Who do you turn to when you
don’t know which way to turn:
A BUSINESS EXECUTIVE’S GUIDE TO CHOOSING A MANAGEMENT Consultant

Washington D.C. (July 10, 2002) Let’s face it; anyone can call themselves a management consultant.  In the year 2000, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 501,000 management-consulting jobs were being held in the U.S. alone.  They estimate the profession will grow “faster than the average” or between 21% and 35% between the years 2000 and 2010.  That means that in 2002 there are probably about 821,000 management consultants vying for business leaders attention and assignments.

The reasons business leaders turn to consultants are just as innumerable as the consultants to whom they turn.  But, in the final analysis these reasons can be categorized into just a handful. 

Business leaders got to consultants because:

1. They don’t have the skills required to address the problem.
2. They don’t have the time necessary to solve the problem themselves without sacrificing something they want to get done.
3. They don’t have the information upon which to base a well-informed decision.
4. They don’t have the objectivity to make an unbiased selection of the best course of action.
5. They don’t have consensus on a course of action and need an independent opinion.
6. They don’t have the vision, idea or perception that will give them the solution to their problem or the competitive advantage they need to profitably advance their company.

In a business environment that is more complex and more complicated than ever before, the need for expert outside assistance is great.  And given that environment, the number of individuals and firms who are offering their expertise and assistance is even greater.  It has become a well-accepted fact that to achieve and sustain consistently profitable long-term growth, most companies will at some time have to turn to the counsel of a qualified management consultant. 

The question is how do business leaders locate and select a consultant with the professional expertise to effectively address their needs?

Business leaders have heard or read all the horror stories of botched consulting assignments.  They fear selecting a management consultant who, because of inexperience, poor training, lack of expertise, poor communication skills or any of a thousand other reasons, does not perform to expectation. They fear spending money and not getting results or solutions to their problems.

Every decision has an element of risk. But the good news is there are specific actions business leaders can take to mitigate the risk of selecting the wrong consultant.  Here is a step-by-step approach that will help:

1. Develop a formal Request for Proposal for each and every consultant you plan to interview—even if you are only going to interview a few.
2. Talk to more than one consultant, except in cases where you have already developed trust and you know the consultant’s quality of work.
3. Meet the proposed consultants face to face.
4. Request examples of similar work and references.
5. Contact the references and explore their experience as it relates to what your specific needs are.
6. Make sure that the consultants doing the work are the ones you initially met.
7. If consultants are changed, make sure that you have had the opportunity to meet and interview them first.
8. Designate someone within your organization to be the project manager to work with the consultant’s project manager.
9. Schedule regular review meetings with the project managers throughout the project.
10. Have project status reports as part of regular project communications.
11. Commit the necessary internal personnel and financial resources to the project. Ask for a schedule of when these resources are going to be called upon and available.
12. Build key milestones into the project plan for the project team to meet.
13. Enter into a clear fee arrangement that stipulates that a portion of the payment be based on reaching the key milestones.
14. Check whether the consultant is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) or has other professional designations and is a member of a professional organization, such as the Institute of Management Consultants  (IMC-USA), who require adherence to a published Code of Ethics.

While the IMC-USA represents a significant number of the people who identify themselves as “management consultants”, the majority of consultants do not belong to IMC-USA.  It would be nice if they did, because it would make the business leader’s job of selecting a well-qualified consultant a little easier.  Since members of the Institute of Management Consultants sign a published code of ethical conduct that defines how they deal with clients, conduct engagements, establish fees and represent the profession, they are willing to be evaluated against that code. 

To earn the Institutes’ certification mark, individuals must demonstrate their knowledge of management and their capacity to consult according to international standards of practice and ethics.  They do this through a combination of university education, experience, peer review, written examination and formal continuing professional development and study.

IMC USA has been certifying the independence and experience of management consultants since 1969. IMC USA is a member of the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes, representing institutes of management consultants in 32 countries. An international Code of Ethics and Independence bind the 25,000 consultants who are members of these institutes. Over 10,000 of these members have also passed the CMC examinations in their countries.

As a resource, IMC USA can help business leaders narrow their search for a well-qualified management consultant (www.imcusa.org).  However, in the final analysis, if the process shown above is going to work, business leaders as prospective clients must be willing to proactively question and evaluate prospective consultants just as they would question and evaluate prospective employees.

While the name of the consulting firm may be an indicator of quality, individual consultants will do the work.  Hire someone with whom you, as the business leader, can establish a solid, trust-based professional relationship.  Hire consultants who demonstrate a thorough understanding of the particular problems and challenges you want addressed.  Hire an individual who fully grasps the goals and objectives of your organization. And finally, hire someone who will bring objectivity and independence, well-developed skills, and professional ethics and standards to bear on providing solutions to your business problems.