Market conditions

Over the last three months, we’ve interviewed around 250 people in 150 consulting firms across 35 different countries, asking them how their local market is performing, how and why that may change in the future, and what the key challenges are that they face.

As part of the research for our forthcoming report on the European consulting market, we’re in the process of interviewing literally hundreds of consulting firms across the region, from the biggest strategy firms to local specialists. And one thing that has struck me so far is the relentless rise of body-shopping, where clients define their requirements in terms of the skills they need rather than projects, and buy individuals rather than teams.

Our latest survey of quarterly buying trends gives an idea of just how fast public sector consulting is changing.

It’s a point we’ll be exploring further in a report to be published later in the autumn, but we included a few extra questions in our standard quarterly survey, just to test the water, with interesting results.