BY FAR THE MOST DIFFICULT TASK since I started to work as a consultant is to extract RELIABLE data from the client. A typical engagement would start with a kick’-off meeting with your well-groomed team of consultants and the client’s people. All ready to tackle the problem that your firm has been hired to figure out. Because you have been thoroughly trained in Consulting 101, you hypothesized about the problem, broke down the issue into pieces and re-arrange everything into a cohesive, logical structure. Pfiu, that was the hard part, now let’s just get some data to confront our hypothesis and we can keep the ball rolling. Well, bad news. The “mundane” task of gathering data is not easy. It is not even mildly difficult. It is VERY HARD.
