Good Consultant, Bad Consultant

I was recently forwarded some information about Matthew Stewart, a writer and former management consultant alleging that the industry was populated by frauds and charlatans. In fact he proposes that the industry is a house of cards delivering questionable value to nieve clients.

As a buyer of management consulting services you would be wise to listen to what Mr. Stewart writes as the industry, without a doubt, hosts consultants of questionable value. Just like lawyers that are disbarred, and doctors that are stripped of their license to practice, so too are there consultants that should be relieved of their...briefcase? Laptop? Pie charts? Cerlox binders?

And herein lies the rub. Management consultants are not licensed, not registered, not certified, not examined, or in any way required to adhere to a higher standard of ethical practice or competence.

Although you need a license to fish, apparently anyone can advise industry on strategy.

So how do you prevent yourself from being hooked by an advisory crook? I have two suggestions...

First the easy one. Look for consultants with a CMC designation (Certified Management Consultant). It is an international standard to which fewer than 1% of consultants invest the time, effort, funds, and professional-improvement to achieve. It's not common, because it is difficult to get, so when a consultant gets it, they are watched over by the other CMCs so as to not compromise the value of the designation. It is not mandatory, but it can be taken away, and is valuable and the closest thing the industry has to a "license".

Now the less obvious one - expertise. Make expertise the focus of your evaluation of a potential consultant. You can break that down into their functional expertise (what they do - HR, IT, Finance, etc.), and then their category expertise (the industry they know best - manufacturing, health care, emergency services, etc.). Try to match their expertise specifically to your challenge.

Examples of other engagements demonstrating their relevence and previous exposure to your problem are good indicators of expertise. Writing and speaking about problems like yours are a few others. Is expertise transferable across categories? Sometimes. Across functional areas? Not so much.

If expertise is not obvious consider that a red flag.

If the consultant addresses their lack of specific expertise by displaying their magical process that can address any problem in any sector consider that a second red flag (note: process is important but it does not replace or trump expertise).

If, in desperation, they try to win you over with their splendid personality, I recommend you drop the third red flag and run for the hills. You need expertise, not another name on your Christmas card list.

So at this point I should thank Mr. Stewart for bringing the frauds to light and for rightly holding them to task. It's not something any consultant is likely to relish discussing but good consultants won't fear the discussion either.

This issue must be addressed for the good of the clients, for the good of the industry, and for the good of Mr. Stewart's book sales.

To hear the CBC interview click here and scroll down.