Dirty Little Secrets

HPMD Quotes & Sources

Jim Cotton, President of James Cotton Associates Inc., an International Business Consulting Firm, Telephone: 4049386058; CIS 71001,2670

"The right consultant is someone who will take the time listen to your problems and to learn about your company, rather than selling you on their past achievements, their literary degrees or their prepackaged solutions. So learn my first Dirty Little Secret well: the soundest results come from consultants who treat each assignment as unique and provide custom solutions."

"The second major problem existing between consultants and their clients is lack of definition of the true impact on the business. The impact in terms of real costs and real benefits. This leads us to the second of my Dirty Little Secrets: If the real reason behind this 'Reorganization and Restructuring of the International Sales and Marketing Department for the Next Millennium and the Good of All Mankind' project is to put old Uncle Harry out to pasture, tell us!"

"My Dirtiest Little Secret of all: The best time to consider hiring a consultant is when you are having trouble defining a problem clearly enough to see the solution. Find a consultant -in an appropriate field- and make sure that he will listen to your situation. Then think to yourself about what a consultant can and cannot do for you and your business."

"... Arthur N. Turner (Harvard Business Review)... has suggested that consultants have eight primary objectives. I suggest you review these during your decision making process:

"Consultants are adept at:

Providing Information -and obtaining it by attitude surveys, cost studies, feasibility studies, market surveys, and other research
Solving Problems -making purchasing decision, improving management functions, financial policies, or organizational structure, improving pay, morale, efficiency, communication, and so on.
Making diagnoses -tracking problems to their sources
Making recommendations based on a diagnosis -studying the problem, its causes, and internal and external constraints, and finding a workable solution the company can accept.
Helping implement recommendations -installing equipment and procedures, training personnel and so on.
Building consensus around and commitment to corrective action -getting the various interest groups in a company to agree both that action is necessary and that the recommended action is worth taking; providing needed information, improving communications and getting people off the dime.
Helping the company's people learn to resolve similar problems on their own in the future -for example, by involving company personnel in the work, and by communicating the value of learning.
Permanently improving organizational effectiveness -all of the above contribute to this objective, but the most important contribution may come as the consultant demonstrates by personal example effective motivation and function.

Short Quote:

"The right consultant is someone who will take the time listen to your problems and to learn about your company, rather than selling you on their past achievements, their literary degrees or their prepackaged solutions." --Jim Cotton

Author:	Cotton, Jim
Title:	Dirty Little Secrets
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Publication Date:	1995
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Source Type:	CompuServe
Quote Number:	115
Categories:	Consulting