The Role of the Internal Consultant

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Description

Internal consultants are typically looked down upon, but an increase in the role of the internal consultant will have a profound impact on the necessity of external consultants. The advantage of internal consultants stretch from security to acceptance to continuity. There is also a potential emergence of hybrid consultants. Technically external consultants, but only have 3-10 clients that are serviced for life. While there will always be a need for external consultants, a shift towards more internal consultants will greatly diminish the power and demand for external consultants.

Enablers

  1. Proprietary information and intellectual property rights
  2. Openness of Information
  3. Focus on internal security
  4. Desire for more long-term committed relationships with consultants
  5. Move towards specialized client-consultant relationship


Inhibtors

  1. The growing trend and acceptance of outsourcing
  2. Rising intellectual power of emerging markets
  3. Availability of human capital from emerging market
  4. Increasing gap in intellectual capital base of clients

Paradigms

If internal consultants become the norm because of security and IP rights, and a desire for more specialized long-term relationships, the need for external consultants and short-term assignments will be few and far between. External consultants will still be valid for outside the box thinking and capacity increases. But external consultants as a "hired-gun" for short-term projects will no longer be desired as a first option.

Timing

Experts

Web Resources

http://managementhelp.org/misc/int-ext-consultants.pdf

  1. http://www.arkimeda.com/
  2. http://www.mca.org.uk/home
  3. http://www.sourceforconsulting.com/