Hi,I recently posted on a forum that I thought I would be well suited to consultancy because among other things I have an entrepreneurial character.I received a reply that questioned whether in fact consultancy requires any entrepreneurial skills at all, or if so whether firms employ those traits effectively.I ask then, (from those who work in the industry) - is the work that consultants do typically entrepreneurial?Jim

I think you have your question back to front - you are in effect asking everyone else to do all the work for you by posing such a broad question with limited/no context.You'll likely get some (marginally) better responses if you outline the entrepreneurial characteristics that you possess, and then ask into which areas of consulting you might fit.

Jim, I'd say the Venn diagram overlap of entrepreneurs and consultants is about 1% - mainly limited to the odd MBB alumni who makes it big with a start up. Big4 and similar are by nature keen on structure and status based careers and quickly earn "middle" money. Too good to give up, but not enough to fund a business.Most consultancy work advises and assures rather than "does" - that's he very opposite of a successful entrepreneur.You only have to look at the standard consultancy approach to promotion - a multi year process with lots of form filling, internal politics, underpinned by an inflexible pyramid status structure.Name an entrepreneur who would choose any of that?And before someone says "you can be entrepreneurial and still work for a big corporate.." - that is just a joke! That's what dull corporate slaves say to keep the dream alive in their own head...

in that case, call them intrapreneurs...

[quote]in that case, call them intrapreneurs...[/quote]Aghhhh!!!! Intrapreneurs! The last sanctuary of the deluded. It's like a eunoch telling you what a great lover they are...

My perspective. Entrepreneurs are, by definition, risk takers. Large organizations, often beholden to public shareholders are extremely risk averse - in line with the pension funds they serve! Public organizations advising other public organizations doubly so. So when you talk about innovation abd entrepreneurship within Consultancy, it's not "true" entrepreneurship, it's not "true" innovation. It's tried and tested innovation and it's SOX-compliant entrepreneurship - which may seem slightly oxymoronic.However I don't agree that Consultancy requires a different skill-set to that required by an "entrepreneur". In fact I would see (from my personal perspective) many shared traits. The ability to be able to take a risk on a new concept - by "selling" that concepts; the ability to take a risk from waking into a cold-meeting with a client with a poorly defined brief; the ability to sell yourself and take risks in new ventures, new projects, new postings.The "Google" type entrepreneurship is, I would see, more about eschewing the corporate constraints, about true accountability for failure and about feeling "true" ownership. I would say there is, indeed, a middle ground even in the Corporate world for entrepreneurs.

I'm pretty sure it was my previous dismissal of consultancy as an entrepreneurial career that prompted you to post this thread.I reiterate (from someone who HAS worked in the industry), that you're either confused about the definition of a consultant, an entrepreneur, or both.I would actually make an argument that consulting is about as far from entrepreneurial as it gets. Let's take the crude definition of an entrepreneur as someone who comes up with a plan and puts his money where his mouth is (i.e. a clear element of risk, and belief in one's own ideas). You could potentially argue that working in Industry provides an element of this, except the money you're betting is someone else's, and ideas have to go through layers of approval and watering down. And instead of pandering to your clients, you're pandering to your bosses.Consulting is one step back from this still. You're commonly working to justify or, at best, inform other people's ideas, and you're putting little or nothing on the line.

D-dawg, (I remembered!) I'm with you. It is shameful that the word entrepreneurial evens exists. It allows people who go through life with NOTHING on the line ( oh boo hoo my career may take weeks to recover!) to somehow claim kinship with true entrepreneurs.Consider... A water carrier at the colliseum -" in my own way I'm quite gladiatorial"A Geordie girl in Tiger Tiger - "in a way I'm quite virginal"George W Bush - " I'm actually quite articulatorial"Being like something does not make you that thing.

However...Arby deserves a prize for typo that resulted in " the risk from WAKING into a cold meeting with a client"Christ no! Much safer to sleep through the whole thing...

No. Consulting organisations will destroy every last breath of entrepreneurship within you

I once heard entrepreneurial behaviour defined as "working like no-one else will for a few years so that you can live like no-one else does for the rest of your life". The top 5% of consultants might be defined like this. The majority simply aren't. But don't let this stop you entering the field. A lot of people confuse thirst with hunger and a desire to solve problems/develop solutions with entrepreneurial spirit.

Being an Entrepreneur and having as consulting term it "Entrepreneurial Spirit" are two different things. When consultants or firms talk about Entrepreneurial Spirit it can mean (if at a small or niche firm) the development of a new service offering perhaps with the help of a director or partner. If at somewhere larger it refers mainly to flogging your client more man days (as they already have bigger more defined service lines, and this is often a measure of performance in addition to delivery).Entrepreneurs as we know build companies mostly from scratch and take them through the entire life cycle, a fundamental difference from Consultants who tend to offer expertise or advice across one stage or service within a business life cycle. There is some overlap in the skill set but fundamentally a lot of Consultants are paid well and are so busy that they never make the transition to really becoming an Entrepreneur. I for one am trying with a variety of side ventures and hope that these one day take off so I can exit consulting entirely.

[quote]the development of a new service offering perhaps with the help of a director or partner."[/quote]This is entrepreneurship.[quote] flogging your client more man days [/quote]This is all in a consultant's day job.Following on from C-Cat's line of discussion, I think adding 'spirit' to entrepreneurial makes it sound even more frustrated. i.e. I'll never have the b@lls to be a real entrepreneur, but often do I daydream about all the things I could have been or would love to be doing. Perhaps you'd rather say entrepreneurial ambitions. This would be in line with doing stuff on the side, in the hope that it takes off. However, I wouldn't regard that as a selling point in an interview with a consulting firm.

First point taken - although for me entrepreneurship tends to be you being the risk or business owner. Second point - I now work outside of mainstream consulting but most consulting firms start to get nervous the minute you mention side ventures. I've got a few but becoming a full time entrepreneur when you have commitments means few ever make the jump still I'm working towards my "ambitions"!

[quote]for me entrepreneurship tends to be you being the risk or business owner[/quote].You are risking the opportunity cost of all the time and effort you put into such a venture. Then there are (potentially, depending on the circumstances) the reputational issues associated with failure.

[quote]However...Arby deserves a prize for typo that resulted in " the risk from WAKING into a cold meeting with a client"Christ no! Much safer to sleep through the whole thing...[/quote]Mr CoolInteresting you think the missing letter was an L !........DC