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Comment by krmmalik | Hacker News Reader

It's an interesting point you mention regards Consultants. I've been operating as a strategic consultant for the last 2 years, but purely as a one-man band. At every step of the way, I've been constantly asked to assist with the implementation/execution as well (since I only focus on the planning element).

The thing is, I read a book called Million Dollar Consulting by Alan Weiss, and he always stated that consultants don't ever do execution, that they only focus on the thinking/strategising side. I'm now starting to think that was a big mistake and that I should indeed form a team.

Any thoughts or suggestions in light of the above?

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I'm a freelance consultant, and I charge for my time rather than per-project (except for very small well-defined projects), so I end up doing planning and execution for some clients. If someone is paying me by the hour/day, I'm happy to jump in wherever they want in the process -- I'll even make tea all day if required. :)

I don't think there's anything wrong with an individual choosing only to do strategy though, in the same way that I only choose to work with certain programming languages. I do think it's wrong to say that consultants should never do execution, unless you have a very narrow view of 'consultant'.

I do value pricing and for execution that was always difficult, but i've realised I can do value pricing on the actual strategising that I do, and just time based or project based on the execution my staff will do.

The "consultants don't do execution" mindset is extremely outdated and you're leaving a lot of money on the table if you follow that mantra (as well as giving those of us who do execution a bad name). Even McKinsey staffed up a large Digital & Services org because their strategy-only approach hit a wall. The only thing to look out for is to differentiate your team's billable time between strategy and execution and charge for each accordingly. Clients will often want strategic guidance at execution rates if you're not firm about it.

Thanks for the response. Really appreciate it. OK, I am going to forge ahead with execution.

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