrificing being a decent and down to earth person. I also give thanks to Bob McAndrews, Steve McDonough and Neil Huse for the leadership and advice they shared with me and for “having my back” over the years.
Thank you to my wife Heather for her many hours of proofreading and advice in the creation of this book, and her many years of support throughout my career. Thanks also to my friend Dr. Mark A. Jewell, PhD, president of EPI-Q, for being a sounding board as we discussed consulting sales and delivery throughout the years. And finally, thanks to my mother, Helen Sauder, for her unshakable confidence and support throughout my life and to my late father, Lee Sauder, for teaching me that anything worth doing, is worth doing right. You were right, dad.
Table Of Contents
Chapter 3 - Expectation Setting
Early in my consulting career the firm that I worked for asked me to drive three and a half hours from Chicago to Indianapolis to meet with a client. We were to discuss development of an imaging system. I had just recently been trained on the imaging package and had written only a few applications for one other client.
I walked into a conference room of about a half-dozen people and I was introduced as an expert in imaging systems. They said I was there to help them develop an imaging application to interface with their Accounts Payable system.
The inflated introduction was a bit intimidating–I knew even less about AP systems than imaging systems. It stroked my ego enough to try my best to live up to the label. I reached back into my memories of my training and my lone client experience. I started asking questions about their work flow. I took them through the who, what, where and when of their payment processing to understand their current process. I drew a diagram on the white board to regurgitate what they had just told me in a pictorial form and used another color to insert scanning stations to input invoices and purchase orders to the imaging system. Next I added terminals at key points to represent points in the process where users could view the images on-screen. It was a simple future-state design and they were thrilled with what the expert had done in one short meeting.
Most people dream of being an expert at something. Having an expertise in a specific area lends a combination of prestige, credibility and acceptance to one’s branding. To be an expert in a specific area of business translates into being successful and in demand. Much like a homeowner might hire a plumber or building contractor for a home project, businesses turn to consultants as experts to provide advice and services for which they either don’t have the expertise or the staffing to perform themselves.
Having a depth of knowledge in a subject matter, however, does not necessarily translate into success in the consulting world. In most cases, a successful consultant is a professional with a combination of many skills that provide value to their clients.
Ego enhancement is not a reason to pursue a career in consulting. Consulting is a demanding and competitive career that requires long hours, hard work and the ability to deal with difficult people. It is also a rewarding endeavor that pays above average and provides experience and opportunities that are not available in many other occupations.
In addition to some business or technical know-how, consulting requires a multitude of additional skills. You need to have the ability to think on your feet and utilize diplomacy for resolving conflict. A consultant must also balance being customer-centered while keeping the firm’s interests at hand.
Throughout my career, as I moved into management positions in consulting, I’ve worked with many new employees. They were either “newbies” out of college or experienced workers who had never worked in consulting. I found it to be frustrating at times. Although they had the business and technical skills to do assigned tasks, they lacked the softer skills that are so important to successful consulting. There was often a lack of awareness that the client was the paying customer and should be treated differently than a peer. They treated the project in a transactional approach, rather than establishing a relationship with the client to improve our chances of acquiring additional work. In meetings there were times where the consultants exposed some of the firm’s dirty laundry to the client.
I’d meet with my peers over lunch and we would share war stories of how our consultants weren’t provided proper training of the basic blocking and tackling skills. Those skills are critical because they help teach the professional behavior that every reputable consultant needs. That is why this book was created - to provide a primer to anyone who is considering joining a consulting firm, starting their own firm, or simply working as an independent consultant. Many of the tips include case studies of real world examples of mistakes I’ve witnessed over the years (some that I’ve made myself).
As I wrote this book, I started with a much larger list and pared it down to what I thought were the most important issues to address. Even then, I found a lot of the advice to be basic–almost common sense. If it’s such common sense, then why did I see these tips violated nearly every day? Much of the advice in this book is guidance in professionalism that can–and should–be used by anyone joining the business world. In most companies, this is nice-to-have advice. In consulting, it is imperative business behavior for success. In order to establish credibility and legitimacy with a paying client, there are certain guidelines that must be followed.
One final note: I was once at a week-long firm outing in which spouses were invited. One evening a group of folks ended up in the hotel’s bar. One younger consultant who was a bit over-served was using foul language and cursing at every opportunity. Thankfully there were no clients present, but the wife of the firm’s president was in the group.
The next morning at breakfast, a senior manager who had been with them in the bar pulled the young consultant aside and advised him about how inappropriate his language was in the presence of the president’s wife. The hung-over consultant apologized saying it wouldn’t happen again and thanked the manager for his advice. As they headed for their table, the president’s wife came up to him and said, “There you are you son of a bitch, how are you feeling this morning?”
The moral of the story here is that not all advice applies in all situations. There are 101 pieces of advice in this book and not every one will fit for every client in every circumstance. At some point, your own good judgment should take over once you get acclimated to the firm you join and your assigned client.
