The Bigger They Are
James Amoah
Interim Professional | Consultant | Mentor | Specialist in Commercial Operations, Supply Chain and Digital Transformations | Entrepreneur | Author | Adjunct Professor
Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG—the ‘Big Four’ of the advisory world—generate billions in annual revenue. Collectively they employ over 1.5 million people around the globe. They continue to lead the market, and their ponderous presence in the supply chain consultancy environment once overshadowed leaner, more innovative firms with a weight that’s hard to imagine. But lately that seems to be changing. All four have seen a serious drop in their rate of growth rate. Even more ominously, employees and consultants have been leaving. Jason Saltzman, of Live Data Technologies, which collects real-time employment data has said that over the past two years almost every major consulting firm has seen more workers leave than join
Where are they going? Both they and Big Four clients seem to be turning to more boutique firms.
Now, as the leader of such a firm myself, this isn’t a trend I discourage! But it is one I try to understand.
There are several reasons why the Big Four might be shedding personnel. Earlier overstaffing is always a good explanation. Or perhaps the fluctuations that every business experiences. Or the slings and arrows of recent economic events. What firms are not reeling somewhat in the wake of the pandemic, the war in Europe, the carnage in the Middle East, the wild card that is Donald Trump?
But I think that the true answer is more a matter of services. The truth is, all supply chain consultancies offer much the same core services. All key personnel in the field are well drilled in Six Sigma and Kaizen and digital twinning and so on. What the major firms supply is more quantity than quality. Something seamless and massive, large complex systems, teams and frameworks and PowerPoints yielding a representation of the client’s situation in an avalanche of charts and higher mathematics. Consultancy as the IMAX Experience.
The problem is, what clients really want is not more complexity, but more clarity and simplicity. Quick practical fixes for immediate and painful operating sores. Not an extravagant tapestry of the Big Picture, but a few critical answers to a few critical specific problems, plus a reasonable certainty that they will be gone for good once the team of consultants is gone.
What differentiates the boutique supply chain firm from the Godzillas and Kongs of the industry are the smaller- and mid-sized firms’ capacity for custom solutions. For what I have come to think of as analytic empathy. The smaller consultancy knows all the moves that the larger one does, but the successful smaller firm has the ability to focus and to listen—to address the particular problem the customer wants solved, rather than impose a cryptic assortments of systems that addresses every possible problem but overlooks the tree in favor of the forest.
The large firm arrives with a thousand operational questions to which it has all the answers already. But the real question is, what answer does the client feels he or she needs? What is the problem as the client sees it? Does the consultant’s recommendations align with the client’s sense of the firm’s goals, strengths, limitations, vision.
What’s needed is not always, or only, a mechanical fix. Yes, the numbers tell the story, but the story is performed by living actors. The consultant has to get a hold on what really matters, but especially what really matters to the client.
When the consultant is in sync with the client’s understanding, and can deliver solutions in the way that the client would like to have them delivered, more than technical problems are solved. There’s a harmony, an accord, that develops. An alignment that gets the job done better faster. Small isn’t only Beautiful. Small is lean, intimate, and functional.
It’s also a good deal more teachable. There’s a saying, or there should be. “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach his staff and managers to fish, and the company will eat for decades.”
If so, would it surprise you to know that one of the most appreciated services my firm provides is not just consultation but mentoring?
A business isn’t a cowboy movie in which the man on horseback rides in, shoots the bad guy, and rides away. Businesses want to know how to solve problems on their own, they want to know how to train their people to spot the problem before it happens.
A proper consultancy doesn’t merely solve the problem—it helps the firm’s key personnel understand how to better navigate supply chain issues from then on, how to help them be more aware, more self-sufficient, how to help them make better decisions.
So is it really a surprise that in the wake of all the recent disruptions, where colossal high-ticket expertise proved futile, that there’s a move away from larger advisory firms to smaller ones? I intend no disrespect. The Big Four got Big for a reason, and their scope and expertise can be truly amazing.
But smaller firms offer more tailored solutions, more personalized treatment, lower operating costs, and—not least—more of a hunger to do a good job and succeed. Large consulting firms can always lose a client. For smaller ones, every client counts.
Really, the choice is between going to a massive chain supermarket with ten thousand shelves containing every edible in the world, most of which you don’t want; or going to that small café where the barista you know is waiting to brew you the perfect cup of coffee exactly the way you like it?
I know where I’d rather go.
Links in the article: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-big-four-consulting-firms-performed-revenue-growth-2024-12
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Other research sources worth reading: https://trafft.com/boutique-consulting-firms/
Entrepreneur, Partner, Mentor @ HELIBLICK GmbH | IBP Transformation | HELIBLICK Change Enablement
1 周"The problem is, what clients really want is not more complexity, but more clarity and simplicity." Well said, James! Many companies invest a lot into complex process and system solutions applying with big change management consultants a rather mechanical approach and forget how to cultivate the right behaviours internally and how to unleash the capabilities and capacity of the internal teams. At HELIBLICK GmbH we talk about a sherpa-approach, because we support transformation teams in achieving the summits of team engagement and business performance with better awareness, entrepreneurship, partnership and mentorship. Companies investing into external mentorship from experienced sherpas will be rewarded by not just better results, but also better culture and better internal capabilities.