The bromide is that a consultant borrows your watch and then charges to tell you what time it is. (I've always preferred this chestnut: A consultant is someone who arrives to study a problem and stays to become part of it.)

If you're too stupid or too myopic to look at your own watch to tell the time, then maybe that consultant is providing value for the money. I know: blasphemy. But perhaps we need to reevaluate the current environment and what's blasphemy and what's not.

Fear on Parade

I find most businesses today fearful. Their most cherished "beliefs" have abandoned them: unending prosperity; reliable investment advisors; government safety nets; the power of credit; the loyalty of clients; the equalizing power of the global marketplace. (Perhaps that's why so many churches are reporting heightened levels of attendance these days.)

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