By Mark Schroffel
I reckon the word “and” should be banished from consultants’ bylines.
Sure, there are many things we can do. After all, as well-educated and experienced knowledge workers, we are capable of tinkering in almost any part of most businesses. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t focus our expertise and build our reputations on maybe one or two key areas of service.
While the generalist consultant might find comfort in the notion that they are not closing themselves off to a wider range of professional opportunities, I can assure you there’s nothing more comforting than knowing exactly what you are doing—certain that you are one of only a few people, in your market, who do.
Case in point: Yesterday I phoned a consultant about an opportunity with a client that required a certain mix of skills. One of them was experience in Agile Project Management. The client is eager to hire someone who can run a project and, in the process, do a bit of capability building. “It could be a nice little earner for someone,” so I thought.
My connection turned the opportunity down.
Why? Because his niche involves establishing and building lasting Agile capability (not just to do it on the sidelines of delivery). He has an impressive track record and wants to work with clients who are ready to invest in building an Agile capability—not just dabble in it.
That consultant had just delivered a powerful message to his market. And, in doing so, he effectively created an exclusive opportunity for himself. Whenever a client is ready to invest in Agile Project Management, we’ll be bypassing everyone else and going straight to this specialist.
He’s built a reputation and isn’t willing to compromised his position.
By being willing to specialise, this guy has limited his competition and will get good rates to boot. This is why I think we need to be very judicious of our use of the word “and.” If we offer too much, we end up being just one of the millions of reliable and well-educated resources out there.
Are you a generalist? A specialist? What are the drawbacks? The benefits? Tell us what you think!
rong out there in project land. As someone who does a lot of PIRs and change planning, I’m finding that too many projects have inadequate business representation.