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Gone are the days when resorting to external help from a consulting firm was restricted to large corporations.
Hiring a consultancy has been increasingly common at some – or even several – times for companies of the most different sizes and segments.
Understanding what a consultancy does, its importance and even knowing when to look for one, is what we will deal with in today’s content.
What is a consultancy?
The proper understanding of what a consultancy is, goes through the evaluation of the term. When you think about a medical appointment, things start to become clearer, after all, everyone knows what it is.
When we make an appointment, it is because we think or know that there is a health problem or a condition that needs to be better evaluated, but this needs to be done by someone specialized and knowledgeable about the subject.
After all, even if we have an idea of what it could be, the identification / confirmation of the problem or even the discovery of something that is not even imagined, goes through the professional scrutiny of those who prepared for it.
The doctor is nothing more than a consultant in the health area who surveys the symptoms, performs some tests and requests more specific ones and, based on the data obtained, proposes a treatment, medication and even sometimes changes. of behaviors.
Depending on the treatment presented and its duration, new periodic consultations are necessary to verify its efficiency, the evolution, the possible side effects of some medicines and the need for new tests, changes in the treatment and, if applicable, the performance of specialists. from other areas.
With business consulting, it is analogous, with the difference that the patient is the company. The people (employees and managers) correspond to the bodies, as they are responsible for the operation of the company.
The consultant(s) also initially conducts an investigation to find out the origin of the problem, a phase that even shares a nomenclature with the medical field, since it is usually called diagnosis.
Based on the diagnosis, he presents the consulting project and that corresponds to the treatment.
Some of the actions (drugs) may produce side effects and that in concrete terms, could be, for example, a restructuring in the commercial area, which will initially affect sales, but which in the medium and long term will make them reach the necessary level / wanted.
Eventually, the Sales consultant may request the participation of another Human Resources consultant (another specialist), to help him in the process of training the Sales team.
And finally, as in the different specialties of Medicine, in consultancy there are also specialists whether the area is Marketing, Law, Tax / Accounting, or the aforementioned Sales and Human Resources.
Why is a consultancy important?
In part, we have already answered the question, as it is when looking for a doctor, the consultancy accumulates knowledge and experience in its area of activity, making it capable of treating the “illnesses” of companies.
But the issue is somewhat more complex and delicate.
Resorting to the help of third parties, first of all, consists of recognizing that one does not have the capacity to solve all or some of the problems that the company presents.
An entrepreneur who raised the company from scratch and with his effort and knowledge brought it to where it is, or even the partners and managers who participated in the process, resist admitting that eventually they cannot take the next step or in the worst scenarios, when the company takes steps backwards and they cannot stop this movement.
It takes a good deal of maturity and humility to first recognize the fact and then seek help from there. It should be borne in mind that when hiring a consultancy, one is not “signing a certificate of incompetence”, but that one cannot always do everything alone.
There are a number of reasons why there comes a time when it’s important to go through a business consultation:
- Paradigms – it is common, it is frequent, that the longer one acts in an area, there are consolidated paradigms, or if you prefer, the belief of how things must necessarily happen. A consultant brings an external and different view of how to do it;
- Knowledge – not that managers, entrepreneurs, partners do not have the knowledge, but just like the doctor, the consultant prepares to be an expert in strategic knowledge and in his area of activity and, when necessary, is not shy about resorting to colleagues who are experts in other areas;
- Investment – it is not practical, it does not make sense and sometimes it is not even possible to invest in specialist professionals in everything a company needs, especially when this need is not full-time. A consultant, just like a doctor, works only during the “treatment” and, in his case, it is per project, making the investment more accessible;
- Technology – the role of consultancy is not to do, but to teach how to do it, and with that, it transfers the technology it applies to those involved, whether managers or employees in the area in question. At the end of the project, the consultant’s knowledge becomes part of the company’s know-how, so that it is not dependent on the consultants to continue to have results;
- Planning – everything is done with method and planning. There are deadlines for everything, goals, responsibilities, means and all performance indicators, to measure results.
What is the work of a business consultancy like?
Naturally, the way of acting, methods and policies can be as different from one consultancy to another, as it is among its different clients.
But particularities aside, in general, the chronology of the work follows the principles of medical consultation:
1. Diagnosis
From the initial reports of the contracting company, the consultancy starts with the stage known as diagnosis.
It consists of gathering as much information as possible and which aims to both confirm the “disease” imagined by the entrepreneur, as well as others and, above all, its causes. That’s because, as with diseases, there’s no point in attacking the symptoms, which is what you see in many companies.
Taking fever medicine for a few hours will resolve it, but as soon as its effect wears off, it returns.
