Corporate titans facing serious jail time; ex-WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers leading the way to experience life behind bars; sobering laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, making ethics and values increasingly important components in every organization . . . .

As a consultant, you may never di­rectly raise financing for your clients. However, you are integral to their fi­nancial health. Your value to your cli­ent, every piece of advice you give, and every billable hour you invoice is judged on your value to the bottom line.

You’d have to be an unbearable pessimist if you were to fail to notice what a remarkable num‑ ber of things the Chinese are doing well these days. Yet even though they’ve done marvelous things in terms of the economics of trade, man­ufacturing, and as one wag put it re­cently, their “transition from souvenirs to semiconductors,” they still have not shown great competence when it comes to certain vital functions.

Nothing improves business development more than gaining the trust of the potential client. Yet few consultants do what it takes to be trusted. We sell in ways that destroy rather than create trust because we misunder­stand the buying decision.

For a long time, we have emphasized the characteristics of so-called “left brain thinking” as keys to success. We’ve pushed logical and literal think­ing in our universities, in business management, and yes, in consulting. Many clients engage consultants specifically to concentrate on analysis or mechani­cal thought processes to solve opera­tional problems. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of thinking, this kind of orientation, this kind of consulting. However, more is possible, and that ex­pansion of thinking will enrich and em­power.

Many companies complain that their internal consulting landscape is jagged and fragmented.They have no systematic way to deal with consultants and cannot identify the ones they have already worked with or learn what fees were charged for which benefits. Furthermore, consultants receive acclamation without any type of evaluation, which leads to the uncontrolled diffusion of consulting projects and consultants. Because of unmanaged commissioning, different consulting firms may work in one company on the same problems in a wasted opportunity to bundle consultants' services.

Can you articulate a personal code of ethics?

Our management consulting as sociations and firms have their ethical codes. Many of their members commit to them annually by quickly signing a statement agreeing to abide by their code’s provisions. I have done this myself, recognizing that this was the same code I had agreed to for several years running and so just appending my signature. There was no need to read it; if it was valid when I joined, it must be valid still.

TEN YEARS AGO, Jerry, Clifford, and I talked strategies over a long lunch. Jerry was a solo consultant. Clifford had two other partners in his consulting firm, plus several dozen contract employees. Clifford and his first partner were both Ernst alumni, while their third partner came from Deloitte. Nobody had a better view of their businesses than me, since I sat on both their boards. Rather than tease you with suspense, may I divulge now that Jerry’s personal income in 2004 was $12 million?