Introduction: The Consulting Industry
Types of Consulting
Consulting is a broad term that covers a multitude of professional services. It runs the gamut from large, high-profile management consulting firms providing strategy consulting to Fortune 500 companies to an individual providing a temporary service to a sole proprietor. There are consultants for virtually every industry; healthcare, banking, retail, manufacturing, etc. All have industry specialists, and almost every industry has sub-industry specializations. For instance, in manufacturing, there are specialists in automobile, heavy equipment, food manufacturing, etc. There are also industry generalists who provide professional services to all industries in areas such as human resources, information technology and marketing.
The Tiers of Consulting
The consulting industry is often defined in terms of tiers based on size and industry influence.
* Top-tier consultants are considered the elite of the industry and usually specialize in Management and Strategy Consulting for all major industries. They have practices in many other areas including Information Technology and Human Resources. Top-tier firms include the likes of Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Co., Accenture, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
* Mid-tier consultants generally offer many of the same consulting services of the top-tier, but are smaller in scale, usually less than $1B in annual revenues. Mid-tier firms often focus on mid-sized companies, but significant exceptions exist. Firms in this category include BDO Seidman, RSM McGladrey and Grant Thornton.
* Industry-specific firms focus on a specific industry such as manufacturing or healthcare. There are thousands of firms of all sizes in this category.
* Boutique consulting firms, also known as specialty consulting firms have a focus in a particular area such as information technology, human resources or marketing. This category also has many firms of various sizes.
Business organizations use Consultants for many purposes depending on their needs.
To bring in the experts: Suppose a software company has identified a reduction in demand over the past 12 months. Their marketing strategy has not changed significantly over that period. They are wondering if there has been a major shift in public opinion of their product or possibly in consumer use of their software. They decide to bring in a Marketing Consulting firm to perform some market studies to determine what is causing the shift in demand and to help them develop a marketing plan to reverse the trend. Most companies already have marketing divisions to perform day-to-day marketing activities, but may not have the expertise to perform a high-level marketing strategy. This is similar to a person who hires an attorney for legal problems. A business organization hires a consultant to provide expert advice and counsel.
To perform a project: A multi-location regional hospital would like to develop a new software application that will allow them to track their accounts receivable from insurance companies. They contract with a consulting firm to meet with their internal subject matter experts to define the full set of requirements, develop the new system, implement it, provide training to their staff and support any issues with the application for some period of time.
Augment their staff temporarily: A national retail company is developing a point of sale application that requires twenty programmers over a ten month period. They currently have ten programmers available on staff. Rather than permanently hire an additional ten programmers they will contract with a firm to bring in ten programmers to supplement their team for the duration of the project.
The focus of this book will be on larger solution-based firms and their structures, although much of the advice applies to consultants at any level in any tier of consulting.
Every consulting firm has their own process for recruitment so it does little good to provide a specific recipe for a How to guide to get hired in your chosen firm. Consulting firms generally look for people with the following characteristics:
A consultant that can think on their feet. Consultants are put in situations that require fast thinking and will not get flustered with difficult questions or confrontational situations. A firm wants to know that if you are in this situation you will not back down. At the same time, they want to ensure you won’t respond confrontationally and potentially damage a client relationship.
Strong communication skills. As odd as it sounds, many people I’ve interviewed – whether right out of college or with years of experience – have trouble speaking a complete sentence. A consultant needs to have the ability to speak and write succinctly to provide information to a client efficiently. This skill, within itself, helps instill confidence from the client that you know what you’re talking about.
Leadership skills: Firms may ask you about your past experiences when you were in a leadership role. They will look for situations when you took charge in a group setting and influenced a group of people to accomplish an objective. They will look for your ability to make decisions under pressure.
Self-confidence: Perhaps all of the above items imply a high level of self-confidence, but firms look for people who can speak and act confidently. Be careful not to come off as arrogant. They will recognize arrogance as a facade for a lack of confidence.
Subject matter knowledge. Although consulting firms usually provide initial training to new hires, they want their recruits to have some knowledge that can be applied beginning with their first assignment. They are looking for college recruits with majors in practical knowledge, such as accounting, computer science, healthcare and engineering.
When recruiting experienced candidates, they are seeking education and experience that will allow them to make an immediate assignment on a client project.
Tip #1: Practice Situational Interviewing
Firms will ask questions during the recruiting process that will test you on the above criteria. There are entire books and Web sites on the specific questions that firms ask, depending on their consulting specialty. Be prepared for questions that test each of those skills. They may describe a challenging business situation or ethical challenge and ask you how you would address or resolve the issue. There may be an intense session asking technical questions or even a written test to assess your subject matter knowledge.
The recruiting process may involve many steps. There may be an initial contact with an external recruiter by e-mail, phone screen or at a job fair. This may be followed up by a phone interview, and an on-site visit. Lunches and/or dinners may also be involved. Throughout each of these points, the firm will be assessing your social and communication skills.
Investigate situational questions and practice with peers. Practice speaking with a confident tone. Take time to think things through rather than blurting out the first answer that comes to mind. Summarize the question back to them, asking questions to clarify details. This will allow you to understand the issue more clearly and give you time to organize your thoughts as you devise an answer.
