Analysis of Emerging Themes and Trends in the Consulting Industry

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the emerging themes and trends within the consulting industry. It begins with an overview of the industry, including the dominance of the 'Big Four' consulting firms and the significant growth the industry has experienced. The report then delves into k...Read More

Emerging Themes
Trends in the consulting industry

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Findings and Analysis......................................................................................................................2
Overview of the industry..............................................................................................................2
The big four..................................................................................................................................3
Challenges within the industry.....................................................................................................3
Digitalization of the world.......................................................................................................3
Low acceptance to failure.........................................................................................................4
Talent attrition..........................................................................................................................4
Need for effective collaborations.............................................................................................5
Area of focus for the consulting industry........................................................................................5
Technological advancement.........................................................................................................5
Social trends and shifts................................................................................................................6
Industry globalization..................................................................................................................6
Possible implication of emerging themes on strategic and operational business decision making.7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Be open to change........................................................................................................................9
Active leadership..........................................................................................................................9
Embrace the competition.............................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9

References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
Management consulting is a practice of helping and guiding organizations in order to improve
performance. Ideally, consulting firms are appointed to identify problems with an existing
organization and develop plans for improving the same (Kipping & Clark, 2012). Various
leading organizations resort to consultants for improved performance. This growing trend has led
to the creation of a mammoth industry. Consulting industry is growing leaps and bounds since its
inception.
Consulting industry is largely client driven and it is imperative that the offering of the
organizations in this industry change along with the changing needs of clients (Kipping &
Kirkpatrick, 2013). The industry is labor intensive. This report throws light on the changes that
are being observed within and outside the industry that need to be addressed. The industry at
large is currently facing numerous challenges that need to be addressed in an effective manner.
Since its inception, the consultancy industry has witnessed a large number of changes owing to
the changing business scenario globally.
Findings and Analysis
Overview of the industry
Before jumping to the challenges, it is important to note that the industry as a whole is
performing very well. Reports depict that in the year 2015, the UK consultancy industry grew
four times fast than the economy of the country (Consulting UK, 2017). Even in the US, the
consultancy firms are growing at a rapid pace leading to significant growth of the industry as
well. The important issues that need to be addressed within this dynamic are that of lower
acceptance to failure, high levels of employee attrition and the wide introduction of new business
models.
Consulting industry shrank during the period between 2001 and 2003 (Financial Times, 2009).
However, post that the market has relatively stabilized. With the advent of technology and the
high reach of internet, the consultancy industry too has grown leaps and bounds. The increasing
globalization has led to the creation of a flat world. Several leading consulting firms have taken

advantage of this globalization and widened their horizons by spanning across different countries
(Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2012). As of December 2016, the overall revenue from the industry
grossed $229.9 billion. Between the period of 2016 and 2021, the industry is expected to grow at
an annual rate of 2.4%.
The big four
PwC (Pricewater Coopers), Deloitte, KPMG and Ernst & Young are four leading organizations
that are dominating the consultancy industry (Muller et. al., 2011). These four giant companies
combined are known as the big 4. Their contribution to the industry at large is mammoth. Ideally
these four firms are accounting organizations. They have a large pool of clients spread across
different parts of the world. These four firms have been outperforming the market and growing at
a rapid pace of 11.5% annually (Big Four, 2011). For every new organization that joins the
industry, the big 4 pose a major threat making it difficult for new entrants to create a significant
mark in the market.
Challenges within the industry
Digitalization of the world
The growing digitalization of the world has a lot of advantages. Business processes have become
more organized and the overall efficiency within the market has surged. Owing to the growth of
technology, the chances of human error have largely reduced. However, at the same point of
time, the rampant digitalization of several industries has led to the introduction of new
businesses (Fleisch et. al., 2015). The rise in entrepreneurship is being witnessed throughout the
globe. This poses a threat for consultants across the world because they are not yet prepared for
these new businesses. Most consulting firms do not have the right technology while most do not
have the expertise to consult absolutely new businesses.
In order to address this issue, consulting companies must innovate a detailed and highly
comprehensive strategy. They must enhance their focus on increased collaborations with smaller
firms which uphold expertise on these new businesses. Innovation is the key for growth in any
business (Drucker, 2014). Specifically with consultancy industry which is very highly client

