Choosing Innovation Consultants

I am asked often by colleagues at Fortune 100 companies to recommend or suggest an innovation consultant.  Choosing one is challenging for two reasons: the client is not always clear what type of innovation they want, or they are not sure what type of innovation a consultant offers.  Here are three factors to consider when choosing an innovation consultant:  1.  TYPE of consultant, 2.  METHOD used, and 3.  ROLE of the consultant. 

The innovation space has become so crowded that I group them into four types:

INVENTION:  These are consultants that help you create new-to-the-world ideas.  They have a particular expertise in creativity methods or idea generation tools.  Their main focus is generation of many new product or service ideas.

DESIGN:  These are consultants that take an existing product, service, or idea and put some new, innovative form to it.  They have a particular expertise in industrial design or human factors design.  Their main focus is transforming the way a product is used or experienced.

ENGINEERING:  These are consultants that help you make the new idea work in practice.  They have a particular expertise in technology, science, research, and problem solving.  Their main focus is building it.

ACTUALIZATION:  These are consultants that help you get the innovation into the marketplace.  They have a particular expertise in marketing processes, brand, or commercial launch of a product or service.  Their main focus is selling it.

The challenge is many consultants claim to be all of these.  While true for some, my sense is that all firms started off as one type and then expanded to cover the others.  The question to ask yourself is: would you be better off matching your need to their original core expertise, or would you be better off going to a one-stop shop...a firm that can do it all even though their core expertise is, say, design.  How do you know what type the firm really is?  Study the biography of their founder.  What was the founder's education, experience, work background, interests, etc.  The founder is where the core orientation of the firm begins.  The other practice types get bolted on later.

Step Two is understanding their method.  The first question I ask consultants is, "Do you know how to innovate?"  The second question is, "How?"  I want to understand their method of innovation, and I want to be able to explain it to other people.  I want to know the efficacy.  Has it worked in the past and will it work on my project?  Show me the data.

Step Three is understanding the role of the innovation consultant.  Is this a DIY (do-it-yourself) approach where you are given some software or other resource to create innovation on your own?  Is this a DIWY (do-it-with-you) approach where the consultant leads and facilitates groups of your employees to innovate together?  Is this a DIFY (do-it-for-you) approach where the consultant takes your problem specification and comes back with their recommended solutions?  Or, is this training?  All of these roles are valid depending your need.

I am impressed with the talent and variety of the consultants in the innovation space today.  It becomes even more impressive when you select the right one for the job.

Comments

[amnon levav]

hi Drew,

Being an innovation consultant, I am obviously not objective on this theme (are we on any, i wonder), but here is a thought:
I think you have covered quite comprehensively the typology and the questions a client needs to know answers to. My small recommendation: probably what you see, what you observe, is more powerful than the answers you get from the consultant to your questions. In other words, how we behave is probably a better indication of what we are worth than what we say. As someone who has often failed the test, but hopefully more often passed it, i believe it is a better indicator.
Amnon

[Drew]

Good advice. So the client should do a bit of ethnography, so to speak, on the consultant? I agree. One should be able to observe innovation...and the consultant's approach to facilitate it.

[Thomas Ames]

Great advice, Drew. I find that too many clients don't ask this information, but I freely give it, as it is a great way to make them more comfortable with myself and my consulting firm.

I also find that too many consultants don't adequately provide the right type of service and instead try to make themselves seem as the all-knowing firm, doing every part of the project, qualified or otherwise. I tend to be very specific in my services, and it allows clients to know they will receive the best service in that area, and I freely refer other services to better qualified firms.