What is a Consultant?
The word consultant is believed to have first appeared in Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, which is now common usage, and comes from the French word “consultare” which means to “take advice of”.
Consulting is the format that I use to engage with clients.
How is Consulting Delivered?
The term has now stretched to encompass the individual who takes the role of advisor or sounding board who helps you to develop an understanding and give an external view of the implications, to the hands-on individual who gets in involved at the coal face.
But in a romantic way it still in my mind falls into the model of Doyle’s great detective who became involved to the level that was needed, whether it was the sounding board to give a second opinion on the evidence or the individual who takes it upon themselves to resolve the crime.
Working together.
This could take different formats at different times:
- Provision of a second opinion and a sounding board
- Research and analysis of an issue
- Mentoring
- Hands-on support in resolving an issue
My professional charges are upon a fixed scale, I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether
Sherlock Holmes