driven. It is important that organizations within the industry must be able to match up to the
technological advancement of the clients of the business.
Stakeholder engagement is also an essential part of business growth. Brand positioning and
customer retention largely depends on the extent of stakeholder engagement efforts put by the
organization (Henisz, Dorobantu & Nartey, 2014). Consultancy firms must invest more in
enhancing their levels of stakeholder engagement. This would keep them up to date regarding the
changes occurring in the industries of their expertise. Moreover, enhanced level of stakeholder
engagement can also help these businesses in gaining a better understanding about the client
needs in advance (Ayuso et. al., 2011).
It has been noticed that the flow of innovation moves from the top to the bottom in any
organization. Hence in order to consistently innovate and strategically devise ways to prepare
themselves for the new business processes, consultancy firms must focus on increased
innovation from the top leaders. The C level leadership in any organization plays a critical role in
driving innovation.
Low acceptance to failure
Consultancy firms have a business of guiding businesses towards growth and profitability. As an
industry, the organizations have a must lower acceptance to failure. This can cause a lot of
resistance towards change that is required for growth. It is important for these businesses to
understand that investing large sums of money is not equivalent to growth and may not
necessarily lead to innovation. The lower acceptance towards failure reduces the growth rate of
the industry at large. In order to overcome this, organizations within the industry need to adopt a
‘fail fast’ strategy where they can make mistakes and learn from them and move on.
The value of creativity must be placed much above accuracy. This is a cultural issue within the
industry. Business processes are highly stringent that make it difficult for organizations to value
innovation. Even employees are not given a free hand towards innovation and this leads to
overall levels of reduced risk appetite and innovation in the industry. Innovative businesses can
help provide greater value to clients (Szirmai et. al., 2011).

Talent attrition
A high level of employee retention within an organization depicts a sign of a positive work
culture. Organizations must effectively put efforts in ensuring that the employees associated with
their firm stay with the firm for longer duration. This leads to overall increased productivity and
lower cost of training and recruitment. A major problem faced by the consulting industry is high
levels of employee attrition. Talented employees are recruited from the top universities and even
then they are either poached by competing firms or they resign at their own accord. Most of the
employees working in consultancy are over-worked and have little work life balance.
Organizations must focus on employee retention as a critical part of their human resource
management (Cardy & Lengnick-Hall, 2011).Consultancy firms are slowly starting to shift focus
towards different recruitment markets. Other than visiting top universities and ivy league
colleges, these firms are also starting to recruit college dropouts and other students who are fresh
graduates but possess the right skills for the business. The workplace environment needs to be a
bit more relaxed. Businesses must focus on creating a work environment which fosters
innovation and promotes a culture of open communication. These efforts will help in
understanding employee grievances and provide them with an environment to address the issues
that they are facing with the organization.
Need for effective collaborations
Organizations within the consulting industry also need to enhance their levels of effective
collaborations. Most of the large businesses may or may not possess the right infrastructure,
technology, resources or talent to consult every new business that is being introduced. The need
for existing organizations in consulting to collaborate with niche businesses in order to enhance
their own expertise will become all the way more important in the days to come. Consulting
firms will therefore need to form partnerships with businesses outside the consulting industry
including but not limited to academicians, digital agencies and technology firms. A lot of the
large consultancy firms have shown a lot of resistance towards collaborating with SMEs in the
past. It is this resistance that needs to be addressed in an effective manner so that businesses can
collaborate and deliver greater value to clients. A lot of smaller businesses work in efficient
collaboration with each other. Their relationship is based on mutual dependency and trust. Such

