Source has questioned almost 100 senior clients and more than 30 consulting firms in the UK in order to produce our latest report, analysing  key trends in the UK consulting industry.

At just over 2% over 2011, growth in the UK consulting market was not stellar but was noteworthy nonetheless given the gloomy economic environment in a country that’s been either in recession, or very narrowly avoiding it, for some time. But slow top-line growth hides a variety of experiences amongst consulting firms, depending on sector, clients and firms. Some consulting firms did very well indeed, achieving double-digit rates of growth in 2012, others less so.

All sectors of the UK consulting market showed positive growth, but the public sector and financial services sector (the biggest and most important), grew by 4% and 3% respectively. Even retail, TMT and energy the three lowest growing sectors, managed to grow by 1% over 2011.

Offering a clear signal that clients had shifted their focus from cost reduction to growth, marketing and selling was the best performing consulting service last year, with a notable 4.8% increase. However, the corporate agenda was still balanced between efficiency and expansion – operational efficiency consulting was the domain where most clients expected to increase their investment in 2013; in fact 24% said the increase would exceed 10%.

For more information about this report, please contact Alice Noyelle.