The Economist Intelligence Unit has just highlighted approaches to help companies (like banks – the largest users of consultants) to “Extract Value From Consultants” – does your organization effectively use consultants?

As The Economist highlights (see http://viewswire.eiu.com/index.asp?layout=EBArticleVW3&article_id=1107540695&fs=true&IBNL=true&rf=0 ), organizations can lead consultants to exceed their expectations if they hire external consultants on the basis of merit, manages them closely, and involves internal management and employees in the process.

If private sector companies would actually undertake independent reviews of their projects involving consultants, they would determine that they rarely achieve the full potential value from their consultants and therefore underachieve their business objectives. The only organizations that appear to undertake such reviews are governments. For example, last month both the National Audit Office in the UK (see http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2010/10/government-fails-to-get-value-for-money-from-consultants-says-nao/) and the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario (see http://swo.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101020/auditor-general-101020/20101020/?hub=SWOHome ) reported an extensive number of deficiencies in how they select and manage consultants resulting in poor value for money from the use of consultants. We believe that many of the same findings would be found in the private sector – it is only that the government is forced to be more transparent than in the private sector.

What do you believe – does your company effectively select and manage consultants to get the full potential value from them?

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