My Mission:
I founded Be a Great Consultant to pass the baton to the next generation—to pass on what I have learned leading consulting practices in a wide variety of industries throughout my career.
How can I Help You?
The reason that most consultants struggle to build a successful consulting practice is NOT because they are not good consultants.
They struggle and often fail because they lack the systems and support to run a consulting business.
Don’t be held back by the 6 Problems that
stall growth in your Consulting-Practice.
These six issues are the root cause of most consulting business failures.
I can help you to overcome the blockers, gain clarity, and get your business thriving.
I get it.
Why work with me?
I have the experience.
Consulting is what I do-
I love working with clients to understand how their business works, determine their business needs, find ways to solve problems and devise new value-creation opportunities for their businesses.
My experience includes:
I have worked on both sides of the fence.
On the client side— I have hired many consultants and worked on developing and evaluating large and small Requests for Proposals.
On the consultant side— I have built and led successful consulting practices from the ground up, working with both large corporate clients and SMBs (small-medium businesses).
As a senior systems manager, I have worked as an internal consultant, partnering with business units and senior stakeholders to determine business needs and develop solutions to create value and transform their businesses.
Mike Dorahy
Former Consulting Director DMR-Fujitsu Consulting
Mike has clearly relished the consulting craft ever since his career started. He loved not just doing a good job for the client, but he was determined to understand what it was that made a good consultant [become] a trusted advisor to his client.
During my years working with Mike, I saw him not just gain the confidence of many clients but he helped them transform their organizations to a higher level of performance and, in many cases, to a new way of working to adapt to a changing business environment.
Mike has led many consulting teams during his long career. This has given him much experience in passing on his skills and knowledge to new team members, which is essential if the aspirations of the client are to be fulfilled.
What makes me different?
I built my consulting practices based on the principles of the Consultative Mindset.
If you focus on working collaboratively, building authentic relationships, delivering value to delight your clients, and becoming their trusted advisor, then your clients will bring you back again and again. Your clients will help drive your business through their repeat business and referrals to other new clients.
Most consultant coaches focus on two main things:
“How can I get more clients?” and “How can I raise my rates?”
For all practical purposes, the discussion about rates becomes irrelevant once you have established your role as a trusted advisor.
After we work together, your clients won’t be asking, “What do you charge?”
They’ll be asking, “When are you available?”
That is how I work.
That’s what makes me different
and that is what I can teach you – how to become a Great Consultant and a trusted advisor.
Business Analyst for Computer Hardware Vendor
I started my working career as a business analyst for a computer hardware vendor, providing customer support for large business customers.
As a systems engineer, providing customer support for some of our largest clients.
Federal Government
I worked as an IT project manager, determining requirements and developing solutions for several large Australian Federal Government Agencies.
QEGB
I moved into the power industry as the commercial systems manager for the Queensland Electricity Generating Board that was a new entity being formed from the merger of seven smaller utility companies.
My role was to consolidate all business operations and deliver a new set of integrated, enterprise-wide systems to support all commercial operations
CEGB
When the UK government decided to restructure the Power Industry, I was hired as a consultant by the CEGB (Then the largest generating company in the world) to assist in developing the strategy for restructuring their national business systems.
DMR (Now Fujitsu Consulting)
In the late 1980s, I joined DMR (Now Fujitsu Consulting) and led the establishment of the Victorian Public Sector Consulting Practice, which delivered many successful projects for public utilities and government agencies.
Director R&D—based at DMR headquarters in Montreal, developing the new methodology for assessing benefits from IT investments and started a new Public Sector Consulting Practice in Melbourne (Vic.), which delivered many successful projects for public utilities and government agencies.
Unisys Information Services
In the mid-nineties, I joined Unisys Information Services as a Principal, leading the formation of their new consulting division as they transitioned from being a hardware vendor to becoming a services company. One of my key roles with Unisys was as Architecture Principal for the company’s systems integration contract to design, deliver, and support the national Retail Systems for Australia Post.
With the advent of the internet, I was Principal of the Portal Practice tasked with developing ways that internet technology could be exploited by our traditional large clients— mission-critical, high-volume transaction processing for applications in industries such as banking and airlines.
One of my key projects for our airline division was leading the development of a strategy to meet the needs of airlines of the future. A key outcome of this project was the notion of on-line check-in for airline passengers, an initiative that was subsequently first implemented and piloted by Alaska Airlines in 1991.
Slate Consultants
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I left the corporate world and partnered my wife in her consulting business, working with SMB regional businesses in the Central PA and mid-Atlantic region.
Our projects included small-medium businesses in areas such as home construction, banking, agricultural wholesale, property management, and home décor import and wholesaling.
Be a Great Consultant
I have now launched Be a Great Consultant as a way of giving back and passing on what I have learned to the next generation of Great Consultants.