From Babes and Sucklings:: Management Consultants and Novice Clients

Although now awaiting a return to the heady years of the late 1990s, the modern management consultancy industry is still vast. So, too, is the number of managers experienced in the use of management consultants. But the expansion of management consultancy has also attracted new customers among managers who are yet to be blooded in the use of consultants. Conventional wisdom would have it that these novices are easy prey for the crafty consultant, that they will be less able than the old hands to stand up for themselves. This paper tests the proposition in a range of circumstances: it looks at the use of management consultants in the Church of England, in a couple of trade unions, and in Poland. The paper finds that these novice users are not quite as helpless as might have been anticipated, and that experienced clients of consultants, and even consultants themselves, may have something to learn from them. The paper explains the situation in terms of the close relationship that usually develops between management consultant and hiring manager. In the absence of this relationship, consultant and manager struggle to come to terms, but there are benefits for the hiring organisation.