FAQ
Actually, few projects require the hiring of large and renowned consulting firms; overall, these are the ones requiring global presence and availability of specialists who may make a difference in results delivery. Additionally, some projects may demand the “seal” of a large and renowned firm to facilitate the acceptance of recommendations and mobilization of resources.
However, the vast majority of existing demand does not fit in this situation, and may benefit from a smaller delivery structure. At OrangeOne, we require delivery to have equal or greater quality than that of our most exigent competitors, which we guarantee by a regular presence of our partners in project monitoring, which is usually delegated to lower seniority professionals in large firms. Besides that, by not having complex and high fixed costs to manage, such as report preparation and research departments, we can work with price ranges that better fit a diverse set of needs.
The first signal that a consulting firm may help is the existence of recurring or escalating issues, despite the definition and implementation of internal improvement initiatives. The failure of such initiatives may be linked to incorrect diagnoses or even to the lack of resources or discipline in the implementation of the action plans. In any case, an external agent may bring greater clarity about the diagnostic and guarantee focus on the execution of the action plan.
The second signal is the complexity of decisions to be taken about the future of the business. Decisions that involve investments, partnerships, acquisitions, adaptation to new regulations, etc. require the construction and evaluation of scenarios, well developed business sense, fast hypothesis evaluations, etc. In general, organizations do not possess the needed capabilities in their structures to conduct this type of exercise, and when they have, they are not able to focus the capabilities on these issues without daily activities getting unattended. In this case too, the presence of one or more consultants guarantees that the issue, as complex as it may be, will be treated with the attention it deserves, speeding up the development of decision making subsidies.
The third signal that external help may be fundamental is when issues to be solved require impartiality in the development of recommendations, such as in the definition of organization structure and roles, or in the design of a new governance. In such situations, an impartial evaluation is fundamental to keep the benefits to the overall business and not to specific positions or individuals.
Whatever issues the organization may be facing, at OrangeOne we are ready to listen and propose, if it is the case, an advisory model that best fits your needs.
Designing a project scope is a fundamental part of hiring a consulting firm. A badly designed scope, too open or narrow, leads to proposals that do not frame correctly the organization issues, generating excessive costs due to poorly dimensioned efforts, including rework; damaging the confidence relation that should exist between client and consultant. Several organizations have the ability to develop good project scopes, due to being heavy users of these services, or being used of conducting internal projects. In many cases, the fact of the internal hirer being a former consultant also helps. When such conditions are not present, we recommend the design of the scope through one or more briefing meetings/interviews with executives, during which the client explains its issues to the consultants, allowing a flawless problem definition. At OrangeOne, we are used to this process and prefer to be involved in the definition of the scope, because in such situations we are able to deliver in a more efficient and effective way.
Even though the consulting firm has the capabilities to develop the most complex and assertive recommendations, the client will always carry on the decision-making. That way, the confidence of decision-making may be compromised when the client does not follow up the project evolution closely, specially during the development of recommendations. At OrangeOne, we do not believe in a consultant with an individualistic approach, with reduced interaction with the client. We believe that consultants should work side by side with the clients, maximizing the quality of recommendations, guaranteeing the implementation and minimizing the time required to deliver results. If you believe you do not have conditions to follow a project closely, or that the issue is not sufficiently relevant, it would be better to wait to start a project when you have conditions to follow it.
This matter should be seen through different angles. One of the great values a consulting firm brings to the work is the diversity of experiences that enrich the discussions about the potential solution paths for the client. This experience is built upon all previous projects conducted by the consulting firm, and consultants are trained to use this experience without disclosing previous projects particularities or sensible information in any way, in any time. Furthermore, at OrangeOne we have an conduct code which establishes that we won’t work for direct competitors in similar or correlated issues when the projects happen in a time period lower than two years. That way, it is extremely unlikely that the knowledge acquired during a project benefits a direct competitor, eliminating competitive advantages obtained. We know it is a sensitive matter when hiring management consulting firms, so that our contracts always include confidentiality clauses, which are followed by all of our consultants. We place ourselves at your disposal to discuss this and/or other issues that may raise doubts.