What Harvard Knows About Consultants That You Don’t

Researchers at Harvard Business School sought to understand what makes change and transformation efforts successful. Based on research of strategy models at a variety of a global companies*, they found that 70 to 90 percent of internal execution efforts fail. It seems that companies have a hard time getting internal strategy projects completed.

To boil it down, that means seven to nine of your strategic projects are going to fail this year if you try to complete them in-house.

Let’s find out why.

Outside Eyes Give You the Competitive Edge

According to the report, most internal strategists approach strategic projects in the following manner:

Step #1: Identify an opportunity—not hard to do, when you’re constantly swimming in the sea of your own challenges

Step #2: Attain buy-in from executive leadership—challenging, but possible for most internal strategists

Step #3: Execute on the strategy

Step #3 is where most internal strategists can’t bring it home. It’s not that they are at fault—they are simply too busy with all of their other responsibilities to execute on a new strategy.

Get the Competitive Edge

Too often, we think we can do it all ourselves. We don’t want to get outside help, or look to a consultant for an outside opinion, because we think we know our business better than anybody else. But the truth is, outside consultants often give you the competitive edge. They know your market landscape and can provide expertise on how to solve your unique challenges.

This is true for content and content strategy. Often, we are asked to step-in on a project that someone thought they could write internally. Or a social media or content marketing project has been stalled for months, until clients reach out to us for help with implementation. The best part is we see ourselves as your consultative partners, who can help you think through your strategy AND execute on your behalf.

Don’t let 2015 be the year that goes by with seven to nine failed strategic projects.  Reach out to a strategic partner who will lend a fresh set of eyes and a perspective that will position you for big wins this year.

*Kotter, John P. “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Harvard Business Review, January 2007.