Penang, 8 September 2011 – A decade ago, a representative of a Japanese conglomerate asked me, what I can contribute to an existing team of 50 internal consultants. That question deserved some serious thinking time then and now.
Companies spend hours with their consultants going over action plans after action plans, analysing problems, to find out the cause-effects and improve on existing performances. There are situations where the owners of the companies are former consultants themselves. They were the experts in their chosen field be it engineering or accountancy and they chose not to audit themselves, rightly so.
Every assignment has its distinct differences and roles for just about everyone. There can never be enough internal or external specialists to do an excellent job. To easily test this basis, conduct a satisfaction index after a project through questionnaires from a collection of clients. Despite all the efforts, there is still room for more improvement!
Three important elements that the 51st person should bring in:
Creativity: The key to unlocking a successful case is not 1 or 50 consultants but what is the creative solution for that particular problems contributed by the team. You may have 1,000 chefs, but you still cannot decipher the 11 secret herbs and spices of KFC or the recipe to Coca-Cola without the “Person”. Someone who is daring enough to try and push the limit, shares the fruit of success and failures -- ultimately producing fair results.
Application: It is better to fully cook right than to start a potentially half-done job. A company attaining ISO 9001 for mere marketing highlight achieves lesser satisfaction comparing to actually understanding the entire Total Quality Management and daily applying the philosophy to better satisfy the customers. Having reduce errors by 75%, increasing customer call turnovers by 200% and efficiently handling customer complaints rather than avoiding complaints over period of 2-5 years are definitely more complete than gambling with a 50:50 chance of getting more customers from advertising, “I am certified” in the year.
Change: Even though there are 50 people in a project room, the mere presence of one charismatic 51st person invigorates everyone. New positive energy, freedom to re-make decisions, fresh ideas, clearer priorities. Unlimited feeling. Perhaps even a new side-project that links up with the Main.
Looking back 10 years ago, it had been wiser to have walked away and affirm later what it takes to be included as the 51st consultant. The constant review of the same tricky question, how can I contribute more, keeps me truly alive.
