Corn, beef, oil, bandwidth. These are commodities. They are homogeneous items that can be traded and exchanged, bought and sold in bulk. Should consultancy be a commodity? Is your value indistinguishable from another consultant? Corn is corn, but your value proposition must be unique – Moreover, clients deserve the benefit of a customized, non-commoditized approach to their projects.

What frequently ends up happening is that hiring a project manager takes on a procurement philosophy. An RFP is drawn up. Big consulting firms bid for multimillion-dollar projects with lowest cost hourly rate possible for consultants and project managers… This doesn’t mean that they are “bad” consultants; or that consultants who work for large firms have a mass-produced approach. But neither does it mean you will get the best. It simply means you got someone who is willing to work for a low price in exchange for the knowledge and experience he/she brings.

This process commoditizes the very people companies are depending to deliver unique solutions to high cost projects. That is a huge disconnect. A great many project managers and consultants bring vast experience, and not just in project managing. They have worked in public service, in industry… they have taken the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. They have the scars, and they take these scars and translate them into very specific knowledge and experience that they bring to the table. That is not a commodity. That is value.

Companies tend to take a tick-box approach to project management:

• Project plan: check.
• Risk management plan: check.
• Resourcing plan: check.

It’s an assembly line, and one risk log can be the same as another as another. There is no differentiation. In reality, though, the differentiators of project managers is their experience, their ability to lead and manage, their communication skills, and their creativity. This is what they will bring to the project. Managing people’s expectations up and down the line and engaging employees are hard to put into a tick-box.

Project management and recovery is about people. While there are processes and methodologies, it is not an exact science. It is an art. For consultants to put themselves in a position to be bought as a commodity undercuts their ability as professionals. It undersells the value that they bring to projects and clients.

Imagine you have to have surgery. Would you select your surgeon based on whether he/she has scalpels, latex gloves, and a low price? Or would you base your decision on his experience, his training, his successful outcomes, his ability to understand, diagnose, and treat? Commoditizing your multimillion dollar project manager is as illogical as using a tick-box approach to choose your doctor. You don’t want someone who essentially sells his services in bulk; you want someone who can customize solutions for your unique projects.