THE LANGUAGE OF CONSULTING TO CREATE THE FUTURE

Every business is a story. A consultant is the sutradhaar’ who helps tell it well. This is an art, a science and a philosophy

- HARISH BIJOOR

I HAVE spent just about 25 years of my working life as a consultant. Who then is a consultant? I should know. Or do I? I started young in the wonderland of consulting. I quit a corporate job at the age of 30 and decided to go it alone as an independent consultant. And then, I slowly built a firm. In an era where respect for the monthly salary slip was big and personal insecurities even bigger, this was a big move. Twenty-five years later, people are still asking me what a consultant does. I am wondering as well. All this against the backdrop of consulting fast becoming the biggest value-generating profession globally, with a compounded annual growth of 10.2% forecast between 2022 and 2031.

The most delightful definition of a consultant then (albeit a disparaging one) is what many of us have heard in the past. Your client wants to know what time it is, so you grab their wrist, take a look at their watch and tell them what time it is. You create affirmations. You bill the client. A disparaging take for sure. But is there truth in this at all? Let's explore this a little in detail.

For a start, the world of business is full of challenges. One of the most basic challenges is the deployment of resources, including land, labour, capital and technology. Basic challenges balloon over time as well. But once the basic challenges are overcome, the superior ones arrive: The external environment, governments, policies, philosophies, pricing issues, marketing strategies, restrictions, tariffs and, more importantly, the ever-changing business environments.

Add geopolitics to it. Even a dash of politics. Garnish it with an act of God or a force majeure clause that daunts every business all over the world. And you have the need for a consultant now. Yes, she is the same character of yore.