Maximizing the Value of Consulting: A Guide for Internal and External Consultants

THE GUIDE for BECOMING an ORGANIZED, EFFICIENT, and VALUE–DRIVEN CONSULTANT

"For those providing consulting services within their company or public sector organization and external consultants who want to work effectively with clients, this book provides highly practical insights into how to maximize the value of their work and capitalize on future opportunities."
From the Preface

Processes in organizations are becoming more complex, and as different functional units attempt to improve an organization, consultants are increasingly needed to provide advice, support, integration, and insight into how to make processes work. Sponsored by the ROI Institute and the Association of Internal Management Consultants, Maximizing the Value of Consulting offers both internal and external consultants an invaluable guide for learning how to deliver value from their consulting work and maximize value for their clients.

Maximizing the Value of Consulting shows how to organize a consulting practice (whether internal or external) that will consistently deliver value throughout the process. Step by step, the expert authors reveal how to adopt the most useful tools to enhance a professional practice, what it takes to manage the process properly, how to deliver value time after time, and how to ensure that consulting remains relevant within the organization.

Maximizing the Value of Consulting offers the key to managing for value with better organization and cost control, setting objectives at multiple levels, measuring overall impact, and using final results to drive organizational targets and create lasting value. Using this important resource can help any consultant provide the utmost value to their clients by maximizing organizational efficiency and, ultimately, ROI.

Author Biographies

Acknowledgements

Preface

Chapter 1: The Role and Importance of Internal and External Consulting

Chapter 2: Organizing the Consulting Practice to Deliver Value

Chapter 3: Managing the Consulting Practice to Deliver Value

Chapter 4: Controlling Costs and Enhancing Value

Chapter 5: Utilizing the Consulting Scorecard for the Practice

Chapter 6: A Logical Approach to Measure Impact and ROI for Projects

Chapter 7: Developing Powerful Objectives at Multiple Levels

Chapter 8: Aligning Projects to the Business

Chapter 9: Planning the Evaluation

Chapter 10: Methods of Data Collection

Chapter 11: Data Collection at All Four Levels

Chapter 12: Isolating the Effects of Consulting

Chapter 13: Converting Data to Money

Chapter 14: Tabulating Project Costs and Calculating ROI

Chapter 15: Reporting Results to Key Audiences

References

JACK J. PHILLIPS, PHD, is a world–renowned expert on accountability, measurement, and evaluation. Phillips provides consulting services for Fortune 500 companies and major global organizations.

DR. WILLIAM D. TROTTER, is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of strategic planning, process and organizational transformation, and creating high–impact internal consulting capabilities.

PATRICIA PULLIAM PHILLIPS, PHD, president and CEO of ROI Institute, is an internationally recognized consultant in measurement and evaluation. Her clients span over 60 countries and include global corporations as well as government, non–profit, and nongovernmental organizations.