Market conditions

The thing about a double, whether an espresso or a recession, is that it implies that the second experience is the same as the first – and that’s a mistake.

Today sees the launch of our short report, Planning for Growth in an Uncertain Market, which looks at the main five options consulting firms have to grow their businesses and at which segments of the industry are likely to gain or lose ground in 2012.

The vast majority of consulting takes place in big companies.  Despite the wealth and variety of resources at their disposal, their complexity has out-paced their ability to respond quickly to new challenges and their scale makes it hard for them to see the world objectively.  They also have deep pockets.  Small companies, especially start-ups, rarely need external help because they’re still in the process of testing their strategy (so any gap between strategy and implementation is less obvious) and have very limited cash.