CHAPTER ONE: NATURE AND SCOPE OF CONSULTING

1.0 Introduction
The history of Consulting dates back to the 18th Century, during the Industrial Revolution when

various social, political and economic changes were taking place in Western Europe and America.

This was the period when the capitalist economic system was taking root.

Pioneers of scientific management like Frederic W. Taylor, Lillian Gilbreth, and Henry Gantt gave

a major impetus to the development of consulting as a profession. During the WWII there was an

increased application of scientific management principles in the army and the government.

Competition and efficiency become the major driving forces behind the development of consulting

as a profession while early consulting focused mainly on management practices, that is, on

technical and methodological approaches in simplifying work processes and raising labor

productivity. In the modern times, however, consultancy focuses on all aspects of business and

non-business activities.

For students and scholars, studying consultancy techniques assists them in building up essential

skills and abilities to become future consultants as well as to sharpen their undercover character.

Introduction to consulting

‘’Even consultancy has an origin’’

It is very important to point out that in French the word conseil is used for the same purpose as

‘consultant’ in English/American.

Indeed, ‘consilium’’ was first used in legal language to mean “a place where people deliberate”,

or “a get-together of people on purpose”. The correct translation of this word into English is, of
course, council, which we have used, for example, in the European Council since 1979. Perhaps

the word counsellor would be more appropriate to use in this context?

“To consult” means “to get information” and not “to give information”. So, is the consultant

someone who seeks information but does not give any? Writing that feels a little like a Dilbert

storyline, and, of course, we all know that such ‘consultants’ exist.

The dictionary definition for the word counsellor (some who gives advice about problems) seems

much more appropriate than that for the word ‘consultant’ (an expert who gives advice). It is

obvious that everybody can give advice and therefore be a consultant, but who actually dares to

give advice about problems? Only a real counsellor, of course.

Consequently, the word ‘consultancy’ must also be banished, although I found the following

definition in the same dictionary: “The practice of giving expert advice within a particular field”.

Who is consultant?

Consultant is an expert or professional contractor in specific field who provides unbiased opinions,

advice and innovative ideas and solutions to a client in return for a fee. The independence of the

consultant is due to the fact that he/she is not an employee of the company he/she is consulting,

and when this is the case then, the consultant becomes an external Expert.

On the other hand, a consultant who works dependently to the organization he/she is consulting is

known as internal or in-house consultant. This type of consultant is common nowadays among

large firms and he/she is a part of a specific unit within the organization, that includes staff with
highly trained and experienced personnel in order to provide advisory services to other

departments within the organization.

Whether working internally or externally, and as part of his/her work, any consultant is expected

to describe the situation, make an independent assessment, tell the truth about the situation and

recommend frankly and objectively.

See the Poem from Rudyard Kipling ‘IF’ to his Son

You may find it very

strange to start the
discussion of Consultant
with a poem. The reason
is very simple: in this
poem, the famous author
Rudyard Kipling
addresses his thoughts to
an imaginary son. He
taught him all the things
needed to be a man in the
tough world in which we
are living. In exactly the
same way, I would like to
analyse a large part of
the poem and adapt the
explanation to the needs
of a consultant.

Consultants must behave

like normal people, with
normal reactions and,
above all, they should be prepared to their job, just as Kipling tells his son to be prepared for real
life.

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

This is a very surprising statement: try to be cool and to avoid panic when others are not capable
of doing so. If, as a consultant, you can keep a cool head, with clear ideas in a stressful situation,
your reactions will be better than those who cannot. It is up to you to calm the situation down, to
look beyond it and to find the right reaction.

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too;

Do not think that you are always right. Do not think that you are the only person in the world who
knows everything. But feel comfortable with your feelings; do not hesitate if you think that you
are right, but still try to acknowledge other people’s objections. This also means not going too fast,
and not forgetting to listen to others. Nevertheless, this sentence seems quite correct as it gives you
the power to react correctly if you are sure that the way you are thinking is the only way logically
possible.

