Posting as an individual who is a consultant, not on behalf of my employer
Thanks for the great post and the insightful comments! Building on your thoughts some additional comments from a consultants perspective (Worked two years at BCG on 10+ projects in the public, private and social sector; founded the Effective Altruism and Consulting Network; was Vice-Pres. for EA Austria):
On the need for consulting services: Generally speaking, I agree that consultancy can in specific circumstances (e.g., clearly defined objective, no expertise or free resources inhouse, enough capacity on the client-side to provide input and guidance, …) unlock value for the EA community and we already got several requests from different EA orgs via the effective altruism and consulting network (e.g., on calculating a business case, researching some data, assessing the feasibility of some planned projects). I also believe that investments in consultancies can be a waste of money if the project isn’t clearly defined. There is also a variance of quality in the market (the same general principle as with every purchasing decision apply: you need to find the right fit for your needs, the more money you spent the higher the likelihood of high-quality output, …). Additional efficiency gains for the EA community (esp. for local groups) might lay in setting up a shared service centre for EA orgs . Shared service centres offer standardized services (some of them mentioned above) such as support with marketing/layouts, HR services, reviews/translations, … . The difference to consultancy services is that a shared service centre covers much more the routine tasks every org has to deal with and is meant to be long-term support (vs. short-term/project engagements of consultants).
On the need for an EA-specific consultancy: While I generally believe that there might be specific services, where it is useful to have EA experience and build expertise over the years (e.g., EA trainings, the great work RP is doing), I would generally argue that many of the tasks listed above can be done by non-EA consultancies as
many of them need little to none EA specific input (e.g., the technical side of web development)
customization is needed for almost every client and a lot of the required input can be provided by the EA org/client with little time invest (see also the comment of JeremyR; e.g., for standard HR processes every org has)
you can benefit from years of experience from different industries normal consultants bring to the table
you as the client are in the driver seat of structuring the project so you get out of it, what you want (see also next bullet)
On the value of consulting services and the role the client plays: Additionally on the points mentioned above on the mixed quality of providers and projects, I would also argue that most people underestimate the role the clients play in delivering a successful project. This starts by assessing whether a consulting engagement is the right solution for the problem, deciding how much money you spent and choosing the consultancy/team. Clients have immense power to tailor the team and project set-up as well as deliverables based on their needs. Examples of good practices I have seen were partnering client and consulting team members to make sure knowledge transfer takes place in both directions as well as the client asking for ways how we could be wrong.
One way to drive this further would be to (1) assess and structure the different (future) needs and concerns etc., (2) identify relevant segments for external support, (3) define the best delivery model for the prioritized needs (inhouse, shared service centre, EA consultancy, freelancer, normal consultancy)
+1 to all Jona writes here—with the caveat that consulting firms like McKinsey or BCG can also help you scope the project and prioritize what’s most important to work on. This of course requires some level of trust (like in all professional services where the client may not know their exact needs), which strengthens the case for using EA consultants at least for pilot projects until norms around using consultants are well-established.
Posting as an individual who is a consultant, not on behalf of my employer
To complement:
I think the discussion would benefit from a more clear distinction between research on the one hand and (strategy) consulting on the other. Of course, research is often part of a consulting project, but there is a different skillset required in order to a) perform diligent quant. / qual. reserach, or b) strategically steer decisions and projects.
From the discussion and RP’s positioning, I observe that there definitely is a need for a) research.
I would be interested in how much there is a need for b) (strategy) consulting. Below is a list my (bold) hypotheses of potential projects that might be interesting to EA-aligned organisations:
- Developing a marketing strategy for NGOs - Developing a recruitment strategy for NGOs - Optimizing cost structure of NGOs - Project management - Influencing senior decision makers / policy makers - Facilitating workshops
I would highly appreciate if you could falsify / verify the need for these types of projects, or complement the list as you see fit—thank you!
Posting as an individual who is a consultant, not on behalf of my employer
Thanks for the great post and the insightful comments! Building on your thoughts some additional comments from a consultants perspective (Worked two years at BCG on 10+ projects in the public, private and social sector; founded the Effective Altruism and Consulting Network; was Vice-Pres. for EA Austria):
On the need for consulting services: Generally speaking, I agree that consultancy can in specific circumstances (e.g., clearly defined objective, no expertise or free resources inhouse, enough capacity on the client-side to provide input and guidance, …) unlock value for the EA community and we already got several requests from different EA orgs via the effective altruism and consulting network (e.g., on calculating a business case, researching some data, assessing the feasibility of some planned projects). I also believe that investments in consultancies can be a waste of money if the project isn’t clearly defined. There is also a variance of quality in the market (the same general principle as with every purchasing decision apply: you need to find the right fit for your needs, the more money you spent the higher the likelihood of high-quality output, …). Additional efficiency gains for the EA community (esp. for local groups) might lay in setting up a shared service centre for EA orgs . Shared service centres offer standardized services (some of them mentioned above) such as support with marketing/layouts, HR services, reviews/translations, … . The difference to consultancy services is that a shared service centre covers much more the routine tasks every org has to deal with and is meant to be long-term support (vs. short-term/project engagements of consultants).
On the need for an EA-specific consultancy: While I generally believe that there might be specific services, where it is useful to have EA experience and build expertise over the years (e.g., EA trainings, the great work RP is doing), I would generally argue that many of the tasks listed above can be done by non-EA consultancies as
many of them need little to none EA specific input (e.g., the technical side of web development)
customization is needed for almost every client and a lot of the required input can be provided by the EA org/client with little time invest (see also the comment of JeremyR; e.g., for standard HR processes every org has)
you can benefit from years of experience from different industries normal consultants bring to the table
you as the client are in the driver seat of structuring the project so you get out of it, what you want (see also next bullet)
On the value of consulting services and the role the client plays: Additionally on the points mentioned above on the mixed quality of providers and projects, I would also argue that most people underestimate the role the clients play in delivering a successful project. This starts by assessing whether a consulting engagement is the right solution for the problem, deciding how much money you spent and choosing the consultancy/team. Clients have immense power to tailor the team and project set-up as well as deliverables based on their needs. Examples of good practices I have seen were partnering client and consulting team members to make sure knowledge transfer takes place in both directions as well as the client asking for ways how we could be wrong.
One way to drive this further would be to (1) assess and structure the different (future) needs and concerns etc., (2) identify relevant segments for external support, (3) define the best delivery model for the prioritized needs (inhouse, shared service centre, EA consultancy, freelancer, normal consultancy)
+1 to all Jona writes here—with the caveat that consulting firms like McKinsey or BCG can also help you scope the project and prioritize what’s most important to work on. This of course requires some level of trust (like in all professional services where the client may not know their exact needs), which strengthens the case for using EA consultants at least for pilot projects until norms around using consultants are well-established.
Posting as an individual who is a consultant, not on behalf of my employer
To complement:
I think the discussion would benefit from a more clear distinction between research on the one hand and (strategy) consulting on the other.
Of course, research is often part of a consulting project, but there is a different skillset required in order to a) perform diligent quant. / qual. reserach, or b) strategically steer decisions and projects.
From the discussion and RP’s positioning, I observe that there definitely is a need for a) research.
I would be interested in how much there is a need for b) (strategy) consulting. Below is a list my (bold) hypotheses of potential projects that might be interesting to EA-aligned organisations:
- Developing a marketing strategy for NGOs
- Developing a recruitment strategy for NGOs
- Optimizing cost structure of NGOs
- Project management
- Influencing senior decision makers / policy makers
- Facilitating workshops
I would highly appreciate if you could falsify / verify the need for these types of projects, or complement the list as you see fit—thank you!