All too often, companies hire outside consultants to suggest ways for the company to operate more efficiently. If companies were to spend more time listening to their own employees, such consultants would be unnecessary.

Business uses of consultants are not limited to just improving operation efficiency. Consultants are hired to advise on entering new markets, market new products, survey competitiors, or solve financial troubles. While consultants are necessary in the business world, companies should not rely on consultants alone to solve all their problems. The nuances of the company problem must be first examined before hiring a consultancy.

Generally, most of the problems can be solved by internal resources if the management is willing to listen. Compare to consultants, employees have better crasp of the company's operational procedures and problems because they are actively involved in the processes. They are acutely aware of deficiencies and bottlenecks. When a company hires an consultancy, the consutants generally survey the employees to identify the problems and issues and then make recommendations for improvement. Rather than paying consultants to do this, companies should spend the money to set up the proper communication structure to empower their employees. If employees feel they have the ability to enable change, they will be more likely to express their ideas.
This approach is better because it creates an internal culture for improvement that can be sustained for longer time.

Morevoer, consultants often only make recommendations but do not help the company implement the solutions. Most consultanting engagements last only 12 to 16 weeks and at the end, the consultants present their findings and recommendations to management. The expectation is for management to then execute on the recommended solutions. This process often breaks down because there is lack of employee buy-in. More often than not, the execution of the recommendation is poor and the company only gets marginally improvement.

However, not all problems can be solved by listening to the employees. The advantage of a consultancy is that the consultants have broad expertise in the industry because they are constantly speaking to various firms in the field. If a company would like to market a new product or enter a new market, then it should hire consultancy to get their perspective.

Thus, the author statement is to binary without consideration of the nuances of the problem that the company faces. For most situation, it is better to create an internal culture to solve existing business problems; but there are times when outside consultants should be hired depending on the problem.