Digital

By Fiona Czerniawska.

My husband likes the music of Conlan Nancarrow, who was one of the first composers to write music for machines rather than people. His work for the player piano, a piano with no pianist, where the music is “played” by feeding in a roll of punchcard data, is extraordinary. Extraordinary because the machine can do things that a pianist can’t: It has more than 10 digits, and its “hands” can stretch to wider chords and play impossibly fast.

It’s also a good metaphor for how technology is expected to change what consultants do. Our recent report found that consultants are broadly positive about the impact technology has had on their everyday working lives and that they’re optimistic about the future.

By Fiona Czerniawska.

THE SCENE: A bar in midtown Manhattan. It’s late and two men in their 50s sit hunched over their beers. Matt is the corporate risk officer for a major pharmaceutical company. Greying and a little broad around the middle, he no longer aspires to be a professional ping-pong player. He simply wants to get through the week without another crisis. Sandy is his drinking partner of many years, since they met up at business school and discovered a common liking for burritos. Sandy is the financial controller of a well-known arts and craft magazine, a job Matt would happily trade for any day of the week. MATT runs his finger down the droplets on the side of his glass.

By Fiona Czerniawska.

Estimating the size of the digital transformation market isn’t easy. What do we mean by digital and how is this different to other, more established types of information technology? When is something labelled transformation actually transformational in practice?

We’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years tracking the size and growth of one part of the market: the work done by consulting firms. That’s not the whole picture, of course—it doesn’t take into account the amount of money clients spend on hardware and software, and it excludes systems development and implementation. Nevertheless, it’s a big number. In 2017, when the global consulting industry grew at around 7%, we estimate that demand for digital transformation consulting almost doubled in size.