Why should any business, association, non-profit or other organization, regardless of size, engage and utilize a management consultant? Most owners of small business believe no one knows more about their business than they do. Most non-profit organizations, with the exception of the very largest ones, believe they cannot afford a consultant – it’s just not in the budget. CEOs of mid-sized companies often believe that the kinds of activities performed by management consultants can and should be carried out by their own management on top of their day-to-day responsibilities. And CEOs and senior executives of large global corporations, while generally more open to management consultants that their counterparts with small and mid-sized companies often resist engaging management consultants either due to their corporate ego or in view of cost controls.
So what should a company engagement a management consultant?
- Management consultants bring an independent perspective.
They value of having a new and different perspective for a business or non-profit organization is invaluable. Most organizations, regardless or turnover and bringing in “new talent”, are caught up in the day-to-day of how they perform any function or activity.
- They often have specialized skills in areas such as strategy, finance, operations, human resources or marketing.
With the exception of the very largest companies and corporations, most companies and non-profit organizations have members of their staff wear multiple hats and perform a variety of functions. As such they end up not being experts in any one of those functions or roles. Consultants often specialize in a function or type of activity.
- Management consultants work from the perspective of best practices and use these as a benchmark for evaluation and recommendations.
Regardless of how much companies and non-profit organizations know about their industry, their competitors and marketplace, they rarely have the time, resources or the inclination to benchmark against others. Best practices – a term that has been greatly overused – is a area where consultants can identify who does various functions and activities with excellence and compare (or benchmark) that against any client. While best practices change from field to field and year to year, the concept continues to reap dividends for those who utilize it either internally or through a consultant.
- They can provide additional resource in specialized areas for a limited period of time to support a project, initiative or change such as an acquisition or divestiture.
Let’s face it, even in good times, businesses and non-profit organizations do not have the resources – meaning staff – to do all the things they need to do. They need to generate revenue or raise funds. They need to delight their customers or members. They need to deliver on the core activities as defined in their mission statement. As such, there is a need for additional resources for everything from fine-tuning to a complete re-engineering of processes. Consultants – who are brought in for a set period of time and for a given amount of money can fill the gap for even the most budget constrained business or non-profit organization.
While the reasons to engage management consultants are numerous, more often than not, these four are key to the decision-making of businesses, associations, non-profits and other organizations of all sizes.
George F. Franks, III is the founder and President of Franks Consulting Group, a Bethesdsa, Maryland management consulting and leadership coaching practice. Franks Consulting Group's clients include associations and other non-profit organizations, businesses of all sizes and individual leaders. More information on Franks Consulting Group is on the web site:
http://franksconsultinggroup.com
George can be contacted via e-mail at:
gfranks@franksconsultinggroup.com
