Chapter 15: Predicting and Enhancing client Success

Early in my career as a management consultant, I became curious as to why the essentially same consulting intervention would produce seemingly magical results in one client, yet have no apparent effect on another. The one differentiating factor I could discern was that clients who came to me seeking help to solve a problem achieved better results than those clients where I had initiated the relationship and “sold” them a development program. The resulting nagging question—”Does this stuff really work?”—led me to compare performance improvements reported for various consulting methodologies (Warren, 1979). Recent characterizations of management consultants as “witch doctors” (Micklewith & Wooldrige, 1996) and the apparent trend toward increased use of “cookie cutter solutions” (Pringle, 1998) provided additional motivation to reassess success patterns. The curiosity remains and the quest to understand continues, leading to the present effort to examine “exemplary” cases—interventions that had “outstanding” results.