CONSULTANT: GOOD, CONSULTING FIRM: BAD

Good intentions: they’re what the road to hell is famously paved with. But what does it mean when you go into a client organ­ization and say, I’m here to help? Who is making what promises, and who does the client hold responsible for keeping them? The consultant? Con­sulting firm? Both?

Clients view consulting relation­ships in two distinct ways: the personal interaction they have with the consul­tants (the individuals), and the results delivered (the promises that consul­tants make).

As an industry, we tend to think about the former more than the latter. Ask any consultant or client manager how they view their client-consultant relationships, and they will almost al­ways begin at the most personal level. If the project went well, it was because those involved were “good” consul­tants; if it went badly, it was because they were “bad.” The better the peo­ple, the better the project; the better the project, the better the people.