Integrity

When I started my private consulting practice, I based my activity on principles.  I had seen big consulting companies in action and I didn’t like what I saw. They were overcharging and spending too much time schmoozing to get more billable hours. They had marble halls to support and sucked buckets of money out of the corporations they served.

Because my consulting practice was local and private, I could office out of my house and drive to my client companies when I needed to have a meeting or conduct an interview. This allowed me to not load on any “overhead” to my billing rate. Most of my work for these companies could be done from the home office. This enabled me to work around the clock with no wasted time and the extra advantage to meet tight deadlines.

My objective for my client companies was to save them money, so I looked for the cheapest ways to do a great job. All of my work came in by referral and I never made a sales call. I would get calls from potential customers. Depending on their problem, I often referred them to other resources I thought could solve their problem immediately. I never accepted a referral fee from these companies.

I started with the 6 electronics manufacturing companies who kidnapped me to do this in 1993 and ended up with 45 companies and many of these companies called me on a regular basis for decades.

My favorite recruiting job was to replace a sales rep for an electronics company by calling competitor offices and telling them we had the opening and to pass the word. One of them called the VP Sales and took the job. It was a fast, cheap and easy rifle shot.

My favorite turn down was as call to develop an employee survey. I asked what metrics they used and they had no answer. They wanted a phony survey to show their customers. I turned this one down.

I got a call from a large hospital out of town to assess what they could do to improve operations. I spent a week with them and we did a lot. I recommended that they contact a Physician Consulting firm to improve outcomes and reduce cost. I got a call from this firm offering a referral fee. I turned it down and told them to just do a great job for the hospital.

I got a call from a regular customer who needed an Industrial Engineer to redesign their production floor.  I referred a guy I knew who was an MSIE, but had also been a Plant Manager. I showed him how to sign up as a solo consultant and didn’t bill anybody. He stayed on for several years.

After 2008, I called my client companies and said I would help them with layoffs, but our recruiting plans would probably be scrapped.  I suggested that we spend some time having me turn over what I had done for them to someone on their internal staff and that I would be available to answer questions.

I made sure my business plan could afford me the opportunity to operate with integrity.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader