December 14, 2020

 Stephen Allen

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Law firms and law departments don’t need ‘experts’ espousing advice or issuing a report; they need to get sh*t done. This is why consulting organizations’ usual approach – to listen, cogitate and opine – is ill-suited to the crush of the day-to-day lives of partners and general counsel alike. Adding meaningful value requires a start-to-finish focus on crafting and implementing solutions – processes, technology, and people – that meet a particular law organization’s immediate and emerging needs. It’s not enough to spot and state what’s wrong. In summary – you need to ‘find the money,’ ‘get the money,’ and ‘keep the money.’ What matters is helping lawyers accomplish the jobs that need to be done.

The challenges law organizations face never fit neatly into a single offering. As much as a service or technology provider might claim a one-size-fits-all solution, the devil, as they say, is in the detail. No two firms or law departments are identical; the differences – in culture, structure, strategic goals, operational realities, fiscal and other constraints – inevitably render any pre-fab solution ill-fitting. “Bespoke” has become a cliché, but the term gets to an important truth: the best solutions – ones that help you ‘find, get, and keep the money’ – are not off-the-rack; they must be tailored to an organization’s specific and unique needs.

These ideas propelled Elevate to reimagine and redesign our approach to helping clients radically. We call it Consulting 2.0. The entire purpose of Consulting 2.0 is to help customers ‘get sh*t done,’ and it differs from the traditional approach to consulting in several deeply impactful ways.

Our ethos is simple.  Start with the customer’s needs and help them establish the Jobs To Be Done, which the customer is looking to achieve strategically. Consulting 2.0 is not in the business of selling and then moving on to the next prospect; we are invested in developing relationships that provide lasting, demonstrable value (or, put another way, relationships that result in you ‘finding, getting, and keeping the money’). And we understand that we must provide ‘living’ solutions –sustainable ones that evolve as circumstances change.

To this end, in launching Consulting 2.0, we have rejected the highly hierarchical structure of the major consulting firms. Why? Because pecking orders serve the consultants, not the customer.  Consulting 2.0 provides customers with the right person, based on their talent, knowledge, and expertise at solving that problem. We reject the value-proposition where how much a customer pays a consultant (i.e., their hourly rate) is a function of their title – which in turn typically reflects ‘time in the seat’ – and nothing to do with the matching of skills and need.

In doing away with the associate/partner paradigm, we have created three roles in our advisory practice: Solutioners, Deliverers, and Experts. Their roles reflect how they help customers:

• Solutioners act as a customer advocate. They work with customers to clarify the Jobs To Be Done. They ensure the whole of Elevate is brought to bear on delivering solutions that meet that customer’s specific need. Throughout, the Solutioner asks, ‘Are we providing the customer a launchpad for success?’
• Deliverers design and manage the delivery of a solution. They collaborate with Solutioners and Experts to ensure that the right problems are being solved the right way – and that solutions are delivered on-time, on-budget, and on-point.
• Experts possess deep knowledge and real-world experience in a particular area – technology, process, or subject matter. They contribute expertise to a solution ensuring quality and alignment.

Organizing Elevate’s advisory services around these three roles institutionalizes the customer-centric approach of Consulting 2.0.

If you have a Job To Be Done, we are here to help you ‘find the money,’ ‘get the money,’ and ‘keep the money’ – unlike the ‘Big Consultancies’ who are looking to spend your money!