Define Objectives. What are goals and benchmarks? All too often a client is ambivalent about what objectives are in terms of observable outcomes. I suggested to a client that a market share penetration was an imminently achievable goal and he indicated that he thought that was not achievable. I told him he was right, it wasn’t achievable as long as he thought it wasn’t. This client property is now consistently running well over that. Another goal may be to increase mid-week occupancy. Set average number of rooms per weeknight and develop a system of measurement. The benchmarks are what percentage increase and incremental number of rooms in three months, six months, and a year.

Define Parameters of Consultation. Define fee structure, billable expenses and duration of consultation with renewal options, if applicable. Discuss reporting arrangement and agree upon when bill is to be paid. In many cases, consultant is a small business operator and invoices left unpaid for over thirty days puts him or her in a bind and gets your account poorly served.

Commit to Implementation of Recommendations. The single most frustrating thing to a consultant is a client with whom chemistry is right, terms of contract are clear but client does not implement or support agreed upon action plans and recommendations. The consultant has no authority to enforce performance of action plans except authority and express support that you give them. In those situations where everyone loves recommendations and action plans but there is no support for their implementation, consultant invariably gets blame for poor results. It’s your money -- use it wisely.

Agree to Disagree on Occasion. A good consultant is there to stimulate you and provide another opinion. Commit to having discussions. If everything you were doing in past was so good, how did you get into this situation in first place? If you keep on doing what you are doing you will keep on getting what you’ve gotten. A disagreement on an issue doesn’t mean that you are wrong. Back your ego out of it and be willing to listen to a dissenting opinion. At least agree to think about it.

Commit to Agenda. A good consultant will furnish you with an itinerary prior to visit and it is up to you to ensure that staff involved has cleared their calendars to give consultant their focus and attention. A consultant’s time is very expensive to waste. A staff member who is feeling threatened or defensive will often avoid spending required time with consultant. While a good consultant will try to put their fears to rest (unless they are problem), it is up to you to make it clear to staff that consultant is there to identify and support solutions, not to threaten or find fault. However, as saying goes, if you are not part of solution, you are part of problem. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. As in any good relationship, success depends upon level of communication between parties involved. Make sure that staff provides reports consultant requests. A good consultant will begin their itinerary with a meeting with key contact(s) and conclude with same. Read and share with staff report that consultant furnishes after each visit and discuss on phone.

A good consultant is not someone who is ‘between jobs’ or unemployable. Most have held positions of responsibility and produced results for their employers. That is how they developed their expertise. They are doing what they do for various reasons and not looking for a job. A good consultant has usually been offered numerous jobs by clients but prefers to do consulting for challenge, variety and flexibility that it affords.

A good consultant is a consummate ‘hole plugger’ and problem fixer that can generate many times their fees in additional revenue provided that you, client, know how to use them effectively.

Hawala arrangements are used to avoid customs duties, consumption taxes, and other trade-related levies. Suppliers provide importers with lower prices on their invoices, and get paid difference via Hawala. Legitimate transactions and tax evasion constitute bulk of Hawala operations. Modern Hawala networks emerged in 1960's and 1970's to circumvent official bans on gold imports in Southeast Asia and to facilitate transfer of hard earned wages of expatriates to their families ("home remittances") and their conversion at rates more favourable (often double) than government's. Hawala provides a cheap (it costs c. 1% of amount transferred), efficient, and frictionless alternative to morbid and corrupt domestic financial institutions. It is Western Union without hi-tech gear and exorbitant transfer fees.

Unfortunately, these networks have been hijacked and compromised by drug traffickers (mainly in Afganistan and Pakistan), corrupt officials, secret services, money launderers, organized crime, and terrorists. Pakistani Hawala networks alone move up to 5 billion US dollars annually according to estimates by Pakistan's Minister of Finance, Shaukut Aziz. In 1999, Institutional Investor Magazine identified 1100 money brokers in Pakistan and transactions that ran as high as 10 million US dollars apiece. As opposed to stereotypes, most Hawala networks are not controlled by Arabs, but by Indian and Pakistani expatriates and immigrants in Gulf. The Hawala network in India has been brutally and ruthlessly demolished by Indira Ghandi (during emergency regime imposed in 1975), but Indian nationals still play a big part in international Hawala networks. Similar networks in Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Bangladesh have also been eradicated.

The OECD's Financial Action Task Force (FATF) says that:

"Hawala remains a significant method for large numbers of businesses of all sizes and individuals to repatriate funds and purchase gold.... It is favoured because it usually costs less than moving funds through banking system, it operates 24 hours per day and every day of year, it is virtually completely reliable, and there is minimal paperwork required."

(Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), "Report on Money Laundering Typologies 1999-2000," Financial Action Task Force, FATF-XI, February 3, 2000, at http://www.oecd.org/fatf/pdf/TY2000_en.pdf )

Hawala networks closely feed into Islamic banks throughout world and to commodity trading in South Asia. There are more than 200 Islamic banks in USA alone and many thousands in Europe, North and South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Gulf states (especially in free zone of Dubai and in Bahrain), Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other South East Asian countries. By end of 1998, overt (read: tip of iceberg) liabilities of these financial institutions amounted to 148 billion US dollars. They dabbled in equipment leasing, real estate leasing and development, corporate equity, and trade/structured trade and commodities financing (usually in consortia called "Mudaraba").

While previously confined to Arab peninsula and to south and east Asia, this mode of traditional banking became truly international in 1970's, following unprecedented flow of wealth to many Moslem nations due to oil shocks and emergence of Asian tigers. Islamic banks joined forces with corporations, multinationals, and banks in West to finance oil exploration and drilling, mining, and agribusiness. Many leading law firms in West (such as Norton Rose, Freshfields, Clyde and Co. and Clifford Chance) have "Islamic Finance" teams which are familiar with Islam-compatible commercial contracts.

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Sam Vaknin is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He is a columnist for Central Europe Review, United Press International (UPI) and eBookWeb and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.

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