State of the consulting industry

Jane Doe and Richard Roe are a couple of consultants discussing and sharing their experiences in the consulting business from their viewpoint.

Jane: "Consulting is not at all what I thought it would be when I started in the field eight years ago."

Richard: "What and how do you think it would be?"

Jane: "My vision was that we would be called in as helpful experts, work with business stakeholders to help them overcome their business problems or get the business to the next level. We would be trusted to analyze every bit of details about their business, uncover the problems and provide recommendations to resolve the problems."

Richard (laughed): "If only it were that easy. I had one like that once, but just once long ago."

"We have to realize that clients call us in for a lot of different reasons only some of which they fully disclose. There were often internal power struggles we may not be aware of. There are also clients who may have heard how wonderful the solutions we had for a different company, and they wanted us to come up with the same solution for them while disregarding the potential adverse effects a similar type of solution may be for their business."

Jane: "So why do consultants have such bad reputations? Many consultants seem to continue to have uphill battles with their clients, where it should have been collaborative. Ideally, we would have the client's good faith trust. After all, we are here to help them succeed in their business and objectives."

Richard: "I think it's because we do the job we think we were hired to do, and maybe that isn't what the client wanted, yet the client may not or does not, for whatever reasons, share in-full their complete objectives in hiring us as their consultants. Even when we find clients who do want us to succeed in helping them, but if no one else in their organizations really cares then we'll find they won't work with us. Sometimes they feel threatened and actually work against us."

Jane said, "Sure, but are we ever the cause of the problem?"

Richard: "Sure."

"It's all simply because consultants are usually seen as outsiders. And the fact as business cost factor, we are pricier than employees—never mind that we are also often better, specialized helps."

"Moreover, we do make mistakes just like anyone else. Unfortunately, once we make mistakes, no matter how trivial it may be, the odds are stacked against us much heavier than even when there had been no mistake. It takes an astronomic remedial effort and outstanding result just to get back to the original standing we had to begin with the client."

Database

Ahhh... the base of the world's data. The repository where all the secrets of the universe is contained. We can consider anything to be a database. And database can be in any forms. The speed with which we come to a full understanding of what a given set of data is about is what determines its usefulness. How we come to that understanding is the process applied against it.

For a database to be useful it must be well-structured. For its usefulness quickly understood, the process(es) applied must be efficient and intuitive. Only when we fully grasp these fundamental ideas can we also appreciate and begin to study its complexity.

Let's for a moment imagine that a book is a kind of database. Conceptually, the structure of a book could be: the binding and the leaves. The binding may contain the backbone, front- and back-cover. The leaves may contain the table of contents, the content itself, and the content indices. Further, the contents may contain chapters, sections, and paragraphs. We can go on to the sentences containing phrases, words, letters (alphabets), numbers, and punctuation. Since we were but a tot, we learned ABC's. We then learned to put words together, sentences, and so on. We also learned how to read. In effect, we learned methods of operation, where the objects being operated on are letters, words, sentences, etc. so that we can communicate with one another be it orally or via written materials. From a very young age all we learn is essentially this very same concept of database — its structure and mode of operations or behaviors.

Database is one of the most significant part of an information system. Despite the simplicity of a database concept, it is still oft misunderstood. Why is that? To illustrate, let's consider the following story. I am a database developer, and yet if I sell myself solely on my technical skills, i.e., in my ability designing and implementing database applications I would not be able to compete with the younger generations of coders many of whom are very creative, to say the least, in their programming styles and habits. In addition, many modern programming tools almost makes someone with a highly disciplined programmer obsolete, i.e., it almost take no brains these days to be able to program anything. The reality is different. These tools don't make us obsolete. We are in greater demand more than ever for a very simple reason, tools and technologies don't replace knowledge and judgement. Similarly, having knowledge and judgement alone won't be enough if one does not know how to execute them in timely manners.

Overture

Several friends suggested that I blog.

Blogging has been the rage these past few years. It's been one of the many activities that helped usher in a new way of thinking and communicating one's thoughts in this Web 2.0 era. The commercial world is weird that way. What used to be considered an amateurish personal activity is now considered by many as legitimate sources of information.

What was a personal homepage is now a weblog. What was a guestbook is now commenting feature plus new trackback. And what was geocity is now myspace. And so on and so forth. Old ideas recycled as new with cherry-on-top. And similarly millions of dollars once again exchange hands on the back of the Internet and its myriad phenomena. The Internet minted, and continues to mint, a new clique of nouveau riches. But that, of course, isn't the problem, or even a problem for that matter. Money is not the root of evil. Smooth flowing money is not evil. Lack of it and improper use of it could be. But I digress.

The problem is the dilution of information quality. In lieu of quality, we now have vast unquantifiable quantity, most of which don't really offer anything new. What used to take years of hard earned experience, methodical studies, research, and publication has now been reduced to mere opinions. Vox populi, they say is the new currency for one to be taken as either good or bad, right or wrong, somebody or nobody. Oh, don't get me wrong! I understand that some of these blogs in the ocean of all blogs are truly inspired. This blogging phenomenon has opened up new venues which might have otherwise been unavailable for these masters of their domains.

So then what am I doing now? Ironically, I am blogging, aren't I?

Believe me, I have tried to resist for so long, save for the occasional quips here and there that usually amounts to nothing more than just a sentence or two. Most of which aren't even mine, but are words I learned from those who came long before us and who were probably much wiser than I could ever be. My fervent attempt to avoid being a part of the Internet in a public way is rather futile. At one online space, a friend of mine created an account for me for kicks (and testing purposes). That I happily obliged. Another had suggested I publish my knowledge. Still some others did the same just because I sound like I have insights in various matters. Then there is the occasional, personal curiosity in testing whatever may be new (but similar) services on the Internet, usually from the larger and well known Internet companies.

Nevertheless, the result had been, thus far, the same. I am a bystander, an observer, and a consumer simply because I felt there was enough out there without me adding an overinflated 2-cent. Sure, there were the occasional people who nudged me in this direction. But I didn't feel particularly motivated for there was much more things to do with my time in the real world than to spend it blogging, on top of the fact that I never felt (still don't) that I needed to be heard. I am a rather seclusive person (not reclusive). I greatly value my privacy and anonimity. On the same token, I devalue whatever knowledge I may have gained all these academic and professional years, except where it concerns an employment, and help for my fellow beings.

That's the 道 of my being.

At the behest of a friend (among others) who thinks I have something valuable to share with the world at large and since I'm in a bit of a lull these days, I reluctantly formulate this introduction to my joining the blogosphere. There. Now I have embraced blogging and have an excuse to blog about everything I know! (Except where confidentiality matters. There is still such a thing as the respect for confidentiality you know!)

I know everything!

Everything I know amounts to nothing.

Nothing I know may not be worth anything.

But it's all entertainment to me.