Flexible resourcing: the certified network variant

As discussed before in the article on resource brokerage companies, there are other variants of flexible resourcing around. One of them is a variant in which certified independent consultants form a network. I came across a rather large one of those networks and tried to understand the pro's and con's of this approach.

The idea behind the network is to act as a not for profit organization that enables independent consultants to offer business consultancy support to small and mid-sized companies who normally by nature won't go to a large consultancy firm or would not seek advise at all. The idea is that the certified consultants have a number of subscription based contract for around 20 days per year per company, advising the owners as generalist on the issues at hand and introduce specialist from the certified community to perform projects. The consultant remain independent, bill them themselves for their subscription and split the revenue with the colleagues they introduce, ideally at 50/50.

So far so good but what is the role of the not for profit organization? They search and select candidates for the network. They train them in a standardized 6 day methodology workshop focused on getting the subscription based contracts with business owners closed. Furthermore they offer new candidates a starter kit of 10 appointments with potential interested business owners. Of course access to a portal supplying profiles of the other network members, handy template contracts and local chapters meeting on regular basis are part of the offer too.

Sounds all very but I wanted to know more for a complete picture so I responded to one of their many email vacancy messages. In parallel I checked out the website and the Internet on them. Some observations: rather vague website with hardly any facts, remarkably limited exposure of an organization with allegedly 5000 certified members worldwide and some discussion on the financial model behind the organization, happily countered by a few members.

So I got invited to a seminar, like another 20 or so interested people. I felt a bit at a Tupperware party to be honest. A presenter, also certified consultant, ran a 3,5 hour show with a slide deck clearly created some 10 years ago. Questions where not allowed and would be answered in detail when we would be invited for a personal assessment. We were asked to fill in a large questionnaire on who we are as persons to support the selection process.

During the presentation the model revealed itself a bit: candidates pay over Euro 15.000 upfront to get a 6-day training in the UK leading to certification for life and access to the material and appointments described above. Supposedly this amount is just to cover the costs of the lean-and-mean organization. On top of this members pay Euro 380 per year for local chapter activities. Apart from this this the organization does not take any share in what the certified consultants earn. Additional qualified appointments can be found by the consultants themselves or purchased from specialized call centers at discounted rates.

A weird model that doesn't cry out quality control. Glancing at the copy of the training handbook I was not impressed by the methodology part of it; the template stuff looked sensible enough though. So the model was not "sold" to me at all. Together with the fact that to date I didn't find somebody in my network that signed up with this network to verify my doubts, the only thing left was my professional curiosity about the value of this model.

How it went on? Of course I was invited for a personal assessment. The recruiter started saying that they didn't invite everybody but go for quality only. Than I was invited to ask my questions. So I started to ask about the strange model of paying a large amount upfront instant certification for life and no quality control along the way.
Well this ended the session quickly: these were the rules and they "are successful since 5000 people have been certified…". Take it or leave it. So I left.

The name of the network? IIB (Institute for Independent Business). Any experience yourself with this or look-a-like organizations? Or better examples around that you encountered?

Hans.van.nes@results2match.com