Warranties do not exist for consultants and independent contractors. Instead, biopharmaceutical executives are left to rely on the ancient Roman warning: caveat emptor: "let the buyer beware". After more than two thousand years, is this really the best we can do?

As a top-level executive for a biotechnology and medical device company, I paid the consultants' bill and assumed accountability for the work. Throughout those years, I spent countless hours assessing status, watching presentations, and reviewing reports, all the while wondering, "Why must I put this much work into shepherding this project to ensure the payoffs I want?"

If this refrain sounds familiar, it's because far too many executives face this question when it comes to managing outside advisors. The business literature is full of examples of consulting projects gone wrong and tales of executive woe at the hands of outside experts poorly chosen and ill-suited to the tasks at hand. Given the added risks of regulatory accountability and litigation over adverse health reactions, biopharmaceutical executives have even more at stake. To achieve better results, take a straightforward set of seven steps to ensure you hire the right kind of consultant and actually get the help you need.

Based on my own experiences, I put together a systematic process to determine the help I needed, find and screen that outside help, and structure the contract to ensure a positive result. Over the past few years, I've informally reviewed and refined this process with the CEOs, directors, and other senior executives. With the following guidance, you should be able to implement your own process to ensure that you get the results you want from any consultant or outside advisor you hire.

DO YOU NEED OUTSIDE HELP?

The first step is determining if you actually need outside help, and then sketching out some notes on what that help should look like.

Determining if Outside Help is Appropriate

Success in any given project or activity depends on two things: available manpower and proper expertise. If your organization is lacking in either of these, it's time to look outside for help.

You also need independent insight if you and your organization are stuck and need a fresh perspective on yourself and your organization. For instance, assessing strategic options, identifying ways to maximize your organization's efficiencies, or applying current best practices to speed your time to market, are all good reasons to seek outside counsel. However, you need to be cautious. The degree of involvement will drive the level of cost, risk, and effort. Therefore, the next step is to recognize the type of help and level of involvement you want.

Determining the Type of Help

Before you pick up the phone or send an email signaling interest to any outside consultant, make sure you know the type of advice you are willing to manage. Do you need an independent expert's insight, or do you need to delegate a task or project? Selecting and overseeing an outsourced project team is significantly different from dealing with an outside project assurance advisor. The outsourced project team will bring its own methodology and people to plan, implement, and deliver any given project; it's likely that methodology will not be tailored too much beyond what is necessary for your environment. Conversely, the project assurance consultant will serve as your advisor who will help drive and oversee projects, ensure the project is successful, and keep an eye out for better, faster, easier approaches, given the larger picture in which the project is operating. But he or she will not plan the project, conduct the implementation work, perform the testing, or document the details. In other words, the project assurance advisor works on your behalf, while the project team works for you, carrying out operational, tactical tasks.

To determine if you need tactical or strategic help, ask yourself and your colleagues three questions:

1. Do we want outside help to:

A. Take care of our problem and make it go away? or

B. Guide us through the dilemma?

2. Do we want outside help to:

A. Give us a cut-and-dry solution (like a computer system or business function)? or

B. Help us overcome and build on a company-specific need?

3. Do we want outside help to:

A. Get us over a manpower or expertise shortage? or

B. Help us improve our long-term capabilities?

If you selected answer "A" in all three questions, choose a company to whom you can completely delegate or outsource the work, such as an interim executive or a human resources outsourcing firm. In some cases, a generic industry report of best practices may be sufficient to guide your internal staff to resolve the problem. If you selected "B" in the above questions, then choose a consultant who will serve as your advisor, such as a project assurance advisor, an expert on retainer, or an expert who can conduct a mock audit of a specific area with recommendations. In this case, expect to do some of the heavy lifting yourself.