This would not be a very good value advisory site if it did not address its own value. So let’s dig in to why you should think about working with an outside consultant.
As an initial matter, you do not need to hire an outside consultant to stand up, improve, or expand your value program. The value isn’t in doing something you cannot do yourself. The question is whether your have the time and resources.
Execute Faster. One big reason to look outside is if you and your team have competing responsibilities that would lead to a drawn-out planning and execution process. This is not the most technically challenging endeavour you could pursue — but it does take a significant time investment. If time is one thing you don’t have in excess, we can help tackle the work without taking you away from your other commitments.
Execute Cheaper. On an hourly-equivalent basis, external consulting will not likely be cheaper than what an FTE would cost. Depending on experience and seniority, a typical value engineer would cost you between $150,000 and $300,000 annually (fully-burdened with salary, taxes, healthcare, etc.) In a typical 2,080 hour work-year that’s an hourly rate of roughly $75 – $150. A consultant will likely be near or above the top of that range.
The key difference is the total commitment. Rather than budgeting that full $150-$300k, you may only need to secure 10% of that for an outside party to come in, focus on this specific task, and get you where you need to be in a matter of weeks.
Execute Better. While this is not as complicated or specialized as a core engineering challenge, there is something to be said for working with someone who’s spent time building and expanding programs before. Most of that value comes in the form of knowing the sorts of issues that can pop up and what to do ahead of time to protect against them. There is also some benefit to having an outside perspective on your processes and value statements. Everyone can have blindspots, especially when needing to be critical of solutions we champion every day.
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Executing on your value vision better, faster, and cheaper: those are the three key areas where we can help. If that would help you push past your resource constraints and move forward with your program, let’s chat.