本地和尚也能念好顾问这本经

    2008年，当达美航空（Delta）与西北航空（Northwest Airlines）宣布两家公司将进行合并时，此时，美国运通负责达美航空联合品牌的副总裁戴维•拉布金早已想好了公司的应对方案。

    达美航空内部并没有他的线人，可以向他透露交易的细节。只不过，消息传来时，他刚刚从美国运通的内部管理顾问团队——策略规划小组（SPG），来到公司的达美联合品牌部。达美航空是公司最大的联合品牌合作伙伴。两年前，他就曾经与SPG团队的其他成员共同预想了一个案例，即如果达美航空与另外一家航空公司合并会发生什么情况？

    拉布金称：“我们早有万全之策。”拉布金在美国运通的SPG团队工作了两年时间，之后才调往达美航空联合品牌部。

    如果从外部聘请顾问，不可避免会招致管理层个别人的抱怨。虽然优秀的咨询公司既有新鲜的观点，也有丰富的经验，但公司担心，聘用它们可能使竞争对手获得公司的机密，威胁公司的文化，或者担心顾问们的建议和各种演示根本起不到任何作用。

    价格同样是个问题。宾夕法尼亚州立大学沃顿商学院（Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania）管理学教授劳伦斯•赫比尼亚克称：“如果要考虑成本问题，那就别聘用麦肯锡咨询公司(McKinsey)。”

    赫比尼亚克称，大多数大型机构都依靠外聘顾问为其新方案提供建议，但许多大型公司，比如戴尔（Dell）和惠氏集团（Wyeth）等，都成立了内部顾问团队，一方面可以使公司新行动方案的执行更加灵活，同时又能保持公司的竞争优势。

    由于许多公司对内部顾问团队的称呼不尽相同，因此我们很难得到关于这些公司的具体数量。但赫比尼亚克认为，依赖内部顾问的公司会越来越多，内部顾问团队可以作为外聘顾问的补充，甚至完全取代外部顾问。

    当然，赫比尼亚克指出，依靠内聘人员必然会面临各种风险。比如，内聘人员可能缺乏久经沙场的资深顾问所具备的行业知识和经验。而且，赫比尼亚克认为，让同事对自己的工作指手画脚，难免会使管理层滋生怨恨之心，并且会认为“这个内部团队是在清算我们的工作。”

    他表示：“他们简直就像公司内部的‘秘密警察’。但是，没人喜欢无间道这一套。”

    但实际上，如果精心设计、执行有方，内部顾问团队有望成为公司培养和挖掘内部人才的利器。赫比尼亚克认为，强生公司（Johnson & Johnson）、IBM和摩托罗拉（Motorola）等都有利用内部顾问的成功案例。

    对于需要大量技术知识的项目，内部顾问通常能比外聘人员提供更多的专业建议。赫比尼亚克认为，内部顾问与公司的关系使其比外聘人员更具优势，而且内部顾问可以全程关注整个执行过程，随时处理屡见不鲜的突发情况。

    并且，内部顾问团队还可以发挥高管培训的作用，使优秀人才在成为部门负责人之前，有机会通过处理相关业务得到锻炼。

    When Delta and Northwest Airlines announced that they would merge in 2008, David Rabkin, the vice-president of the Delta co-brand at American Express, already had a plan for how his company should react.

    He did not have any deep sources within Delta (DAL) tipping him off about the deal. Instead, he had just moved from American Express's (AXP) internal management consulting group, the Strategic Planning Group (SPG), where, two years earlier, he and his team developed a case about what would happen if Delta, the company's largest co-brand partner, merged with another airline.

    "We were prepared for this," says Rabkin, who spent two years in SPG at American Express before moving to its Delta co-brand division.

    Mention the idea of bringing in outside consultants, and it will inevitably lead to grumbling from someone in management. While top consulting firms bring a fresh perspective mixed with years of industry experience, hiring them can raise concerns that it could open the door to leaks to competitors, threaten a company's culture, or lead to nothing once the consultants have made their recommendations and packed up their PowerPoint presentations.

    And then there's the price. "If you have to ask how much it costs, you shouldn't hire McKinsey," says Lawrence Hrebiniak, a professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

    Most large organizations rely on outside consultants to advise them on new initiatives, but many big companies, from Dell (DELL) to Wyeth, have developed internal consulting groups that offer flexibility to launch new initiatives and stay ahead of the competition, Hrebiniak says.

    While concrete numbers are difficult to come by, in part because different companies call their internal consulting groups by different names, Hrebiniak believes the number of businesses relying on insiders is increasing as companies look to supplement or even replace outside consultants.

    To be sure, there are inevitable risks to relying on inside talent, Hrebiniak says. Insiders may lack the industry knowledge and experience of a seasoned consultant who has worked on dozens of similar projects. And being told what to do by fellow employees can breed resentment and a feeling among managers that "the internal group is checking up on us," Hrebiniak says.

    "They become the cops on the cops," he says. "No one likes internal affairs."

    But a well-designed and well-executed internal consulting group can be a powerful weapon for a company that is looking to grow and develop talent internally. Hrebiniak points to Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), IBM (IBM), and Motorola (MMI) as businesses that use internal consultants successfully.

    On projects that require a lot of technical knowledge, internal consultants often offer more know-how than an outsider. There also are the benefits of internal relationships, the connection that the consultants have to the business and the advantage that the consultants will stick around through the implementation process, where unexpected problems often arise, Hrebiniak says.

    These internal groups can also serve as executive training programs, giving top talent the chance to get a handle on several businesses before being promoted to lead a group.