businesses too can pose threat to leading organizations if the resistance to collaborate outside the
industry continues in these organizations.
In the given scenario, a lot of crowd sourced consulting firms are emerging in the industry. These
firms are impacting the industry as these are driven by better technologies, effective
collaborations and new clients. These firms possess the ability to source talent and expertise
from small firms or freelancer. Thereby reducing their cost and enhancing the value delivered to
clients. These crowd sourced organizations seem like a way forward and a positive future to the
industry.
Area of focus for the consulting industry
Technological advancement
Technical evolution is the reality of today. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, machine
automation or internet marketing are examples of recent technological advancements that have
led to the evolution of the world. Therefore it is safe to say that technology plays a very
important role in the present business scenarios. In the consultancy industry too, technological
advancements has allowed increased automation within the business. Organizations within the
consulting industry are able to effectively manage their clients and enhance operational
efficiency within the business.
Organizations are focusing on combining business, deep industry insight, innovation and
technology in order to deliver value to customers (PwC, 2018). The big four organizations are
specifically focusing on cyber security and data analytics in order to ensure data preservation.
Technological growth has helped the businesses by largely assisting in their reach to customers
as well as engagement with them (Guffey & Loewy, 2012).
Social trends and shifts
Digital innovation has also helped businesses in devising improved strategies of performance
evaluation and customer engagement. One of the biggest gifts of the advent of technology is the
growth of social media. Organizations within the consulting industry are also resorting to social
media marketing in order to leverage the wide reach and the improved customer engagement

strategies of social media. Social media marketing refers to the process of marketing a service or
product through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter etc (Tuten &
Solomon, 2017).
With the growth of social media, even a small consultant anywhere in the world can reach out to
customers across the globe. Social media’s reach is massive and hence businesses are shifting
towards enhancing their presence on these social media platforms. This growth of social media
and shift in the social trends of the society are beneficial for both consultants as well as clients.
Consultants have better ability to reach out to customers while customers are better aware of
available consultants across the globe. This social shift has also enhanced the level of
communication between businesses and customers (Kaur, 2016). This eventually leads to better
communication and hence improved understanding of customer needs leading to enhanced value
delivered.
Industry globalization
Globalization in the world has led to a free flow of technology, resources, people and
information from one part of the world to another. As discussed before crowd sourced
consultants are on a rise. Globalization plays a significant role in the growth of such
organizations. Increasing globalization within the industry has its pros as well as cons. This has
led to increased competition among organizations owing to large reach of every business (Crane
& Matten, 2016). Competition among several firms leads to increased value delivered to
customers.
Globalization has also allowed clients to take consultancy services over specific issues from
different sources. Moreover, the entire idea of online consulting or distance consulting is a result
of industrial globalization. Today, expertise can be sourced from different parts of the world. The
need for consultants is on a rise and this is why the entire industry has observed high levels of
growth. However, the increasing globalization has also enhanced the level of stakeholder
engagement within consultancy firms. Globalization is a boon and bane. The delivered value is
consistently increasing but the competition is on a rise. Hence it is the need of the hour that these
consultancy firms continue to consistently innovate and focus on offering additional value to
customers.

Possible implication of emerging themes on strategic and operational business decision making
The consultancy industry as a whole is going through several changes. These trends have a
positive as well as a negative impact on the organizations working within the industry. The
impact of these trends also largely depends on organizational philosophy and the mindset of the
C-leadership existing within the business. The predominant trends as discussed in the report are
switching to newer talent acquisition sources, emergence of crowd funded consultants, increase
in the number of freelancers and growth of new businesses owing to increasing technology
(Lehner, 2014).
The biggest positive impact of these trends is that it would lead to increased value delivered to
clients and all stakeholders associated with the business. The emergence of a large number of
crowd sourced consultancies is making the market highly competitive. In order to gain an
advantage over other players in the industry, organizations need to deliver value to customers.
Every time there is high competition within any industry, customers are the primary beneficiaries
of the same. Similarly, increasing number of crowd funded consultants will aim at delivering the
same value to clients at a much lesser price. Since these consultants have no resistance towards
collaborating with smaller agencies or freelancers, the overall productivity of the business is
higher than large consultants who are limited to their in-house teams.
Another advantage of these trends and specifically growing technology and social media is
stakeholder engagement. It is important for businesses to engage effectively with their
stakeholders in order to build and sustain long term relationships with them. Stakeholder
engagement has also helped businesses in understanding customer needs and deliver value
(Andriof et. al., 2017). The growth of organizations to a large extent is a contribution of all their
stakeholders combined. Therefore engaging them in an effective manner is imperative for the
long term sustainability of the business.
Increased efficiency due to technology is another advantage being witnessed by the consultancy
industry. Organizations are able to enhance their levels of efficiency and improve their data
management tactics with the help of increasing technology. Technology has also provided
businesses with the much needed reach to their customers located in different parts of the world.
Another predominant advantage of technology is better communication with customers and

