Very interesting post today over at the All Roads Lead To China Blog, entitled, In Defense of the China Consultant. It caught my eye because it starts out saying that it was inspired by a recent post on here, “China as Currency Manipulator. Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? According to All Roads, this post, along with a number of other posts on other blogs, dealt with whether a China Consultant is needed and how to pick one.
The weird thing is that my post to which All Roads refers, never once mentions the word “consultant” and, near as I can tell, had absolutely nothing to do with the issues All Roads raises in his post. I am not sure if All Roads mistook someone else’s post for mine or if he accidentally linked to the wrong post on our blog. Either way, I am glad for his mistake as it now gives me the opportunity to agree wholeheartedly with him and to expand a bit on his post.
All Roads’ post talks of how there “has never been a true debate about the role of a consultant, or how firms should look to work with these people/ organizations. A debate that I would say is sorely needed. Not because I think that there is anything wrong with the ‘China consultant’, but because I feel there is a disconnect between the value that these people/organizations provide, what the client needs, and how an engagement should be structured for success”
All Roads then provides two very good and very recent examples in his work as a China consultant where his clients hired him to consult on China and then failed to heed his advice, at their own peril. All Roads then concludes his post by nothing that “there is absolutely nothing wrong with the ‘China Consultant’.
I agree 110%.
And because I am not a China consultant, my perspective is fully neutral.
Clients are always asking me and other lawyers in my firm for business advice and we are always very reluctant to give it. We are reluctant to give it because we are lawyers not consultants. If a client asks us whether we think their business should locate in Shanghai or in Chengdu, we might tell them that Shanghai courts/judges are much better than Chengdu courts/judges and so their IP will likely be better protected in Shanghai than in Chengdu, but we are not the people to talk to about rental rates, wage rates, electricity prices, water rates, quality of work force, etc. We have some idea of those things because we hear about them all them time from our clients, but our knowledge is mostly anecdotal.
We refer those clients to China consultants. If they have questions regarding how they can best get their product from Qingdao to Quincy, we refer them to logistics consultants. If their question is whether their office in Dalian will really be that much cheaper than in Shenzhen, we refer them to real estate consultants. If their question is how much it will cost for them to build such and such kind of facility in Chongqing, we refer them to China operational consultants. If their question is where they should go for good and cheap widgets, we refer them to sourcing consultants. If the question is whether it makes sense for them to translate their English brand names into Chinese, we refer them to branding consultants. If their question is whether there is a need for their product or service in China, we refer them to marketing consultants. If they need help with financial or tax matters, we refer them to financial and/or accounting consultants.
Occassionally, clients push to have my law firm do these sorts of things for them and our response to that is always the same: if you want to pay lawyer rates to have us do things at which we have never claimed expertise, you can, but I strongly suggest you use those who actually do these things ever day. We are batting 1000 in that no client has ever retained us for any of the above. And that is because I view China consultants as absolutely critical in many circumstances. I often then tell them to be suspicious of lawyers who claim to “consult” in addition to practicting law.
I have worked with dozens of “China consultants” and, almost without exception, I have found that when used properly, they bring real value to the companies that retain them. Until today, I never even knew there was a dispute about this, but if there is, please let the record reflect that I stand with the consultants on this one.
What do you think? Consultants, good or bad?
