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."
