Maintaining Professional Competence

Abstract

The scientific consultant is unquestionably a businessperson whose company products and services are technical information and science-based advice. The reality of this statement has to be accepted by every practitioner. Once accepted, then the logical sequence that follows is (1) the science on which the business depends must be current and (2) to ensure that currency, the consultant must maintain his technical competence. These dicta are easy to state but extraordinarily difficult to achieve. Just reflect for a minute on the chapter about marketing and selling, or the one on managing. How can any scientific consultant, whose workday must include attention to and sometimes hours devoted to such business-related responsibilities, be expected to maintain professional competence? Potential clients can and do expect it and it is one of the core requirements for longterm success in technical consulting. Regardless of how routine some procedures become in satisfying the “boiler-plate” specifications of a contract, there must always exist in the consulting organization a nucleus of cutting-edge expertise and familiarity with all aspects of the specialty area of consultation.