Monday 3rd Dec, 2018
By Fiona Czerniawska.
Consulting firms are in a dilemma about how to organise their data & analytics capabilities most effectively: Should they have a stand-alone business unit, or should this expertise be embedded right across the organisation? The former has the advantage of signalling to clients that it’s an area of investment for the firm concerned, but the latter will help the firm differentiate itself on a tactical basis, by using evidence-based insights in proposals and in all its consulting work.
But this debate isn’t confined to consultants: It’s mirrored in their clients too. Earlier this year our Intelligent Analytics report featured several case studies from clients. “We're a small central team,” said the head of analytics in a French insurance company. “Up until a year ago, we reported to the CIO, but now we're part of the marketing and digital innovation function team.” And moving out of the IT function is only part of the organisational shift going on: There’s also pressure to take a more integrated approach to the way analytics work is carried out.
Monday 26th Nov, 2018
By Fiona Czerniawska.
Estimating the size of the digital transformation market isn’t easy. What do we mean by digital and how is this different to other, more established types of information technology? When is something labelled transformation actually transformational in practice?
We’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years tracking the size and growth of one part of the market: the work done by consulting firms. That’s not the whole picture, of course—it doesn’t take into account the amount of money clients spend on hardware and software, and it excludes systems development and implementation. Nevertheless, it’s a big number. In 2017, when the global consulting industry grew at around 7%, we estimate that demand for digital transformation consulting almost doubled in size.
Monday 17th Sep, 2018
By Fiona Czerniawska.
We recently asked around 100 senior people in large US-based organisations whether they’d be interested in converting traditional consulting work (short-term advisory work, paid on a fixed price or time and materials basis, measured on inputs rather than outcomes) into an on-going service, aimed at delivering a specific and concrete outcome, and involving a combination of software, data and analytics, and consulting expertise. Ninety-one percent said that they found that suggestion attractive, and three-quarters said they could envisage buying consulting in this way and that this could represent the future of consulting.
Perhaps that level of positive engagement shouldn’t have surprised us.
Tuesday 22nd May, 2018
By Fiona Czerniawska.
At 6%, growth in the Nordics consulting market in 2016-17 was good by continental European standards—but it’s also a good reminder of how dangerous averages can be. Not only are the different countries in the region growing at different rates—growth in Sweden and Finland is roughly twice that of Norway, which is still recovering from the impact of low oil prices—but individual firms’ experiences vary widely.
Speaking recently at events at Virke in Oslo and DI in Copenhagen, I was struck by the possibility that none of the firms in the audience were likely to have grown at that rate. Some we interviewed for our new report on the region were much more upbeat, while others were struggling. Given that context, I offered up seven things consulting firms in the region might like to consider.
Friday 20th Apr, 2018
By Alison Huntington.
Earlier this week, Forbes, in partnership with Statista, published its top management consulting firms in the US. As with similar studies in the Financial Times in the UK, or Capital in France, it’s based on a survey of both senior executives in industry and management consultants themselves, and covers 32 sectors and functional areas. The top-ranked firms are the ones with the highest number of recommendations across different categories. The big firms dominate, with Bain & Company and Deloitte topping the ranking with nominations in all 32 categories. In total, 229 firms make the list of top firms.
Thursday 5th Apr, 2018
By Fiona Czerniawska.
I’m not always a fan of large-scale thought leadership studies, repeated year in, year out, but the title of PwC’s 21st CEO survey caught my imagination—and, I suspect, the Zeitgeist. In The anxious optimist in the corner office, PwC argues that “despite record levels of short-term optimism in the global economy, CEOs worldwide report heightened levels of anxiety regarding the business, economic, and, particularly, the societal threats confronting their organisations.”
Thursday 8th Mar, 2018
By Alison Huntington.
You know the feeling: You’ve seen the dress online, or the fancy watch in a shop window. I’ll look so good in it, you think. It’ll be just perfect to wear to that wedding next month, you think. I’ll get compliments from strangers, you think. Life will be better.
But you try it on and it’s not quite right. It’s too big around the middle, the colour isn’t quite right. The oversized watch face makes your wrist look like an udon noodle. You really want it to be the one for you, but after standing there for a few minutes trying to persuade yourself that it’s right, you reluctantly concede that it isn’t.
Clients of consulting firms describe a similar journey with the consulting firms they encounter.
Tuesday 20th Feb, 2018
By Fiona Czerniawska.
Sixty-six million years ago. In the apocalyptical gloom, the world’s last dinosaur is dying. Snout down in the icy mud, its eyes starting to close, the dinosaur glimpses movement: A small animal, whose fur has kept it warm, is scurrying. “I wasn’t expecting that,” thinks the dinosaur as extinction finally closes around it.
The world is full of surprises.
We were interviewing a consulting firm recently that, on the cusp of winning a multi-million-dollar transformation deal, found themselves out manoeuvred by a much smaller firm, against all expectations. “We’d dismissed them,” said the partner we spoke to. “Not only had we never heard of them, but they hadn’t listened to the client’s brief, had questioned the scope of the project, and come back with a proposal that didn’t deal with the key issues.” Just a minor detail, then, that the client loved a genuinely innovative, more challenging approach.
Monday 2nd Oct, 2017
By Alison Huntington.
Passing through Heathrow Terminal 3 recently, I was accosted by a woman with an iPad who wanted to ask me a few questions about my experience at Heathrow that day. Being British, and therefore socially awkward, instead of telling her I’d really rather read my newspaper, I said “Yes, of course.”
Among the pretty mundane questions she went on to ask me was one about whether I’d recommend Terminal 3.
“Erm, yes, I suppose,” came my response, with half an ear on the tannoy announcements.
Thursday 31st Aug, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
If you give households feedback about how energy-efficient they are, a curious thing happens. Peer pressure means that those who aren’t particularly efficient tend to become more so, but at the same time the most efficient households become less so–they become complacent. It’s a phenomenon researchers have called the “magnetic middle”, that greater information and transparency drives average behaviour.
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