Looking down when we should be looking up

When my son was younger, just starting to relinquish my hand as we walked along the street and perhaps slightly intimidated by the enormous world around him, he always used to look down at the pavement.  One day the inevitable happened and he crashed into a tactlessly-positioned lamp-post.

This is a good analogy to the predicament the consulting industry finds itself in today.

Most of the consultants we talk to would describe themselves as “cautiously optimistic” about growth.  Particularly in Western Europe, there’s a sense of resignation that we’re facing a period of prolonged low-level growth.  The chance of a euro-zone crisis has receded for the moment and client confidence and expenditure on consultants is picking up after a rather dismal back-end to 2011, but many people are worried that the improvement is fragile and that another economic blow will knock the industry off course again.  Like my son, they’re looking downwards, scanning the path in front of them for problems, worried that it will suddenly drop off a cliff.

As we’ve explained previously, clients’ views are rather different.  While most are broadly comfortably with the amount of consulting they use, around a quarter expect to see a substantial increase as they re-draw the line between what they deliver internally and what they bring in from the outside.  They think the consulting industry of the future could be much bigger than it is today.

By continuing to look at their feet, consulting firms may – if they’re lucky – crash into this opportunity.  If they’re unlucky, they may never see it at all, or see it only after other suppliers have already started to scale its heights.

Consulting firms shouldn’t be looking down, they should be looking up.