The consultant alchemy: turning risk into reward: a good adviser, if carefully selected and properly used, can be worth his or her weight in gold, says an authoritative source. We agree.

• Author: Kristie, James

This journal has a long and proud history of publishing the best minds in the consulting sector. We do this to provide the kind of advice that keeps our Directors & Boards audience on the right path--in their business strategy, in their talent management, in their director recruitment, in their legal and financial affairs ... in all aspects of leading and governing the enterprise.

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Joseph Koletar has it right in his new book, Rethinking Risk: How Companies Sabotage Themselves and What They Must Do Differently (AMACON, August 2010):

"If you deal with risk of any type, it is likely you have used or will use consultants at some point. There are perhaps almost as many consultant jokes as there are lawyer jokes, but a good consultant, if carefully selected and properly used, can be worth her weight in gold.

"Consultants are, by and large, subject-matter experts. Through education, training, and experience, they can bring to the table a range and depth of knowledge beyond that usually found within a given corporation. In addition, they have the advantage of being outsiders. They are not confined by the social relationships present within the corporation, not are they afraid (if they are good) to challenge the prevailing conventional wisdom. They also bring a fresh set of eyes. They did not create or grow up with the issue now in question, so they can be dispassionate and objective when viewing it."

Koletar knows his way around risk and consulting--he spent 25 years with the FBI as a special agent and senior executive and then 12 years as director in the fraud and investigations practices of Ernst & Young and Deloitte & Touche.

Who doesn't deal with risk? We all do. Thus, we can all benefit from the fresh set of eyes that an outsider brings to a challenge.

You can see where I am going with this. Read again Koletar's characterization of consultants. Does it not sound like the qualities that an independent director brings to an organization?

Many authors over the years have been struck with the parallels of the consultant role and board director role. Frequently it is in the context of director compensation--as in, "What a bargain a board is ... to get such talented players giving advice on your key issues for the price of a director retainer ... we could never afford such a body of experts if we had to...