Engage first, customise second and then implement

There are so many wonderful consulting models, principles and strategies out there. I would describe them as gems, brilliant pieces of insight offered up to us by great thinkers. They were developed by individuals who pour their collective hearts and souls into understanding the nature of businesses (both big and small). They do tons of research and then analyse the content to design wonderful solutions to help you overcome all the obstacles that you would come across when you run your very own business or company. If you looked hard enough you're sure to find a solution for the problem that you're facing. They provide us with the necessary templates and tell what rules to follow to arrive at the correct solution. The question is what do you do with the solution once you've found it?

Now I'm going to be very brave and tell you that its as important to learn (or at least read) about these pearls that are offered up by these management consulting gurus...as it is to know when to bend or break them. The reason for my bravery is this, I feel that even though the work being presented comes from experts, it is also for a given set of circumstances and variables. They will give you figures that will cover almost all segments and sizes of companies but you need to be very careful before you implement models, strategies and solutions being proposed by said Gurus.

You need to really understand how they arrived at all the conclusions they have and why they are suggesting that implementing a Balanced Scorecard is the way to go. If you don't engage with the solution properly I fear that you will be Shoe-horning...just trying to force something into a space where its is having difficulty getting into. Now, I'm not suggesting that you throw out the entire solution but rather that you look at customising solutions. This is actually weird coming from me considering that I used to come from the all-or-nothing school of thinking. Previously I rolled my eyes at clients that attempted partial implementations of solutions but now I advocate 'fiddling'. Get something that works for you and as long as you are achieving the required results I think you will achieve the success you require. Don't be afraid to change your mind about an implementation but always give each option a fair chance to positively influence you business...