Are consultants good or bad? Under what circumstances would you bring them in, and what does bringing them in say about the skills of your own people?
Your question is sort of like asking: “Are doctors good or bad?” The answer is, some are good, some are bad, but either way, you want to spend as little time with them as you can.
Look, the problem with consultants is they’re fundamentally (if surreptitiously) at loggerheads with managers. Consultants want to come into a company, solve its mess, and then hang around finding and solving other messes—forever. Managers want consultants to come in, fix a specific problem fast, and get out, also forever. The tension between these conflicting goals is what makes the use of consultants intractably problematical.
Certainly, consultants can be useful. Sometimes a company needs fresh eyes to assess an old strategy or a new product. Sometimes a company simply does not have the in house skills needed to make an informed decision. These days, private equity firms are effectively using consultants to evaluate the markets and industries of potential acquisition targets.
But in any dealings with consultants, the byword is “caution.” Before you know it, they’re doing bread-and-butter work like strategic planning—your work. After all, that’s what they want, even if you don't.
This question and answer originally appeared in Business Week magazine on September 18, 2006.
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