Consulting firms bring both technical and political value to their clients. The technical value comes from expertise that helps diagnose and solve problems through the implementation of solutions. The political value stems from a consultant's ability to legitimize solutions, facilitate change, and help align stakeholders. While technical value can sometimes be easily measured through tangible results like cost savings, political value is more difficult to quantify and appreciate, as impacts are harder to define for areas like organizational change or complex decision-making. Overall, there is currently no standard for precisely measuring the full value created by consulting work.

1. ASK YOUR QUESTION
WHAT VALUE DO
CONSULTING FIRMS BRING
TO THEIR CLIENTS?

2. Executives love
to
hate consultants.

3. But they continue
to spend millions
of dollars in
consulting.

4. SO WHAT VALUE
DO THEY CREATE?

5. Most consulting
projects create value
along 2 dimensions:

6. TECHNICAL VALUE1.
The technical value is brought through in-depth expertise.
For instance:
• provide outside knowledge,
• help diagnose a problem and its solution
• assist in the implementation of the said solutions.
Most consulting projects will draw their value
from this dimension.

7. POLITICAL VALUE2.
The political value is brought through influence &
leadership. For instance:
• legitimize a solution
• enforce unpopular changes
• Facilitate converge between stakeholders
The political value is more difficult to appreciate
and measure.

8. HOW DO YOU
MEASURE THIS
VALUE?

9. - John Wanamaker -
Half the money I spend on advertising is
wasted; the trouble is I don't know which
half.

10. When a service is
intangible, like
consulting, it is
hard physically
measure the
results.

11. The technical
value is usually
easier to measure
since it often
comes with
tangible results
such as cost
reduction or an
increase in
income.

12. The political value,
however, is more
complicated.

13. How do you appreciate the
impact of a diversity project, or
process and system
optimization?

14. Or the impact of organizational change?
Or enabling complex decisions requiring
alignment of many stakeholders ?

15. There is to date no
standard in the
measure of the
value created
through
consulting. Ironic,
right?

16. Hélène Laffitte
Cofounder & CEO
• Consulting Sourcing Expert
• Author of Smart Consulting
Sourcing
• MBA Columbia Business School
Want to learn more?
Contact me & start creating
more value.
+1 (646) 477 5953
Follow us on the web
CREDITS PHOTOS FROM UNSPLASH
Cover - Riccardo Annandale
Slide 1 - Chris Sabor
Slide 3 - Jouwen Wang
Slide 4 - Priscilla Du Preez
Slide 5 - Aaron Barnaby
Slide 6 - Nik MacMillan
Slide 7 - Julian Dutton
Slide 9 - Aaron Burden
Slide 10 - Denys Nevozhai
Slide 12 – Levi Xu
Slide 13 – Alex Perez