Ioana Hategan
by Ioana Hategan
Over the past 25 years, the consultancy world has undergone a massive transformation. With minor differences, most consultancy firms have applied a few “success recipes” on a large scale. This has made it difficult for clients to differentiate and make conscious decisions when engaging in professional relationships with consultants for their business needs.
How can a manager distinguish and choose the right consultant for their company needs?
What criteria can they set for coming a step closer to a decision which is the best for them?
How can consultants present themselves in a way that best ensures they will be chosen by the right clients?
The answer lies in authenticity. The need for authenticity is evident in the open questions that arise when choosing a consultant. As a consultant, it is essential to exhibit authenticity to ensure that you are chosen by the right clients. Authenticity not only adds value to your service but also builds trust, a critical value for our industry and the long-term success of our operations. I will try to elaborate my answers to these questions in an open way; this article is also an invitation to reflect and hopefully complete the picture with your own authentic perspectives.
The most important criteria remain the competency and the experience of the consultant. The declarations of the consultants regarding their experience and competencies in a particular field must be consistent with their behaviour. A diligent manager will always search for ways to confirm the experience of a certain consultant in objective and neutral ways that ensure their authenticity. The more a consultant facilitates this confirmation, the more competitive it gets.
A second criteria are common values, principles, and behaviour. Managers are looking for consultants who correspond with a certain profile that is either consistent with the vision of their own company or is necessary (according to their perspective) for reaching the scope of the company’s services. The more one consultant is transparent as to their values, principles and behaviour, the more authentic they are perceived to be by the client.
Last but not least (and this is a relatively neglected item) is the emotional connection between the client and the consultant. The choices we make in our lives are often based on emotional perception, thus the more authentically a consultant acts, the greater the chances to interact with clients who choose the consultant for the “right” reasons and with whom positive, sustainable relationships can be built.
Exhibiting authenticity does not mean, in my perspective, only showing the best qualities of the consultant, but all their features, both positive and negative. Many times, failed experiences which lead to lessons learned may prove more useful in providing good service to clients than successful endeavours. A service is good only if it brings added value to the client. Authenticity is added value by default because it is the individual perspective of a professional, not the replication of a recipe which is already out there. Authenticity is creativity because it “brings to the table” a unique new way of solving an issue. And authenticity builds trust, a value essential for our industry and for the long term success of our operations.
One last “food for thought” in the digital business era we live in
In a context where a lot of digital instruments are increasingly replacing repeatable work, the authenticity of a consultant is a key ingredient to building soft skills, widely recognised as “a must have” to remain attractive and competitive in the future of the consultancy industry. Soft skills permit to the consultant to interpret reality in a way that adds value to the digital experience of the client, thereby assisting the client to understand their needs, formulate the right questions, enhance clarity regarding their processes, and ultimately reach their scope in a manner coherent with the values and principles of the business while integrating the use of technology as a simple tool in the hand of a more conscious user.
GGI member firmHategan AttorneysTimisoara, RomaniaT: +40 256 430 454
Law Firm Services
Hategan Attorneys is an independent, full-service business law firm located in Timisoara, Romania, providing a tailored and integrated range of legal services to meet the needs of a wide variety of businesses, individuals, and organisations. More than three quarters of their clients are international companies which plan to invest, or are already doing business in Romania.
As Founding Partner of Hategan Attorneys, Ioana Hategan is responsible for managing the firm and is the Leader of the M&A and Private Equity Practice. Contact Ioana.
