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Consultants are often labeled like Batman villains. Bad consultants became Jokers and Riddlers … good ones could be like the Penguin and Dr. Freeze, known for their icy logic.

To be honest, Two-Face is probably the better character to describe consultants. Not from a villainess standpoint. But the idea of an inherently good person (Commissioner Gordon), mutated by conflicting forces (unbridled capitalism!) flipping a coin to decide one’s fate seems appropriate in an industry that can present itself from two diametrically opposite perspectives.

To explain, there are two sides to consulting’s coin, heads=growth, tails=costs. When times are good and economies are strong, we mostly see consultants touting growth agendas and prognosticating on big ideas. Weak or contracting economies causes consultants to reverse themselves and help clients wield the scalpel/machete in efforts to wring efficiencies and cost savings (It’s no coincidence, incidentally, that most negative coverage of consultants occurs during these periods.).

In simpler times, consulting firms were bucketed into one side or the other. Strategists populated “Growth” while Ops/HR/IT constituted “Efficiency.”

Obviously, it behooves firms to resist such pigeonholing. Large firms do this very well through myriad practices — service/industry/geography — that adapt to du jour cycles and clients. Cost-cutters and growth-planners coexist side-by-side inside the same firm, though rarely intersect. Even specialty firms position themselves in the middle of that continuum to serve clients’ shifting needs.

We rate consultants by service capabilities because that draws sharper distinctions between the growth/efficiency divide. Can consultants inhabit both worlds? Of course. Can they be superior in both realms? Not so sure.