Thursday 20th Oct, 2016
By Julie Ahadi.
Imagine if, after making his rousing speech to the Scottish army at Stirling, William Wallace had led his devoted tartan-clad warriors away from the English army and down a quiet, idyllic valley for a spot of tai chi. It would’ve been quite the anti-climax, really, not to mention a rubbish end to a film. Cheated out of the glory of dying a hideous death on the battlefield, many a solider would’ve felt rather hard done by. All fired up and nowhere to…fire (metaphorically speaking—firearms were firmly still in China at this point in history, unlike tai chi, apparently). But by my reckoning a large majority would’ve gone along with it, for a while at least. After all, they’d sworn allegiance to Wallace and if he thought tai chi was the right thing to be doing at the time then who were they to argue? Surely, they’d tell themselves as they sipped green tea and perfected their Needle at Sea Bottom posture, it would only be a matter of time before they were unleashed to fulfil their true destiny and got to give the English a good hiding.
Thursday 29th Sep, 2016
By Edward Haigh.
It’s not entirely unusual to see the Big Four outperforming the market these days. In 2015 they did so in all of the five biggest consulting markets in the world, but nowhere has the difference between their performance and that of other firms been quite as stark as it has been in Australia. So why?
In part it’s because the Big Four are placing themselves in the sweet spot at the moment–sitting somewhere between strategy and technology and asserting their ability to do both of those and a whole lot else besides. In a market in which clients are often trying to do everything, the Big Four offer everything.
Monday 11th Apr, 2016
By Fiona Czerniawska.
I recently spent the day at PwC’s Experience Center in Miami.
The Center itself is at least as good as ones we’ve seen elsewhere (personally, I was delighted to see more potted plants, and fewer soft toys and beanbags). Most can be traced back to Capgemini’s pioneering Accelerated Solutions Centres, now more than a decade old. It’s clearly a model that continues to work well for clients who find the different environment helps facilitate discussion, taking their employees out of their accustomed boxes.
Tuesday 22nd Mar, 2016
By Fiona Czerniawska
The following forms part three of a series of articles that we have published based on our on-going research into how clients see consulting firms. To view the first article in this series, please click here, and to view the second article, click here.
In consulting who you know and what you’re famous for have a massive influence on your success. No one, surely, could disagree with that? Well, it turns out that the interaction between relationships and specialisation is a lot more complex than we’d imagined.
As always, it helps to take a concrete example to illustrate this.
Thursday 29th Oct, 2015
By Fiona Czerniawska Finding points of difference between consulting firms is something clients have always struggled with, but there’s one characteristic that’s coming up again and again in our conversations with clients: knowledge of their industry.
Monday 17th Aug, 2015
By Alison Huntington The headline of our Client Perception Study in the French consulting market is that 59% of clients are willing to pay more for the services of the leading consulting firms. Yes, you read that right. This news may come as a surprise – France is still a tough market, where every percentile of growth is fought for, tooth and nail. And they may wonder where all these clients are hiding. We can’t tell you that, but what is important to know is there are far more clients willing to pay more for some firm types, and far fewer for others.
Thursday 30th Jul, 2015
By Alison Huntington It’s always slightly creepy when you meet someone new and they say, “I’ve heard a lot about you.” Oh god, you think as a cold sweat forms on your brow, what on earth have you heard about me? Not the tale of that office Christmas party? Or could they have heard good things that you now need to live up to? The impression people form before meeting or working with you can help or hinder your relationship, and can take a fair amount of effort to change it.
Monday 2nd Mar, 2015
By Fiona Czerniawska You can get really bogged down in how to segment the consulting industry, so I’ve developed a simple, Disney-style model to explain the current dynamics of the market.
Tuesday 1st Jul, 2014
By Fiona Czerniawska I’ve just been analysing the results of our new survey of client perceptions in the Nordic region. As always, people find it hard to tell firms apart, at least within segments (they’re quite clear about the differences between segments). Our job, if you like, is to pour over the data to find the areas where real differences shine through.
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