A few years ago, when Carol Nichols arrived as head of human resources with NVCT, the fast-expanding telecoms and software services company, she knew that from day one working with management consultancy firms would be an integral part of her role. "I had already decided on the kind of consultancies I wanted to employ." she says. When I started, I was pretty much a one-woman department. So it was important for me to form partnerships to help me support the growth of department and the company. What I wanted was smaller consultancies with whom I could establish personal relationships-firms which would grow with us, and be flexible enough to respond to our changing needs
几年前，当Carol Nichols担任快速扩张的电信合软件服务公司NVCT人力资源的主管时，她就知道，从一开始就与管理咨询公司合作，将是她工作中不可或缺的一部分。"我已经决定我想雇佣什么样的咨询公司。"她说，当我刚开始的时候，我基本上是一个人的部门。因此对于我来说，建立伙伴关系帮助我支持部门和公司的发展是很重要的。我想要是一些规模较小的咨询公司，我和可以和他们建立个人关系-这些公司将会和我们一起成长，并有足够的灵活性来应对我们不断变化的需求。
Paul Eden, Managing Director of NVCT, confirms the desirability of smaller consultancies."Larger firms have a tendency to use one person to sell, and another to deliver, with the result that clients may not really know who or what they are buying. With a smaller firm, you are buying the consultant as much as the product--the person rather than the brand".
NVCT公司的总经理，Paul Eden确认了较小咨询公司的必要性。"更大的公司倾向于用一个人来销售，另一个人送达，结果客户可能真的不知道他们跟谁买了或者是他们买了什么。对于更小的公司，你所购买的顾问和产品的数量一样多--买的是人而不是品牌."
Penny White, financial services group Interco's Head of Strategic Management, highlights other advantages of the smaller consultancy. "A small consultancy recognises that it cannot do everything and is much more willing to work with other preferred consultants for the good of the client," She says. "And on fees, smaller consultancies can be less rigid and more cost-effective, simply because their overheads are lower. That is not to say that they need to undercut to win business, but part of a small consultancy's strategy must be to thoroughly investigate how to add value to everything it does. Larger consultancies are gaining expertise in business psychology and applying it to running change programmes, but they still tend to bring in their own team to implement projects, which means that when they move on, they know how goes with them, leaving the client with a knowledge vacuum, not the integrated training that small firms, in particular really need."