It is more common than you might think, companies that treat their difficulties in the same way. Palliative solutions only.
2. Technical proposal
Knowing all the causes of the problem and the scenario in which it occurs, the technical proposal is presented, which is equivalent to the presentation of “medical treatment”.
They are stipulated in macro terms, the actions that must be conducted and what is intended with them.
It is also in the technical proposal that the allocated workload is stipulated, both in actions in the company and in the preparation of actions in the consultant’s office, such as reports, surveys, training, lectures, etc.
3. Project course
The course of the project is the longest phase and many say it is when you see the consultants “getting their hands dirty”.
And when:
- New approaches and ways people work are put into practice;
- New standard operating procedures (SOPs) are created, existing ones are improved and those that do not have practical effects are eliminated, reducing bureaucracy and making the company more agile;
- Collaborators undergo training, recycling, qualification processes;
- Involved managers can improve their leadership skills, undergo coaching and be introduced to more modern and effective management methods;
- New technologies that can help the company to be more productive are implemented;
- Performance indicators turn “I think” into “I know”;
- The planning makes sense and together with the indicators, they begin to guide everything that is done.
4. Adjustments
Not infrequently, it is only during the course of the project that some situations are identified, either because only the daily routine shows some problems, or because there are some “side effects”.
In these cases, it is necessary to adjust what was previously determined in the proposal, or perhaps include something that was not previously foreseen.
When you look at what we have so far, it’s a typical PDCA structure.
In PDCA, planning is planned (P=plan), what was planned is done or put into practice (D=do), everything that is done is checked to see if the results were obtained (C=check) and finally act to implement / consolidate what was done (A=act)
However, if at the end of the cycle they are not exactly what was intended, they return to “P” and replan, including the adjustments that proved necessary. But also going back to the beginning of a new cycle can be for an improvement, which in this case leads to what is called a continuous improvement process or Kaizen!
How long does a consultancy take?
This is a frequently asked question, but it doesn’t have an answer.
There are “treatments” that can be longer and more time consuming than others, depending on the disease.
In the case of a consultancy, there may be shorter steps when there is a greater number of consultancy hours. That is, instead of the consultant going twice a week to the company, go three times a week.
However, depending on the actions, there is no way to shorten their duration, such as, for example, an advertising campaign for a Marketing consultancy, or the formation of a team, which requires the definition of the vacancy profile, selection process, integration (onboarding) , training and monitoring.
Whatever the case, at the stage of presentation of the technical proposal, there is a preliminary schedule of actions that allows an early view of the deadlines foreseen for each action, considering that depending on the adjustment phase, there may be some variation, but that should not exceed more than 10~15% of the initial estimate.
The shortest ones are around 6 months and the longest ones, 1 year and obviously there are exceptions for less and for more.
How much does a business consultancy cost?
As with the previous one, this question does not have an objective answer.
However, there are parameters common to most companies that operate in the area and that can help to know if the values practiced are consistent with the market.
The value of a consulting project usually refers to its duration, but it can be paid monthly. Thus, a hypothetical project of BRL 60,000.00, with an expected duration of 6 months, means a monthly disbursement of BRL 10,000.00.
Another piece of data that must be included in the proposal is the number of hours committed by the consultants, both present at the client and at the consultancy’s offices, which in our example, let’s assume that it is 240 hours.
Therefore, the consulting hour in the case is R$ 250.00.
In addition, given that junior, full, senior and master consultants can be allocated and that their consulting hour rates also vary, the greater presence of junior consultants “increases” the hours practiced. On the other hand, if the workload is mostly completed by seniors and masters, it makes it cheaper.
When is it time to hire a consultant?
This is a topic for which there is no single answer. In order to facilitate your decision, we have created a script of situations common to many of the companies that resort to business consultancy.
The more of these situations occur in your business, the closer you are to hiring one:
- The solutions that you think are right for obstacles to growth or even for competitiveness in the market, have already been adopted, but have not had the desired or expected effects;
- It is not known what to do for the company to prosper or even to survive in the face of competitors;
- The entrepreneur, the partners or even the managers, are regularly involved in putting out fires, which are frequently repeated, in such a way that the urgent always takes the place of the important;
- People whose time is very valuable are often dedicating it to tasks of low added value and/or without strategic importance;
- The administration and methods used are inefficient, not very productive, bureaucratic or obsolete;
- People do not know how to effectively manage human capital;
- The company is growing, but it has brought challenges with which it is not known how to deal;
- Family businesses that seek professionalization;
- When you want the means to justify the ends and not the other way around.
Conclusion
Understanding what a business consultancy does, as well as when it’s time to open the doors for one, is essential to your success.
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