Consultant Essay

Consultant Essay

Pitfalls

The company that I chose to write about is a tax preparation company. As a consultant for them I would like to begin with the potential planning pitfalls. The one thing I see as a pitfalls is that the when putting into effect plans that have been laid out, very often they don’t have a contingency plan in effect to fall back on. Not only does this cause problems, but the company has to quickly come up with another plan to use.

By using the scenario planning method, they can come up with possible problems that can be encountered and come up with contingency plans to fall back. Contingency plans are great to use because if something doesn’t work out, the company won’t be wasting time trying to find something that works at the last minute. This will give those that are affected by this additional time to work out any kinks that can happen within the contingency plan.

A great example of this is when they offered Instant Refund Anticipation Loans (RAL) on tax returns. Clients who qualified through a credit check were able to receive their income tax refund instantly. The problem that begin occurring with this is people who were beginning to steal people’s identities were able to receive a stolen income tax refund instantly. When the company started using the Instant RAL, they never took into consideration the problems that would happen with it. The problem is that they never really did background checks on their employees, who were the ones stealing the identities.

Another pitfall that the company has is that when corporate leaders are strategizing ideas, they don’t fully think about the outcomes of those strategies. Often times it doesn’t feel as if they have fully thought out the strategies that they put in place. When someone comes into their offices to get taxes prepared, they can anticipate paying anywhere from $100.00 and up for their return. The company often sends out coupons for reduced rates to those who are new to the company. But the company never takes into consideration those who come back year after year who end up paying more and more each year.

When the clients inquire why their friends have received these coupons who have never been there before but they have never received anything like it, it causes them to rethink about coming back. Because prices go up on average 15% a year, they often feel as if they are being used so to speak. Several clients have left because of this reason.

Cognitive