4 March 2010

By Geoff Parcell and Chris Collison, Wiley, £17.99

The two authors make it clear that there are times when employing consultants is the right thing to do. But at the same time they believe there is an element of truth in the idea that “consultants ask to borrow your watch to tell you the time – and then walk off with your watch”.

So the thrust of this book is about helping organisations recognise and develop their internal capabilities before rushing to bring in consultants. I have dealt with consultants from an operations and procurement perspective, and have been one myself for several years, so this book resonated with me.

In fact, I have embarked on a similar demand management journey over the past couple of years, and it would have been a great help to me if I had had this book right from the start.

It is an easy read, taking you step by step through an approach to identifying strengths within your business. It does come across as common sense, but, as the book says, such an approach is not necessarily common practice. It goes on to bring the approach to life with examples.

If you are looking to reduce your organisation’s dependency on consultants in favour of identifying, developing and using the many capable people within your own organisation, then I believe this could be a great guide for you.

Stephen Hayers

Vice-president services procurement, BT

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