Client behaviour

By Fiona Czerniawska.

The following forms part one of a series of articles that we are publishing based on our on-going research into how clients see consulting firms. To view the second article in this series, please click here.

Digital transformation represents a massive opportunity for technology consulting firms, but why does our research suggest, again and again, that these firms are missing out?

Our new suite of reports, brand perception summaries for individual consulting firms, suggests the answer lies in clients’ heads.

Let’s take IBM as an example. It has a predictably strong reputation for the quality of its technology consulting work: 66% of executives who know the firm by repute (what we call indirect clients) describe quality as high or very high (the average is 49%), and only a very small percentage say anything that is outright negative. Equally, because IBM is so well-known, there’s little difference when we look at actual clients (or what we call direct clients): everyone knows what IBM does, and does well.

As China’s economy gradually settles into its “new normal” of more moderate growth, some of the big, foreign-based multinational corporations in the market—the very ones that global consulting firms followed here—have become a bit skittish about making further investments. With MNCs no longer looking like fonts of perpetual high growth, consultants are increasingly turning to the growing and maturing domestic market to fill the gaps in their spreadsheets.

By Alison Huntington

I keep a close watch on the price of oil

Lest my consulting practice goes off the boil

I must admit, I felt worried for a time

But things are fine, I walk the line

…is not what Johnny Cash sang, but does neatly sum up consulting to the energy sector over the last year or so.