Client behaviour

By Fiona Czerniawska.

We recently asked around 100 senior people in large US-based organisations whether they’d be interested in converting traditional consulting work (short-term advisory work, paid on a fixed price or time and materials basis, measured on inputs rather than outcomes) into an on-going service, aimed at delivering a specific and concrete outcome, and involving a combination of software, data and analytics, and consulting expertise. Ninety-one percent said that they found that suggestion attractive, and three-quarters said they could envisage buying consulting in this way and that this could represent the future of consulting.

Perhaps that level of positive engagement shouldn’t have surprised us.

By Fiona Czerniawska.

At 6%, growth in the Nordics consulting market in 2016-17 was good by continental European standards—but it’s also a good reminder of how dangerous averages can be. Not only are the different countries in the region growing at different rates—growth in Sweden and Finland is roughly twice that of Norway, which is still recovering from the impact of low oil prices—but individual firms’ experiences vary widely.

Speaking recently at events at Virke in Oslo and DI in Copenhagen, I was struck by the possibility that none of the firms in the audience were likely to have grown at that rate. Some we interviewed for our new report on the region were much more upbeat, while others were struggling. Given that context, I offered up seven things consulting firms in the region might like to consider.

By Alison Huntington.

Earlier this week, Forbes, in partnership with Statista, published its top management consulting firms in the US. As with similar studies in the Financial Times in the UK, or Capital in France, it’s based on a survey of both senior executives in industry and management consultants themselves, and covers 32 sectors and functional areas. The top-ranked firms are the ones with the highest number of recommendations across different categories. The big firms dominate, with Bain & Company and Deloitte topping the ranking with nominations in all 32 categories. In total, 229 firms make the list of top firms.