We are experiencing the rise of the virtual consultant. COVID-19 is showing the world that working remotely is possible. I have been a management consultant for my entire 33 year career and have seen trends come and go, but going virtual is different. It’s real and its here to stay. The efficacy of virtual and remote consulting is being tested, improved and proven during this pandemic crisis. But what will it mean for the consulting industry? Is the impact of going virtual positive or negative? Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of how traditional consulting operated and contrast them with the pros and cons of virtual consulting.
THE PROS OF TRADITIONAL CONSULTING
Regardless of the type of consulting you perform, your work has likely been a mix of being on-site with your client, in their offices, in their manufacturing plants and time spent back at your office researching analyzing, designing and creating solutions. Solutions that would then take you back to the client's site for deployment. You gathered valuable information and data from being on-site, and could investigate things with your own eyes, letting your nose for discovery and insights respond to the real world environment around you.
All the while, your client valued the time you took to be with them. After all, out of sight, out of mind, right? You developed relationships with your clients and even engaged them socially via lunches, dinners, and outings together. Some may even have become close friends over the years.
All of this points to the pros of how consulting has operated traditionally. We went to where our clients were, rolled up our sleeves, worked together and even played together.
THE CONS OF TRADITIONAL CONSULTING
But all that time on site came with considerable costs. The cost of flights and lodging add up and can often match the value of fees. Clients spend a considerable percentage of the overall engagement on travel and lodging expenses. Additionally, you spend less time at home as you travel the globe to “be there”, close to the client.
Another issue that I experienced throughout my career was the feeling of being heavily engaged and close to the client while on site, and then disconnected and out of mind with the same client when I wasn’t on site. I would come and go, but they and their team, their colleagues and organization were always present. I was not and it impacted how well I could serve them.
The cost of travel, time away from home, sometimes being in and sometimes being out, are cons of how consultants traditionally operated.
THE PROS OF VIRTUAL CONSULTING
Going virtual presents its own challenges, pros and cons. Let's consider some of the pros first. When you consult virtually, your client saves travel and lodging costs. This frees up more potential funding for consulting work. It's believed that as the virus subsides and people begin returning to work, the level of working remotely from home will stay high and surpass all previous levels of tele-commuting. As such, it’s likely that clients will work remotely more than they used to.
Working remotely puts you on par with everyone else at your client’s organization when they also work remotely. The experience of engagement with your client is equal to all others with whom they work. The difference comes in the value provided via your discussions and work together. Additionally, by not traveling and not having to shift between work environments, your ability to be more productive can increase. And perhaps best of all, you get to spend more time at home.
I used to love the glamor of travel during the early days of my consulting career. But after getting married and having children and decades of travel, I only want to get in, do my work, and get back home. I’ve travelled so much, I have at times lost my curiosity for new places and new cultures as the cities and countries all blur into a sea of roads, buildings, hotels and offices. It’s great to spend more time at home.
THE CONS OF VIRTUAL CONSULTING
Although I enjoy spending more time at home, there is something that’s hard if not impossible to replace by not being there. Being on site allows you to see so much more. To observe people and workplace culture, understand the politics, touch the machinery, experience the products, and walk the assembly lines. It all delivers enormous data and knowledge to the consultant.
The bonds and connections I could make with my clients by being with them on premises is hard to re-create virtually as well. No high fives, no dinners in restaurants surrounded by the bustle of the city they live in. No sharing of outings to the ballpark, golf course, or local cruises wherein you connect and bond over shared likes and passions outside of work. And without these deeper connections, and only being seen as a face on a screen, I wonder if clients will confuse the value of our work with the ease of virtual access and believe my consulting is something they could just do themselves. After all, it’s just a Zoom meeting, right?
Of course, we know our value is not the Zoom meeting, but I’ve seen clients make this mistake before. "Can you get me a meeting with the CEO of such and such", asked the client. You say "Sure, I’ll give them a call." After you arrange the meeting, the client perceives the value as, “You just made a phone call.”, when the real value was in your connections, network and relationships that even made that call possible. Will the same happen to consulting virtually?
NET POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE?
It’s too early to know if that will happen, however, there is no turning back. We will likely continue to consult as we did before, but consulting remotely and virtually will garner a much greater percentage of our time with clients than ever before. COVID-19 has proven that working remotely via virtual means works. Now we consultants have to prove it works for us.
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