Nature of Consulting after 2008

Till 2008, consulting was about implementing systems or in other words -- "What you are doing isn't quite right. Allow me to tell what really works and helps you to be more efficient and better than your peers."

So consultants of all breeds and types were busily installing or implementing models, best practices, theories and concepts followed by audits to find gaps and show progress.

It came in various forms like -- Quality concepts, Financial Management, Customer Relationship, Strategies, Maintenance Strategies, Resource Planning etc. It was a "fixed programmable view" of the commerce and industries, which sustained us well in the mass market economy where the idea was to produce something of quality in bulk and then find customers to buy the products or services.

After 2008, this view is crumbling. The concepts such as ordered motion of information and materials, mass scale efficiency, measurable inputs of employees are no longer found relevant for a company to survive and thrive. The great economic chaos that followed, exposed the deep cracks in our assumptions behind the mental models of installing order and efficiency (focus of consulting engagements). The concepts -- programmable as they are, really do little to help clients improve substantially or sustain the improvements. Perhaps by now, we understand that fluidity and discontinuities are no longer polar opposites to be kept apart at all cost but inextricably interwoven in the flow of human intentions, behavior and events in modern world.

So we need new approaches. Therefore, the focus of consulting engagements is gradually changing from a fixed programmable view to a collaborative process of defining, engaging and resolving contextual problems that are temporal in nature. The client and consultant cooperate to create value in a way that satisfies both the client and the consultant.

New nature of consulting engagement, which is dynamic in both spatial and temporal terms, is emerging.