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Robert Schaffer is the author of High-Impact Consulting: How Clients and Consultants Can Work Together to Achieve Extraordinary Results and The Breakthrough Strategy: Using Short-Term Successes to Build the High Performance Organization. As the founder and a principal of the consulting firm Robert H. Schaffer & Associates, he has over thirty years of experience helping companies such as Motorola, IBM and the World Bank maximize results from consulting projects.

He was a founding director for the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) in the U.S., and served as chairman of the Professional Development Committee of IMC for a number of years. Schaffer helped launch and is an editor for the Journal of Management Consulting. He has also written numerous articles for the Harvard Business Review, the New York Times and other publications.

MCNews asked Schaffer to shed some light on how consultants can avoid the flaws he sees in conventional consulting.

MCNews: You've written that it's not unusual for consultants to deliver good solutions that end up providing little or no value to their clients. Why do you think that happens?

Schaffer: It can happen because consultants come up with solutions to client problems that intellectually seem to be the answer, but the consultants don't take into account all the changes the client would have to make for the solution to work. Even modest consulting recommendations can involve hundreds, or even thousands, of interrelated changes in what people are doing and how they are doing it.

As an example, assume a company hired a consultant to help eliminate stock-outs without raising inventory. The consultant then completes a modest project on inventory control and re-ordering. When the client really considers the business functions that would be impacted by the project recommendations, little by little it becomes apparent that the company must make an enormous number of organizational changes to achieve results.

The consultant assumes the client will make those changes happen. But, of course, if the client does not have enough competence, skill and motivation to do so, the ultimate aim of the consultant's project will not be realized. It's somewhat analogous to a golf lesson: the golf instructor can give you three great things on which to focus, and say with assurance that if you do those things you will cut ten strokes off your score. Well, if you aren't capable of doing those three things, it will be great advice that can't be implemented.

MCNews: Is there something in the consulting process itself that causes these problems?

Schaffer: Yes. What I call the five fatal flaws in conventional consulting lead consultants and clients down that path. To briefly summarize and boil them down to their essence, the flaws include: defining a project in terms of consultant deliverables rather than client results; determining project scope with little regard for the client's readiness for change; aiming for grandiose solutions instead of incremental successes; lack of real partnership between consultant and client; and, labor intensive use of consultants rather than leveraged use of them.

I think all of the fatal flaws are by-products of the nature of the contract between client and consultant. For most consulting projects, that contract is for the consultant to deliver a consulting product, usually a set of recommendations. The consultant is not really accountable for whether or not the recommendations are successfully implemented, only for whether the ideas are great.

High-impact consulting closes that implementation gap by focusing on results, rather than stopping at the great ideas.

MCNews: Why don't clients and consultants move in the direction of results-based projects?

Schaffer: Well, the whole culture--clients and consultants--are trained to expect that recommendations are what you buy from consultants. Clients aren't used to the concept that they can contract with consultants for final results.

To return to the stock-out example, the client could hire a consultant to introduce a new system that would reduce inventory by 10% without increasing stock-outs, and maintain the same level of customer service three months after implementation. But, most clients don't think in terms of building such results into the consulting contract.

Another barrier is that the conventional consulting contract is very cozy for both parties. If a project doesn't work out, the consultant can say, well they asked for such and such, and I delivered, on time, the correct recommendations and the best system they could buy; if they had followed my recommendations they would have achieved all their goals. The client can say, the consultants gave us something we couldn't digest, or can say to the boss, hey, you know we gave them a half million dollars and even they couldn't solve it, so it's what I've been telling you--I've got a really tough problem here. It lets both parties off the hook.

Whereas, if client and consultant commit publicly to a result, for example, that they are going to work on entering a new market, and by X date will be doing $500,000 a month of sales in that territory, both of them are on the hook. They would both be very embarrassed if they didn't reach the goal. So, specifying a result can be great when everything works as planned, but for people who are a little anxious about that exposure, the conventional consulting model gives everybody a nice hiding place.

MCNews: But from that perspective, the conventional consulting model doesn't seem the best way to create solid, long-term client relationships. If there is a failure, don't both parties suffer?

Schaffer: In a big organization such failures sometimes disappear. Also, clients may not have an accurate way to measure the bottom line impact. They might say, we needed this new inventory control system or this new product development system, and we got that from the project. The client might feel that the consultants were really smart and provided good ideas, but often they don't analyze what they got for the fees paid to the consultant.

I'm not saying that the conventional consulting model is never successful. On the contrary, there are plenty of successes. It's a $100 billion industry, so there must be something to it. But the success rate ought to be close to a 100% and it's very far from that.

MCNews: Do you think that if the client and consultant could describe and agree on expected results in the contract there would be fewer arguments around fees?

Schaffer: I was just discussing setting fees for a client with one of my colleagues this morning, and I realized that within the first three months of the project, the client is getting enough return to cover the fees already spent. By the end of the first year, the client will have gotten back many multiples of the consulting fees. That doesn't mean they aren't concerned about those fees or that they don't pay attention to them, but it makes for a simpler discussion when the consultant is delivering in terms of value, rather than just consulting output.

MCNews: Any advice on how consultants can make the transition to the high-impact consulting model?

Schaffer: Well, it doesn't have to be like a religious conversion where you take vows never to go back to the old way. What I suggest is that you sit down with a willing client and say, let's see if over the next 100 days we can introduce some new methodology that will increase sales by a specified number, reduce costs by X amount, or reduce cycle time from audit to payment by ten days.

