Tuesday 7th Mar, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
72%.
This is the proportion of the consulting market we think could be taken over by a new breed of intelligent machines. Put a different way, three quarters of the consulting industry could disappear over the next 10 years.
Thursday 2nd Mar, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
85
This is the number of solutions McKinsey says it has developed, recognising the need for ‘new forms of expertise and insight’ and the fact that ‘the line between advisory and execution work has blurred’. We’ve also counted at least seven distinct sub-brands aimed at fostering cross-practice working and at promoting its new approach to the market.
Tuesday 28th Feb, 2017
By Zoë Stumpf.
7%.
This is our forecast for growth in the global management consulting industry in 2017. To put this into context, this rate of growth would make 2017 as good a year as 2016, but not quite as good as 2015.
Thursday 16th Feb, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
“Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men,” wrote the nineteenth-century English poet Matthew Arnold.
2016 tested even the most optimistic consultants’ mantra that all change is good for the industry. To be fair, the year’s two biggest changes–the election of Donald Trump and Brexit–have so far done little more than create huge uncertainty, making it hard for clients to decide where to focus their limited resources. That hiatus in corporate decision-making may be brief in the US, given the number of executive orders flying out of the White House, but the nature of the UK’s post-Brexit world is no clearer now than it was six months ago. So it’s tempting to hunker down and wait for the fog to clear.
Thursday 5th Jan, 2017
By Fiona Czerniawska.
Some years ago we wrote an article in which we took marketing phrases used by consulting firms and reversed them, in order to demonstrate that, if you’d never say “we don’t exploit our global network” for example, then there’s little point in saying that you do. Be cautious when stating the obvious. Recent research into employee propositions has prompted us to repeat the exercise...
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Monday 5th Dec, 2016
By Zoë Stumpf.
The financial services consulting market is huge–the biggest single industry within the global consulting market. And one of the biggest slices of that is regulatory consulting–a particularly lucrative market for consulting firms especially since the global financial crisis of 2008, and the waves of new regulation that followed. Lucrative, but perhaps a little bit dull. For quite a few years, our conversations with financial services consultants have followed a similar pattern, with concerns about just how long the market will hold up against a backdrop of increasing commoditisation and price pressure, weighed against the irrefutable fact that this is an area that continues to keep vast armies of consultants busy. In terms of new trends, quite frankly, it hasn't been the most exciting area to either discuss or write about.
Monday 21st Nov, 2016
By B.J. Richards.
“My grandpa is still waiting for me to grow up!” announced my good friend Josh to peals of laughter as we sat in a swanky London cocktail bar. It had been a while since we’d seen him, and we were thrilled that a speaking engagement had brought him to town. You see, Josh’s job as a professor and principal investigator at a top-ten global research institution keeps him pretty busy, so we don’t get to see him as much as we’d like.
Monday 7th Nov, 2016
By Rachel Duk.
If the current antics of a certain “reality-star-turned-presidential-candidate” are anything to go by, political scandals are currently in vogue. For those of us watching on here in the UK, the build up to the US election has made for compelling viewing—a fascinating political soap opera that would keep writers of House of Cards in storylines for years to come. For the US electorate however, the debates are a glimpse of an unappealing reality that may come to pass when votes are cast today. Watching on with some empathy perhaps, are the inhabitants of Brazil—who are all too familiar with the damaging effects politically bad behaviour can have on business.
Monday 24th Oct, 2016
By Rachel Duk.
When the economic crisis of the late noughties sent shockwaves through Europe, many of the continent’s inhabitants steeled themselves for an undefined period of monetary gloom; ruminating on the dizzying escalation of house prices, and merrily blaming bankers for most of life’s ills. In Spain, however—beleaguered business owners weren’t content to let a tiny hiccup like an economic meltdown crush their dreams of growth and prosperity. With the domestic economy looking wholly uninspiring, a handful of innovative clients echoed the entrepreneurial spirit demonstrated by Spanish explorer, Juan Díaz de Solís, in 1516—and set sail for Latin American shores.
Thursday 13th Oct, 2016
By Edward Haigh.
The overarching narrative within the consulting market over the last decade has been about the inexorable decline of traditional strategy consulting, and of a more practical, implementation-focused brand of consulting emerging in its place.
The numbers bear out the extent to which that’s hurt some of the most prestigious names in the consulting industry: in the UK strategy firms now account for a little over 17% of the market, while the advisory practices of the Big Four (which, in all but one case, didn’t even exist some 15 years ago) now have a 38% share.
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