Monday 1st Aug, 2011
The growth agenda: it’s on the lips of virtually every consulting firm at the moment. Private sector clients, blinking in the macro-economic daylight, want to develop new products and launch them into new markets. They want to know how to innovate, how to recruit the best people from emerging markets and how to re-engage consumers in more jaded ones. Growth-related projects often have a caché within consulting firms beyond their size because the results are more tangible than most consulting services (a new product launched, a new marketing campaign).
Tuesday 31st May, 2011
Business analytics is, of course, nothing new. Big Four firms and engineering consultancies have long retained small groups of economists to analyse the macro-economic environment; strategy firms have typically taken an analytical approach to assessing – say – the attractiveness of a new market. However, in all such cases, business analytics has been a back-office function, something that is part of another service offered by the firm.
But there are three reasons why analytics is now emerging, blinking, into the limelight.
Thursday 9th Sep, 2010
It’s been a busy summer, at least if you’re in the business of buying and selling consulting firms.
Monday 6th Sep, 2010
“The 20th century was about sorting out supply. The 21st is going to be about sorting out demand. The internet makes everything available, but mere availability is meaningless if the products remain unknown to potential buyers.”
Saturday 23rd Jan, 2010
January is one of the high points of the consultant's year so far as business planning is concerned. For the firms whose financial year starts in the summer, the New Year is a good time to check progress against assumptions; for those whose financial years start in the next couple of months, it is the last chance to take stock.
Two things are striking this year.
Friday 16th Oct, 2009
Over the last 18 months, I (along with many other consultants) have worn out several pairs of shoes walking the pavements searching for clients. In 20 years the consulting market hasn’t been worse. And with the majority of companies under severe cost pressure, credit still tight and high and growing unemployment, a fair degree of optimism is required even to describe any recovery during 2009 as ‘tentative’. Even the politicians have finally broken cover and are now talking about a decade of austerity.
Friday 6th Mar, 2009
One of the points often made about the consulting industry is that barriers to entry are low. But this isn't strictly true. They're low in theory (there's no regulation to keep new entrants out, for example) but history suggests they're high in practice. Over the last 30 years there are remarkably few firms which have entered the market and achieved sustainable growth. Why is it so difficult for small firms to become mid-sized firms, and for mid-sized firms to become large ones?
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.
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.
Saturday 14th Feb, 2009
The question on every consultants' lips at the moment is just how badly will a recession affect their business.
The answer comes in three stages.
Pages |