To support my efforts here, I get daily alerts from Google spiders who hunt for news about, or otherwise concerning, MBAs and the GMAT.  Every now and then one of these alerts will contain a snippet of information from the interwebs that subsequently does its job and inspires a post. One such link led me to this CNBC article about a new start-up called Hourly Nerd.

Hourly Nerd is a by-product of Harvard Business School’s FIELD curriculum—a fairly recent addition to HBS pedagogy and one I have written about before here and here. Soon-to-be Harvard MBAs started Hourly Nerd with the intention of matching money-starved students with time-and-money-starved businesses. The model actually reminds me of one used by crowdSPRING: a service that matches those in need of graphic design services with those who can provide them, all at a below-market price. For the record, I like the model.

When reading the aforementioned article, I could not help but be reminded of one of the most critical lessons I took away from my time in b-school. I learned this from the incredible people at The Idea Village, an entrepreneurial champion and incubator proudly based in New Orleans, Louisiana. I did a lot of work with The Idea Village; specifically, I worked as a consultant to several of their clients across a range of projects.

When smart, driven people take on short-term, limited-scope projects the expectation is that they will be able to walk in, grab all the information needed via a quick conversation, get the project done independently in only a handful of hours, and present the deliverable to an endlessly-grateful client.

Of course, this is not how things work. It always takes longer and is always more work than initially conceived by either party. Granted, this reality check is not knowledge privileged only to experts nor can it only be derived through extensive experience in the field. What often does go unnoticed or unconsidered by even the most seasoned among us, however, is the toll the outside consultant will exact on the client beyond monetary compensation.

It is easy for the consultant to feel almost as if they are doing the client a favor. What the consultant fails to realize is that every second spent by the client on this project with the consultant costs that client time and money—both resources that would have definitely been expended elsewhere and likely will be anyway.

Similarly, a paying client is often under the illusion that since someone has been hired to complete a project, the client’s major responsibilities begin and end with cutting a check. Not so. Consultants require much, much more. Not only must the scope of the project be articulated, agreed upon, and often changed throughout its course—a very demanding task, to be sure—but also the consultant must be made to understand all the soft stuff that surrounds the project. Examples of the soft include: the company culture; the history of the project to date; why the client is moving on the project now as opposed to before or after now; what can vs. what should vs. what will be done with the deliverable after the consultant finishes; overall and specific expectations of a completed project… the list goes on.

In short, the disruption caused by the consultant must be considered, respected, and taken into account. Yes, a consultant is hired to do a job and the contract is entered into voluntarily by both parties. It is unavoidable that resources must be allocated and expended—money and otherwise—to ensure the job gets done right. However, empathy for the client by the consultant can and will go a long way, both in terms of quality of process and quality of the deliverable.

Any experiences out there on this point? I’d love to hear from you.