hence better understanding of their needs leading to increased value and improved relationships
existing between the business and its customers.
A major trend that is being observed is that of effective collaborations. A large number of
businesses are collaborating with a large number of other smaller ventures in order to gain more
expertise and widen their horizons. Organizations are also effectively collaborating outside the
consultancy industry. This includes tying up with digital media agencies, technology firms and
other academicians. These collaborations are increasing the level of value delivered to customers
but at the same time they are posing a threat to already established consultancy firms by creating
direct competition for them (Freedman & Nutting, 2015). These small firms associate with
experts from across the world for mutual collaborations and the overall value received by the
client is much higher.
These trends have certain cons as well for the industry. At the foremost front, the increasing
competition within the industry is posing a threat to existing businesses. The high level of
competition will not let small players survive. There are advantages as well as disadvantages of
this competition. Therefore it is now mandatory for businesses to gain a competitive advantage.
However, one of the biggest effects of competition is often a price war. The first step taken by
competing firms is to reduce their prices. In the face of such a competition, it is possible that
there might be a price war. If that happens, not only with the value delivered to customers fall
short but a number of good players from the industry will be eliminated.
Another trend that may have negative impacts is the adoption of a different recruitment strategy.
The change in talent market and innovative talent acquisition from college dropouts may create a
negative example in front of people. Recruiting people without a strong academic background
also adversely impacts the brand’s positioning in the minds of its stakeholders (Rostker et. al.,
2014). Large businesses specifically must not take this risk. Recruiting this talent will definitely
cost much lesser to the company but at the same time, if organizations consistently hire these
professionals because of their lower cost to company then the overall talent pool of the
organization may not remain as effective.
There are pros and cons to the trends that are being witnessed in the consulting industry. It
remains the choice of the organization to deal with the trends and use them to their best

advantage. Even so, it is essential for new trends to emerge for the growth of any industry and
hence imperative that such trends are observed, identified and accepted for the overall
development of the industry.
Recommendations
Be open to change
The foremost recommendation to organizations within the consultancy industry is to be open to
change. Resisting change whether to recruit dropouts or collaborate with smaller agencies will
lead to reduction in the overall productivity of the business.
Active leadership
The C-level leadership within any organization must take the active front and lead the whole
team by creating a culture of acceptance, respect and trust. It is the top management that should
be open to the idea of recruiting people from different colleges. They must bring in the culture of
collaborating with smaller agencies in order to enhance their area of expertise.
Embrace the competition
The last recommendation for the firms would be to embrace the rise in competition and pull up
their socks in order to sustain it or get ahead of it. Competition and specifically healthy
competition must be appreciated, accepted and created within an industry for sustained growth of
overall industry and value delivered to clients.
Conclusion
Consultancy industry is highly customer centric and the changing needs and demands of
customers would directly lead to changes within the industry. There are several changes that the
industry is witnessing as well as the challenges that are being posed to the business. The impact
of each of the new trends is positive as well as negative. It largely depends on the organization
whether they can make the best of the change of not. As an industry, the players need to be more
accepting towards change, make their leadership active and embrace the competition that is

coming their way. This would lead to overall growth of the industry as well as increase the value
delivered to customers.

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