The Competitive Consultant

There are three related reasons for writing this book. They are:

In this chapter we shall explore further the concept of consultancy, the range of purposes to which it is applied, the strategies or styles of application, and particularly its relationship with the recognised professions. Since consultancy has become a growth industry there are good reasons for arguing for the need for increased ‘profession-alisation’ and this will be briefly explored. One of the conclusions we shall draw from this chapter is that consultancy is an embryonic profession and will remain so until a firmer scientific base has evolved. Central to this development are the generic knowledge and skills that consultants should be able to display in the process of meeting the needs of their clients.

No two consultancy assignments are the same, even if they fall within the same technical area. The major factors contributing to this uniqueness are situational differences, including client needs. In order to master such diversity, consultants have to be trained to recognise client needs and expectations and the forces impinging upon their client’s behaviour, and be able to respond appropriately. Models of consultancy roles can serve as useful aids when training individuals to display the competences (i.e. the knowledge and skills) we associate with the effective consultant.

A pilot study was carried out in 1988 to see the extent to which our ideas were shared by others in the consultancy industry in the UK. We interviewed senior people in seven consultancy firms and in four professional associations, including the British Consultants Bureau and the Institute of Management Consultants.

We argued that the consultancy industry is vitally important to the economies of advanced industrialised countries, using the British economy as an example. Therefore any means of enhancing its competitiveness deserves examination. We initiated the research which is reported in this book because we believed (a) that the roles that consultants were required to undertake in the consultancy process itself were changing, and (b) that if consultancies and interested others became more aware of the nature of these changes, and reflected this knowledge in their training and development programmes, they would enhance their competitiveness.

In previous chapters we have shown how consultancy has developed into being more than simply providing specialist information or advice. We have presented a model of roles that consultants are adept at playing, and indicated some of the key competences underlying these roles. We have also shown that, for training purposes, the 1+7 model has advantages over other models. In this chapter we are concerned in giving readers greater insight into the process of learning, so as to increase their understanding of the value of such models as training aids and ways of incorporating them into a training programme.

This chapter introduces the essentials of the case method of learning and includes examples of exercises for using the case histories in Chapter 9. Seventeen out of the twenty-two case histories from which our model was developed are included in that chapter. Five have been omitted because of space considerations.

This case history is about the construction of a leisure complex in a major town in south-west England, which is developing rapidly as a result of industrial expansion. The main parties in the case history are as follows.

We have nearly completed the task we set for ourselves. It only remains to draw together the arguments we have put forward for achieving superior consultant performance in a competitive environment, and to make some comments about the future.