We recently celebrated LCA’s 8th birthday and while patting ourselves on the back, we got to talking (amongst ourselves and with a couple of our clients) about what has made our consulting practice successful – while so many others have come and gone.

Without any science applied, we came to the conclusion that the key ingredients are:

1. Putting the customer first

When I’ve met (some) other consultants I’ve been struck by the way they complain about their clients - be it internal politics, project delays or scope-shift.  I don’t think it has ever occurred to us to think like this.  Of course, these things happen, but where in life don’t they?  In my experience, if our clients (which includes the MD, the directors, the managers and the staff) sense that the consultant is striving to look after their best interests, then obstacles met during the project are not perceived as ‘show-stoppers’, but merely as issues to be handled.

2. Being hands-on

Working out what we want to do is often easy.  Making it happen on the ground is not so easy.  If change is to be accepted and then sustained, there really is no alternative to grinding out results at shop-floor level, selling the idea, getting internal ownership and then enforcing the disciplines required to stop ‘drift’ back to the old routine.  If people see our consultants conscientiously putting in the time and effort to achieve these results, they respond in kind.  It’s a simple recipe for success.

3. Being fanatical about meeting deliverables

Another simple recipe: set deliverables, announce them to everyone, then go for it!  Sometimes we have to push our clients’ staff very hard to get results, and sometimes this does not fit well with local culture.  However, our experience is that if they trust our integrity and they know why we are pushing, then they nearly always respond positively.  The beauty of it is that the success of the project then becomes their personal success.

That’s it!  As we grow the business we have become more and more aware of the importance of clearly establishing our values.  The stuff above is part of the picture, but we’re still working on it.  If you have any thoughts on the “values thing”, I’d be interested to hear from you.

John Talbot
CEO
11 August 2007