Business model

By Fiona Czerniawska

When I wrote an article on this blog about changing business models a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea I was mining such a deep vein of interest. Sadly, most of the comments can’t be published in an open forum – not surprisingly, perhaps, given the strategic nature of the question – but it’s been a salutary reminder of just how  important an issue this has become for consulting firms.

Most of the behind-the-scenes debate has focused on the question of how much needs to change: is this a cosmetic problem, or something more deep-rooted?

By Fiona Czerniawska

Consulting services are linear, right?

We’re all familiar with the upstream/downstream model that has strategy consulting on the left (or at the top, if you’re a strategy consultant), technology consulting on the right, and everything else in between.  This standard model is as convenient as it’s simple: everyone knows where they stand, and it’s easy to imagine all the players neatly lined up along a single piece of string.

By Fiona Czerniawska

It’s hard to find a topic that stimulates a more – or more forceful – debate in consulting circles at the moment than the question of business models.