Chapter 1
Origins and Evolution
From Whence We Came
The Role of a Consultant
One day, somewhere in the mid-Pleistocene Epoch, after the last glacial period, a man was trying to create a stronger point on his stone spearhead so that he could better hunt and slay the peccaries that fed his clan and protect himself from dire wolves that fed on his clan. He did this in the only way he knew how, which he learned watching his father—he laboriously abraded the sides of the point on a larger rock.
On this day, however, a stranger happened by who might have been seeking more interesting surroundings, or was exiled from his clan, or, one could readily assume, simply was lost. Observing the work on the spearhead, the stranger demonstrated that the point had to be ground on a harder rock, not a softer one, and indicated how to choose them. Not just any rock would do. And, indeed, his method worked and the hunter fashioned a sharper spearhead more quickly. The stranger was offered thanks, provided with food, and bestowed with a lion’s tooth. He then went on his way once again, well fed, and with a talisman.
Consulting had been born.
The Gospel
The role of a consultant is to improve the client’s condition.
It may or may not have happened that way, but you can’t prove it didn’t. Consulting—advice, counsel, suggestions—has been around since people began living together. Claims of “the oldest profession” have been misapplied to another career, though some would claim that consulting can also ...
