Consultants are not widgets

You can't build them to order and deploy them "just in time". You can't manage your services business quarter by quarter. Running an effective and financially stable services business requires investment in resources in the near term so that staff levels can be optimized over time, thus delivering predictable, stable and desirable profit margins. My rule of thumb is that with the exception of very specific needs for very specific technical expertise, you can count on a new consultant to be billable 3 months after hire. There is time for general on-boarding, training, "mentoring" and then, of course, finding the right project with the right available role for a customer who is willing to take on a "newbie". The stars must align just so. The good news is that if organizational growth is managed effectively, with results measured over a 6-12 month period and the right training mechanisms are in place, utilization rates can be kept at healthy levels and ad-hoc customer requests can be addressed in a timely manner. If executive management doesn't get this concept, pressure on maximizing utilization will prevent effective longer term growth. The result will be consultant burn-out and an inability to provide profitable services when unforecasted demand rears its head.