Next Practice – What we wil talk about in Management Consulting in the next years?
Recently, I presented Quartz+Co’s view on the future of management consulting, at the annual consulting day arranged by Virke, the Enterprise Federation of Norway.
The consulting business is changing, clients are requesting tailor made solutions and more practical advice from experienced specialists. At the same time they expect management consultants to be flexible and able to adapt their value proposition to the changing needs of organisations.
To set the scene, I conducted an informal survey among our consultants, and asked them to write down the most used consulting phrases and words used today. The most popular phrases today were let’s right-size the organisation and develop solutions together with the client. As for the most popular words, framework, best practice, structural change and implementation, were selected. Then I asked them to identify the most popular phrases and words in three years. The answers were not surprising. It seems as if we are going from focusing on frameworks as an important competence to applying the collective intelligence available. We seem to be going from best practice as an essential element of the project, to a personalised, people centric and co-creation process. Consultants also think that we are moving from implementation and organisational optimisation as the main project delivery, to mobilisation and strategic innovation. The project delivery will possible shift from implementation of a certain solution, to mobilisation of the client organisation’s competence and strategic innovation as means to not just picking the best, but creating the next… Thus focusing on client’s ability to envision, tackle and solve future challenges.
These results support general findings from the consulting business. There are three main areas of development; 1) as for competence more industrial and expert knowledge is requested, 2) tasks and projects are getting more complex and intertwined, and 3) deliveries are expected to be more practical. These changes are driven by increasingly knowledgeable and selective clients.
Firstly, clients are getting more professional and have experience themselves from management consulting, and thus know how to apply the basic consulting toolbox of methods, frameworks and models. Consequently, consultants need to present a different value proposition, based upon their deep knowledge and understanding of the client and the industry, in addition to the basic consulting skills. Moreover, they should be able to offer an outside objectivity and a creative approach. This creates the first major paradox for future management consultants: How to develop experts with a deep knowledge of the client and industry, while at the same time being able to offer an outside and objective perspective, and ability to be creative and come up with unique solutions?
Secondly, the demand for tangible results is increasing, as clients are getting more cognisant of what to expect from consultants. Clients demand quick results within certain areas and smaller projects with high tempo that are possible to follow-up. In addition, clients increasingly search for involvement in the projects, to ensure that the solutions are possible to realise and enhance mobilisation of the internal competence within the client organisation. When multiple small projects are combined, consulting firms are faced with a more complex and varied set of tasks. This represents the second major paradox: How to solve a set of combined and complex tasks with quick results, while at the same time ensuring that the client is highly involved in the process?
Thirdly, clients are more sceptical of consultants, and organisations often reduce their budget for external projects or even ban consultants in times of financial distress or when results are weak. Consequently, consultants are required to show visible results from projects and deliveries that immediately and directly add value to the client organisation. The fear is that organisations do no possess the competence needed to handle the project deliveries after consultants have left. A third paradox will therefore be: How to give practical advice that is adapted to the client and possible to realise, while at the same time challenge clients and inspire them to be imaginative and creative?
These paradoxes are what face the consulting industry in the next years to come. In my next post, I will show you how Quartz+Co will tackle and solve these issues.
Eirik Haslestad: Engage. And Align. 