Business model

By Fiona Czerniawksa

Procurement is something of a dirty word for many consulting firms.  Procurement is what gets in the way of client relationships; it introduced bureaucracy and brings down prices.  (And, of course, such criticism is ironic: consultants helped pioneer the introduction of more formal and rigorous purchasing methods into organisations so shouldn’t have been surprised when the weapons they provided were turned back on them.)

Writing up some of our client research earlier this year, we estimated that as much as 15% of all consulting goes on what we called ‘validation’, an activity which ranged from genuine research and analysis around a particularly thorny issue to signing off on a decision already effectively made by senior managers.

The belief that the 'pyramid' model of consulting may have had its day is one that's becoming increasingly widespread, not least because we keep talking about it.

What replaces it is the subject of much conjecture and no little amusement. Some talk of slimmer pyramids, some of diamonds; those of a more macabre inclination are drawn to the idea of the coffin-shaped firm, while we've spent some time in the past trying to get everyone interested in the hourglass.