To Teach, or To Impart?

I receive a daily e-mail, a devotional of sorts. The message today shared an interesting idea; essentially posting the thought that it is the responsibility of a teacher to impart rather than simply teach. It made me think about the philosophy governing Glatt Consulting, LLC.

The best way to describe what I think makes us different than many consulting firms is to say that we have a strong desire to impart rather than teach. Put another way, if you impart wisdom on someone then they can carry that wisdom with them from that point on. Simple teaching does not have the same staying power. Often consultants do not like the idea of imparting their knowledge because it lessens the need for the consultant's expertise. It's much better for business to leave crumbs of knowledge because it means that, ultimately, the client will need your services again.

Glatt Consulting, LLC is truly an "imparter" when it comes to our services. Even with our recently-launched net promoter service, the long-term idea is that clients take on the administration and management of the program themselves. If they own it, then it makes it more valuable to them and the concept becomes a strong part of their culture. 

Computer systems are known/suspected to have "planned obsolescence" wired into their DNA. Microsoft has built a nice little business on software obsolescence. We plan obsolescence as well - but for the need for our firm. As we complete a consulting project, our hope is that we leave the client with the skills, tools, and especially the know-how to carry on without us. Only then do we, as consultants, truly serve a useful purpose.

My hope is that as we grow (and we are growing!), we never forget that our clients deserve the lasting value that comes with imparting the knowledge we provide.

Speaking of growth, the growth of our firm is in large part why we have been a bit behind on blog posts, podcasts, etc. Believe it or not, in just over 1 1/2 years of existence, we have doubled gross revenues and income as well as the number of clients served. I know, I know! When you start from scratch, you can add one client and double your numbers, but the growth I am talking about is over all of 2007 - and 2007 was a great success. In other words, little more than halfway through the second year of operations we are way beyond the numbers for all of last year.  

This certainly deserves a heart-felt "thank you" to all of our clients who have trusted the firm with the many important projects on which we have worked.

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