How do you compare consulting project types?

A quote from Bruce Henderson is what I was taught on my first management consultant project: The essential element of successful strategy is that it derives its success from the differences between competitors with a consequent difference in their behavior. If you as a management consultant don't grasp what this type of project looks like for example a grocery store client, you should look to other areas of consulting.

Strategy projects are often the beginning of a journey, and may evolve into other types of projects. For example, if a new strategic framework is developed in one part of the business, that may help define other projects that help align work or teams to this new framework. If successful, leadership may ask that a similar approach be taken in another part of the business or across the enterprise. Strategy projects may also be short-term, with the strategic deliverables leading to larger, longer-term projects.

As a Business consultant, i always tell my clients to fever strategy over tactics. You think you're doing well now, but by establishing yourself as an expert in your industry, you could multiply your income tenfold. I had a client once who was helping managers with public speaking; He was always fully booked but he was not satisfied charging only 200 $/h while fighting with competition over prices. I helped him develop a self-branding strategy. He started by niching down and working with only Corporate executives. the second step was to write a book. After a while he started getting invited to speak in events and masterminds. In consequence he's charging now 1000 $/h.

Strategic Projects Keeps the key Goal(s) static and focused, while the micro strategic and operational projects may shift, evolve or change drastically in purpose and priority

I avoid the Technical Strategy Setting engagements that rely on deep and current market and industry research. Those are best left to the research firms. I prefer the Adaptive Strategy Setting engagements where there is nothing to research. There is no amount of research that will help. What is needed is experiences and discovery.

As suggested the primary goal of operations projects is to maximise efficiency and make lives easier for the business users. One may compare and categorise projects on multiple levels like - Industry and LOB - Scope of work - Complexity - Timelines - Level of market ressearch and domain knowledge required - Resources and skillset - Budget There are many other attributes that may be used to categorize and compare. I have listed the most predominant ones used.

Operations projects also add value to adapt/redo systems to be more modular and scalable to more easly support and exploit new capabilities that were absent or lacking.

I'm not wired to lead Diagnostic projects. I look for "New Future" Operations projects such as taking Strategy to Results, discovering new growth platforms, M&A integration. These leverage Dialogics and more often than not changing the Diagnostic mindset of client teams to a Dialogic one.

Operations projects are incredibly powerful in bringing high returns to a business or organization. Yet it is not sufficient to simply generate solutions. A fundamental aspect of any operations project is the element of continuous improvement. Lean management is built around this element, but let us not stop there. Whatever the outcomes are, operations projects best serve customers when there are clear and built-in levers to support self-correction and data-driven interventions particularly because of the complexity and affinities that often touch multiple stakeholders and systems.

I believe that operation projects are not only about improving the current state of the client, but also about responding to the dynamic and competitive environment. Operation projects are often triggered by the need to adapt to changing customer expectations, market conditions, or regulatory requirements. They are also golden opportunities for innovation, as they challenge us to find new and better ways of doing things, using the latest technologies and best practices. Operation projects are also great for team building, as they require us to collaborate with different people, share our expertise and insights, and learn from each other.

1. Scope and Complexity: Transformation projects are expansive and intricate initiatives aimed at achieving fundamental change in an organization's culture, capabilities, or structure. 2. Diverse Initiatives: They can involve activities like mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, technology implementations, business model changes, or cultural shifts. 3. Skill Requirements: Successful transformation projects demand strong leadership, adept change management, and effective stakeholder engagement skills. 4. Handling Uncertainty: Project leaders must navigate ambiguity, uncertainty, and risk as transformation projects can be inherently uncertain.

Transformation projects as the name suggests is self explanatory. What is interesting or curious is the possible relationship between Strategic and Transfimation. Either can be the trigger or parent process initially and exchange roles during the project cycle. There by having a dynamic role wrt to Tier classification fir each.

Strategy and Operations projects require transformation. The organization must be different and not revert, it must be transformed. Lead and be invisibly inside and visibly outside the process. Strategy and Operations projects can be narrowly focused on incremental improvement. I approach these as Advisory and Education Projects. Lead and stay outside the process.

What project is not transformational !? There is not such a category, transformation starts where you've identified that changes are required for any reason. Transformation starts in the beginning and ends when everyone is able to continue without a consultant.

You'd better be comparing project types if you're going to be working in consulting. Not doing so means you'll be taking on all sorts of projects, with all sorts of clients, with all sorts of complexity and risk, and all sorts of economics. That's a recipe for a completely disjointed business and brand. Determine what you or your firm are specialists in before being everything to all audiences.

Taking an advisory role as a management consultant requires recognized expertise by the client and skilled client communication. The world is full of opinions.

In my experience as a business Consultant, advisory projects are the ones i like the most but the issue is the execution failure. Often i got calls from clients who have problems with sales declining, customers moving to competitors or closing rate not enough... So i Analyze the situation carefully, then i gave detailed action plan to be implemented but 95% of the time they fail to execute for some reason or an other. This of course affect my reputation as a Business consultant making appear like me someone who doesn't get results for his clients. That's why i am very careful accepting this kind of projects.

All projects that I engage in have an advisory component. When engaged explicitly to advise on a topic, the topic must be in my wheelhouse, cocktail party brilliance is insufficient. When engaged to facilitate a process to produce predetermined outcomes, advisory work is in the form of creating aha moments through conversation and exploration of how to produce the outcomes and risks associated with sustainably delivering project outcomes.

There is no advisory project, all of them mentioned are. I agree that you shall set a vision before letting consultants do "a" job without knowing what's expected, at least. For what is about a consultant to come and tell what to do without doing... A lot was said, there shall be confirmed what was implemented and what was not. A well taught idea is never that precious than a well taught and implemented act who foresees to train the people, to change by yourself.

Being a consultant is to join a company, team, or leader on a journey. More often than not, the issues/problems/opportunities presented as most important at the beginning of that journey will evolve. What's most important when considering a consulting engagement is the ability to maintain patience, flexibility, and creative energy. Take the time to get to know everyone involved. Have the confidence to ask questions others may feel uncomfortable asking. You bring the most value as a consultant when you are both a trusted partner but also a fresh outside voice that can guide the work towards success.

Comparing consulting project types involves assessing their unique characteristics. Start by understanding the project's objectives, scope, and complexity. Evaluate the resources, timeline, and team required for each project. Consider the potential risks and challenges. Assess the expected impact and client expectations. By conducting a comprehensive analysis of these factors, you can make informed decisions about which project type aligns best with your expertise and goals, allowing you to excel in various consulting projects across industries.

I would add Operational or Business as Usual (BAU) projects. There is a well established trend towards the projectisation of work. Customer implementation projects are one example.

In my view of being a management consultant for over a decade, I would like to recategorize the consulting project types. 'Advisory projects' is an overarching term for consulting projects, in which consultants do not have a decision making power but act as external advisors. 'Strategy Projects' are a subset of 'Advisory Projects'. 'Operational projects' and 'Transformational projects' can sometimes be used interchangeably depending upon the organizational department terminology. Even though there is a tech element in most transformational/operational projects, I would like to shout out as a separate category called 'Technology Transformation' because there are many consulting firms which specialize on implementing these.

Consultants should have a Perfect Project Profile that is based on the Purpose of the consulting practice and practitioners. 1. From history or Vision describe the characteristics of the perfect project. Answer, "what conditions existed that made is near perfect? 2. Test for existence of those conditions as part of your due diligence. 3. SWOT your findings. 4. Can you leverage S, strengthen Ws, realize the Os, and mitigate Ts.