Meet the Micro-Consultant

As the world continues to toil, punch-drunk and disorientated after wave upon wave of crippling covid outbreaks, even those organisations with enough cash to see them through the first quarter of 2020 are now being forced to consider layoffs and furloughs to survive. Uber, Salesforce, even Coca-Cola will have to let people go. It seems nobody is safe.

If the contents of my daily LinkedIn feed are any indication of the state of the global employment climate, then the signs are certainly in place of a dramatic exodus of talent from some of the world’s top organisations. While the platform typically served as a hunting ground for both employers and candidates in the past, the LinkedIn of today feels more like an executive graveyard or support forum, where jobless souls gather to recite tales of recent employment despair – and appeal to their networks for new leads. What’s really interesting to note is the caliber of senior execs now joining this plight. The same creative directors who, just months ago proudly showcased ad campaigns and unsolicited strategic commentary, are now posting broadcast pleas for help. Middle managers who’d leveraged the platform to exhibit the wonders of their workplace are now advertising the transferrable skills they claim to possess as they face impending career doom themselves. And C-suite executives who had used it to promote the steps their company professed to be taking to address cultural inequality are now wincing to explain the eye-watering layoff decisions that they’ve had to take.

the LinkedIn of today feels more like an executive graveyard...

But while our hearts bleed collectively for the now-uncertainty futures of the the high-fliers that we used to aspire to, there’s another kind of job seeker taking note of chaos, and quietly adjusted the lens. 

This particular candidate is of course the business school graduate. Typically functional experts who have identified an MBA as their preferred springboard into general management, students in 2020 are now arriving on the job scene – freshly minted degree in hand – to find that these management roles are either absent or unavailable while organisations come to terms with what Covid-19 will mean for their businesses and as a result, their hiring decisions in the short term. 

While initially stunned by the notion that enormous financial and personal sacrifice has now left them in an immediately weaker position than they were in before their MBA began, many of these students are beginning to identify an opportunity. Or at least they should.

You see, these candidates find themselves in a unique position. For while MBA programs are designed to equip students with the kind of generalist business acumen that would see them slot into general management roles, these programs are also creating business solutionists. Most programs rely heavily on case study methodologies, requiring students to develop creative solutions rooted in newly acquired academic rigor to solve real world business problems. And herein lies the opportunity. For in a year that sees almost every organisation impacted by the global pandemic, the world’s managers are seeking solutions – and those individuals able to design and implement them. 

MBA programs are creating business solutionists

Unfortunately, very few organisations are in the position to afford management services from the big names in consulting, who may charge hundreds of thousands of dollars per assignment - which rules them out as feasible service providers for all but the world’s wealthiest clients. Small and mid-cap businesses are especially exposed as they’re unlikely to have either the management expertise, or the cash reserves to bring in big name talent to help them navigate the difficult road ahead. 

Enter the Micro Consultant

In response to one of my recent articles I was inundated with messages from MBA grads who were, like me, being hired independently by organisations to help guide them through the career chaos that is 2020. Some organisations were looking for corporate strategy, some for marketing guidance and others still for help in restructuring their businesses. Right now, there are very few businesses who aren’t looking for ways to do things differently in order to survive. The vast majority of them aren’t able to afford big name management consultancies. And the smart ones are tapping into MBA grads to access real world solutions from individuals who’ve recently acquired top tier business strategy expertise - at a fraction of the price they’d otherwise be paying to big management consulting firms. 

As a result, many graduating from business schools this year are rethinking their short-term career trajectories. If they’re considering independent consulting gigs (and they should be) then there are two options for them.

Option 1: The Gap-Fill Consultant

The world will return to a degree of normality, sooner or later. As the global business landscape normalises and job opportunities begin to resurface, the natural order will, more or less stabilise. Top MBA graduates will find top paying roles, and the world of elite academia will once more begin to pay for itself.

But until then, consulting independently could allow MBA graduates to stave off intellectual stagnation as well as climbing student debt. And it's able to do much more than that. For choosing to consult in a ‘holding pattern’ until global hiring resumes will position students far more favourably than their non-consulting counterparts. Those who have chosen to work with organisations of any kind on independent consulting assignments will be able to showcase critical skills to future hiring managers. They would have demonstrated initiative, resilience and a proven understanding of real world business challenges. They’ll be able to reference the fact they were entrusted with the fates of paying clients during a period of crisis. And they’ll come away from these projects with new networks of industry contacts.

Consulting independently as a gap-fill strategy can be a very effective way to differentiate oneself when the time comes to compete for top jobs. If it pays the bills at the same time - that’s a real bonus!

Option 2: The Career Consultant

Some who venture into the world of independent consulting are going to find that they thoroughly enjoy it. Whether doing so as a gap-fill strategy while searching for future roles in industry, or in order to bolster planned future applications to big name consultancies, many (like me) who find themselves steering other companies through this unprecedented period of turmoil are going to feel energised by the experience. Some will establish small businesses to better frame the services they’re offering, and others will even begin bringing on additional specialists to facilitate particular client needs.

What starts off for some as a gap-fill strategy to pay the bills while waiting out the hiring storm, might just become a lucrative career. 

The Makro effect: A new breed of Consultant?

So what does this mean in the bigger picture for MBA graduates, and for companies that employ them as independent consultants? I believe that we’re going to see a paradigm shift impacting both stakeholders involved.

1.    For graduates the scarcity of job opportunities in the short term coupled with the surplus of budget-weary clients in need of strategic assistance is going to motivate more graduates to take the business ownership leap than we’d normally see. Many graduates who would ordinarily consider doing so in the past are likely to now be forced to take the plunge – and as a result we should expect a greater number of business owners (especially in the field of independent consulting) to emerge from business school programs in 2020.

2.   For clients that subsequently hire this new breed, a surplus in the number of affordable consulting contractors can only be a good thing. It could allow them to access the kind of expertise that they lack, and until now have been unable to afford. For them, this might be the break they’ve been waiting for. 

Ultimately, whether this new brand of micro-consultant breeds a longer-term consulting ‘middle-weight’ category will depend on several factors within the industry and the global economy. In the short term though, as Covid drives an increased demand for affordable strategic expertise, it’s the new kid on the block that’s likely to get the first call.