Full-service consultants
However, the modern consulting firm looking to service the needs of today’s manufacturing industry, needs even more from their staff. It needs staff interested and capable of looking beyond their fields of expertise to gain awareness of many more environmental issues that they may encounter while dealing with their clients. It needs staff who can communicate complex technical information and other facts required for clients to make informed and good business decisions when encountering environmental or permitting difficulties. It needs staff who can form enduring relationships with clients, built on mutual respect and trust.
Young engineers, technologists and scientists graduating from universities and colleges today, are experts in social media and can connect quickly and efficiently to a wide network of knowledgeable colleagues. These young professionals will excel in a consulting career if they apply the same procedures at their places of work.
I encourage my young staff to connect and network with colleagues in all our varied departments every week. They are to both talk about what our department does, and learn what other departments have to offer. As a result, my young staff are becoming proficient service-oriented agents of our company. They are able to identify problems and ways to solve them for their clients, simply by recognizing an issue and knowing who can help them.
My advice for young professionals becoming environmental consultants would be for them to become ceaselessly empathetic to the cost pressures and needs of their clients. Focus on learning as much about all the services within your consulting company as possible. Develop alliances with colleagues you know you can count on to deliver excellent service to your clients when they are needed.
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Remain current and dedicated to your chosen field of expertise and learn how to become an expert in all regulations associated with it. Consider your client’s business when making your technical recommendations to solve their problem. If your client needs to make a choice between one of your solutions, help them gain the knowledge they need to make the right decision. Bring your manager if they need to hear the information from a slightly different perspective.
Linda Drisdelle, P.Eng., M.Eng., MBA, FEC, is General Manager Emissions Reduction and Compliance, Pinchin LTD. This article appears in ES&E’s November/December issue, as part of the Consultants’ Forum.
