Partner vs. Consultant - A Simple Guide on How to Know Which Option to Go With

In my years working in corporate finance I’ve had many occasions where the business I oversaw, related companies in the group, or clients I worked with required a specialist skill set, which were not employed internally. Naturally we looked around and almost always we would end up making a case for using consultants to help us get through unfamiliar territory. Sometimes this worked quite well, but sometimes it failed miserably. I rarely took the time to think about why our company’s strategy of using very knowledgeable & experienced professionals failed, compared to when it didn’t. As I look back over the years, I can see a pattern in the successes and failures, and the exploration of these situations and circumstances surrounding them helped me come up with a rough guide of when I or my clients require a consultant versus when they require a partner.

I hope you find the above rules of thumb of some help to you in your decision-making process for choosing a partner vs. a consultant. In the end it boils down to whether you need guidance and commentary or someone to take action and get busy doing the work. Guidance and commentary are great situations for consulting expertise, while taking action and moving forward in the business are better situations for partners.

For more information or questions please feel free to contact me at: Gabriel.lindsay@pbh.work