Classic strategy - Team "A" wins the work, Team "B" does the work.
"Old" business thinking.
Consultancies use their best resources for selling the work, with second-stringers (often recent hires and graduates) for doing the work.
Impacts
Consultants increase yield rates, companies feel cheated, project management goes from managing execution to mitigating hard feelings.
New Business Thinking
Nobody wants team "A" to implement the project.
Team "A" are sales specialists, schmoozers, experts at the message, and relationship initiators.
But how can that happen? They "fell in love" with these guys enough to sign an "X" million dollar contract with them. Why would they be happy to work with anybody else?
Because they met Team "B".
Team "B" are implementation experts. Pragmatic, practical, and dripping with experience.
Team "A" leave you inspired, Team "B" give you a sense of security. Sure they have some trainees with them, but they are there to learn the ropes.
Clients don't have to pay for consultant training and the people holding the reins are obvious experts. The ImpactEveryone wins.
The Moral of the Story.
Talent (as Tom Peters says) is your brand. Winning work with the real talent, then dumping the trainees on a client is old news and its time is over. Clients are onto it.
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