What are the challenges facing management consultancy today and how is the market changing? Here, we explore four key trends affecting the consultancy market today, focusing on how boutique consulting firms are becoming an attractive option for firms seeking advice, strategy and implementation.
Demand is increasing for niche expertise.
There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution in today’s business world. Each company is different and will seek to innovate and differentiate for competitive advantage. As such, the often generic and broad-stroke strategies traditionally offered by consultancy firms struggle to add value to today’s business challenges and are accordingly rejected. What business leaders need and are increasingly asking for, is specialist knowledge in specific areas. AI and new technology, digital transformation and change management, climate change and ESG and energy and supply chain transparency are just a few examples of what businesses need help with -and they’re calling in the experts from smaller, specialist consulting firms to help them.
A shift towards flexibility and adaptability.
When market changes shift rapidly, consultancies need to be able to respond quickly, adapt to client needs and solve problems without the delays often associated with the larger, more bureaucratic firms. Smaller firms can achieve this in a couple of ways.
First, due to a flatter hierarchy, smaller firms tend to be able to make decisions more quickly and effectively versus larger firms. They can pivot with their clients according to industry trends or changes in the economy. Tying into the earlier point about niche services, smaller firms can offer a more flexible and bespoke service that can be adapted depending on the business’s needs. If standardisation is what the larger firms try and do to best serve their larger networks, a smaller firm will create adaptive and flexible solutions depending on the business itself, rather than entire industries or sectors. It’s ultimately about delivering a client-delivering solution rather than rolling out a cookie-cutter proposition.
Deeper client relationships.
Again, we note a growing trend towards clients wanting senior people on the proverbial ‘end of the phone’ when they need them. However talented a more junior executive may be, they won’t have the experience of a more senior consultant. The highest level of expertise applied to the business’s challenges will ensure better outcomes. Building trust and a deep understanding of the business, alongside the wider challenges they face is becoming a recognised advantage of working with a boutique firm. These firms focus on prioritising relationships as opposed to selling a service or product based on a standardised approach to thinking and delivery.
‘The team at Siena really provided clarity in a time where our objectives were unclear, and our programme was not progressing as it should. There was a sense of partnership that we weren’t feeling with our incumbent and their experience and approach got us back on track’. – Stuart, Interim CIO
Innovators and digital transformation specialists.
As AI and automation are on the rise, smaller, specialist firms have leapt on these new technologies to offer a different service to their clients, innovating quickly to stay ahead of their larger, more established competitors. They can embrace technologies quicker as they aren’t tied down by legacy systems or encumbered by hierarchical bureaucracy and decision-making. These new technological solutions have been integrated into smaller firms ensuring they provide their clients with faster delivered, data-driven insights.
Here at The Siena Partnership, we’ve worked with a number of our clients to implement AI solutions that have meaningful impact. In insurance, we’ve introduced AI to a leading Caribbean insurer to drive better decision making and to support improvements to their loss ratio numbers, technology and importantly the correct implementation has seen an almost immediate improvement for their business. We see no value in delivering change for the sake of it: solutions need to be valuable and easily adoptable for the business.
What’s the future?
There are undoubtedly still advantages to be gained from working with a larger outfit – deeper, global networks, cross-functional capabilities and economies of scale, to name a few. But in today’s challenging business environment, we live in a state of unpredictability where businesses need quick, intelligent solutions to problems they haven’t faced before, and in a way that is tailored to suit their specific needs. Whilst the giants look to become more agile, smaller firms look to scale their capabilities and, as with other industries going through change, there will be those that fail and those that succeed. The one certainty is that technology will play a central role in the repositioning of management consultancy, and those organisations that embrace it will be the ones that will ultimately come out on top.
At Siena Consulting, we work with our clients to help evolve their businesses and achieve transformation success.
If you’d like to continue the conversation with our consulting lead, Rob Saunders, contact him here: