Published in Autumn 2020 print edition of Inside Small Business Magazine. Small Businesses rely on consultants for a range of activities to meet their potential. However, without a clear direction no consultant can reach their potential.

1. 46 Inside Small Business | AUTUMN 2020
T
he most successful small
businesses and start-ups depend
heavily on consultants. They
allow the business access to the best
available talent for exactly the amount of
time that it is needed. When used wisely,
consultants can boost your business
to another level. While the consulting
industry is old and well established,
stories of ineffective consulting
engagements are common, however.
If this is the experience of your
business, I urge you to reflect on
your attitude and approach to using
consultants. Below are some steps
that you and your team can go through
to ensure that you apply a robust and
reliable structure to your approach to
engaging consultants, and to set them
up for the best chances for success.
WHAT PROBLEM IS YOUR
CONSULTANT SOLVING?
Before even considering engaging
a consultant, be clear on what the
problem to be solved is. This question
is deceptively simple, and often not
properly considered. If you fail to
properly define your problem, you are
setting up any consultant to fail.
A well thought-out problem definition
stage provides the foundation to allow
your consultant to best serve your
business. Depending on the skill set of
your consultant, they may even be able
to assist you in this task.
Some questions to ask and answer in
this phase include:
• Why was the project initiated? What is
the problem to be solved, and why is
important to solve it?
• Who are the stakeholders in the
project (internal to organisation and
external), and what are their interests?
• How does this initiative help achieve
the greater organisational needs?
• What are the constraints on the
project (budget, resources, time,
regulatory, etc)?
• How will you define successful
completion of the project?
WHY ARE YOU ENGAGING A
CONSULTANT?
There are several reasons to engage a
consultant. Here are a few of the most
common:
1. Specific technical skills are
required that do not exist within the
organisation.
2. The organisation is unable to recruit
sufficient personnel.
3. The need for personnel is seasonal or
sporadic, so it makes economic sense
to use consultants.
4. The consultant is part of a large
network and has access to experts as
required to solve a problem.
5. The consultant is required for
regulatory compliance.
6. An external perspective to the
problem is denied.
Having clarity around why you are
engaging a consultant will help decide
how to use the consultant. For example,
a consultant who is brought in for a
specific technical skill will be more
effective when they are given support
for tasks not requiring their specific
skills. In this phase you should determine
The benefits of consultants to SMEs.
WORKPLACE
A helping hand JAMES BAKER
Director,
Ars Imperatoria Consulting
46 Inside Small Business | AUTUMN 2020

2. 47AUTUMN 2020 | Inside Small Business
WORKPLACE
whether engaging a consultant is even
appropriate – are you better served
using internal employees to solve your
problem?
HOW ARE YOU ENGAGING YOUR
CONSULTANT?
The role that a consultant will take will
depend on the problem to be solved,
the consultant’s skill set and your own
organisations’ internal skill set. Some
of the ways that you may engage a
consultant are:
1. In advisory/coordinating capacity:
the consultant has been engaged
because of their high-level
understanding of the problem to be
solved. For them to be successful in
this model, sufficiently skilled people
need to be available to do the leg-
work. This can be particularly effective
for operational changes, where a
team must continue to perform tasks
after the consultant’s engagement
ends.
2. As part of a team: the consultant has
for practical purposes been brought
in as an employee. This can be
effective when the consultant has a
specific technical skill not available
internally, or when the person has
been engaged due to insufficient
internal staff.
3. To complete everything that needs
to be done: a brief is given to a
consultant to solve a problem, the
consultant goes away and comes
back with the finished product. In
some cases this may be the best
solution, however, in many cases this
is not the best or most cost-effective
outcome for your business. If you plan
to proceed with this option, ensure
that a clear brief has been provided
to the consultant, that they are given
necessary organisational information
and that they are able to complete the
brief in a cost-effective manner.
The optimal scope for your consultant
may include any mixture of the above,
and you may need more than one
consultant to fill different roles.
APPOINT A PROJECT SPONSOR
There are likely many people in your
business that will be affected by a
project. If you give them free reign,
managing all of these stakeholders can
make it impossible for your consultant to
do their job.
Ideally there should be one point
of contact within your organisation
that gives direction to the consultant
– that person is
responsible for
collating and
prioritising the
competing needs,
and seeking
information required
by the consultant
throughout your
organisation. If it
is necessary for
somebody other
than the project
sponsor to give
directions to your
consultant, this
should be clearly
documented, and
boundaries of that
person’s influence
established.
WHAT AUTHORITY
DOES YOUR
CONSULTANT
HAVE?
Projects often stall pending internal
approvals. This can (and often does)
result in projects being delayed for
extended periods.
In the planning phase, work through
each of the project activities and identify
tasks where the consultant will be
delegated authority to make decisions,
and if not who is responsible for making
these decisions.
Be realistic and recognise that
consultants are
engaged for a
specific skill set, and
accordingly authority
should be delegated if
this allows them to be
more effective in their
engagement.
BE OPEN AND
WILLING TO RECEIVE
BAD NEWS
If you (even
inadvertently) create
an environment where
consultants fear delivering bad news you
will likely only receive good news – until
it is too late. The earlier you receive bad
news, the easier and cheaper it is to
resolve the problems.
When seeking expert input, be very
careful to not guide your consultant
towards the answer that you want. If
you chastise a consultant for giving an
estimate that is too high or a pessimistic
opinion, they may revise the advise for
you. You will find out the true cost at
project completion.
POST ENGAGEMENT REVIEW
The success of your consultant will likely
depend as much on the support given
by your business as it does on their own
capability. If you do not provide a clear
engagement brief and sufficient support,
do not manage internal stakeholders
and are not clear on how your consultant
should interact with your staff, it can
become impossible for them to deliver an
optimal outcome.
It is too easy to
blame your consultant
if optimal outcomes
are not achieved. It is a
difficult pill to swallow
to accept some
responsibility for this
– however, you and
your organisation will
benefit greatly from
learning and improving
from previous
engagements. First
complete a thorough
and systematic review and ensure your
organisation did not contribute to the
outcome before blaming your consultant.
In addition to the above, do not forget
to review, identify and acknowledge
successful engagements. When your
team have worked to support the
success of a consultant this should
be acknowledged and rewarded to
build a culture of supporting external
assistance that you bring in for future
engagements.
“when seeking
expert input, be
very careful to
not guide your
consultant
towards the
answer that you
want.”