John Wellwood - CPG Event 10th November 2010 - The Knowledgeable Buyer

IBC - Consultancy Purchasing Group Event

The Knowledgeable Buyer

10th November 2010

John Wellwood

0845 070 2987

The Theme

• What are the characteristics of a good business improvement consultant (and consultancy) and how can procurement professionals validate these traits effectively during the buying process?

0845 070 2987

Problems for Buyers of Professional Services

• How to select, what makes one consultancy better than the others

• How do you find different consultancies

• How do you know if consultants and consultancies are effective

• We only meet the partners, or senior consultants but they don’t do the work

• Lack of time to assess and select consultants

• Inconsistent approaches; every consultancy will do it differently

• We don’t understand business improvement so how do we assess

• We don’t want to take risks in case you get it wrong but we want something different

• Price is not a good measure of quality so what is?

• We are told which consultancy to use so can’t question it but if we did what would we look for

0845 070 2987

What are we going to discuss?

• Characteristics of a 100% Effective consultancy firm

• Characteristics of a 100% Effective consultant

• How to validate a consultant and consultancy firm

• Summary of key issues

0845 070 2987

Effective Business Improvement Consultancy Outcomes

Results of improvement

Projects=

Quality of the

Solutions+

Acceptance of the Organisation

Through use

of the right tools /

techniques

Through

effective

change mgt /

influencing

0845 070 2987

Characteristics of a 100% Effective Consultancy Firm – Their philosophy

• They want to pass on knowledge ASAP and help the business elsewhere

• Don’t only have one approach, model or way of doing business. They adapt their approach to the client. Don’t say this is the only way to improve your business

• They have excellent diverse people, who they will let you meet

• They will put their money where their mouth is - Guarantees of some kind

• Know what they don’t know and not afraid to say no. A good firm will say if they can’t do something

0845 070 2987

Characteristics of a 100% Effective Consultancy Firm – Their History

• Excellent website which tells you what you need to know about them

• Reputation – there is information about them and their key people on the web

• Reputable past clients you can talk to

• They measure quality in every assignment and stress its importance

• They have worked in a number of different industries – why would you want a consultancy firm with limited experience?

• They have case studies or examples of what they have done in the past which is similar to your culture.

0845 070 2987

Types of Business Improvement Consultants

Influencing Skills

Technical

Skills

Effective

BIC

Technical

Experts

Showmen

0845 070 2987

Characteristics of a 100% Effective Consultant –Influencing Skills

• Ability to build rapport at all levels

• Excellent communicator

• Good listener

• Charisma

• Fantastic people skills

• You get on with them

• Great influencing skills

0845 070 2987

Characteristics of a 100% Effective Consultant –Technical Ability

• Do they understand your issues and culture

• Think on their feet

• Know their subject and can explain it in simple terms

• Have lots of war stories

• Have done it for themselves

• Have worked in a number of different industries

• Technical knowledge but also soft skills

0845 070 2987

Characteristics of a 100% Effective Consultant –Character

• Know what they don’t know and not afraid to ask for help

• Open and honest

• Willing and actively look to learn

• Do they challenge and question you

0845 070 2987

Characteristics of a 100% Effective Business Improvement Consultant

• Understand all the improvement methodologies and are not tied to one methodology or model

• Not a purist

• Understand influencing and change management

• Have run a number of projects in different industries

• Can build effective teams quickly

0845 070 2987

What every professional buyer should know –Validate Consultants

• Are they dedicated to one approach – six sigma or do they understand business improvement

• Don’t believe it when they say they are qualified – Black Belts

• Ask them about their recruitment policy

• Remember not all consultants are excellent

• Don’t all have good people skills

• Ask about their utilisation figures

• Who will be delivering - the person you meet or junior consultants ask to meet them or talk to them

• Sound credible

• Have they done it for real

• Ask about their last 3 assignments

• Do they understand your culture and have they worked in this environment before?

• Have the ability to explain in simple terms

0845 070 2987

What every professional buyer should know –Validate the Firm

• Past clients / Case studies

• Reputations; have you seen or heard of them, are they present on the web

• Website

• Guarantees

• Flexibility

• Knowledge of subject

• Want to pass on knowledge

• Do they use their approach to business improvement in their own business

• Understand that the technical aspect is the easy part

• Willing to say when and why things went wrong

• Do they challenge you?

• Do they have the resources for the assignment

• How do they obtain business?

• Quality – how do they measure this? How have they done it in the past?

0845 070 2987

The Key Issues

• No quick answer – takes time and effort

• One approach is not better than any other, its about business improvement

• Influencing skills make the difference

• Check the credentials

• Risk share

• Look beyond the showman – meet the consultants

0845 070 2987

The Key Issues

• Ensure all professional elements covered –website, clients, background

• Effective consultants are experts, coaches, trainers etc

• Its about implementation not report writing

IBC - Consultancy Purchasing Group Event

The Knowledgeable Buyer

10th November 2010

Thank You John Wellwood