Above all, stay calm. Getting flustered and nervous is a sure sign to a hiring firm that you aren’t ready to face a client.
Tip #2: Focus on the Job, Not the Compensation
Case Study:
Chris was highly recruited out of college by many major management consulting firms. He had a 3.8 GPA and, as a member of the football team and president of his fraternity, he had a lot of team and leadership experience. As a result, he had his choice of firms with which to interview. The first two firms invited him to their offices for a full day of interviews, lunch with two vice presidents, and a dinner with the Sr. VP of Recruiting. They nearly fell over themselves praising him and did everything but present him with an offer. They touted their benefits, including their efforts to limit travel for their consultants. They emphasized that many of their consultants work from home when not assigned to a client project.
The third firm Chris interviewed with was his first choice. It was in the metropolitan area where he was from and had the best reputation in his specialty area of study. This firm’s recruiting approach was to make the recruit understand their business. Their philosophy was that the more a candidate understood about their culture and business approach, the better he would be able to determine whether he would like working at their firm. As a result, they concentrated on giving Chris a “day in the life” overview in which he shadowed various people in the firm for different periods of time throughout the day.
At the end of the day, he met with a vice president for dinner. The purpose of this dinner was to assess Chris’s impression of the firm. If he still had a favorable opinion, they would move on to the next step of more in-depth interviews. Chris was impressed with the firm and still held them at the top of his list. He was disappointed that they hadn’t shared any information on their salary or benefits. At dinner, he began asking the VP about the starting salary range for their recruits and whether there was much travel involved. He also wanted to know if they had work from home arrangements.
The VP was equally disappointed in the aspects of the job that Chris focused on. He would have been much more impressed if Chris had focused on the consulting business, typical projects that they manage and the culture within the firm. After conferring with the recruiting team the next day, they decided not to go to the next step in the interview process with Chris.
Three days later, Chris was shocked to receive a letter from the firm thanking him for his time and explaining that they had no positions that matched his qualifications.
*****
Salary and benefits should not be discussed by the candidate during the interviewing process. Firms may tout some of their benefits as selling points, but it is best to maintain a game face. It is more impressive to the firm to show interest in the roles and responsibilities of the job and show that you are interested in their firm for the work rather than the compensation.
Once an offer is made, they have made a commitment to you. They will provide you with their salary offer and the full benefits package. This is the appropriate time to ask about specific benefits without risk of turning them away.
Tip #3: Business Travel Is Not the Same as Pleasure Travel
Case Study:
In an interview with a recruiting firm, Lauren went in with confidence and felt she was answering the interviewer’s questions with ease. The interviewer was in her third year of consulting and described her experiences to Lauren. She had spent about two months in San Francisco and then four more in Denver. She wanted to know if Lauren would be able to work at a place that required this much travel.
Lauren explained that this sounded exciting. She loved travel. She had just gone to Florida with her boyfriend this past winter and they enjoyed going to different places and trying new restaurants. She went on to discuss the site-seeing they had done and how much she enjoys seeing new cities. The interviewer explained to her that business travel was quite different. She said that although you occasionally get out to see parts of a new city, most of the time is spent working at the client. There is not a lot of time left for sight-seeing.
*****
In most consulting organizations, you generally go where the client is so travel is the norm. In the age of cost cutting, telecommuting and heightened airport security, firms have figured out ways to reduce travel, but it is still prevalent. When consultants do travel, they are usually expected to maximize as much value from it as possible. While out of town, they usually stay at a hotel close to the client and work until well into the evening. Lunch and dinner at their desk is common and little of the new city is seen other than the airport, the hotel and the client site.
Showing an expectation of business travel being enjoyable and pleasant shows a naiveté of business travel that may prompt them to take a pass. A more appropriate response from Lauren might have been to explain that she is aware that there could be significant travel, and that it is not an issue. Then, asking the interviewer about the work she did at those clients would show that she is more focused on the work than the inconvenience of travel. This needs to be an honest statement. If you are unable or unwilling to travel, then it would be best to identify a consulting firm that focuses only on a local client base.
Tip #4: Sell Yourself
The resume is a tool to get you in the door for an interview, but the firm is hiring you, not your resume. When interviewing, it is important to sell yourself to the firm. A significant factor for success in consulting is the ability to sell a solution to a client. Supplement the information on your resume to show them your full value.
When a firm proposes on a project with a prospective client, it is much like a job interview. They describe their capabilities in the hope that the prospective client will hire the firm to work for them. A job interview is like an audition for proposing on a project. If you can’t sell yourself, they may assume you also won’t be able to sell a project.
When telling the interviewer about your past experience, focus less on the tasks that you completed and more on the benefit it produced. State benefit in measureable terms, if possible. For example, if you waited on tables to help pay for college expenses, provide the percentage or total dollars of college funding that you were able to contribute. Or, if you volunteered for a fundraising effort, rather than telling them how many hours you worked, describe the benefit in terms of dollars raised or saved for the organization.
