We've divided our practice into six subcategories to address this whole process. The first category is the customer service area, which has similarities to marketing skills. The second area of our practice is what we call logistics strategy. This entails defining the structural elements of logistics and putting them into place in order to optimize the return on the assets invested in logistics. The third and fourth areas of practice can probably be lumped into one. They are distribution operation and transportation management.
The fifth area involves distribution up until the time goods are finished. That's really "materials management." It's the orchestrating of flows of goods into the factory, and their conversion into a finished product. The final area is logistics management information system (MIS). We have a group that develops information systems to support logistics processes.
Usually our clients are major companies, and they have a management structure that deals specifically with the logistics components of their business. They either come to us because we have special expertise and experience they do not possess, or because we have an objective view and can resolve issues that have become unresolvable because of political or other reasons within the company. Or we may simply have time and resources that they have but not in sufficient quantity to do what they want to do. So, when we're engaged, we usually have a major impact on out-of-pocket dollars. People expect conclusions and recommendations that they are prepared to act on. When we engage in a study, we have significantly more potential to effect change than someone internal. We normally start a relationship with a client by looking at the customer service and logistics strategy. We determine the role of the logistics function in terms of delivering customer service; then we lay out the overall strategy that best fits that role and comes to grips with the reality of the profit situation. Then, later, we roll forward into the implementation. Oftentimes, however, a former client asks for an analysis of a warehouse in Atlanta, and all of a sudden we're doing it.
We usually find vested interests lodged in functional managers. Sometimes it gets so fundamental that the whole business approach they are using has gotten out of touch with the needs of the marketplace. As a consultant you sometimes have to conceptually "get those guys at the same table" and say, "Here are the issues and here's who is right and who is wrong and here's why you should start to move in this direction." That's an exercise in making the people who have to change understand why they're going to have to change, and sometimes that means you have to stand up and take a hard position.
It's not a business that's sold door to door. We've had to create awareness about our capabilities and about our existence. We've done that through promotional programs that are so "soft sell" they're not even "sell." Activities in professional organizations, general word of mouth, and referrals from one client to another all play a role. So, in a typical process, clients identify us and tell us that they've got a problem they want to talk about. One of us would go out and draw up a proposal that would succinctly state the objectives, the approach, how much it would cost, what resources it would take, and so forth. The individual who approached the client usually becomes the manager of the project over a project team comprised of both our people and client people. I would say a typical project lasts four to six months, although we have had projects that only last a few days. I'm usually involved in four or five projects at once. The lower down in the organization individuals are, the more likely they'll be working on one project at a time.
Question - How would someone move up through the organization?
Answer - Consultants will typically follow a career path by developing a specialty, a long suit. Then, should their interests broaden beyond that, they'll work in other groups and eventually attain a perspective. It could be a business perspective or any one of the other groups, or it could be in marketing. We do not put strict labels on people. We try to say that if you want to be the best at any one thing, then we have the opportunity for you to pursue that. On the other hand, if you're interested in a lot of things, we have a career path for that too.
Question - How much training is required, and does it come from schooling or experience?
Answer - I would say that most people in major consulting firms have advanced degrees and they either stay for two years and decide they want to go back into line management with a large company, or they stay in consulting and begin to work their way up through the ranks. The ranks are project worker, project manager, sort of a client relationship-market development manager overseeing several project managers, and finally some role managing the consulting firm's business. That's where I am now. I am not only working as a consultant, but I am also the chief financial officer and a member of a three-man management committee over the whole firm. I've gone through all the chairs you can go through in consulting.
There is never a question of having too much business experience, but there is concern about someone who has none. With other consulting groups, it's very different. They will recruit very actively on college campuses for M.B.A.'s, and for some of the strategic areas that may be an advantage. A few young people are great. They keep you on your toes, and they ask questions. They make you think of new techniques and approaches, but we found that the problems we face are not similar to the case studies that they do in school.
