Customer Reviews

The Seven Cs of Consulting: Your Complete Blueprint for any Consultancy Assignment

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Overview:
Cope utilizes a structured, yet customizable methodology for this book that provides an action framework for his readers. Here, he presents his viewpoint of the entire consulting process in a distilled, comprehensive model entitled "the Seven Cs framework" that he hopes will benefit readers in their consulting engagements.

The seven Cs of consulting in Cope's framework are:
1. Client: Getting it right from the start
2. Clarify: Understanding the real issues
3. Create: Developing a deliverable solution
4. Change: Working to make things happen
5. Confirm: Measuring the change
6. Continue: Making sure the solution sticks
7. Close: Signing off with style

This book provides a good overview of the field of consulting for both beginning and practiced consultants alike, as it combines theories of consulting, as well as recommendations and tips for best practices in a smooth, comprehensible manner. The client-centered nature of the book also helps reinforce the importance of prioritizing the needs of one's clients, and of nurturing the relationship between consultant and client. For example, Cope suggests that taking the perspective that a client might have about the proposed project is one way to ensure that one operates with a focus on the client. Such suggestions, if put into practice, could help change the way that a consultant sees her or his client. The framework is supposed to be adaptable to individual needs and unique situations, but always provides a focus on the best practices at each stage of the consulting project, and reminds readers that the end of one project can also mean the generation or development of a future-oriented consultant-client relationship.

Structure:
The book can be broken down into four main sections; each section consists of a set of relatively short chapters. This format presents a swift, easy read for both those who finish the book in one sitting, and those who do not have the time or inclination to do so. The brevity of each chapter also allows for easy overviews or referrals to be made, and presents a good starting point for further research into specific areas or ideas, if the reader wishes to investigate a particular topic or idea in greater depth and detail. Key questions included in the Pocket Guide are listed at the end of various sections and chapters in order to provide a succinct point that the reader can make use of in an actual consulting project.

Book Highlights:
Cope has made a brilliant attempt at making the key points of his book easily memorable. Along with using alliteration to make his points attractively memorable, as well as providing clear, useful graphs and charts, he has also included a detachable and foldable Pocket Guide at the end of the book, which lists the seven Cs, a brief description of each, and major points from the various chapters of the book. One fine example of how he makes points from this book memorable and easily comprehensible is through his comparing various types of decision-makers that one might encounter in an organization, to the key characters (King, Queen of Hearts, Knave, Joker and Ace) in a deck of cards.

Readers will also be pleased to note the smooth integration of consulting theory and practice in Cope's framework. Although the book presents a light, digestible read replete with examples of successful and unsuccessful consulting engagements, sections of the book utilize a psychology-textbook approach to portions of the consulting process. For example, he provides a summary of the benefits and detractions of various data collection methods, an overview of the crucial area of data validity, as well as recommendations for successful data analysis.

Cautionary Points:
Although this book provides an excellent synthesis of consulting theory and practice, readers should remember that it still represents the views and recommendations of a single consultant. While his examples and opinions are interesting and deftly expressed, there is not very much research support cited, as this book was not designed for academic purposes. Personally, it even seems that the citations he uses were selected because they seemed to support his theories, instead of having been included on the strength of their research validity or usefulness. This book therefore belongs more in the realm of popular psychology than of research psychology, even though it contains sections on best practices of applied research methods. Indeed, most of the book's bibliography consists of popular psychology and self-help titles. Readers should hence see this book as a general overview of one person's viewpoint and recommendations for the consulting process, and use it as a starting point for further research and investigation into topics or areas of interest.

Review of Appendix Section:
The Appendix of the book presents a practical reference guide to the consulting process. It lists in checklist format all of the key components of the Seven Cs model, providing 49 intervention elements such as "Build", and corresponding change descriptors such as "Have you identified what opportunities exist for further work?". This checklist was designed to assist consultants in asking key questions to themselves and their clients to increase the chances of planning and executing a successful consulting engagement, as well as to assist the development of productive working relationships between both parties.

