Proactive Consultants

I regularly receive e-mails from BNET, a business website and blog, with occasional links to new articles or postings on their website. This one found its way to my inbox:

BNET Intercom » How UPS Will Save the World: Fewer Left Turns

It got me thinking - what if a consultant came to a company like UPS with such an idea? What if you had an idea that you knew was capable of saving a company a lot of money, time and other valuable resources? Would you do it?

This article was presented as a way to enhance your career by presenting radical ideas to executives as an internal move to help boost your status in a company. As external consultants, I wonder if we are proactive enough with our businesses to take such bold steps to enhance our own professional careers.

I know I'm guilty of simply targeting companies I would like to work with, introducing myself, sending them information about my company and hope they have a need that I can fill. But what if we as consultants surveyed the business landscape to identify needs before they are anticipated by our perspective clients? Would our consulting take a different turn?

Perhaps so. Some do it already, but others don't for fear that their ideas may be exploited. Consultants are entrepreneurs after all and maybe this is the kind of risk that goes along with the territory.