When I started up my company in 2002 I named it ‘Reply’ and I thoughtfully added ‘Management Consulting’ and in the address of my website, this translates as: ‘reply-mc’.
Like all start-ups you start with a fancy name and add meaning to it as you go. For ‘Reply’ it was clear: “Communication is not the message sent, but the message received”, meaning: organizational change is all about dialogue and making sense.
However, it’s the ‘mc’ part that keeps bugging me.
Initially I thought management consulting was a primarily a profession of process oriented people giving priority to the people dynamics, team dynamics and organization dynamics. As such, they are able to move things forward and to create catalysis of any project they are involved in. Apparently I was wrong. Over the past decades the profession of management consulting has turned into a pyramid system of profit making regarless of the cause.
In his 2006 article The Management Myth Matthew Stewart draws the attention to the mess that management consulltants have propelled our profession into. Unfortunately, many other articles bring more evidence to the table.
Damn! Never wanted to be like that. In fact that is precicely why I have become an independent management consultant in 2002. But nowadays an average management consultant is no better off than a prostitute.
Looking at the ‘mc’ part I am thinking to replace the meaning of ‘Management Consulting’ with ‘Master of Ceremonies‘. Just because that matches far better what I really do. I never gave up my dream and the customers I have worked for know what I am capable of.
They also know that I refuse prostitution and that I favor relationship. 80% of the time I do ‘people’. For the other 20% I engage in content. That is how I add value.
