The other day, I went to buy bananas. I checked 3 bananas from the pile, they looked fine, so I ordered a dozen. When I reached home and opened the bag, I discovered half of them were stale or rotten.
Now imagine a different buyer. He inspects all 12 bananas before buying. It takes more time at the store, but when he gets home, there are no surprises.
This is exactly how consulting projects play out across two types of customers:
Type I (Large Enterprises): Like the careful banana buyer, they examine every detail before committing. They run Proof of Concepts, test assumptions, and clarify deliverables. The sales cycle feels long, but execution is smooth because nothing is left to chance.
Type II (SMEs): Like my banana purchase, a quick decision is made after a few checks. The project starts fast, but midway we discover scope gaps, resource issues, or misaligned expectations. Execution becomes painful, and both consultant and client feel the strain.
So why do consulting assignments often fail in SMEs? Because the discipline of project detailing is skipped. If SMEs could adopt just a fraction of the rigor that large companies follow, not bureaucracy of course, but clarity; they’d save themselves and their consultants a lot of execution pain.
In consulting, success doesn’t come from how fast the project starts, but from how predictably it finishes.