Can Only Consultants Be 'Strategic'?

Brandweek, July 5, 1999 by Alex Stanton

Alex Stanton is CEO of Stanton Crenshaw Communications, a pr and marketing firm in New York. He can be contacted via e-mail at alex@stanton-crenshaw.com.

The latest attempt by an ad or marketing agency to morph into a strategic consultant fizzled recently at Ammirati Puris Lintas with the departure of its McKinseyconsultant-turned-agency-CEO. While it may be adept pr to attribute the shakeup to a bad personality fit, it's likely the real culprit was a fundamental conflict between a focus on relationships and a transaction mentality.

The headlong rush of agencies to embrace the consulting model is understandable. Beyond the attractive profit margins offered by consulting, communications professionals have collectively done a poor job of explaining and advocating the value of what we do in building and maintaining relationships with customers, consumers, employees, investors and communities.

So we might be tempted to stand in awe as professional services and management consulting firms appear to gain greater respect with senior management and CEOs. Why should they maintain a seat at the table where major decisions are made, and be looked to for strategic advice and even implementation services, when we are viewed as tacticians? It should come as no surprise that this has given new life to our professional self-doubt.

The seduction of the consultant's model lies in the fact that it's a service often sold to management on the back of a transaction: a downsizing, a merger, a failing product or service, an internal change or transformation initiative. These are traumatic events that leave execs grasping for quick answers that appear to transcend the real complexity of the moment. It's here that consulting services are advanced as a seamless approach to a critical problem.

Marketing communications pros should view this not as a threat but an opportunity. Our business is relationships, not transactions. We are at our best when we are using our communications skills to manage and enhance an organization's relationships with customers and consumers, audiences that determine whether or not business objectives are met. By contrast, consultants by necessity bring a transaction mentality to their work, an appealing approach when there is a deal to be done, but ultimately myopic in situations that demand a longer-term view.

In fact, if we are communicating the value we deliver to our clients effectively, we are better positioned to handle strategy development and advise on growing a business than consultants (even those with communications credentials). After all, we have a perspective that comes from a deeper understanding of the company's relationships with its key audiences and the best ways to influence them. Then why are we sometimes left out of the process? A few answers come to mind.

We may not have demonstrated the business acumen that management expects. We often fall short in communicating the relevance of what we do to the achievement of business objectives. We may fail to offer strategic solutions to business problems, retreating too quickly to the tactical where many of us are most comfortable. We may allow ourselves to be traded down in the organization, losing access to the CEO and senior business management execs.

But all is not lost. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the consulting industry is facing increased client cynicism about the value they add for fees charged, resulting in the first staff cutbacks and revenue reductions experienced in a long time in an industry that had become used to white-hot growth. Fast Company's regular column, "Consultant Debunking Unit," suggests that the next generation of senior managers may take a much more skeptical approach to the consultant's product.

This has created an opportunity for relationship-oriented marketing communications practitioners--on both the corporate and agency sides--who are willing to keep a few important precepts in mind. First, check your ego at the door. While people will tolerate an inflated sense of self-importance for a brief transaction period, it has no place when you're trying to build and maintain the credibility necessary to manage brand or corporate reputations for the longer term. Second, invest the time and energy to really understand the business. And third, think and act with a long-term view. The bottom line is we're only going to be invited to the table where key decisions are made if we act like we belong, and we will only remain if we deliver the goods.