Management thinking

By Fiona Czerniawska.

In our recent report on the size of the robotics and artificial intelligence consulting market we were somewhere between cautious and positive about the long-term prospects for growth. It’s easy to believe that the market will be huge, based on all the talking that’s going on at the moment. There’s plenty of alarmist media coverage, which has brought robotics to the public’s attention as well as to clients’ investment committees. At the same time, the technology itself is fragmented and there’s a dearth of hard data that would give clients confidence to spend.

By Edward Haigh.

I’ve spent enough time attending analyst summits and conducting telephone interviews with the Big Four in the past year, to know that ecosystems are a really big deal for them. Like, a really really big deal.

Along the way I’ve been genuinely impressed, not only by the network of relationships they’ve been building, but also by the humility they’ve shown in doing so. After all, humility may be a precondition for building a successful ecosystem in the first place, but it’s something for which the Big Four (or any big consulting firm, for that matter) haven’t hitherto been particularly famous. Frankly, trying to get a big consulting firm to admit that it doesn’t have all the capability its clients’ need in house, and might need help from someone else, has been like trying to get an alpha-male to read an instruction manual.

By Fiona Czerniawska.

In the corner of a cavernous office, Cindy is sitting at her desk, papers are stacked in heaps. Around her motes of dust dance in the early sun.

She blinks: “Dawn? Already?”

She runs her hands through her hair and rubs her eyes. “We’re just drowning in all these journal entries.” She looks across at two figures slumped, asleep at their desks. “Tim? Jeff? Where’s Megan?”

Immediately they’re awake. “She was here last night, going through that pile of invoices,” says Tim. “We can’t have… not again…” Ping! They all turn to look at Megan’s laptop, where the message ‘software upgraded’ is flashing.