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David Wilson
David Wilson is editor of Engineeringtalk and Electronicstalk and associate editor of The Engineer
Managing the garden
The managing director of the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) had a rather large back garden. Sadly, though, it had become fairly neglected over the winter months and, as a result, the trees, shrubs and lawn all needed a lot of attention. So one bank-holiday weekend, he decided to do something about it.
Armed with a variety of electrically powered implements, he went at the task of mowing the lawn, trimming the hedges, weeding the flower beds and cutting back the shrubs that had died over the past winter like a man possessed. In the process, he amassed wheelbarrow loads of cuttings, which he piled onto a large heap.
Then, as the sun started to sink in the west, he took a copy of the local free Sunday newspaper, crumpled it under the 6ft-high pile of garden waste and set fire to it. Hours later, the fire had burnt out, leaving not a single trace of the massive mound of garden detritus he had stacked up during the day.
The next morning, before he left for work, the managing director took a stroll down the garden to re-examine his handiwork. Sadly, as pleased as he had been with his efforts the previous evening, in the dim grey light of morning the garden looked no different to the way that it had before winter.
Rather forlornly, he realised that he had only maintained the garden, as opposed to making any tangible difference to it. He also realised that to do that would require hours’ more effort and perhaps several more bank holidays.
Back at work several hours later, the managing director took a stroll through his engineering, sales and marketing departments, casually observing his employees, who were meticulously going about their jobs in a customary fashion.
But as he walked through each department, he asked himself whether many of the employees might be simply maintaining the status quo of his company, rather than making any transformative difference to it, much in the same way that his efforts in his back garden that past weekend had yielded few tangible results.
Upon returning to his office, the managing director telephoned a local gardening company, who duly descended upon his back yard like white on rice for a number of days. Thanks to their efforts, I’m pleased to say that his garden is now an eye-watering delight of new shrubs, flowers and plants beset in a neatly trimmed lawn.
With his garden now under the control of a competent third party, the managing director plans to transform his company in a similar fashion, and to examine the ways in which he might do so he recently hired a team of crack engineering consultants. They might cost him a few bob but, if the results he gets are as good as the ones from his gardening team, it will be well worth it.
David Wilson
The Wilson’s world blog also forms part of the Engineeringtalk, Electronicstalk and Manufacturingtalk newsletters. To subscribe, go here for Engineeringtalk, here for Electronicstalk and here for Manufacturingtalk
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Readers' comments (12)
Rodger Webb | 12 May 2011 11:25 am
In my experience the only thing a team of crack consultants would make any difference to would be to your bank account!!
They tell you what you already know but in a different language.
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Steve | 12 May 2011 11:43 am
Interesting article plus I learned a new phrase "white on rice" that I'd never come across before
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Philip Oakley | 12 May 2011 12:01 pm
Consultants.. is that the Doers, the Thinkers, or the 'Adviser' types?
Just as a 'gardeners' come in a lot of flavours from Landscape Architects to Lawn mowing services, it is important to know where the decisions (yours or theirs) and actions (theirs or yours) will happen.
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Anonymous | 12 May 2011 12:11 pm
Doing the garden maintenance himself would provide exercise and time to think about reorganising his company which would probably result in a fitter, more satisfied CEO and a far more efficient company. A team of crack engineering consultants will certainly cost him a few bob, but are unlikely to improve the performance of his company.
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Anonymous | 12 May 2011 3:43 pm
I wonder how many employees had been standing around having great ideas in their heads about changes to make etc. But no one ever asked. Or dismissed them when they did try to explain them. Sometimes we only really listen to stuff we paid to hear.
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Graham Field | 13 May 2011 8:47 am
Is the real reason for bringing in an outside consultant, so that you can blame the changes on somebody else?
Your employees have been brought in to run the company the way you have asked them to. If you create an atmosphere whereby they are genuinely encouraged to offer suggestions for improvements, you will get them; and if you really mean business, you might allow that the people actually doing the job might know more about what they do than you do.
The best thing you can do as CEO is to create the conditions that allow good ideas and creative talent to rise to the surface, and to encourage innovation. If your staff see that you 'put your money where your mouth is', they will be encouraged to support you.
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Robin Brand | 14 May 2011 10:37 am
Or as my boss used to say about consultants:
"They borrow your watch, tell you the time, charge you a fortune!"
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Graham Cooper | 16 May 2011 11:44 am
The version I'm familiar with is
"Consultants borrow your watch, tell you what time it is then leave with your watch"
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Anonymous | 16 May 2011 4:25 pm
RB & GC: This was a very old joke when I started in consulting in the ’80s. Although it’s presented as being about consultants, it’s actually about clients. Let’s examine it:
o The consultant can tell the time.
o The client has a watch, but is unable to use it.
o The consultant is smart enough to borrow the client’s watch.
o The client is not smart enough get it back.
>> The client now knows the time, and the consultant has a useful watch.
>> Value has been created!
Next time you hear it, remember who’s laughing at whom!
(By the way, I hope you appreciated my use of bullet points!)
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Graham Cooper | 17 May 2011 11:12 am
Anonymous,
Very good. Lets fuse both views to get the actual reality.
* A Senior Manager wants to know the time.
* He employs consultants to tell him the time
* The consultants tour the company borrowing all of the more junior employees watches
* The consultant makes a presentation to the Senior Manager and present the average time from all the watches to several decimal places. He also presents the Manager with one of the watches set to the right time.
* The consultants leave with all the other watches and a pay cheque
* The Senior Manager struts around the company telling everybody what the time is
* The employees are left frustrated but with a grudging respect for what the consultants pulled off
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