Are You Thinking About a Career in Consulting? Read This First.
(3 minute read)
Management Consulting is experiencing a rapid growth as a profession in Australia, both in the public and the private sector. Recent articles attest to this:
https://benchmarking.com.au/insights-trends/the-rise-of-the-management-consultant
Among the key drivers for growth are the following:
- Organisations going through major digital transformation journeys;
- Organisations adapting to a post pandemic world
- Increased demand for expertise in new fields of consulting, such as sustainability consulting; and
This means that consulting firms are on the lookout for great talent.
But it’s a profession that doesn’t suit everybody.
This article looks at the pros and cons of management consulting that should be applicable to anybody entering the profession. We then distil this into our seven top attributes that make a great consultant.
The pros
Here’s why people love and thrive in the profession of management consulting:
- Interesting work – it’s a privilege to be invited into a client’s organisation and have them entrust you with their priorities challenges and perceived weaknesses. Solving organisational problems is extremely motivating.
- Variety – Every client assignment is different. Consultants often work across sectors and industries. There is tremendous scope for the consultant to be exposed to different settings and different locations over short time periods.
- Collegiate teams – most consulting assignments involve small, specialised teams with complementary expertise. Junior professionals get increased access to directors and partners. Bringing the knowledge of different specialists together is particularly empowering.
- Fast paced assignments – Consulting assignments are temporary in nature. Deadlines can be tight and clients expect you to understand the intricacies of their business very quickly. Consultants have to work with insufficient data sets , or limited access to key stakeholders. Judgement has to be good.
- Influential advice – If they had the expertise in house, clients wouldn’t need to source external consultants. That they do, demonstrates that the work can be highly influential and have a substantive positive impact on client business. That’s very rewarding.
- Transferrable skills – Skills learned in this profession are highly transferable to almost any form of business, whether private or public sector. That’s exciting, but can contribute to increased turnover in consulting firms.
- Competitive remuneration – Remuneration usually reflects the risk setting of the work. Higher risk and a more volatile work profile does lend itself to higher rewards and better remuneration than for equivalent experience in an industry role.
The cons
But here’s why, in our experience, many people have struggled to succeed:
- Insufficient expertise – Simply having knowledge and experience isn’t enough to succeed in consulting. Good consultants know how to adapt that knowledge to a new setting, understand core principles, and leverage methodology to the benefit of the client. That can be very challenging.
- Demanding client expectations – Clients are often under pressure themselves, and will willingly pass that pressure onto the consultant. It can be an unforgiving environment if demonstrable progress is not evident early in an assignment, or your work is flawed. Terminating an assignment early is an easy option for clients if they don’t see value in the work.
- Limited line authority – While client expectations are usually high, authority over client staff is usually low. Consultants often face limited buy-in or support from client staff, and need to find ways to “influence without authority”.
- Business development responsibilities – Selling comes with the profession, and consultants need to be comfortable in developing this skill set. The best business development usually comes from warm leads: referrals and repeat work, but when times are tight there is sometimes a component of cold calling to promote sales.
- Multiple bosses – Consultants report to their consulting boss, their client and their team lead. Often that leads to competing priorities. Its takes a mature mind-set to balance the expectations of multiple bosses.
- Indirect accolades – Clients will gladly package up the work of the consultant and present it up the line without attribution. They typically own the IP generated from the assignment. The accolades may not be explicit. The good consultant values the client relationship above explicit accolades.
- Bench time – Bench time is when consultants are in-between chargeable assignments. It means increased internal duties, and losing control of what assignments you may work on. Long periods of bench time can be a sign that the business isn’t bringing in enough work, or that your skills are not adequately marketable. Its also a great time to do more professional development.
So what?
When you put the pros and cons together, here are our top attributes that that we think the best consultants all bring in spades. The good news is that these attributes can be learned and trained. And they provide a basis for shaping your value proposition to a potential consulting employer.
- Ethics and Integrity – Consultants can often find themselves in conflicting situations. Client values may differ from their own. Political views may interfere. Business opportunities may tempt short cuts. Your ethics and integrity will help you navigate these settings, at all times being respectful of the people around you.
- Expertise – Having expertise beyond what clients have themselves: whether it is in an industry, a sector, or a discipline (eg design expertise) or across all of these. This also means a strong understanding of industry trends, best practices, and emerging technologies in your field.
- Analytical Skills – The ability to understand a client’s business and translate your knowledge and experience into principles, concepts and techniques; to gather evidence, analyse data, and to reassemble these into client specific solutions.
- Engagement skills – The ability to engage and communicate and thereby build trust and confidence. This encompasses enquiry skills, writing skills, presentation skills and interpersonal skills.
- Project management – Understanding the commercial realities of the assignment, and delivering solutions on time, budget, scope and to measurable quality. Being adept at tracking and reporting these.
- Business and acumen – Understanding and interpreting business settings, recognising business opportunities, and reflecting on the business context from both your client and your firm’s perspectives. It encompasses good business development skills.
- Adaptability – An underrated attribute. Consultants need to be adaptable because client settings change so frequently. The work profile doesn’t always match your capabilities. Its about being comfortable with being uncomfortable, and learning how to leverage knowledge from among your team to the client’s benefit.
Hopefully these thoughts allow you to enter the profession with your eyes open, and get settled into an exciting, rewarding career.
Dr Nigel Nutt
Founder and Principal
Tabiya Services Pty Ltd
www.tabiya.com.au
The views and concepts presented in this article are the intellectual property of Tabiya Services Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. The article may be forwarded or recirculated as long as the article remains complete, and attribution to Tabiya Services is retained.