When we say no to a client
Three engagements we turned down last quarter — and why declining work builds trust.
Independence is only real when it costs you something. Last quarter it cost us three engagements.
The first asked us to validate a vendor selection that had already been made, in writing, before we arrived. The second wanted a modernisation programme scoped around a platform the client's group CIO had mandated for reasons nobody could articulate. The third was a cost reduction mandate with a headcount outcome pre-agreed and the analysis expected to support it.
In each case the work was fundable and the answer was no, because the deliverable was a conclusion rather than an assessment.
Saying no is a commercial strategy as much as an ethical one. Clients who hire us for judgement need to know the judgement is not purchasable, and the only proof of that is a record of declined work.