Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

basic training

A rose by any other name ...

The term "consultant" may have fallen out of favor. But rebranding it as an "advisory" won't make it smell any sweeter.

It's getting somewhat unsettling. One can be having a perfectly wonderful time in either a business or social situation, when it somehow comes out that he or she is a consultant, or is "in consulting." Things tend to get quiet, in an ominous way. Mothers gather their daughters to their skirts; little boys peek out from behind their fathers' jackets. Business peers draw back—recoil might be too strong a word—and suddenly become distinctly less friendly.

We are guessing that an on-the-spot poll would put consultants somewhere below pedophiles, but still slightly ahead of members of Congress. Not easy to accept. One of us has been a professional management consultant for over 40 years; the other, nearly a neophyte, a mere 30.


We came of age believing that consulting was (and is) a noble calling, something to aspire to be good enough to do, an appellation we needed to continually strive to live up to.

So, what has happened to turn "consultant" and "consulting" into words that don't carry the weight and command the respect they once did? What do they mean today? And are there new words that have taken their place?

EVERYBODY'S A CONSULTANT
For openers, a nation of people who don't remotely do consulting have adopted the name. We have sales consultants for everything from used cars to discount electronics. Other sales people have become, say, material handling consultants or supply chain execution systems consultants, depending on what product or service is being sold. The practice is only a little short of the kind of language manipulation that has given us sanitary engineers emptying the wastebaskets on the night shift.

Then, there are the legendary abuses of teams of information technology design and implementation specialists; their employers call them consultants, and eventually they come to believe that they are. But they are technicians, performing tasks. Never mind that busloads of them, at hourly rates that look like consulting fees, are apparently needed to be able to flip the switch and turn on enterprise-changing software. Oh, yes. Logistics service providers (LSPs or 3PLs) also have teams of consultants to recommend supply chain solutions.

Finally, we have experienced a parade of honorable and well-meaning people who have found themselves unemployed and have called themselves "consultants" while doing odd jobs during their job searches. Most often, they have no idea of how to structure consulting relationships—and projects—or how to price themselves or their projects. They typically don't have the network of resources to bring appropriate experience to bear on the several pieces of a multifaceted business challenge.

Whatever the cause or causes, "consultant" and "consulting" are, it seems, terms to be avoided in polite society.

BRANDING AND POSITIONING
A working partner recently confessed to considering taking "consulting" out of the company name and off the website, based on apparently shifting perceptions of and degrees of acceptance and respect for consultants and consulting. She is not alone and may be late to the game.

An eventually world-changing readjustment might have begun in 2000 with Andersen Consulting's adoption of the Accenture name, and their creation of a new brand. The rest of us laughed at the time, but we aren't laughing now. Already split from the mother ship, a totally disengaged Accenture escaped any damage or fallout from Arthur Andersen's total collapse in the wake of the Enron affair.

Later, another global services behemoth, KPMG, rebranded its consulting unit as Bearing Point, which we still do not understand the meaning of. But it doesn't say "consulting." Coopers & Lybrand, then PwC, retained "consulting" in the name of its affiliated business services units. E&Y divested, and its consultants became part of the international giant CapGemini.

Deloitte Consulting, alone of the Big Four, continues using the apparently tainted term, but a recent consultants' listing is headed only "Deloitte." PwC and KPMG are back in the consulting business, with both using the "advisory" appellation as a substitute.

WHERE WE COME OUT ON THE QUESTION
Neither of us uses "consulting" in our organizations' names. Maybe that's the practical course for now. And maybe the tide will turn after "advisory" falls into disrepute someday.

However, we are not going to stop proudly announcing that we are consultants. Hey, it's what we are, have been, and are going to continue to be. We're not ready to reposition ourselves as coaches, cheerleaders, masters of innovation, chief fun creators, supply chain evangelists, or anything else that dodges the fundamental truth of what our professional lives are about.

The Latest

More Stories

team collaborating on data with laptops

Gartner: data governance strategy is key to making AI pay off

Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.

"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

dexory robot counting warehouse inventory

Dexory raises $80 million for inventory-counting robots

The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.

A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.

Keep ReadingShow less
container cranes and trucks at DB Schenker yard

Deutsche Bahn says sale of DB Schenker will cut debt, improve rail

German rail giant Deutsche Bahn AG yesterday said it will cut its debt and boost its focus on improving rail infrastructure thanks to its formal approval of the deal to sell its logistics subsidiary DB Schenker to the Danish transport and logistics group DSV for a total price of $16.3 billion.

Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.

Keep ReadingShow less
containers stacked in a yard

Reinke moves from TIA to IANA in top office

Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.

Reinke will take her new job upon the retirement of Joni Casey at the end of the year. Casey had announced in July that she would step down after 27 years at the helm of IANA.

Keep ReadingShow less
NOAA weather map of hurricane helene

Florida braces for impact of Hurricane Helene

Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.

Keep ReadingShow less