Wednesday 28th Mar, 2018
By Ashok Patel.
In May 2017, news outlets around the world reported a cyberattack the scale of which had never been seen before. The initial phase of the WannaCry cyberattack lasted a mere four days, but in that brief period it had a devastating impact on organisations around the world. More than 200,000 computers in over 100 countries were affected, with organisations as diverse as multinational conglomerate Hitachi in Japan, LATAM Airlines Group in Chile, and the police department in Andhra Pradesh, India all suffering some level of disruption.
Wednesday 6th Dec, 2017
A booming market in which the boundaries between professional services are evaporating faster than a water hole at Oodnadatta*.
Thursday 30th Nov, 2017
By B.J. Richards
One of the perks of being a Source analyst is that we get to pick the brains of some of the world’s top consulting talent as a routine part of the job. And sometimes, if we’re really lucky, we get to question them on a topic that’s not only important to Source’s research but of great personal interest as well. And so it was with great anticipation that I approached my first post-election meeting with a US consulting leader in late November last year. Like many of my fellow Americans, the elevation of one Donald J. Trump to the highest office in the land had me in a state of shock: The inevitable had been thwarted, and the impossible had come to pass. It was disorienting, and I was eager to talk to someone who I believed could tell me ~*what it all meant*~
Tuesday 28th Nov, 2017
By Alison Huntington.
What if I told you there’s a market that will grow by 252% between now and 2019? What if I told you that market is in a warm, beautiful country, with unspoilt beaches and a rich culture? And that it’s just a short flight away from other holiday hotspots in some of the most beautiful places in the world?
What if I told you the market I’m describing is Myanmar?
Thursday 23rd Nov, 2017
By Zoë Stumpf.
There’s no doubt that the China consulting market is going great guns. Despite concerns about economic stability and transparency in the Western press, the market continues to grow at a pace that would be the envy of many a European market. And there’s no sign of growth slowing any time soon: Government initiatives focused on strengthening the economy, the growth of state and privately owned enterprises, and a need to serve an expanding middle class are all generating a good deal of demand.
Thursday 16th Nov, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
It’s decades since Theordore Levitt wrote about what he terms “marketing myopia”, the extent to which people and organisations underestimated the potential size of their market because they viewed it through a narrow, pre-determined lens. If you’re trying to sell screws, the problem is not that every solution is a screw but that you only see screw-related opportunities: there’s a bigger market out there, if only you saw it as fixture-related.
I was reminded of this idea recently when talking to a client about how the wTheordore Levittay in which they use professional services may change in the future. A wide-ranging discussion ended up with both him and me realising that we needed to see the market differently, through a different lens if you like.
Tuesday 14th Nov, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
It’s almost a decade since the Global Financial Crisis barrelled into consulting revenues, causing what was probably the single biggest downturn the industry has ever experienced. In the years that have followed, we’ve seen some markets recover more quickly than others (Germany compared to Belgium, for example), but through it all there’s been one constant—the importance of the US market. Now there’s signs that could be changing.
Tuesday 10th Oct, 2017
Zoë Stumpf.
As an analyst (rather than an on-the-ground consultant), it can be easy to dismiss a consulting market when it seems so troubled that there appear to be few prospects of things going right. Brazil is one such market. The volume of consulting work barely grew at all in 2016, having contracted in 2015. The economic situation is dire—the economy has shrunk by more than 7% in the past two years—and is also beset by high unemployment and a crippling budget deficit. Well-documented political shenanigans have been hugely destabilising—with impeachment followed by meatpacking scandal followed by further impeachment worries—and have hit investor confidence hard. Bear in mind, too, that this is the country that gave us the delightful (at least to the disinterested observer) notion of the “chicken flight”—the idea of a hopeful surge in economic performance, swiftly followed by a fall to earth—and that was when times were relatively good, with Brazil proudly occupying its position as one of the then-fabled booming BRICS.
Wednesday 16th Aug, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
Rome might not have been built in a day, but it was built in concrete. Indeed, it was the invention of concrete, not its civic values or imperial ambitions, that gave the Romans their roads, aqueducts, and extraordinary structures, such as the Pantheon, that still amaze us today.
Friday 11th Aug, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
One of the biggest complaints clients make is about a lack of choice, either because most suppliers look the same or because an outside authority, usually a government or regulator, is forcing them to do something. And these two things feed off each other. When an external stakeholder is laying down the law, sometimes literally, it limits the opportunity for differentiation–the more prescribed the process, the more similar firms inevitably become.
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