February 21, 2025
I wanted to share some light on being a consultant and why companies bring us in.
Consultants are typically needed for temporary challenges requiring specialized expertise.
Here’s all you need to know.
Role of Consulting
About once a week, I get a meme from a friend poking fun at my job and asking if consulting is actually a career.
I wanted to set the record straight.
The reality is that consultants fill a crucial business need that most people don’t fully understand.
Solve Problems
The best way to think of a need for a consultant is when you have a temporary need for someone with experience in the area.
A great example is my last engagement, where a bank acquired another bank.
In this scenario, it doesn’t make sense for the bank to hire a whole team of people to manage, plan, execute the migration, because when the integration is done, they don’t have anything to do.
So that’s where consultants come in really handy, because you’re able to bring in people quickly with experience in a specific area to solve a temporary problem.
Rapid Scaling Capabilities
And that’s why another great part of consulting is being able to scale up a team very rapidly.
That ends up driving a lot of consulting business, because we’re solving problems that aren’t around forever, but the client desperately needs to be solved pretty quickly.
So in that bank acquisition, we were able to grow the team from a few folks onto the ground to dozens, if not hundreds of people supporting the client over a couple of years.
Conclusion
Consultants come in when there is a temporary need for people with experience to solve a temporary problem.
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