Proving to the firm that you have both the technical skills to do the job and the ability to sell will give them a compelling reason for them to want you on their team.
Tip #5: Determine Why You Want to Be a Consultant
Before you waste a lot of your time and that of the recruiting consulting firm determine why consulting appeals to you. Some of the possible reasons include:
* You enjoy problem solving and believe consulting would be an exciting opportunity to develop deep experience in your chosen industry.
* You look forward to working with businesses to develop creative solutions to their problems.
* You like working in a project environment where many people come together to accomplish a common goal.
* You’ve always been a good leader and consulting is a great environment to apply your leadership skills.
* The variety of going from project to project and client to client is attractive to you.
* You are drawn by the challenge of working in a fast-paced, high-powered environment that demands you to do your best to succeed.
This is a question you will most likely be asked in an interview. There is no single correct answer. Of course, you have to back your statements up with facts. Be prepared to tell them about your experience in problem solving situations and what you liked about it. If you like to be challenged, tell them about specific times where you took on additional responsibilities in order to challenge yourself. Telling them what they want to hear without facts to back it up will fall flat.
There may be some selfish or personal reasons that you would like to pursue consulting. Such reasons as acquiring experience at a premier consulting firm in order to start your own firm or to get exposure to high-profile clients to obtain a job offer will not induce firms to hire you and may be an indication that consulting is not for you. Firms are looking for people who intend to be with them for the long term. If you are looking at consulting as a stepping stone your heart may not be in it. You will have a much lower chance of success as a result.
In the professional services industry there is no tangible product that can be held by the customer. The firm may have proprietary processes and templates in an effort to brand their service offering, but their service providers – their consultants – are drawn from the same talent pool that their competitors draw from.
Sustainable strategic advantage is achieved by taking all of your resources and combining them in a unique way that adds value to your end-consumer. Firms do this by establishing their unique blend of service offerings, smart hiring and employing creative, ambitious individuals with extensive knowledge in these service areas. Then they train them to deliver it in a consistent manner.
Despite all of this effort, the most successful firms obtain business–and maintain it–through the relationships they develop with their clients. When a firm proposes for a new project, the client prospect will judge them on their perceived capabilities based on their discussions and the firm’s past experience. When competing firms have comparable abilities, the decision often comes down to the firm with which the client feels they have developed a better working relationship.
Once a firm wins their first project at a client, their goal is to make them an annuity client and perform more services for them. The best way to do that is to provide excellent service. In addition, the firm wants to continue to develop a relationship with the client. This comes about by teaching their consulting staff to fit in to the client’s culture and treating the client and their employees with respect. It is always beneficial to take the time to get to know and understand the client and their staff.
Tip #6: Dress At or Above the Client’s Standards
There was a time not too long ago when the suit and tie were standard attire in nearly any given business setting. It was easy for consultants to know how to dress at a client site. Today, dress codes at companies run the gamut from ultra-casual shorts and flip-flops to old school suits and ties. These are both extremes that are fairly rare. It is more common to find a company with a business casual dress code, requiring a collared shirt and clean pressed non-denim slacks for men. Attire for women is somewhat more flexible, but the standard rule for business casual is no jeans. Some companies lighten up the dress code for Fridays, where business casual rules for Monday through Thursday, but jeans are allowed on Friday.
Regardless of a company’s dress code, and their adaptations of the rules depending on the day or season, they all have internal employees that push the envelope for what is acceptable.
A rule of thumb for a consultant to follow is to dress at, or slightly above, the company’s defined dress code. If business casual is the standard, make sure to always wear a collared shirt, and pressed dress slacks or khakis. If jeans are acceptable at the client site, it is a much more professional look to wear something a little less casual. Some things to consider:
* Some clients want their consultants to blend in. If consultants wear suits when everyone else is wearing jeans, it portrays an air of elitism.
* Some consulting firms have strict rules against jeans – or denim of any kind – regardless of the client’s dress code. It’s best to be familiar with your firm’s guidelines.
* Before making a visit to a client site, ask other members of the firm that have been on site for their recommendations on attire.
* When in doubt about what is acceptable, watch what the client’s executives wear and follow their lead.
* If you are unsure and there is no one to give you a suggestion, wear a suit. If they have a more casual dress code, you can always take the jacket and tie off for the remainder of the day.
Tip #7: Consider Yourself an Outsider
Case Study
On her first day at the client site, Heather saw the posters on the hallway bulletin boards publicizing the company’s annual employee cookout. It was to be held the following Friday in the company parking lot. There was going to be lots of good food, door prizes and employee recognition awards. She thought it would be a great opportunity for her to get to know her teammates in a more informal client setting.
When Friday rolled around she went down to the parking lot with the client employees and got in line for food. She sat with the employees that she had been working with over the previous week. They seemed polite, but a little uneasy with her presence. Each person who went through the line had been given a raffle ticket with a number. As they ate, the president of the company announced the numbers for door prizes. Finally, he called out the number that matched Heather’s ticket. She went up to the stage area and found that she won an MP3 player. She was thrilled to actually win something and thought it was a generous prize. When she returned to her table, she was disappointed that her client teammates didn’t share her happiness. She thought they were actually a little jealous.
