Wednesday 28th Sep, 2011
I’ve written a lot in this blog about specialisation, particularly clients’ relentless quest for expertise in a world that has become increasingly flat from a skills point of view. But a recent article in the Harvard Business Review had made me wonder how far it will all go, or – less positively – where it might all end.
Friday 23rd Sep, 2011
A previous post, about the impact consultant-managers could have on the consulting industry, has had me thinking about what clients lack.
Monday 5th Sep, 2011
Consulting firms call it staff substitution; clients call it contingent labour. Some people say contracting; others, interim management.
Friday 29th Jul, 2011
Our latest survey of buying trends among clients has a curious anomaly in it.
When we ask people which consulting services they’re planning to purchase, we get a broadly, though not massively, positive response. Technology is high on the agenda as organisations move beyond the cost-cutting and regulatory change that dominated the consulting industry during the recession and its immediate aftermath. Outsourcing consulting, too, appears to be making something of a comeback after two very lacklustre years.
Tuesday 12th Apr, 2011
Consulting is always being commoditised but has yet to become a commodity.
Commoditisation has always snapped at the heels of the industry, but emerging challenges and new technologies has historically allowed the industry, on balance, to stay ahead. And that’s what consultants do: they keep on running.
But just occasionally it’s worth looking back over our shoulders to understand exactly how and why consulting services become commoditised. After all, if we could slow down that process, perhaps we wouldn’t be so breathless.
Monday 7th Mar, 2011
When Thierry Breton, Chairman and Chief Executive of Atos Origin, announced last month that he wanted his firm to be a “zero email company” he raised some interesting questions about how consultants do business.
Wednesday 16th Feb, 2011
For some time now I’ve talked about the Four Ps of consulting, the four fundamental reasons why an organisation will use consultants: people (the access to specialist skills not available internally); process (methodology and momentum); perspective (the ability to see the wood for the trees); and politics (validating a decision already taken if not actually articulated).
To these, I think we should add a fifth: getting things done.
Wednesday 2nd Feb, 2011
It’s funny how things sometimes come together.
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