For a site turning over 10million a year he has just made them an extra 10 million a year.
Now here is my question: From what I understand consulting is different from implementation. If you go into project management and supervise the process of implementation everything can be value based.
But what happens when you stick to a classic consulting perspective i.e. leave the implementation for others to do? Meaning when patio11 would pack his bags after running through his presentation and recommendations, what is he going to bill his value on? Based on "predicted" savings/revenue?
I somewhat fear that value based consulting draws the consultant into the nitty gritty of implementation, almost becoming a project manager of his suggestions for optimizations. And if somebody else screws up along the implementation process, it is going to stick with the consultant's reputation.
I do not know patio11 but I am pretty certain he does more than present and run, and so can charge more. I get the impression from his blog that it is more a case of the client committing to a certain project (ie 250k worth of developer time, plus his fees, in order to increase metric x). He leads the project, enthuses the developers, puts the charts on the wall and basically earns his keep.
Three months later they have enough of his brain cells in their heads they can wave goodbye.
Personally I would love to sit in an armchair at the Diogenes club and have people come pay me for my opinion on what they should do. If that was ever a consultants role I think it is long dead.
But doesn't this lead to a culture of quick fixes? Meaning no long term perspective, but just squeezing out any short term quantifiable result while completely ignoring the long term impact of that?
Just imagine what would happen if this were about customer segmentation or something like that. A super short term focus would suggest a client to drop all contracts that are relatively unprofitable, even so on the long run these are there for relationship building. That would be disastrous for gaining larger contracts as these are mostly gained through building up a reputation by fulfilling smaller, less profitable contracts. But for the consultant there would be no motivation to bother about anything that does not result in an immediate benefit.
Comments
For a site turning over 10million a year he has just made them an extra 10 million a year.
Now here is my question: From what I understand consulting is different from implementation. If you go into project management and supervise the process of implementation everything can be value based.
But what happens when you stick to a classic consulting perspective i.e. leave the implementation for others to do? Meaning when patio11 would pack his bags after running through his presentation and recommendations, what is he going to bill his value on? Based on "predicted" savings/revenue?
I somewhat fear that value based consulting draws the consultant into the nitty gritty of implementation, almost becoming a project manager of his suggestions for optimizations. And if somebody else screws up along the implementation process, it is going to stick with the consultant's reputation.
Can anybody comment on that?
I do not know patio11 but I am pretty certain he does more than present and run, and so can charge more. I get the impression from his blog that it is more a case of the client committing to a certain project (ie 250k worth of developer time, plus his fees, in order to increase metric x). He leads the project, enthuses the developers, puts the charts on the wall and basically earns his keep.
Three months later they have enough of his brain cells in their heads they can wave goodbye.
Personally I would love to sit in an armchair at the Diogenes club and have people come pay me for my opinion on what they should do. If that was ever a consultants role I think it is long dead.
Yours
Mycroft
But doesn't this lead to a culture of quick fixes? Meaning no long term perspective, but just squeezing out any short term quantifiable result while completely ignoring the long term impact of that?
Just imagine what would happen if this were about customer segmentation or something like that. A super short term focus would suggest a client to drop all contracts that are relatively unprofitable, even so on the long run these are there for relationship building. That would be disastrous for gaining larger contracts as these are mostly gained through building up a reputation by fulfilling smaller, less profitable contracts. But for the consultant there would be no motivation to bother about anything that does not result in an immediate benefit.