Indispensability

By my rough estimate, I sweated through some 720 shirts during a decade of summers while commuting daily on London’s Underground. Every July, at peak discomfort, the tabloids would report breathlessly that it was illegal to transport British livestock under the same conditions. It was an exposé they would expose unfailingly. Every. Single. Year.  

Well. I had the same déjà vu moment after reading this week in Forbes' “Is The Day of Reckoning For Consultancies Finally Here?”  Link Here

For a card-carrying consultant, that headline is certainly a grabber. I agree with most of the author’s assertions and the article is an excellent read. However, for many of us who weathered the fear and uncertainty of 9/11, the global economic downturn of 2008, heck, even our clients’ annual performance reviews – it leaves unstated one thing that never changes:

If you’re not delivering indispensable value, you are dispensable. 

The lofty-sounding notion of “indispensable value” means different things to different stakeholders. That’s why at the start of every engagement, we believe it is critical to define indispensable value not as an aspirational group effort, but as much as possible, objective, measurable goals. There are many measurement systems out there, but for simplicity, clarity and objectivity it’s hard to beat OKRs – Objectives and Key Results – first espoused by Intel’s Andy Grove. (More about OKRs in a future post.)

Critically important to consultancies (I will concede perhaps now more than ever) is to tie the engagement tightly to business outcomes. If the results of your work have little to no bearing on business results, you are an unnecessary cost.  In the life of a consultant, that ‘Day of Reckoning’ is only a call, an email, a text away. That is not as precarious a perch as it sounds. Delivering demonstrable, sustainable value tied to business results is what indispensable consultancies – business partners – do, in days that are flush with possibility as well as those filled with fear and uncertainty. 

It is true that a pernicious and pervasive upheaval like COVID-19 will leave in its wake a great number of consultancies that were merely adequate. Even in a downturn that is drawing comparisons with The Great Depression, there will always be a flight to indispensability.

That is as certain as self-marinating in July on The Tube. 

Jon

Questions, comments? Shoot me an email. Grateful for the conversation.  [email protected] Visit our website: Lowand B. Hold

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