Dave J. Orr – författare

When to Hire—or Not Hire—a Consultant:Getting Your Money's Worth from Consulting Relationships is a hands-on, practical guide for anyone thinking about hiring a consultant to set strategy, solve problems, increase profits or revenue, develop new products, open new markets, or improve efficiency. Consulting is one of the fastest growing professions in the United States. According to the U.S. government, there were 719,000 consultants in the U.S. in 2010, and you can expect an additional 274,000 by 2020. Cloaked in “expert” status, consultants might seem to be the answer to many business problems. You call someone in to solve a particular problem or develop new markets, then send them away once the job is done—while reaping the benefits of their expertise. Consultants sometimes do work miracles, but once in a while they wreck a healthy business. And far too often, the benefits gained by calling in consultants disappear far too soon after they leave. Yet as return on investment (ROI) and accountability for results become bigger and bigger issues, business professionals in search of answers to performance or strategy challenges are turning more and more to outside guidance for help. Indeed, few businesses do not use some kind of consultant at some point in their existence. But how can you leverage the skills consultants can bring to the table without adding undue risk to your operations? How can you effectively manage the consultant relationship to get the greatest benefit for the least cost? What metrics can support your decision to hire—or not hire—a consultant? When should you use home-grown talent to solve problems instead? That’s what this book is all about. While there are a multitude of books on how to be a consultant, this is the first to help an executive determine when to hire one. You will learn strategies to decide when a consultant is needed and how to support that decision with hard evidence, how to selectthe right consultant, how to set clear expectations, and how to know when a consultant is either a valuable resource or a hindrance to the company’s success. The authors of this book bring together two opposing perspectives. Linda Orr has served as a consultant in many companies and situations, while Dave Orr has hired consultants many times. Together, they can help you make the most strategically and financially sound business decisions. This books shows you how to: Work through ROI and other issues to support a decision to hire a consultant. Maximize the benefits consultants can provide. Explore options other than hiring a consultant.

When to Hire—or Not Hire—a Consultant:Getting Your Money''s Worth from Consulting Relationships is a hands-on, practical guide for anyone thinking about hiring a consultant to set strategy, solve problems, increase profits or revenue, develop new products, open new markets, or improve efficiency.

Consulting is one of the fastest growing professions in the United States. According to the U.S. government, there were 719,000 consultants in the U.S. in 2010, and you can expect an additional 274,000 by 2020. Cloaked in “expert” status, consultants might seem to be the answer to many business problems. You call someone in to solve a particular problem or develop new markets, then send them away once the job is done—while reaping the benefits of their expertise. Consultants sometimes do work miracles, but once in a while they wreck a healthy business. And far too often, the benefits gained by calling in consultants disappear far too soon after they leave.

Yet as return on investment (ROI) and accountability for results become bigger and bigger issues, business professionals in search of answers to performance or strategy challenges are turning more and more to outside guidance for help. Indeed, few businesses do not use some kind of consultant at some point in their existence. But how can you leverage the skills consultants can bring to the table without adding undue risk to your operations? How can you effectively manage the consultant relationship to get the greatest benefit for the least cost? What metrics can support your decision to hire—or not hire—a consultant? When should you use home-grown talent to solve problems instead? That’s what this book is all about.

While there are a multitude of books on how to be a consultant, this is the first to help an executive determine when to hire one. You will learn strategies to decide when a consultant is needed and how to support that decision with hard evidence, how to selectthe right consultant, how to set clear expectations, and how to know when a consultant is either a valuable resource or a hindrance to the company’s success.

The authors of this book bring together two opposing perspectives. Linda Orr has served as a consultant in many companies and situations, while Dave Orr has hired consultants many times. Together, they can help you make the most strategically and financially sound business decisions. This books shows you how to:

Work through ROI and other issues to support a decision to hire a consultant. Maximize the benefits consultants can provide. Explore options other than hiring a consultant.

Redundant employees. Storerooms full of extra stock "in case we need it." Marketing money sprayed in all directions in the vain hope it will create customers. Duplicate IT systems. HR policies that fatten the corporate waistline rather than keeping it trim. Budgeting exercises that result in "more of the same, plus 2%." Nearly every corner of most established businesses harbors waste—wasted money, time, effort, or all three. As any runner can tell you, a lean body runs faster and wins races. The same goes when it comes to the competitive race all businesses engage in. Lean companies innovate faster, market more effectively, operate more smoothly, and achieve greater profitability. Eliminating Waste in Business: Run Lean, Boost Profitability highlights common ways that businesses across all industries waste money without realizing it. Taking an analytical, hands-on view, this book challenges universally accepted business practices—some even taught in business schools—by pointing out how these practices drive waste, and then showing how to eliminate it and reap the benefits. In eight meaty chapters, operations expert Dave J. Orr, and sales and marketing authority Linda M. Orr, tackle some of the obvious and easy-to-get-rid-of organizational fat and time wasters (meetings, anyone?) that for whatever reason many managers are blind to. They'll also show you how to employ lean six sigma and other methods to improve operational processes, inventory management, and more. But this book goes beyond these things and covers such areas as marketing and advertising spending, headcount and personnel administration, finance, and the many categories that make up what is in many companies a bloated monster: overhead. With an emphasis on employing technology and smart management to drive down costs, this book will take a comprehensive view of the broad spectrum of money and time wasters and show you how to get rid of them once and for all.