Perhaps one of the reasons that everyone stops to watch a professional juggler is that it is a perfect metaphor for the way that we manage our lives. Indeed it is an ideal way to describe the way that many manage their business, especially in the consultancy or professional services sector.
Watch the street artists in London’s Covent Garden, and you won’t have to wait long before the crowd is entertained by a juggler, with an amazing ability to keep any number of balls, flaming torches or knives in the air with ease.
However, as many have discovered if they have tried it at home, juggling is no easy matter. If the amateur juggler manages to keep just three balls up in the air it’s impressive. But before long the inevitable happens, and one drops to the floor.
Perhaps one of the reasons that everyone stops to watch a professional juggler is that it is a perfect metaphor for the way that we manage our lives. Indeed it is an ideal way to describe the way that many manage their business, especially in the consultancy or professional services sector.
It is in the very nature of these firms to have any number of projects running for different clients at one time. If each of these individual assignments represents a ball that cannot be dropped, then many consultancies can be likened to the amateur juggler: constantly struggling to keep everything under control and up in the air. If they need to add more projects or increase the speed at which they are delivered then the likelihood of dropping something increases.
This is why, for many consultancies, growth often results in loss of control and hence greater operational risk. It only takes one example of inefficient management, missed deadlines or sub-standard work for the cracks to start showing.
So what does a consultancy need to do? First of all it must be remembered that delivering the projects to time and budget, and impressing the client again and again is down to the consultants: the individuals whose skill, flair and professionalism give the consultancy its unique characteristics, strengths and abilities.
It is these individuals who need the right tools and structures in place to ensure that their skills are used to best advantage, and they can keep all their balls in the air. What growing consultancies need is the methodology and infrastructure to take care of the non-key items while the consultants focus on the high-value activity. That means that highly experienced individuals are not required to focus on getting the billing right or raising credit notes. Instead they are able to do what they do best, and what will add most value to customers and employers alike – consulting.
Smaller firms tend to rely on spreadsheets to keep track of a project, and for most this works very well. In addition, they often have less structured methods of sharing important information within the team, and with partners, suppliers and customers. Again this is perfectly reasonable: if all that separates you from your colleagues is a plasterboard partition, then informal, ad hoc meetings will usually be enough to keep a project on track.
But, regardless of its informality, this communication is vital to the successful delivery of any project, no matter what its size. It is one of the key tools that enables individuals to keep their balls in the air. This is why larger organisations need more than ad hoc tools and communication methods, especially where multiple projects are on the go.
Therefore, consultancies that are facing a period of expansion need to ensure that communication makes a successful transition from an informal to formal process. And this is where the more basic project management tools start to show their limitations. They are inherently inarticulate. Spreadsheets are great for managing an individual project, but not so great for relating that one project to other activities, or placing it within the context of the wider business goals and strategies.
But most of all, spreadsheets cannot tell the whole story of a particular assignment to future project managers. They do not show which are the most significant milestones in a project, or where problems might occur. They do not highlight warning signs or show when or where swift decisions need to be made.
There is a real risk that a consultancy that has ambitious growth plans will start to re-invent the wheel each time it undertakes a new job, or takes on a new client precisely because key learnings from previous activities are not readily accessible to those that need them.
What consultants need are blueprints for successful project delivery: a set of clearly defined, well-communicated, tried-and-tested strategies or methodologies that keep them in control of their projects and the business as a whole.
But these methodologies need to be meticulously planned, and based on actual data, rather than guesstimates. Spreadsheets, non-integrated systems and undocumented meetings that take place at the water cooler cannot provide the level of detail that is required.
The road to successful controlled growth is therefore via self-examination: what are the consultancy’s strengths? What can be improved? What strategies work, and which ones are failing to deliver? To ensure that it can continue to undertake more projects and complete them to a universally high standard, a growing consultancy needs to ensure that each new pitch for business, each new project analysis, budget calculation and detailed proposal is based on reliable and accurate historical data, based on previous work.
This is where technology comes in. If spreadsheets don’t cut it, then there are specially designed project management solutions that do. By itself, technology doesn’t control a consultancy or manage growth effectively. But the truth is that neither the people nor the processes in place will deliver the necessary control without it.
The latest web-based management solutions are the key to maintaining accurate real-time records. They improve reporting and information visibility and enable more staff to work more profitably by increasing the number of billable hours worked. Cash flow is improved on both sides by accelerated, granular invoicing that isn’t subject to late delivery of bills from third party suppliers or partners. And, rather counter-intuitively, it can reduce IT costs, by minimising the amount of extra - but disparate - solutions that are needed.
By putting relevant technology in place, the consultancy can create accurate and reliable methodologies or blueprints, which, in turn, enable consultants to continue delivering value to the organisation and its clients. Above all, control is maintained at all times.
So the right infrastructure helps keep all the balls in the air. But this doesn’t necessarily help with the next challenge that consultancies face: that of knowing when to grow and when they are in a position to put such an infrastructure in place.
Company growth can either be planned or chaotic. If planned, then the necessary resources and skills are in place, the infrastructure ready, and a clear set of strategies are defined. However, there is more than one firm that, punching above its weight, has won a major piece of business that effectively turns it upside down.
The following few months are then spent in a state of barely-organised fire fighting. All of its resources are needed to service this disproportionately large client; but simultaneously, it has to find something extra to keep every other aspect of the business going, while pulling in additional staff and skills in a desperate attempt to lighten the load of overstretched consultants. You can almost hear the balls dropping and rolling away from the juggler’s constantly shifting feet.
The truth about life in a consultancy, in whatever sector, is that this just-contained chaos is the far more common scenario. Which means that the earlier a structure is put in place, the more advantageous it will be, and the less likely that consultants will be asked to juggle and fight fires at the same time.
Which brings us to the final challenge faced by consultancies attempting to manage their business effectively - what to do after a period of expansion without the necessary infrastructure in place?
At this stage it is often preferable to stop and take a deep breath. Assess where the loss of control has come from: do you have the right people? Is your methodology flawed? Or is it your technology that is letting you down? A problem with people is perhaps the hardest problem to solve. But an investment in the right technology can solve either of the other two issues.
The key is to look for a solution that has been developed with your business in mind and which can be implemented quickly. Make sure your chosen solution will cause minimum disruption to your consulting business, and choose a solution provider to help who is equally expert in your field and can provide the necessary extra pair of hands.
Take advantage of your vendor’s experience, and view the relationship with them as a partnership. After all, if you go back to the Plaza and watch the street artists for a while you’ll notice that the most stunning and dexterous displays are the two-handers: two jugglers working together in perfect harmony.
