“Don’t you consultants double bill your hours?”
Whaaaat? 😱
I had a truly eye opening conversation yesterday with an end user who had seen such bad behaviour, that as far as he was concerned, all consultants were bad apples.
“How about those who scr** up and make you pay for fixing it?!”
I could totally understand his anger, especially if I was on the receiving end.
Even though I was not really part of the leadership team in my previous companies, I had always been able to influence the way we did business.
Integrity is one of my core values, and that is non-negotiable.
There is no way we’d double bill our hours, nor would we make our clients pay for the mess we make.
I would absolutely hate to work in a company that does that kind of thing.
Proposals would be reviewed.
Estimates checked and validated. ✔
We don’t make promises we can’t keep.
Nothing goes to the customer (not even a number… unless it’s a range) until internal sign-offs have been given.
What? The client was expecting a much lower SOW estimate after our Discovery?
Why? Did the Accounts team ‘accidentally’ set that expectation or did we ‘low-ball’ it on purpose?
Everything starts from the top and trickles down.
Similarly, how we conduct ourself at the initial stage of the business relationship sets the projects and delivery up for success (or not).
Perhaps I’ve been silo-ed in my world where
– we take absolute pride in the quality of our work – given the constraints of budget, timescales and scope
– integrity is *not* just a buzzword. We live it and we breathe it.
– people come first. Mine and yours. We take care of the people, and the problem becomes a doddle.
I have much to do to change the tide of opinion, if my friend’s worldview is a more accurate one than mine. 🦸♀️
That’s ok.
My mission is to make the world a better place, one outstanding project at a time!
OMG too much 🧀 in that last line!! 😆
But anyway, do you have a horror story about a consulting-led project that went really wrong? What was the reason?