Deliverables

Recently another consulting firm contacted me via a mutual acquaintance and inquired if SSCM5 would be willing to work with their firm on some engagements. The man who contacted me stated that while they have supply chain consultants for healthcare they were occasionally too busy to fill all of their assignments.

While I know this happens in consulting all of the time I immediately sensed that something was amiss. You see, this firm is currently attempting to woo one of our existing clients and was told, by the client, that they were interested in expense reduction consulting services, but supply chain was off the table. It seems that this client knows that under SSCM5’s direction they have achieved the best results of any large health system in their state, and they are highly satisfied. On the other hand, the competitor’s firm has several nearby clients who pay hundreds of dollars more in supply costs per discharge. In a large system this translates into many millions of dollars.

Being polite on the telephone I just said something like, “Sure, we’ll have to see what we can do.” All along thinking, “That will be the day”. Then they dropped their trap line. They asked if we would send them a sample of our deliverable, meaning a report.

Aside from the fact that our reports are proprietary and will never be shown to another consulting firm (at least not by us), the shocking fact is that this firm considers a report to be the deliverable. This got me thinking. It hit me – hard - that SSCM5 has achieved, at least within our own culture, what we set out to achieve. We view results as the deliverable and the report as simply an interim stage outlining what results we intend to achieve. This simple difference is huge.

I am so happy to be in consulting and to be making a difference to the bottom line of my clients. I just wish everyone in my profession was capable of doing this.