RFP - The Caribbean Perspective

As a guest speaker at the Caribbean Institute of Certified Management Consultants America's Hub Conference November 26-29 2008 in Barbados I spoke with dozens of management consultants from North America, the UK, and 17 Caribbean countries.

One of the most important concepts for a speaker to master is to be relevant and well-understood by your audience. Given that I was speaking for the first time in the Caribbean I paid particular attention to the feedback I was receiving from the audience. Sometimes they give you that feedback in subtle ways, other times it's more obvious.

Nothing could have been more obvious than the feedback I received, and the discussion generated by my comments on the use of the RFP process to select management consultants. Advisors from Jamaica, England, Denmark, Barbados, Canada, Trinidad and Tobagos, and a dozen other countries were in agreement that the RFP is a process that they would rather see replaced and the sooner the better.

Some regions like the UK have made great strides toward doing so while others are wondering if that is even possible.

The message here from consultants around the globe is that there is a better way for selecting a professional advisor. It's a message I will be carrying around the world in 2009.