Quo Vadis, Consultant!

How long have you been part of the consulting scene?

I am an observer of the market for over 40 years and a professional consultant for nearly 25 years.

Why does the topic fascinate you?

To help and influence decision makers, build bridges between people, companies and cultures, and to anticipate the future.

As a connoisseur of the industry – what do you expect to be the major change of the industry within the next 5 years?

Macro forces

1. The number of independent consultants will keep on increasing significantly

• • rejection of large organisations (growing desire for freedom or autonomy)
  • globalisation and opening of markets
  • reclassification of executives at the end of their career

2. The need for consulting will surpass the most optimistic forecasts

• • urgent need for alternative solutions
  • need to coordinate all change agents, “in & out”
  • top priority: create new “business” added value for the client

3. The lack of regulation on the consulting market will persist

• • unlike most liberal professions, consulting evolves in a completely open market, which is the ultimate expression of competitive capitalism
  • price and repository variations will follow the bursting and dissolution of demand, both upward and downward
  • a wide segmentation of the market will happen, depending on the level of notoriety and the ability of each consultant to satisfy the demand

4. Digital media will make privileged data accessible and will accelerate the globalisation of the market

• • with the “Wikistrat”, conventional consulting is transformed into a self-service, whose open and low-cost access will lead to the emergence of other customised forms of services with higher added values
  • whatever the multiplicity of the pecuniary value associated with the concept of consulting, depending on national cultures, the accelerated circulation of ideas amplifies the risk of landing unpredictable competition

Micro forces

5. The globalisation of the independent consulting will favour the informal grouping of smaller structures

• • the sophistication, the reactivity, the coherence of services and “tailor-made” services already bring isolated and complementary structures closer (see platform phenomenon)
  • this movement will tend to be managed internationally, as soon as possible, in order to resist the counter-attacks of major industrial networks of the sector

6. Consulting compensation will be based on a shared estimate of the final value created for the client, rather than on a daily rate base

• • ROI will be calculated based on the nature of the turnover, the generated income and the emotional and experiential quality of the relationship between the company and its consultants
  • only junior consultants, subcontractors, and training or coaching consultants will still be engaged according to a more or less homogeneous rates table
  • new forms of contracting (e.g. subscription) and remuneration (e.g. acquisition of shares) will emerge

7. Visibility of consulting will go beyond the strict B-to-B framework in order to enter the B-to-C framework

• • the individualisation of the profession and the importance of inter-personal relations will be no exception from the general trend – without being contradictory with a parallel increase in the need to create communities of consultants cross-sectoral and trans-professional
    Invisible Forces

8. Mastering strategic marketing will make the difference in a hyper-competitive consulting market

• • the gravity centre of positioning will rotate around the ability of consultants to get people talking about them at the right moment, to the right people, with the right pace of providing information and adequate arguments

9. Consulting will remain a real “job” but it will favour creativity over experience

• • the ability to find unique solutions which have a direct impact and can create business will be what matters, not the age or experience of the consultant

10. Open and continuous innovation of consulting will replace the multiplication of different models

• • an increasing number of clients will soon realise the interest of becoming living laboratories of ideas and intuitions, in order to preserve their competitive advantage
  • a re-contextualisation (via the stakeholders) of the demand will become necessary in order to place the margins of progress in a transverse approach (no silo mentality)
  • priority to immediate action on the justification of the means by the end (legal transition from the obligation of means to the obligation of results)

Which developments do you expect, especially for France?

• • Consulting will become more oriented towards business solutions by creating new added value tangible to the client
  • Structuring and continuously enhancing strategic and operational marketing
  • Not waiting to function in an international dimension
  • Promote the reconciliation of complementary consultants in order to sell new offers, both multidisciplinary and more integrated
  • Mastering – at the very least – the strengths and potential of digital media
  • To be organised as an innovation (continuous challenge of finding new ideas, in-depth researches, permanent monitoring of the World) and
    systematic economic intelligence body

Which will be the buzzword of 2017?

Uncertainty.