Change Management: Do Consultants Have a Legacy?

Abstract

What difference do consultants actually make? Would business today look very different if consulting hadn’t been invented? Essentially, all clients buy consultants because they want to change something — it may be their strategy, the way they’re planning to market a new product, their organisation or their people. As we’ve noted in the last few chapters, an organisation may lack the resources and/or the specialist skills to deal with a problem. It may not know what to do, or have no clear idea how to do what it wants to do. It may require more information before it can make a decision, or it may need help managing potential partners.

The job of the chief executive is getting lonelier and the pressure to produce results is getting greater.

John Donahoe, Worldwide Managing Director, Bain & Co