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Can a productivity consultant add enough value to justify the fee

Written by: Jack Greene

Article Overview: Maybe so, maybe not depending on the project scope and your own resources. This article is a guide to determine how to predict in advance if a consultant will pay for himself / herself, much less create a return in this economy. The key; what resources can you apply, considering your circumstances In this article, you will observe that I suggest that management must commit itself to receive a payback from a productivity consultant. The more management opens up, to investigation, to consideration of new ideas, to judgment of sacred cows, to re-prioritization, the more useful any consultant can be. If you are willing to commit, let’s talk

Can a productivity consultant add enough value to justify the fee

Can a productivity consultant add enough value to justify the fee?

Maybe so, maybe not depending on the project scope and your own resources. This article is a guide to determine how to predict in advance if a consultant will pay for himself / herself, much less create a return in this economy.

The key; what resources can you apply, considering your circumstances

In this article, you will observe that I suggest that management must commit itself to receive a payback from a productivity consultant. The more management opens up, to investigation, to consideration of new ideas, to judgment of sacred cows, to re-prioritization, the more useful any consultant can be. If you are willing to commit, let’s talk.

A consultant will have the time to work on your project, and a properly chosen consultant will also have the particular skills to produce what you want. You will have to judge whether your own resources will have the time available to do their regular job as well as the project, and if so whether they possess the appropriate skill sets. Consultants are especially useful if your staff lacks the time or qualifications to perform an assignment.

A consultant also brings a certain stature of experience that your staff may not be able to match, in dealing with all levels of management. Be sure to understand from the consultant just who will show up to do the work; a newly minted MBA or an experienced professional.

Pareto, and free reign, and 10 times if unrestricted.
Are you willing to give a productivity consultant free reign to target all wasteful costs? To use the Pareto principle to find the few items that use up the most cash and address them? To add sacred cows to the list for serious review? If management’s answer to that is no, then forget a consultant. There won’t be a payback if you direct efforts at the 80% of costs that generate 20% of the value.

But give the consultant a free hand and he should return 10 times the cost, which is what my good clients and bosses have grown to expect. That’s valuable in any economy, especially the one we are in now.

Do it or talk about it
A consultant will offer recommendations, but if you don’t put them into effect they won’t generate payback. Certainly you must review all recommendations carefully, but please decide in advance that you will give fair, open minded consideration to all of the consultant’s ideas.

Your input
Us consultants take criticism for listening to ideas from the people in a client’s shop, then including them in recommendations. Just recently “Dilbert” did so. I promise you I will listen to employees at all levels if I consult for you and I don’t apologize for it. Employees live with the situation and should have some useful suggestions. But a good consultant will recognize that all ideas are not created equal, then will screen, judge, modify, and extrapolate ideas as he adds his own. Final results will include the ideas that have the best chance for successful implementation as well as a solid financial return.

Been there, done that
Productivity topics are not rocket science, but an experienced consultant will have a sheaf of ideas, checklists, plans, and practical examples to reference. A consultant can achieve results more quickly and more surely because of this background. In some tasks, site search for another location, and seeking community incentives for instance, a consultant can maintain internal and external confidentiality and generate leverage with incentives and real estate transactions better than the company can.

A set of fresh eyes
A consultant will look at a situation from a different perspective than the people who see it every day. He will question practices that seem unproductive; sometimes he will be wrong but many times the fresh viewpoint will zero in on basic inefficiency.

Objectivity
Perhaps the most important service a consultant can contribute is objectivity. We don’t know how it has always been done, or who suggested a practice in the first place or who is the sponsor of a strategy; we’ll judge it according to its merits. As we may not recognize a sacred cow, discussions may be a bit rocky at times. But our objectivity improves the client’s payback.

I also am asked to address objectively a point where there is disagreement; there may or may not be a payback. This year I have had two time study assignments to observe work and define workload objectively because there was a disagreement between management and the union. An earlier project was to offer input to a situation where there was disagreement between corporate management and a plant over workloads. I’ll call them like I see them, even if I don’t always get invited back.

Sense of urgency
A consultant should have an advanced sense or urgency. But we usually get paid by the day, so it is not unheard of for us to relax. The client must set a schedule, as well as keep a focus with the employees to complete the project on time. Offer the consultant a well defined purchase order with a “not to exceed” fee, to keep progress moving along.

A good option is to create a phased approach; perform a particular scope for a particular fee, the review the results and determine if further work is justified. If it is, create another well defined phase.

Project management
A consultant is often well suited to manage a long project, if there is no qualified employee who is able to dedicate the time. This can be true for a project requiring constant, or periodic, attention. Consulting fees can usually be amortized into capital projects.

In project management situations, my experience is that an employee will be named as a contact and liaison with the consultant, and that person and I will coordinate internal activities with the work that the consultant can do best.

Thanks for the attention. Hope to hear from you.
Jack Greene Jackson Productivity Research Inc.

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Article Tags: cost reduction consultant, efficiency expert, productivity consultant, productivity payback



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