I think most of you know who I am talking about, so no need to mention names. A lot of big corporations and recently governments have been using these “Big Business Consultants” to show them the “road to success.” Apparently, these days, if you need advise, you do not need to go to the wise man anymore.
So let me tell you what do these consultants tell you. Well, simply everything you already know. Here is a small example. They will ask you what your problems are, then they will tell you, I see that you are not making enough profit and then the big advice comes. You need to restructure, which of course means get rid of your greatest assets, your employees. Very creative, don’t you think so!
What makes this even more fun, they will ask the CEO and everyone else to do their work. How? Very easy, “Mr. CEO, you and your team need to answer these questions, design surveys, make everyone gather data, compose committees, create reports, and so forth”. Does this sound familiar to you, oh well, and then you know that your organization hired the Big Business Consultant. Then the consultant will tell you that “your own report” says that you need to increase market share, use technology, hire the stars, and yes, the most popular one, redesign your logo!
What I do not understand, at least back home, when some government organizations, hire these consultants. Well, the simple role of these government departments is to provide routine service. Knowledge that is required to improve the operation is simply in the organization itself, from the frontline government employees or even the customers. Majority of the government employees are college graduates, and a lot of them have also been educated in the west. A lot of them go through intensive trainings and also visit other countries to benchmark and learn..so what will the Big Business Consultant tell you more than your own people. They probably do not even possess half of the knowledge that you already have.
Yet I guess back home and even here in Asia, the Big Business Consultant coming from the west is always right. The million dollar advice that could really destroy you is what you should seek. Remember, McAdvise is always right! Don’t argue, just implement.
Here is my advise, and it is for free. If you are a CEO, then you are the best person to identify what is the best for your organization. You work your guts out to succeed. You simply need to listen more, to yourself or to others. If you want to search for more advise, then don’t search too far, it is with people sitting next to you, your colleagues, your employees. If you want to go a little further, then your customers are willing to tell you everything you need to know. And if you really, really, want to go further, then talk to the old wise man. Yes he exists. There are a lot of people who are industry experts, CEO’s like you, who are willing to help. A one-hour chat with them over coffee is worth more than the million dollar you will spend with McAdvise!
I liked the post, mostly because it speaks of an issue that we’ve been facing a lot nowadays by CEOs who are handling big companies. I think the main reason behind why people tend to reach for those “consultants” is because us human have this thing where paying for something makes us feel like we have the security we need not to face problems. The sad truth is that even that 1 billion worth consultant, still can’t make problems disappear. In one of the psychology courses I’ve taken, we stumbled upon this topic… the funny thing about it is that people tend to believe them because they’re always harsh, they always tell you that you need to change the whole structure as you mentioned before in your post. This way CEOs or people who believe those consultants think “hey, this is our man! he’s not sugarcoating things for us, he knows what is best” even if your company was completely fine and all it needed is a stronger connection with it’s consumers. Apparently “Harsh words” is the new “motivation” technique that people used to pay for a while ago in order to get their company function well.