Bad luck or a pattern?
You hired an external consultant. Six months later, not much has changed, and now you’re looking for someone else.
That’s not bad luck. It’s a pattern.
Over 25 years in management I’ve sat on both sides of the table, as the one commissioning the work, and as the one winning it. The problem isn’t the consultant. It’s how the owner or CEO frames the brief before the first meeting.
An external leader or consultant can be excellent and still deliver nothing. Not because they’re incompetent. Usually because:
- You’re defining a problem, not an outcome.
“We need to improve our processes.” That’s not a brief. It’s an invitation to an expensive analysis with no commitment to change. The consultant delivers the analysis – because that’s what they were asked for – and you end up with a document nobody implements.
A real brief sounds like this: Within twelve weeks, I want to understand why our client onboarding takes three times longer than our competitors, and I want the first changes already in place.
- You’re choosing based on the presentation.
Slides you can buy anywhere. Every consultancy has a polished powerpoint and references from companies you recognise. But the real question is different: who will be sitting in your boardroom on a Friday at five o’clock when things aren’t working? The senior partner who sold the engagement or the junior with a laptop they handed it to? In consulting firms, that gap is significant. And you’ll rarely get it in writing.
- You’re looking for an alibi, not a partner.
External help only works when there’s genuine willingness to change inside the company. A consultant can identify the problem, propose the solution, support the implementation, but they can’t want the change instead of you.
- You’re asking about price before you know what you’re buying.
Who will actually work on this project? What’s their experience in your industry? What happens if three months in we realise we’re going in the wrong direction?
These are the questions that separate a good brief from an expensive experiment. Most owners and CEOs don’t ask them. Then they pay twice.