Thursday 24th Jun, 2010
The art of “and” is the title of an article by the Boston Consulting Group on how organisations, post-recession, need to grow revenue while simultaneously cutting costs. It’s not a question of one or the other, the article suggests: you have to do both.
Wednesday 16th Dec, 2009
Recessions are extraordinarily effective tools for sorting winners from losers. Just as with retailers on the High Street, we’re seeing signs that the consulting firms with weaker business models are starting to sink to the bottom, leaving their more robust rivals bobbing around in the still choppy waters.
But a problem for one set of firms is unquestionably an opportunity for another. Recessions also give us a glimpse into the future, showing us which business models are likely to perform best.
Tuesday 8th Dec, 2009
Recessions are supposedly great times for innovation. Companies, their backs against the economic wall, are forced to be creative; those that rise to this challenge emerge stronger once the recovery comes.
Is the same true of consulting?
It should be. Long and deep recessions like this one create the need for new ways of managing. Post-recession, buyers of consulting want different services: the recession has changed them and they want it to have changed their suppliers as well.
So why does innovation always seem to be such a challenge for consulting firms?
Saturday 30th May, 2009
V-shaped, U-shaped, W-shaped or L-shaped? The debate about the overall trajectory of the recession in the wider economy has been growing in recent days. But what of the consulting industry?
Saturday 18th Apr, 2009
One of the ways in which this recession is proving to be different from the last one is that demand for freelance consultants appears to have shrunk. Although there’s no hard data on the shift, anecdotal evidence from clients, consulting firms and even freelance consultants confirms it.
There are several possible explanations for this.
Monday 16th Mar, 2009
Most people would agree that the recession has so far produced a flight to brand in the consulting market. But will this continue to be the case?
There are two forces acting here.
Friday 27th Feb, 2009
The furore over the evil Lord of the Dark, Sir Fred, and his dastardly plan to run off with all the loot, has served to confirm one thing above all else: the average British punter now takes matters relating to our banks very personally. In the past, fat cats were mere symbols of what people hated – they stood for inequality, injustice and greed. Doubtless their excesses were coming at a cost to someone, but who exactly wasn’t clear, and anyway, most of us would have given our right arm for the chance to be in their position.
Thursday 26th Feb, 2009
It's been widely reported that Volvo trucks suffered a potentially catastrophic fall in demand in the third quarter of 2008: from around 40,000 trucks a month, sales fell to around 100. Clearly, the owners of big fleets of trucks are trying to save money by running their vehicles for longer.
Tuesday 24th Feb, 2009
There's a common perception that consultants do well in a downturn. Because they sell services rather than products, consulting firms are - the argument goes - better able to adapt what they do to, to fit changing economic circumstances. Thus, in the good times, their focus is on growth and new markets; in bad times, it's on cost-cutting.
But perhaps consulting tells us more about the economic situation than we think.
Saturday 14th Feb, 2009
If the consulting "industry" is a collection of micro-markets, you'd expect any downturn to hit sectors and services at different times and with varying degrees of ferocity. That would certainly be borne out by the experience of niche firms in recent years: 2002-04 saw some firms powering ahead while others gave up an unequal struggle. Bigger firms see this, too, although their broader portfolio disguises the ups and downs of specific markets.
These slides attempt to show how a downturn rolls across the major sectors and services in consulting.
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