On Monday morning, her account manager stopped by and asked to talk to her in the conference room. She explained to Heather that the client had raised an issue about her attendance at the company cookout on Friday. The purpose of the cookout was a morale boosting activity to thank their employees for their dedication to the company. They didn’t mean to be exclusionary of consultants, but it was intended for employees only. She explained that it put everyone involved in an awkward situation.
Heather was both embarrassed and ashamed. She hadn’t thought about the purpose of the event and felt bad that she took a prize that should have gone to someone else. She apologized to the account manager, but the damage had been done. They both agreed that apologizing to anyone at the client would create more awkwardness. They marked it as a lesson learned and decided to move on.
*****
In addition to the standard benefit offerings of health insurance, retirement savings programs and vacation time, most companies provide informal employee benefits. These include events such as company picnics, golf outings and discounts on their products.
Consultants are sometimes included in these employee activities, but it cannot be assumed. In many cases, consultants are considered outsiders and held to a different standard. You are not an employee of the client and it can’t be assumed that you share in the informal employee benefits. It depends on the client whether it is acceptable for an external consultant to participate. Before participating in any informal client-sponsored activities, make sure you are invited. Moreover, if they invite you, it is usually proper etiquette to attend.
Client employees are also often allowed privileges such as selling candy bars as fund raisers for their child’s sports team, bringing their children to work with them if they have a daycare issue and dressing for Halloween. These scenarios are rarely appropriate for a consultant to do at a client site. The client pays a high hourly rate for a consultant’s time and expects them to be focused on their work without such distractions.
Bottom line: make sure you know your place and error on the side of conservatism.
Tip #8: Don’t Make the Firm Look Bad
Case Study:
Diane, a Senior Manager with her consulting firm, had been on a client site for a project to analyze the client’s current vendor relationships. They needed to determine whether they could reduce the number of vendors for more efficiency. Her firm sold the client on their analysis methodology which was more expensive than their competitors and included a formal scoring process for each vendor based on several objective factors including their long-term viability, knowledge of the client’s industry and their delivery capabilities. Diane also met with each vendor’s account managers and members of their implementation teams. In the process, she developed personal opinions based on her like and dislike of each firm’s representatives.
Robb, the client executive wanted to reduce the number of their vendors and wanted to know the findings indicating which vendors could be eliminated and with which ones to consolidate their business. In a meeting with the client’s senior management to discuss her findings, Robb asked her “Based on your analysis, which software vendors can we consolidate functionality and which ones can we begin phasing out?”
“Would you like to know my opinion or the firm’s opinion on that?” she asked in response. She then explained that, although the tool they use to assess each firm’s ability to support the client’s needs provided them with one set of results, she had her own opinions such as the vendor responsiveness and their general attitude. Much of this was based largely on her personal opinions of the individuals with whom she met.
Robb left the meeting confused. He wondered why he paid such a premium for their methodology if they were just going to undermine it with a different set of subjective information.
*****
One of the main functions of a consultant is to facilitate decision making for the client. In order to do that, the information you provide to the client must be as objective as possible. Many firms have tools to assist in providing objective data to clients without being tainted with irrelevant data.
A consultant should be careful not to undermine a firm’s tools or methodology with opinions or suggestions that contradict the results. This will hurt the firm’s credibility with the client and, eventually, their own. Care should also be taken to avoid undercutting opinions of fellow consultants. When providing formal client recommendations, team members should meet to discuss the data and form an agreed upon solution. Not all members of the team will agree at all times. In these situations, the most senior member of the team will decide the approach. At that point all team members, whether they agree with the decision or not, need to support the decision so that the firm is consistent in their communication. If a client points out an inconsistency between your opinion and that of a fellow consultant, back out of the conversation gracefully until you can confer with the other consultant before discussing the issue with the client any further.
Tip #9: You May Be Viewed As the Enemy
Case Study:
Carla was excited about her new project assignment. She was a project manager implementing an Electronic Medical Records application at a major hospital. She planned the kick-off meeting with several key physicians, nurse practitioners and administrative staff. Most of them arrived late and their body language indicated that they weren’t happy to be there.
As she started the meeting by giving an overview of the system and the timeline of the project, there were several complaints that the schedule was too aggressive. Throughout the meeting there were negative comments questioning the need for an EMR at their hospital. They also second guessed her firm’s approach and didn’t hold back on their condescending heavy sighs over many of the details of the application.
It didn’t get any better once the project got into full swing. Few of the staff members were cooperative and some were blatantly disruptive. Although nobody on the staff did anything to openly sabotage the project, no one made any effort to ensure the project’s success.
Carla tried her best to befriend people on the project, but got no response back. One day she had a one-on-one meeting with an administrative assistant. While they discussed the system’s data entry interface and how much easier the Physician Order Entry module would be, the assistant asked “How many of us do you think this system will replace?”
