Every year, authorities spend billions in ordering consultation, however, the majority of potentials provided by these projects are left unrealized. For clients, consulting should be more than a skin-deep offering so, conversely, consultants should take into account the raw wants of organisations. Using my own business development experience and consulting for the private sector, I have outlined the following goals of consulting.
These include everything from offering real perspectives to identifying strategic issues to developing operational solutions. However, the key to consulting success is not the provision of these events but the improvement of client capacity and supporting organisations in enhancing and maintaining change over the longer term. As such, a constructive consulting relationship should be effective in tackling current issues but should also foster the optimization of organizational development. This is done through promoting role learning among clients of change, linking project teams to strategic intends and objectives, and gaining commitment among key stakeholders.
In its optimal sense, consulting supplies clients with skills and a vision to tackle future tasks. It is more than a case of writing a report, and then closing the file, and while there is on-going engagement it is a question of trust and a sustained interest in the client and their future. In this way consulting may act as a stimulus of sustainable change and development through a synergy of functionalist and post-positivist approaches that focus on empowering the clients.
