Consultementers: Wither pure play consulting?

Seeking advice for improvement of business has been an accepted fact for organizations of various sizes. Be it Strategy Consulting, IT Consulting or Tactical Business Consulting, companies including the Big 4, McKinsey etc. have provided pure consulting services to clients. Business strategy consulting had an aura and glamour around it almost bordering on reverence!

However, of late clients have realized that pure advice without implementation is a sure recipe for failure. They have realized that consultants with little or no knowledge can get away by suggesting impractical strategies and leaving the unenviable task of implementation on the contracting company’s staff.

Today clients are asking two questions:
1. What should we do?
2. Can you do it for me?

Consulting firms that can answer both these questions will be preferred going forward. This is both an opportunity and threat.

Consulting firms will have to begin building up tactical industry relevant skills and implementation knowledge. These will be building for e.g. building Supply Chains, Systems to support business processes etc.

This calls for a change in the mindset of consulting firms. No longer can they pretend that clients would turn a blind eye to their lack of implementation knowledge. They would have to be ready to invest sums into acquiring and training professionals with implementation skills. This will be a daunting task given the current culture in these organizations.

The upside of such an approach is bigger ticket sizes. Clients would love to get assurance from Big 4 and Mckinsey’s of the world that they would not just advise but also help to make the solution see the light of day! They would be happy to pay a premium for such a service. These “Consultementers” would be able to charge success based fees based on implementation results. Yes, it is riskier but we all know the equation for risk v/s rewards.

We predict a gradual consolidation of consulting and implementation organizations delivering end-to-end value to clients.

As Darwin put it “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, but the one most adaptable to change.”

The future belongs to these Consultementers.