Half of all consultants plan to leave their current firm within the next four years, according to a survey of nearly 10,000 consultants conducted by Consulting . And, according to the same poll, three out of four consultants say that when they leave their current employer, they do not plan to work for another consultancy. Given the anticipated exodus of consulting talent from consulting firms into industry, the more successful firms may be those that can reverse that talent drain by attracting professionals out of industry and into consulting. Consulting One-on-One sat down with the leader of one such firm: David Niles, president of SSA & Co. His 70-person operations management firm, formerly known as Six Sigma Academy, has been turning industry experts into consultants for 15 years.
Consulting: Most consulting firms are led by veteran consultants who oversee teams of more junior consultants. What's different about SSA?
Niles: Our chairman, Dave Fuente, is the former chairman and CEO of Office Depot. And our CEO, Scott Miller, was previously CEO of Hyatt Hotels. Most of our people come from industry. And we believe that gives us a unique understanding of the CEO mindset.
As a result, we staff projects differently than most consulting firms. Our teams tend to be at least 25 percent of the size used by most consulting firms – we don't use a traditional leverage model. Most of our projects are staffed with just a couple very senior people. For example, an enterprise-wide initiative at a $15 billion organization might only require a four to six person team. When I was with Booz Allen Hamilton, a similar project would have been staffed with 15 to 18 guys. We have much flatter teams.
Consulting: What else is different about how you staff engagements?
Niles: Instead of the traditional five staff levels at most firms, we really only have two. Our most junior level is comprised of people with a minimum of seven years of industry experience, though the average is closer to 20 years. And our managing directors are all former heads of continuous improvement programs of Fortune 500 companies or CEOs of smaller businesses.
Consulting: Given the different experience backgrounds of your consultants, do they approach engagements differently than those at more traditional consultancies?
Niles: I think we have a better understanding of how and where to move levers in an organization to create real change. Instead of suggesting massive overhauls, we focus on micro levers. We recently worked with a client to cut about $150 million in costs. We achieved that goal through 250 to 300 very small, defined projects. From our work over the last two decades, we have a database of thousands of similar projects. We can say 'here's what we've seen at other companies,' and that enables us to quickly define the problem and solution.
Consulting: Even with those process efficiencies, a handful of people can't manage and execute hundreds of small projects. How does the work get done?
Niles: That's another way we're different from most consulting firms. From a client's perspective, we know that the most cost effective way to get things done is by loaning us their people for a project. Because they are intimately involved in the project, they are much more profoundly involved than they would be if we did all of the work. And it also means that they are more involved in building the solution and the knowledge transfer.
And by having anywhere from 15 to 100 client-side folks involved in our project, they will be better positioned to continuously improve their business and adopt our changes after we leave. For example, clients want an inventory management plan that can flex over time. A solution to fix today's challenges won't help much tomorrow. But by giving them the tools and techniques to manage inventory over time, the efficiencies can go on and on.
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