By Fiona Czerniawska.
… But he’s not your everyday, brain-on-a-stick strategy consultant. No, he feels real empathy for the difficult situations in which clients find themselves, and is genuinely sad that they don’t have an expensive fountain pen like his. Which is why he’s finding his conversation with Carl so distressing.
Carl is a client. He’s got two decades of senior management experience under his belt, and he really couldn’t care two hoots about Martin’s fountain pen. No, he’s talking to Martin, because Martin and his team have been carrying out a refresh of Carl’s corporate strategy. Of course, they haven’t been doing that by themselves: As someone who’s used almost every major consulting firm under the sun, Carl is aware of the importance of working closely with the consulting firm. Martin calls this co-creation, but Carl simply wants to ensure that his staff pick up the skills and knowledge they need to help them do strategy work in the future. Carl is also not a fan of management speak.
“… so, this could be ground-breaking collaboration,” Martin is saying.
“Great.” Carl finds Martin faintly amusing and doesn’t want to hurt his feelings. He does, however, want to interrupt Martin’s smooth and apparently unending monologue by asking an important question. “But I’d also like to talk about how we measure the value you add.”