“I haven’t heard any discussions about staff reductions.” Carla replied. She went on to explain the reasons the hospital was implementing the EMR system, including providing higher quality healthcare and improving their efficiencies. The assistant explained to her that there were rumors that 10% of the administrative staff would be fired and that physicians and nurses would be given more work as a result. It dawned on Carla that that was why there was so much resistance to the project from the staff.
*****
Consultants are generally brought in by the client’s senior management to assist them in solving a business problem. Often times, the solutions provided by a consulting firm result in unpopular changes. These changes can range from new organizational structures that disrupt employees’ daily routines to efficiencies that result in the need for fewer employees, resulting in lay-offs. To a client’s employees, consultants are often synonymous with bad news.
Too often, from the employee perspective, consultants are outsiders that come onto their turf and hold secret meetings behind closed doors with the executives. They huddle in their war rooms and strategize how to disrupt their jobs by cutting minutes off of processes and eliminate as many employees as possible to justify their inflated rates. IT consultants conjure up computer applications that automate processes to eliminate manual processing, again resulting in head-count reduction.
Even when consultants are brought in to augment the staff temporarily for a large project, employees often assume the consultant is there doing the same work as them, for more money. Consultants need to be aware of these client concerns and focus on the benefits of the system to them. Above all, do not lie to them. If you know that there will be staff reductions, do not tell them that it won’t happen. It’s better to suggest they talk to their management and focus on the project tasks.
Tip #10: Don’t Make Yourself Too at Home
Case Study:
Marge is an employee at Harrison Securities, Inc. She sits in a cubicle adjacent to a conference room on her floor. Magnusson Consulting Group has been brought in to do a performance study and has been given the conference room as a “war room” for the five consultants to do their work. After about a week, the team began to get to know each other better, becoming a cohesive team. They also began working late nights and ordering dinner in. As a result, they got more comfortable with each other, joking around, discussing what they did over the weekend and sharing personal stories with each other. As the comfort level increased, so did their volume.
Marge began noticing that she could overhear their conversations, but it didn’t bother her at first. As the consulting team began to chat more often and with higher volume, it started becoming a distraction. Marge often talked on the phone to customers and she wondered if they could hear some of the personal, sometimes inappropriate conversations emanating from the nearby conference room. When she came to the office in the morning, she would see that they left remnants of their previous evening’s dinner–pizza boxes, Chinese takeout containers, etc.–outside the conference room door for the cleaning people, who had evidently already gone for the night before the consultants left. The odor of the stale smelling food lingered for most of the day.
The final straw came when Cody and Michelle, two of the consultants walked into the war room from a confrontational meeting complaining about the incompetence and stupidity of Marge’s boss, Jerry.
“That SOB Jerry has to be the biggest dumb ass I’ve ever met in my professional career.” vented Michelle.
Marge estimated that Michelle was no older than twenty-five and wondered how many dumb asses she could possibly have met to date. And although she had her own personal questions concerning the volume of gray matter Jerry carried around with him, she thought it was inappropriate to say such things and unprofessional to say them so they could be overheard by client employees. She reported their behavior to her boss who wasted no time calling the firm’s account manager.
*****
When clients bring in a consulting team, they don’t always have ample space for them to work. Consultants are often put in a conference room–usually the size of a large closet–as a war room. Consultants frequently sit two or three to a cubicle designed for one person, or even sit at tables lined up along a corridor. Add to this that they are often treated as outsiders by the client’s employees. A “we vs. them” mentality develops and causes them to develop a camaraderie that fosters a more casual environment among them.
Consultants are invited to client sites to perform work. It’s always best to act as if you are a guest in the client’s home by remembering the following things:
* Keep voices down as low as possible. It avoids disturbing the client and keeps them from hearing things they don’t need to hear.
* If a contentious conversation must be held, make sure it is not overheard. Close the door or move to another location out of earshot of others.
* Personal conversations should be held to a minimum and out of range, preferably in an off-site environment such as lunch.
* If any food is brought to the workplace, be cognizant of its odor and dispose of all residual trash in a place that will not interfere with others, such as in a cafeteria or a break room.
* Avoid use of foul language or subjects that could be considered offensive to anyone overhearing. Contrary to what you may think, few people are all that interested in your sexual exploits or your political views.
* Never criticize an employee of the client, their business operations or facilities. Even if a client eavesdropper happens to agree, they may not appreciate an outsider’s criticism.
Tip #11: Clean Off Your Desk
Case Study:
Annette was a consultant assigned to two projects on a part-time basis splitting her time about fifty-fifty at each client site. As a result, she generally had to carry a lot of information for each client with her. Although much of the documentation was kept electronically, she also carried around a fair amount of paper documents from each client. While at one client, she was working on a document for the other client right up until time to run to a meeting.
Soon after Annette left for the meeting, the client manager stopped by to ask her a question. He saw papers with another client’s letterhead as well as work on his computer screen for the other client. He began to wonder if he was paying fees for Annette to work for him or other clients.
