Management Consulting Manifesto

Got an idea from Dan Wallace (Twitter handle: @Ideafood) to write a manifesto (link to some other examples here). As many regular readers may know, I am pretty passionate about the practice of business and management consulting. Without further ado, here is a working draft of my management consulting manifesto:

  1. Do what’s best for the client before the consulting firm.
  2. Lead and practice ethically.
  3. Love the client and commit fully or leave at the earliest, ethical moment.
  4. Like the arts, mastery of leadership and business excellence are worthy pursuits.
  5. Practice consulting and avoid dispensing shallow advice.
  6. Apply analytics, process, and problem-solving rigor as your strengths to enlight and lead versus obfuscate.
  7. Strive to introduce and apply principles of sustainability and social good wherever possible.
  8. Recognize limitations of consultative methods wherever they may be; seek noble, clever, and pragmatic solutions.
  9. Mentor colleagues & clients as appropriate and seek mentors to improve oneself.
  10. Pursue mastery of interpersonal and organizational communications ; get clients as far as you can along the strategy curve in terms of understanding, commitment, and resolve.
  11. Seek a balance between personal and business life that complements and strengthens one another.

Related links: An Illustration of the Consulting Spectrum: Giving Simple Opinions Versus Practicing Consulting “Science”