Have you ever felt you could use some help from the troubled project police?

A few years ago, shortly after Consulting Intelligence was established, Bob Brown was speaking with a former colleague from his days at IBM Business Consulting Services.

He was explaining our firm's specialty -- helping organizations that were having issues or problems with consultants.  He was telling her about our services, from intervening in troubled projects -- in order to get them back on track -- to developing educational programs; even providing expert witness services if required.

"Oh, I understand." she said. "You're like one of those reformed house burglars that's gone straight and is now helping home owners protect their property from other house burglars."

”No," Bob said.  "It's not like that.  I wasn't doing anything illegal before.  We're the GOOD guys!"

"So," she exclaimed, "you're like the consulting cops?"

Bob laughed and dismissed the comment but thought about it over the ensuing weeks.  He didn't think it was really an accurate representation of what we did.  It's not as if consultants are the cause of ALL troubled or failed projects.  Sometimes, the client in question is able to seriously mess up a project all by themselves.

But clients and others liked the story -- most wanting to believe every failed project is usually the fault of the consultants involved.  Some of those who heard the story even asked if we carried badges.  We said "No," but it got us thinking.

So, now we do. We carry our business cards in small, custom made, black leather cases -- each with one of the badges pictured above. It gives us an opportunity to tell the "consulting police" story and to describe how we help our clients to 'arrest' bad consulting.

UPDATE: Over time, it became clear that our initial reservations about the use of the term “consulting police” might have been right.  After much discussion, we decided to change it to “troubled project police” as that accurately reflected our approach to troubled projects – identifying the problem, determining what went wrong and then helping our clients to recover.

Whether it’s regarding a troubled project or helping a client negotiate a multi-million dollar consulting contract we’re just a call away.

How can we be of assistance to you?