Market conditions

I wrote recently about how Spanish consulting firms have responded to collapsing domestic demand by working with local companies expanding into the South American market and with South American markets looking to build a presence in Spain. The Dutch consulting industry hasn’t had anything like such a difficult time, but it’s been tough nevertheless. The response, however, of Dutch firms has been quite different.

The Spanish consulting market is a long way from the current engines of growth in Europe, the German and Swedish markets. Its immediate past may be troubled, but it can still teach us important lessons about future success.

Our latest survey of buying trends among clients has a curious anomaly in it.
When we ask people which consulting services they’re planning to purchase, we get a broadly, though not massively, positive response. Technology is high on the agenda as organisations move beyond the cost-cutting and regulatory change that dominated the consulting industry during the recession and its immediate aftermath. Outsourcing consulting, too, appears to be making something of a comeback after two very lacklustre years.