It was just another morning and another walk down the blind alley when this ubiquitous sign, Beware of Dogs, popped in front of us. It was a soup good enough to get started on Sunday (Read- Fun Day) morning, who don’t want to start his day with a laugh and talking something which is outside the daily rituals of corporate, professionalism, management, business etc.

You can call it my bacchanalia, statement my friend started with, but do you think the owner of the house could be in trouble some day, if someone gets bitten by his dogs, as he’s admitting his liability in term of possessing a dangerous dog. OR

Could it be an asset to him as he can always lay a claim that he already had warned everyone about the presence of dogs?

Though there were various interim discussions, our Sunday moment reached when he said what if the sign reads,

Never mind dogs; Beware of the owner with gun, if you’re not supposed to be here, he can shoot you“. Does this will be of any help to the owner if he ends up actually shooting a trespasser?

I said it’s not that complicated, it’s a polite way of informing your visitors about the presence of something evil at the other end. Take precaution. My friend replied, if it’s nothing that complicated and just another sign then why don’t they hang something like ,” Beware of your performance, economy & boss, Pink slip may follow any day“, at the organization’s entrance or offer letter. I proposed to forget about external issues and think something internal, about us the consulting organizations. A number of times we had been to a business meet when someone from the client company queried about “What’s a GUARANTEE that your proposed solutions or strategy or plan will succeed?” As if we’re selling an anti dandruff shampoo and claiming the success. I suggested to have a big placard on our website’s home page stating that “Beware of our services & solutions, we take accountability & do not offer guarantee” 😉

A common notion about a consulting organization or consultants remain that we come with a magic lamp and a genie. Just hire one of us and see your business in flying colors from tomorrow. A standard discussion start on parameters like Business Planning, Designing strategy, developing road map and other big jargons, only to end up with one thing i.e. will that help my business start getting new clients from tomorrow? Can you go out and help us in selling my stuff for some profit? and many other similar stuffs with focus on nothing but the next deal. May be just akin to that dogs placard we, consulting organizations, should add a disclaimer at every level of discussion and documents i.e. “Beware of your requirement, if mismatched, it could attract a cost“.

The master stroke came when we were joined by one more friend who ,after listening to our discussion, proposed that the dog placard is nothing so serious. It simply means that “Visitors not allowed“. Now, you can’t afford to have that at your company’s entrance, office or as your website’s home page. Ultimately, who don’t want visitors? We end up investing so much capital and time in techniques like S.E.O, S.M.M and various other strategies and planning activities only to attract visitors. What is required is to educate the market about the consulting and business process, and knowledge sharing about methodology one should adopt to understand the requirement and get the clarification on probable solutions.

Make Sense!!! Yes. May be no. However, i should stop this post here and focus on the latter half of my S(f)unday. Thank You. Have fun.