How to select a management consultant .....

Implementing international standards and improvement systems requires helping hand of an experienced and knowledgeable consultant. Businesses often get confused over selection of such consultants. Here is a 'How-to' to help you take a definitive step towards selection of an appropriate consultant:

Before selecting a consultant, you should have clearly defined the scope of your project and get it approved by your management team for commitment on an ongoing support and budget allocation.

Defining scope: Following steps are involved in defining the scope of your implementation project -

1. Identify the objective of the project. Check to see if only the 'certification' is the core objective or 'improvements' in the existing system. It matters when you weigh the man-hours estimated by your consultant. For 'only certification' process, man-hours requirement is considerably low and can be well defined. Whereas, for 'improvement' projects, the man-hours requirement needs to be mapped exactly with the nature of improvement, processes involved, locations, training needs, documentation volume, etc. A thorough understanding of the ultimate objective and the path to achieve it would give a clear picture of the effort level.

2. List out the processes involved in the implementation. E.g. procurement, HR, production / service provision, design & development, warehousing, etc. If possible create a process flow chart listing the sequence and interactions of these processes. This flow chart will come in handy when you will discuss the project scope with your consultant and he will be able to work out a proper model of implementation of the new system with regards to these processes.

3. Keep you company profile and the organization chart ready.

4. Determine the training needs related to the introduction of the new system. Prepare a list of all the managerial and non-managerial employees that may be trained. This data will enable the consultant to estimate the training charges as well as probable cost of certification.

5. Finally, decide on the Earliest Start Date and Earliest Finish Date for the project as well as the target date of certification.

Once the scope of the project is well defined in the light of these details, create a list of available consultants. You may find out about the consultants through 'google', 'msn' or 'yahoo' search as well as through reference from other certified companies in your area.

Shortlist the consultants based on the following initial criteria:

1. Publicly available information about them or their firms. E.g. their web sites, yellow pages listings, etc. One needs to verify that the consultant has some contact address and telephone nos. as well as e-mail address.

2. Distances from their offices to your project locations. If the consultant is located far away from your location, it may have extra cost effects on the consulting fees, e.g. the consultants traveling charges, food allowance etc.

Once a list of consultant is ready with you, establish contact with them and ask for their company profile, client list and some indicative proposal in the light of the project scope defined by you. Evaluate them based on the following criteria:

1. How fast the consultant responds to your queries

2. How much information does he share in the initial stage. Whether he tries to understand your requirements and suggest any solution or whether he tries to just 'sell' his services.

3. How effectively he answers all your queries regarding the implementation approach

4. Check the required qualifications of his project team members, e.g. a Lead Auditor accreditation is highly recommended for his person who will be training your internal auditors and also may conduct your internal audits.

5. Check how much experience he has in consulting field. This may be evaluated while looking at the date of incorporation of his firm, his client list and his grip and confidence over the implementation solution expressed by him during the initial discussions with him.

6. Gauge the knowledge levels of the consultant to see if he can grasp your business processes quickly and suggest solutions. Prefer a consultant already having some exposure to your line of business either through execution of a similar project for a similar organization or prior work experience in the similar industry. E.g. if you are a service based organization, check if the consultant knows how a typical service organization functions. His exposure may not be match to type of service you are rendering, but may be in line with your delivery mechanism. If you do not find any consultant having any such exposure, ask him how he plans to acquire related knowledge. His approach should satisfy your worries regarding he same.

Finally look at how he is attached to the certification agencies or if he will have the required comfort level while working with the certification agency you have chosen. If you do not have any such preference over selection of the certification agency, ask him about the certification agencies he is comfortable working with. Verify the brand image of the certification agencies he prefers. This will tell you about the genuineness of the consultant if he suggests you well known certification agencies.

Not to forget, evaluate the price proposal he has submitted to see if there are any ifs and buts or any kind of hidden expenses. Clarity on these aspects will always help you to keep the project cost well within the budgeted range.

For details about how ProcessLOGIX can become a good consulting partner, please contact processlogix@gmail.com or talk to Yashodhan on +91-9833447525.