You’re a hiring manager/director/controller/executive for a project. You have a budget to work with. You have either a hard deliverable date or a timeline in mind. You want results.

Do you go ‘Big’? Or ‘Small’?

Do you reach out to one of the ‘Big’ project consulting firms? One of the Big 4? One of the major, publicly-traded consulting houses, whose ad you may have seen during last weekend’s golf or tennis
tournament?

Maybe.

They will bring you name recognition. They will have experienced experts in-house…somewhere in-house. They will bring their best and brightest to the sales table to win your business. But, once they do, then what?

Too often, their less experienced (i.e. cheaper) assets are brought in to do the job. Perhaps, what you thought was ‘in scope’, based on a verbal promise from one of their crack sales people, is actually ‘out of scope’. What is the project going to cost now? And, do you actually have that leading-edge project team on the job, bringing the best practices, advising as to why a particular approach makes the most sense for you and your company?

Or maybe,

…you go ‘Small’. You engage a smaller consulting group. One led and staffed by seasoned professionals with real-world business experience, as controllers, financial managers, IT specialists, auditors – professionals who have deep experience in performing on projects like yours. And, professionals who have the business background and insight to not just ‘do’ the project, but understand the impacts and implications to your business. With their experience, they can bring a holistic view to the table, avoid pitfalls, and recommend improvements. They can perform smarter, ‘Smaller’.

How does that benefit you? It saves you money. It saves you time. It saves you headaches. It makes for a better result.

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By going ‘Big’, you pay a high price. The ‘Big’ guys have a big infrastructure to support; their advertising budgets can be quite large (this may be why you know who they are). Some are publicly traded, and have challenging earnings targets to meet…every quarter. Is that in your best interest?

To service their high cost base, these firms charge high rates; sometimes, exorbitantly high rates. And, what do you receive for those high rates? Too often, their goal in performing your project is to assign some of their least experienced staff, their least expensive assets, in order to maximize their margin on the engagement.

By going ‘Small’, you get more. We maintain a small infrastructure and do not answer to outside shareholders or their earnings expectations. And, because we do not serve as a vast training mechanism for new college graduates, you receive service directly from experienced professionals. We will not charge a client to train inexperienced staff.

This means that our rates are more reasonable and equitable than the ‘Big’ guys. With each hour, you receive a higher level of service. And, that higher level of service translates into fewer hours and a better result.

‘Big’ or ‘Small’? The choice is clear.