Can’t agree on the way forward in the crisis?

Can’t agree on the way forward in the crisis?

How many of the following challenges does your consulting firm face? Please select all those that apply:

  • We’re designing new services and products that will appeal to clients in the current climate.
  • We’ve reorganised so that previously separate teams will work together more to deliver these.
  • There’s no consensus around new go-to-market strategies and messaging.

Consultants are good at adapting, but not at agreeing. And that’s a problem in times of rapid change.

Quite early on in the current crisis, it became apparent that the consulting firms that would perform best were those that had some combination of size (long projects and diverse portfolios), strong technology practices (because businesses need it more than ever), deep client relationships in the public sector (because governments are relying on consulting support), and the ability to adapt. Of these, we increasingly think that the fourth—adaptation—is the most important. 

All our most recent research indicates that clients continue to have a strong underlying need for consulting help, but this is much less likely than in normal times to translate into hiring consultants. Consulting firms can help to counter the now significant internal barriers, such as the desire to do more work in-house and, of course, severely limited budgets, by designing new services better suited to clients’ new needs—the meteoric rise of workforce planning being a good example. But consulting firms face their own internal barriers: Organised around teams of experts, whose skills and thinking they now need to integrate, arguments arise. Who’s the client and who “owns” the most critical relationships? In a multidisciplinary environment, who takes the lead? What’s the best point of entry, the most effective key to unlocking client demand? At the heart of all such discussions is power, as partners try to establish where they sit in the new organisational pecking order. The first casualty is speed—decision-making grinds to a halt; the second is specificity—marketing messages designed to keep everyone happy rarely resonate.

The only thing that cuts through the resulting Gordian knots is client data. Consultants may not listen to each other, but they certainly listen to their clients. The problem is that partners listen to their own clients and hear what they want to hear (contrary to some perceptions, they’re only human). Those who shout loudest drive decisions, even though their lens on the market is narrow. So, when I say we need client data, I mean proper, robust information that doesn’t just come from the people you know. 

And if we need proof of this, consultants need only turn to their clients. In our recent reports on key consulting sectors, we found that, when asked what they’d done to respond to the challenges of the current crisis, 23% said they had carried out research to understand how their market had changed. More importantly, 34% had found this to be a very effective way to respond, a higher proportion than for any other initiative taken by clients.

Decisions are rarely black and white: “Voice of the customer” research helps firms understand the complex shades of grey in a rapidly evolving market, and it reduces the risk of taking the wrong decision. And it always—in our experience—yields insights that amaze and engage, delivering better results than piecemeal conversations with a handful of clients.

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Fiona Czerniawska的更多文章

  • Sustainability: The execution gap

    Sustainability: The execution gap

    Our research suggests that the intention at the top of organisations to invest in responding to climate change and…

    4 条评论
  • Light at the end of the funnel? Why consulting firms need to think again about how clients buy

    Light at the end of the funnel? Why consulting firms need to think again about how clients buy

    Anyone involved in the marketing of consulting and other professional services will be familiar with the funnel, which…

    2 条评论
  • The delivery gap

    The delivery gap

    Bigger, bolder goal-setting at the very top is outrunning organisations’ capacity to deliver. But this may turn out to…

  • Advisory to advocacy: Will 2022 see a major shift in the behaviour of professional services firms?

    Advisory to advocacy: Will 2022 see a major shift in the behaviour of professional services firms?

    The need for greater sustainability is driving many conversations between professional services firms and their…

  • Making every face-to-face meeting count

    Making every face-to-face meeting count

    On December 7th 2021, I sat in a meeting room in our offices. Notionally taking part in a Zoom call, I was mostly just…

    1 条评论
  • Is outsourcing the new restructuring?

    Is outsourcing the new restructuring?

    Research we carried out in late 2021 suggests that the sudden surge of interest in outsourcing— which began during the…

    1 条评论
  • Consulting: Disruption again, but this time from the supply side

    Consulting: Disruption again, but this time from the supply side

    I’ve written before about if, when, and how the consulting industry will be disrupted, often suggesting that the forces…

    3 条评论
  • Consulting—running out of fuel?

    Consulting—running out of fuel?

    The consulting industry, having successfully navigated one crisis, is now facing another. Throughout most of last week…

    2 条评论
  • Getting the message

    Getting the message

    In February 2020, a message in a bottle washed ashore at St Aubin beach in the Channel Islands, 82 years after it had…

  • Micro-disruption in consulting?

    Micro-disruption in consulting?

    The disruption promised in consulting has been a long time coming. Perhaps we’re thinking about it in the wrong way.

    2 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了