Cost Reduction and Control Best Practices: The Best Ways for a Financial Manager to Save Money, 2nd Edition

Chapter 15

Consultants’ Costs

BEST PRACTICES

BUYING CONSULTING SERVICES

Two central realities currently characterize the market for consulting services: (1) it is a buyer’s market; and (2) the world of consulting firms continues to undergo rapid change. Corporate executives shopping for consulting expertise today will be able to take advantage of the potential cost savings of reality number 1 only if they firmly grasp the new rules of reality number 2. After all, obtaining a 20 to 30% reduction in consulting fees compared with two years ago is not much help if your firm ends up with advice that cannot be implemented or a poorly conceived project that yields meager results.

Repeated surveys have shown that a strikingly high percentage of clients who have employed consultants do not believe those consultants significantly contributed to their companies’ bottom lines or to the success of the given project. Based on expert advice—including surveys and articles from Kennedy Information Inc., Business Finance, and Celerant Consulting—CCBP Guide assembled the following list of nine best practices for top managers buying a wide range of consulting services in today’s market.

New Ball Game in Consultant Services

First, some background on the whole new ball game in consulting services. It is not true, despite a raft of predictions, that the “big boys” of the consulting industry are in the process of dying off. However, there has been a significant growth of niche or boutique players in the ...