*****
Consultants often work for multiple clients at the same time. This becomes a juggling act at times. Always make sure you’re dealing with the right documents, e-mail addresses and issues for your current client.
While at a client site:
* Never do work for another client, whether paper- or computer-based.
* When leaving your desk always gather up all papers, including any for the current client and place them out of site.
* Lock out access to your PC whenever you walk away from your desk.
* If you use a laptop or notebook, take it with you or lock it in a drawer.
* When you leave at the end of the day, your desk should be completely cleared off.
* Don’t engage in phone conversations or side conversations about one client when on-site at another.
Tip #12: Limit Personal Online Usage
Case Study:
Jeff was a hard worker and worked long hours. He was on a project with a tight deadline and they were running behind. He had put in several thirteen-hour days and was also working on the weekends. He was well-organized and, as a result, was a good multi-tasker. He always had several applications open on his computer at any given time and could switch from one to the other in a flash.
He also kept several tabs open on his Internet Explorer for sites that he used for both work and personal purposes. He would check his personal e-mails and Facebook three to four times a day. It never took more than a few minutes each time and, based on the hours he worked, he more than made up for it.
Dominic, a manager for the client received an Internet usage report weekly from IT. Scanning the report for exceptions, he noticed that Jeff’s usage showed a large number of hits to Yahoo, Facebook and several other sites that raised his unibrow.
That afternoon when he met with Jeff’s account manager, Dominic showed him Jeff’s Internet usage report and asked why he was spending so much time on the Internet for personal usage. “Is this why you guys are behind on the project?”
After the meeting, the account manager took Jeff to a conference room and chewed him a new one.
“What the hell are you doing on the Internet all day while we’re all trying to get a project completed?”
Jeff stared at him in disbelief. “I check personal stuff a couple of times a day. Why are they getting all bent out of shape over that?”
*****
It’s the rule more than the exception today that companies track Internet usage closely, particularly for consultants. Software is used to block inappropriate content such as pornography, dating and job search sites; however other sites, which may need to be used for legitimate business purposes are not blocked. These are allowed, but tracked for frequency, length of time visited and context.
The best rule to follow is to only use the client’s Internet access for legitimate business purposes. There are times when a commercial site needs to be accessed, for instance to order dinner when the team works late. A manager with the consulting firm or the client should be made aware so there are no surprises on the client’s usage reports.
Clients may state that they block illicit sites, but don’t track usage. That sets the expectation that if it isn’t blocked, it’s okay to access. That is not a license to surf the web. Regardless of the filters set up by the client, or the sites the client’s employees visit, use the client’s Internet access sparingly and for business purposes only. If you have to use it to order a pizza or look up a phone number, keep a log of the times and purpose in case you’re questioned about it.
Tip #13: Avoid Personal Activities
Case Study:
Cheryl had been on-site with her client for over a month. In that time, she had become close with several of the client employees. She had gone to lunch with the client manager to whom she reported and even went shopping with her a couple of times. As she got acclimated with the client’s culture she saw that it was acceptable for employees to do personal activities such as hold personal conversations on their mobile phones and pay their bills at their desk. Before long, she felt comfortable doing some of the same things at her desk.
That Friday, when Izzy, her Account Manager showed up for a status meeting, she pulled her aside and explained that they had reported overhearing personal conversations and seeing her doing personal activities at her desk.
Cheryl was stunned. “Their people do it all the time. Why are they singling me out for that?”
“It may be that they haven’t seen their employees do it,” Izzy replied. “But either way, clients usually give their employees more latitude than they give consultants. They’re paying a lot more for you and the project that you are working on is much more critical to the company than what most of their employees are working on.”
Cheryl understood Izzy’s points, but she wasn’t completely convinced. “The double standard just doesn’t seem fair.”
“Look at it this way. If you were hired to work for the client you may have a lot more freedom to do some of those things, but your salary would likely be lower and you might not get assigned to high profile projects like this. It’s a tradeoff. Only you can decide whether it’s worth it or not.”
*****
Client perception is a critical factor in consulting. From the client perspective, they are paying top dollar to have experts come in to perform a task.
There is often a double standard between the way clients treat employees and the way they treat consultants. Clients have made a long-term commitment to their employees and may allow them some latitude to do personal activities on company time. They usually have a higher interest in their employees’ morale and general happiness.
Consultants, on the other hand, are hired on a short-term basis, at a higher cost, to accomplish a specific objective. It is often a high-profile project that has executive attention. The client expects a laser-beam focus on that objective. Consultants should not do anything to give the impression that they are distracted, too casual, or in any way focused on anything other than the client’s work.
Tip #14: Don’t Use Client Resources for Personal Use
Case Study:
Takume was an offshore consultant brought onshore for a two-month period to gather requirements and act as the subject matter expert (SME) for the offshore team. He was working at his desk one December afternoon and noticed something exciting. He looked out his window and saw snow for the first time in his life. He went outside and admired it, touched it and picked some up to watch it melt in his hand. Then he took a few quick pictures with his phone. When he returned to his desk, he connected his phone to his PC and uploaded the pictures to his personal Web site and e-mailed his friends back home to check the new pictures out.