You can do everything you would do normally, just build in some focus on results and get a feel for how you and the client would have to work differently with one another. You would find it's much more of collaboration, and that your project would probably move ahead in stages, rather then as a big study after which you deliver a big set of recommendations.

The client doesn't say to the consultant, you go off and do your study, talk to anybody you want, we will give you an office and all the data you need, then when you finish your job you can come back and tell us what your product is. That approach won't work if you are going to contract for results.

Instead, the consultant would do a little preliminary work, then get together with the client and begin to talk about how to make it happen. It's a collaborative project--you work together to achieve the goal. Some consultants might worry about getting credit when the project succeeds. The point is, when you start making things happen, you don't have to worry about credit. And, if the client's people want credit for some of the work, the consultant should say, great, you guys did a terrific job.

MCNews: Because if the client is successful, the consultant will ultimately benefit?

Schaffer: That's true, and there are some firms around the world that have picked up this methodology and have made it their central way of working. But it does require some experimentation and a different view about the nature of consulting, and it has to fit the culture of the firm.

MCNews: Last thing: What's the first piece of advice you would give someone who is embarking on a consulting career?

Schaffer: What we call management consulting has proliferated into so many different things that you could put a hundred management consultants in a room together, and none of them would do the same thing. So, my first advice would be to do some research, find out about all the different kinds of consulting and see which one best suits your skills and interests. You can do almost anything in management consulting if you find the right clients and the right environment.

To find out more about Robert Schaffer and his products and services, visit his firm's site. http://www.rhsa.com.

Mick Cope is a consultant, author and a musician. His books include: Leading the Organisation to Learn; Know Your Value? Value What You Know; Float You: How to Capitalize on Your Talent; Lead Yourself: Be Where Others Will Follow and The Seven Cs of Consulting: Your Complete Blueprint for any Consultancy Assignment.

Cope is the founder of the consulting company WizOz. He has been a consultant for many years in the field of business transformation. His clients include BT, Consignia, Zurich Financial Services, Unilever and the BBC.

MCNews talked to Cope about how the Seven Cs can provide a framework for excellence in consulting.

Read the interview.

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Widely acknowledged as a leading authority on the management of professional service firms, David Maister has taught and written extensively on the subject. His books include Managing the Professional Service Firm, True Professionalism, The Trusted Advisor, Practice What You Preach and First Among Equals. He holds degrees from the University of Birmingham, the London School of Economics and the Harvard Business School. He has taught at the University of British Columbia and at Harvard.

In this article, Maister provides practical advice for consultants facing fee pressure from clients.

For those of you interested in reading more about creating client value, here are ten books to consider adding to your library. If you have others to recommend on this topic, send them along for inclusion in future issues of MCNews.

Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used, by Peter Block; publisher: Jossey-Bass.

The recent surge in corporate deceit and scandal is a wake up call for consultants. The five principles below may seem self-evident, but serve as a timely reminder of the fundamental behavior for which every consultant should be accountable:

1. Be honest
This is as simple as doing what you say you're going to do. Don't promise something you can't achieve or deliver.

2. Charge a fair fee
Everyone needs to earn a living, but don't be greedy. You're in this business for the long haul. Price gouging is very short sighted and negatively impacts your reputation.

3. Provide excellent client service
Regardless of your company's size, make it a priority to provide high-quality service. All organizations have bureaucracies to work through to make decisions. Learn how to be more responsive and flexible.

4. Maintain your integrity
Don't be a "Yes" person. When you recognize an inappropriate situation, project, or a conflict of interest, don't take that road. A reputation takes a long time to build and a short time to crumble.

5. Adhere to a code of ethics
Follow a code of moral principles and values. You can follow the code developed by your firm or by a consulting organization, or you can develop your own set of principles. If you don't stand for something, you don't stand for anything.

Paul Bednar writes a newsletter about the business of management consulting. Visit Paul's site at http://www.free-agent-information.com to subscribe or email mailto:subscribe@free-agent-information.com

October 2-5 is the 708th annual Nottingham Goose Fair in Nottingham, England. Held since 1284, the fair used to last three weeks, and had as many as 20,000 geese on display. That must have made quite a racket. Now lasting four days, the fair has modern amusements and not so many feathers. www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/sitemap/fairs.

October 12 is International Moment of Frustration Scream Day. To share their frustrations, all citizens of the world will go outdoors at twelve hundred hours Greenwich time, and scream for thirty seconds. We should all feel better. Let's hope the Earth doesn't get knocked out of orbit.

October 21 is the Birthday of Alfred Bernhard Nobel. Nobel was born in 1833 in Stockholm, Sweden to a family of engineers. Nobel invented dynamite in 1866 and later built companies and laboratories in more than 20 countries around the world. A holder of more than 350 patents, he also wrote poetry and drama. Efforts to promote peace were very important to him. In his will, which established the Nobel Prizes, Nobel stated that the prizes should be given to those who "shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" in five areas: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. In 1968, the Bank of Sweden, in Nobel's honor, established a prize in economics. http://www.nobel.se/nobel/alfred-nobel/

In November, we'll continue to focus on the topic of delivering high-quality client results. Jack Phillips, author of The Consultant's Scorecard, joins us to discuss how consultants can prove the value of what they deliver and how clients can hold consultants accountable. We'll also feature an in-depth interview with David Maister, the internationally known consultant and author of the book First Among Equals, to explore how we can lead teams to achieve extraordinary results for clients.

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." - Winston Churchill

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