Conclusion:
Cope presents a comprehensible framework of the consulting process that takes readers from the beginning to the end of consulting engagements, and includes useful examples, graphics and recommendations for best practices in the field. It is written in an easy-to-read style and format, and it combines theory and practice smoothly, hence providing a useful overview of the field and the theories that can be used to drive it. Clever inclusions of a detachable Pocket Guide and a checklist of key questions that a consultant could use for consulting projects make this book a practical tool as well. Readers should bear in mind, however, that this is the expression of one consultant's views and ideas of the consulting process, and therefore be prepared to investigate areas and ideas of personal interest at a deeper level in order to obtain more details of the idea's actual method and merit.

Mick has put together a comprehensive process for change consulting. He starts with how to approach the customer and finishes with how to follow-up for more business. I don't think that there is much he left out in between!

Don't look to this book if you want a short 30 page, quick overview of the subject, but if you are looking for a complete guide to all aspects of consulting, this is the book for you.

The book is interesting and well crafted, explaining every concept in understandable detail. I would recommend Mick's book for every consultant would could use a planned framework for their business.

I have been freelancing in a semi-niche IT field for a few years now and am currently gearing up for launching a "proper" consulting practice to gain more commercial clients and higher profit jobs. This is the first book on consulting I purchased and I grabbed it up sort of quickly at the store based on the few pages I skimmed.

After just a few paragraphs the author gained my respect as someone who knows what they are talking about and who has clearly thought through these ideas before putting them to paper. The editor, on the other hand, should be fired. I found a typo on every page in the first chapter until I eventually had to force myself to ignore them and move on. My cover is different than the one shown here, so maybe other pressings are better.

I certainly would not consider this an A-Z guide for the business of consulting. However, it might the best book on client relationship management that I've ever seen. The author gets deep into the theories and philosophy of the customer. This is truly valuable stuff, especially in my field where working with computers all the time can start to turn everyone around you into an "application". Cope emphasizes heavily on mentality, who's thinking what, getting people thinking on the same page and more useful pieces of the psychology of dealing with people. Another thing I liked is how genre-neutral it is throughout. It is not written with the assumption that the reader is working in any specific field. The info is completely universally helpful to all.

Having said that, I took it upon myself to shelve this book for a later day after getting about 50 pages into it. Not because it's not good. It's just not what I need at the moment. I was looking for a thorough guide to the business of consulting and I found that in Alan Weiss' "Getting Started in Consulting". I will definitely return to "The Seven Cs" in the near future as it provides an edge that I haven't seen in any other book. If you are an established consultant and are looking to improve the way you work, interact and progress through your jobs then this is a great read. If you are brand new this is probably not the best primer.

Highly recommended. Consultants, including those first venturing into the business of helping solve other people's problems, should definitely read this book. It is an elegant, highly practical blueprint for approaching and solving other people's problems - which is what consulting is all about. Honed by years of experience and thoughtful observation, the book provides a comprehensive guide to making your consulting engagements successful. Even as a relatively seasoned consultant, I found challenging new information and approaches in this book. And the skills will likely translate well to virtually any consulting discipline or assignment. I know they work well in mine, health care.

Mick has transformed the mechanics of consulting to an artistic methodology. The entire loop-process of consulting work has been collated with powerful insights and practical assumptions. The 7Cs framework maps out a platform that is of a flexible yet enforcing blueprint for consulting engagement to be undertaken successfully. A beautiful piece of art.

Mick Cope has presented a comprehensive framework for business consulting in a coherent manner. The book contains a good mix of elegant approaches, lively analogies & practical tools. A key differentiator of 'The 7 Cs of Consulting' from other books in the market is its systematic look at the 'soft-side' of consulting, which can be easily overlooked.

Clearly stuctured in a good easy to remember mental model.Graphic,easy to read, with al least three ways to read it:/only graphis and tables,/specific tools to use the model and /the clearly explain text of theory and examples.Has good examples without distracting the reader,reinforcing the arguments.very good book.