When Great Consultants Fail to Deliver Value

You can't win on technical excellence without successful project management

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Dec 05, 2024

Your consulting firm has assembled a dream team of technical experts for a new project. The client is impressed by their credentials, your proposal has been accepted, and everything looks promising.

Three months later, the project is struggling. The client is frustrated, your team is burning out, and profit margins are eroding rapidly. What’s gone wrong?

In the consulting industry, we often fall into the trap of believing that technical excellence is the key to success. However, our experience shows that even the most knowledgeable consultants can fail to deliver value when their project management capabilities are lacking.

The consequences of poor project management extend far beyond missed deadlines and budget overruns – they can fundamentally undermine the three pillars of consulting success:

Client Impact: While your deliverables might be technically sound, they fail to drive the transformative outcomes the client sought. This gap between outputs and actual impact often stems from poor project management rather than technical shortcomings.
Commercial Performance: Projects that appear profitable on paper become margin-eroding nightmares due to scope creep, inefficient resource allocation, and poor commercial management.
Team Wellbeing: Perhaps most concerningly, inadequate project management can lead to stretched personal boundaries, missed development opportunities, and team burnout – creating a hidden cost that affects both current performance and future capability.

So, how do you ensure this doesn’t happen to you?

The six sides to project management excellence

To achieve consistent excellence in consulting project management performance, six interconnected elements must work in harmony:

The Honeycomb Framework for Exceptional Consistency in Consulting Project Management Performance

1. Clear Expectations

Success begins with clearly articulated expectations. While most firms have competency frameworks, these often fall short by staying too high-level – think vague statements like "will manage projects end-to-end." What's really needed is practical, detailed guidance that brings project management to life. This means developing comprehensive standard operating procedures that spell out exactly how meetings should run, what good planning looks like, and which systems to use in different scenarios. Think of it as creating a playbook that turns high-level aspirations into concrete, actionable guidance.

2. Project Management Mindset

Process knowledge alone isn't enough – it must be paired with the right mindset. An effective project manager steps into each engagement knowing they're ultimately responsible for its success. They understand that while risks and challenges are inevitable, they're not insurmountable obstacles but expected hurdles to be anticipated and overcome. This ownership mindset means never hiding behind process or waiting for others to solve problems. Instead, they proactively identify risks and take action before issues escalate.

3. Diverse Skill Set

Today's consulting project managers need to be versatile performers, combining multiple approaches and capabilities. They should be equally comfortable with traditional waterfall planning and modern agile methodologies, knowing when to use each and how to blend them effectively. Commercial skills are crucial too – understanding how to protect margins and optimise resource use. Perhaps most importantly, they need the communication skills to not just convey information but to inspire action and build lasting relationships. The most successful will be part technician, part strategist, and part influencer.

4. Deep Knowledge Base

While project managers don't need to be the deepest technical expert on every topic, they do need enough understanding to effectively orchestrate their specialist teams. The best project managers are masters at leveraging both their team's expertise and their firm's accumulated knowledge. They know how to tap into previous experiences and case studies, applying lessons learned to new situations. They also invest time in truly understanding their client's business – not just the project objectives, but the broader context and value drivers that will determine real success.

5. Consistent Discipline

Excellence in project management comes from consistently applying good practices, even under pressure. This means having the discipline to properly delegate work (rather than doing it yourself), clearly defining task outcomes (not just activities), and maintaining rigorous progress monitoring. It's about creating habits that ensure commercial performance is regularly assessed and time is accurately tracked. The best project managers make these disciplines look effortless because they've embedded them into their daily routine.

6. Technology Enablement

Modern project management requires embracing a growing toolkit of enabling technologies. This goes beyond basic planning tools to encompass the full spectrum of project management, communication, and productivity solutions. Today's project managers need to be comfortable with everything from Kanban boards to critical path tools, from collaboration platforms to emerging AI capabilities. The key is choosing the right tools for each situation and using them to enhance rather than complicate project delivery.

A particularly relevant consideration for consulting firms today is the emergence of generative AI tools. We're currently in a "golden window" where these technologies can significantly enhance project efficiency and boost margins. However, this advantage is temporary – clients will soon expect AI-driven efficiency gains to be reflected in pricing structures. Firms that move quickly to integrate these tools while maintaining premium pricing will benefit most from this transition period.

Making excellent project management your advantage

Achieving excellence in project management requires both individual and organisational commitment. While consultants can develop many of the required capabilities, firms also need to provide an enabling environment for success.

So, what do the firms who do this well have in common?

They invest in clear processes and expectations, and bring them to life through regular coaching and practical application.
Their knowledge management systems aren't just repositories of past projects; they're living libraries that make it easy for project managers to find relevant case studies, templates, and lessons learned when they need them most.
Their technology infrastructure creates an integrated ecosystem that enhances, rather than complicates, project delivery.
Perhaps most importantly, they create structured development paths and celebrate and reward exceptional project management, not just technical expertise, sending a clear message about its importance to the firm's success.

In summary

Technical excellence remains crucial in consulting, but it must be matched by exceptional project management to deliver real value. By focusing on all six elements of the Honeycomb framework – expectations, mindset, skills, knowledge, discipline, and technology – firms can build the project management capability needed to consistently deliver successful outcomes for their clients, teams, and bottom line.

The cost of poor project management extends far beyond immediate project failures. It erodes client trust, damages team morale, and undermines firm profitability. In today's increasingly competitive consulting landscape, firms cannot afford to treat project management as an afterthought – it must be developed with the same rigour and investment as technical capabilities.

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