The next morning, Takume’s account manager received a call from the client’s security director. His network monitoring software had identified an upload of three images to an external IP address that was not on their approved list. He informed the account manager that the firm would be fined $5,000 for violating the security regulations that they signed as part of their Master Services Agreement.
That afternoon Takume went back home with only some pictures of snow. He was fired the next day.
*****
As I’ve stated before, you should act as though you are a guest while at a client site. This is just as important while using their computer equipment as their office space. Most companies monitor network usage closely and many have contractual requirements with their consulting vendors regarding what is, and is not, allowed. Management at the firm should review these regulations with the team at the beginning of a project and revisit them regularly so that no one is surprised. That will greatly reduce the chance of the regulation being violated and harming the client relationship.
Additionally, when joining a project, ask if the regulations have been documented. In any event, it’s best to error on the safe side by using the client’s equipment only for legitimate, project-related activities.
Tip #15: Be Prepared to Do the Client’s Dirty Work
Case Study A:
Alan managed a six-member consulting team at an office machines distributor. They were hired to perform a software analysis. As part of the project they were required to meet with several software vendors to select a package that best met the needs of the client. After paring the list down to three, the vendors were invited to present demonstrations of their software to selected client team members. Alan had done a number of these projects in the past and had come to know the sales reps at most of the software vendors in the industry. They usually treated Alan well to stay on his good side. It helped them ensure being invited to demos for future clients.
After they presented the demos, the client’s team members completed their analysis forms that were used to grade the vendors. Although the evaluations were designed to use as objective of criteria as possible, some evaluators skewed the results based on personal biases.
When all of the presentations were completed, Alan and his team met with the evaluation team to discuss their findings. All three vendors’ packages had similar functionality and any one of them could have met the requirements, but the first vendor seemed to be a better fit for the client’s requirements. After much deliberation, they selected the third vendor based more on their personal biases than the functionality. The team felt that this vendor was more likable and would be easier to work with.
Alan was given the task of informing the losing vendors that they were not selected and the unenviable responsibility of explaining to them why. He needed to be diplomatic in telling them that their competitors were a better fit though he didn’t agree.
Case Study B:
As the vendor analysis phase wound down, Alex began preparing the proposal for his firm to perform the implementation of the selected application. The client manager spoke to him and said that if they were invited back to do the implementation, that he did not want Angela to be on the team.
Angela was one of the stronger members of the team and had developed an in-depth knowledge of the client’s business. Alex had intended on putting her in a lead role for the implementation. Somehow, during the project, she had done something to rub the client manager the wrong way. The client would not provide any specific reasons other than that he didn’t feel she was a good fit for the project. Alex had no other options. He arranged with another account manager to have her transferred to another project, but he was not able to give her a concrete explanation on why she was not invited to be on the follow-on project.
*****
One of the many roles of a consultant is to be the stand-in as the bearer of bad news to vendors and other fellow consultants. This often puts consulting managers in an awkward position. The client can decide, for ambiguous and undefined reasons, not to continue dealing with a vendor or an individual consultant. A consulting manager needs to have the ability to communicate to a vendor as many solid facts that will help them learn from their mistakes, however, if the client does not provide adequate rationale, the consultant manager must be careful not to criticize the client’s decision or their decision making process.
If a client requests that an individual consultant be removed from a project, they may also give a logical rational such as a lack of industry knowledge or experience. Often times, a consultant can simply annoy a client manager with a single comment in a meeting, a personality clash, being too aggressive or not aggressive enough. If the consulting manager believes that it is more beneficial for the individual to stay on the team, she should try to convince the client, but the client has the last say. When explaining the change to the consultant, it is best to focus on positives such as better opportunities on other projects.
Tip #16: Schmooze the Client
Case Study:
Paul was the director of marketing at a major retail organization and was considering bringing in a consultant to analyze their current marketing plan and potentially help develop a new marketing strategy. He contacted account managers for three of the more prestigious marketing consulting firms in the region and scheduled meetings with them.
His first meeting was with Frank, an account manager at Marketing Consulting Partners. Frank made a great first impression. He came in to Paul’s office smiling, looked him straight in the eye and gave him a firm handshake. They exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and Frank immediately began with his opening, “I know that you are very busy and I’d like to get right to business.” He provided Paul with the usual glossy brochures that explained their offerings and presented his pitch for the next thirty-five minutes. At that point, he asked Paul if he had any questions. Paul liked MCP’s offerings and had a few questions for Frank about how their expertise would fit with the needs of Paul’s organization. Frank answered most of his questions and made notes of items for follow up. The entire meeting was succinct and efficient and ended in less than the scheduled hour.
Paul then met with Dave from Marketing Alternatives. Dave was a boisterous, fun-loving guy that wanted to be Paul’s best friend the minute they shook hands. Dave saw a picture on Paul’s desk of him standing by a Corvette. “Wow! That’s a nice car! Is that yours?”