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senior managers are pirates! Both the manager in the other division and the consultant had made assumptions and those I had to unravel rapidly. In any project using external consultants, there must be only one project manager and only one lead consultant. Those two people working in harmony are an essential. The growth of the consultant’s industry in the past 20 years has been attributed to shifts in the organisational boundaries, as trends in outsourcing and downsizing have resulted in a range of tasks that were previously performed in-house being externalised. This externalisation has created an expanding market for consultants. As a result companies need to have managers who can interact with consultants and manage projects. In many organisations, this is a need that has not yet been adequately met. Perhaps it should be recognised that where there is the need for external help such a role is necessary, and that managers need training to do the role successfully. In rapidly changing dynamic organisations, it is a requirement for all senior managers. The client-consultant relationship is an


important one and there are different perceptions. The first sees the client in control, with the consultant in a subordinate position. The second sees the consultant as ‘expert’ and in control, with the client seeking help in a vulnerable position. Let’s explore some positive and negative views of this relationship.


Client in control


This perception sees the client as a purchaser of a specialised knowledge service, giving rise to a contractual, arm’s-length and temporary client- consultant relationship involving the delivery of the knowledge-based service. The need for this service originates in the client’s lack of knowledge or resource deficiencies. A central characteristic of this service is the consultant’s independence from the client, which enables him or her to view the client’s organisational problems without bias and to remain separate from internal power struggles, hidden agendas, and so on. This outsider role enables consultants to view the client organisation undistorted by history and to generate objective information – a characteristics that many argue are central to value creation. The temporary characteristic requires a clear definition of the objectives, scope, conditions of the employment, work plan arrangements, key contacts and duration of the relationship. The hiring of a consultant is very similar to employing a craftsman such as a painter in your house. You tell him or her what you want, he or she delivers on time, to standard


The term client is, however, ambiguous. It covers the organisation, hiring manager, and project manager


and then you pay what you agreed to pay. Such a view assumes the clients are competent buyers who are well aware of what results they want and they have done the necessary research to offer the contract to a competent painter. Some clients may have a suspicious view of


the consultant’s use of jargon, overselling and unjustified high fees, and see him or herself in control, with the ability to hire and fire the consultant. This is something which, given the consultants’ dependence on repeat business, places the consultant in a subordinate position in relation to the client. The consultant is viewed solely as an adviser, leaving responsibility for the critical examination of recommendations and the use of the advice with the client. In situations where the client’s project manager obstructs the consultant’s work, by refusing support and co-operation based on deviant political agendas, general suspicions against consultants or fear of dependence, the consultant’s inferior position may be exacerbated. Our view is if you want poor performance from a consultant just work at getting it. You could be successful. This is a situation that we do not believe any self-respecting project manager would create. Trustful co-operation is consequently


presented as an important success factor of the client-consultant relationship. This requires the consultant to understand and accommodate the client’s professional, psychological and social needs. The consultant’s expertise, and the emotional pressure on the client needing help, limit this image of the controlling client and the dependent consultant.


Consultant in control


Many organisational cultures emphasise self- reliance and put a value on solving one’s own problems. It has been suggested for a person to seek help and make him or herself temporarily dependent on another person is a de facto confession of weakness or failure. In a pure analytical sense that may seem to be the case, but is it? It has been suggested that the consultant’s


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