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Patience is one of the major strengths a consultant should have. This does not mean passively
waiting. You cannot just sit and wait until a solution comes to you; no, you should try to be
patient while helping others to bring you stones that can help you to create, in an unhurried fashion,
a wall of solutions. And never forget that many people will lie to you, not necessarily on purpose,
but often by omission or stupidity.

You should be able to forgive them, as well as helping them to find the truth. Of course, all of this
should never be a reason for you, the consultant, to start lying yourself.

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

Once again this is an important lesson in humility: you should not give the impression of being
Too something, because that never helps. In addition, the second part of the sentence is very basic
for all consultants: do not use complicated sentences, phrasing, or words unnecessarily.

The better you understand a problem, the easier it should be for you to explain it. Your clients do
not expect university vocabulary from you: what they want from you is an understandable solution
to their problem. It is up to you to find a simple way to explain what exactly the problem is and
how you propose to help them to solve it.
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; if you can think – and not make thoughts
your aim;

One of the most important characteristics of good consultants is that they are able to think in an
abstract way. They can ‘dream’ of a solution.

But, as mentioned in the poem, this is not enough because you cannot simply ‘dream’ – you have
to find a realistic solution which can be adapted to the situation. You need a lot of imagination
because you have to be capable of seeing the solution in the future. You should be able to ‘see’
your client’s company after the changes you would like to carry out. If you can do this it will be
easy for you to make realistic plans towards your ‘dream solution’. The approach is exactly the
same for ‘thoughts’, of course.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same;

Not every mission you will have in your consultancy career will be a successful one. Once in a
while it may happen that the solution you implemented was not the right one; and maybe your
client’s company will be in an even worse situation following your intervention. If this is the case
you should not be discouraged; on the contrary, you should learn from this difficult experience
and try to find out why you made this mistake. You can and should learn a lot from your mistakes.

If you have had a huge success, you should not stop working or studying, but rather you should
try to stay humble, to study this success, and try to find out if it was possible to do even better.
That is the way you should treat those two ‘imposters’ just the same.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings – nor lose the common
touch;

A consultant must try to speak with everybody (if necessary) in your client’s company. You should

be able to speak with the management of the company, keeping in mind that they are in charge of

the staff and that you are responsible for finding a good solution for all the people working in this

company. But you should also be able to speak with the working class inside this company, because

they can very often explain why things go wrong. It is they who do the job. Be humble, speak
simply, and try to get them to help you. By acting this way people will admire you, follow you and

help you to implement the solution you propose.

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; if all men count with you, but none too much;

You should be completely independent. Nobody should be able to attack you morally or

financially. You should be able to work in a calm atmosphere where you can speak the truth and

where you can act without having to take into account the opinions of others. Everybody should

consider what you have told them, but you should also give them the opportunity to hold their own

opinion. Things can evolve and you should be aware of that and accept that people can change

their minds. And then comes the final verse which we could easily adapt as follows:

And – which is more – you can be a consultant now.

A Client

A client is a person or organization that is seeking professional advice from a professional person,

and in this case, the client has a problem that needs solution and therefore contracts the consultant

to provide them with the required professional advice.

Consulting

Consulting is simply a business of providing professional advice to organizations that are facing

problems in performance and/or profitability, and that are intending to improve efficiency and

effectiveness in their operations, or that are seeking to take up new business opportunities for the

purpose of enhancing performance of their operations.

Consultancy is also defined as “an advisory service contracted for and provided to organizations

by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective manner, the client
organization to identify problems, analyze such problems and recommend solutions to such

problems” (Greiner and Metzger, 1983)

In its totality, consulting is essentially a process of transferring professional knowledge, skills and

experience from the consultant to the client organization. If the knowledge, skills and experience

of the consultant cannot be successfully transferred to the client to solve the problem(s), then the

consultant should count him/herself to have failed the assignment.