Rip-Off!
David Craig
If you are thinking about calling in consultants - or if you are a consultant yourself - then this ought to be required reading.
Written by someone who was in the consultancy business for over 20 years, Rip-Off! shows how some unethical consultants deliberately set out to rip firms off - shamelessly, methodically and repeatedly. Enron spent $52m in just one year - as the introduction says, 'It's like robbing a bank - but it's legal.'
David Craig takes various hypothetical case-studies, and shows how the consultants would find out the required savings, and massage the figures 'discovered' to give exactly that. He shows how six weeks of a project are planned, including finding out about the business (because most of the consultancy team won't have a clue as to what goes on in the factory - 'We need a fresh perspective'), to sowing seeds of doubt, to creating panic about the future, all in order to sell the full implementation of the recommendations of the consultancy - with corresponding huge charges.
You may not have the turnover of some of the firms mentioned - but the author gives enough horror stories, large and small, to make this book useful to anyone either running a business or trying to run a genuine, honest consultancy (of which there are no doubt many).
I found Rip-Off! difficult to read straight through - not because it wasn't well written, but because I became so incensed at the utter greed and contempt shown in the examples he gave. Read this book, wince at their antics, and learn.
JMS
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£11.99
Original Book Company
ISBN: 1872188060 |
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High income consulting
How to build and market your professional practice
Tom Lambert
Consultancy is often seen as an obvious option for people leaving the rat race. However, being obvious does not necessarily make it easy. Copy the winners, say the experts. So Tom Lambert explains everything you need to know to make your career choice a big success.
The book is very comprehensive and Lambert covers everything from whether you are cut out to be a consultant at all to building and marketing your practice. In the third part of the book you will find a section on advanced consulting skills, including how to manage a conflict of interest and dealing with insolvent clients. And the appendix is full of useful material such as The organisational questionnaire - 20 questions for change agents, The path to assent which outlines the key stages in landing a clients and tips on soft, tough and professional negotiating techniques.
If you seek a good return on your special skills, becoming a consultant may represent your ideal career path. This book condenses Tom Lambert's research over 20 years on what works for the most successful consultants.
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£14.99
Nicholas Brealey
ISBN: 1857881699 |
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