Monday 24th Nov, 2014
By Edward Haigh Most consulting firms give fairly short shift to marketing at the best of times. Seen by many as a function whose remit extends as far as producing shiny brochures and organising events, the average marketing department is under-funded, under-staffed and - by my reckoning - misunderstood.
Monday 29th Sep, 2014
By Fiona Czerniawska Sounds impossible. Germany boasts – if that’s the right word – the highest consulting rates in the world. Executives we speak to in the region regularly complain about the amount they have to pay, especially to the big strategy firms which are so strongly represented in this market. “Their fee rates aren’t just high, they’re immoral,” is how one senior manager memorably put it when we spoke to him a couple of years ago.
Thursday 25th Jul, 2013
As part of the research for our latest UK consulting market report we asked clients (senior end-users of consulting services) about the factors that would have a "significant impact" on the volume of consulting services they bought. Top of the list - chosen by a little more than half (53%) of respondents to our survey - was consulting firms lowering their fees by 50%. Fat chance. But also good news for consulting firms, as we discussed in a recent blog.
Friday 19th Apr, 2013
As part of our research with clients this year, we asked them to choose which things, from a long list, would encourage them to buy more consulting services. They could have chosen from things like the ability of a consulting firm to implement as well as advise, the availability of highly-specialised skills in a particular field or a willingness to listen and tailor services to their needs. Guess what came top of list. Yep, lower fees.
Wednesday 13th Jun, 2012
If there’s one theme coming through loud and clear from our conversations with consulting firms at the moment, it’s price competition. Whatever kind of work you do, wherever you work, it’s an issue; and for some firms in some countries the only question is whether prices have now been driven down to such an extent that they’re financially unsustainable.
Wednesday 28th Mar, 2012
It really is a billion dollar question.
Friday 23rd Mar, 2012
Six years ago I visited India for the first time. I will never forget walking out of my hotel on to the streets of New Delhi to be confronted by the almost complete absence of everything I knew and understood. Having worked out the basics - which, for the western tourist, is largely a matter of learning how to manage an overwhelming tidal wave of demand for a share of your wallet - and figured out how to get from A to B, I quickly found myself in the position of trying to buy something . My prospective supplier, seeing me eyeing one of his cashmere sweaters, made his move.
Monday 27th Jun, 2011
As part of our research on consulting in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, we inevitably asked consulting firms how much they’d seen prices fall during the recession.
Overall, we estimate that fee rates among multinational corporations have dropped by between 10% and 15%, and those among large regional or national companies by as much as 50%. The most precipitous declines have now levelled off and in some highly specialised and sought-after areas there are even indications that prices are edging up.
Tuesday 12th Apr, 2011
Consulting is always being commoditised but has yet to become a commodity.
Commoditisation has always snapped at the heels of the industry, but emerging challenges and new technologies has historically allowed the industry, on balance, to stay ahead. And that’s what consultants do: they keep on running.
But just occasionally it’s worth looking back over our shoulders to understand exactly how and why consulting services become commoditised. After all, if we could slow down that process, perhaps we wouldn’t be so breathless.
Thursday 24th Mar, 2011
Every time private-sector organisations cut back on their use of consultants, the amount of talk about risk-reward or other types of performance-related payment increases. However, history suggests that the talk far exceeds the walk. The recent recession has been no exception, with many organisations announcing their intention to make greater use of this approach, only to baulk at it in practice. Our quarterly survey of buying trends shows that, at 12%, the proportion of payment-by-results is scarcely higher than it was three years ago.
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