Transcript Having the consultants in: Do we do it with them or do they do it to us? - Zoë Dayan, DTI

Change & having the consultants in
Zoë Dayan, 11th June 2002
Who am I to talk?
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Engineer turned bureaucrat
Change without consultants (Zeneca) - painful
Change by consultants (AstraZeneca)– bewildering
nightmare
Change with consultants (ZenecaAgs )– painful
Being one of them (DTI) – frustrating!
The more you put in, the more you get out
The Highs
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You get a bunch of well led, high speed people who’ve
done it before. And they’re here to help you.
Their job is to keep the project sponsor happy. They
make sure s/he’s senior - so your senior management is
kept in line!
Persuading people is their business and they’re good at it
They can tell senior people the things you can’t
They’re not constrained by the past
They impose common techniques
The Lows
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If they can get away with it, they’ll impose a standard
solution
Senior management may agree but fail to live up to it
The consequences last for years – long after they’re gone
Senior management may grow
accustomed to their crutch
You’re paying good money for less experienced people to
borrow your watch and tell you the time
So - would I get them in again?
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Questions to answer first:
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I bet we have the skills to do this in house, why aren’t
we using them?
Are we serious – we’ll have to manage the expectations
and any fall out.
Are we prepared to put our time and effort into it?
What do we really want from them – the content
or the culture?
What’s it worth to them – will they do a good job?