Businesses and organisations will often pull in the services of a consulting business to either achieve specific organisational goals or to develop ideas that will improve performance. Management consultants have a top-down view of industry best practices and can be brought in to solve issues, add value and aid business growth. Bringing in an outsider can be beneficial in that they provide objective advice and insight as well as offer an understanding of a specific sector or market.
Alongside wanting to achieve specific goals or growth, businesses are now having to contend with the global cost of living crisis, managing changing workplace culture with new hybrid working patterns and supply chain issues thanks to rising prices and the war in Ukraine wreaking havoc on the markets. These are difficult waters to navigate and require building resilience and examining ways of working before an inevitable escalation of the economic challenges ahead.
What can management consultancy do for your organisation and how will it evolve with shifts in the global markets?
- Digital integration and ongoing transformation
Management consultancy firms will need to react to the AI data-based solutions that are being developed. What this means is evolving the consultancy from time-based fees to a model that allows for digital solutions to gather data measure processes and provide analysis. The consultancy will be about facilitating digital technology to reimagine operational, and business needs in 2023. - Agile mindset
In simple terms yes digitisation can facilitate corporate expansion, but you can’t buy innovative blue-sky thinking. Whilst digitisation is the most effective way to transform ways of working, it will require diverse teams that are able to think critically about where this will add the most value. - Attracting talent
The challenge of attracting and retaining people has not gone away. Hiring top talent will increasingly narrow to graduates from more specific top-level universities and turn to tech solutions to meet the people shortage.
Screening and selecting consultancy talent
Where the challenges exist within organisations for attracting skilled candidates, the same will be true of consultancy firms. The need for rapid turnaround and assessing organisational needs has led to increased use of online platforms to source management consultancy. The reliance on online platforms to identify subject matter experts (SME) will create challenges in that reputation and networking will not be enough to highlight the ability of particular management firms who don’t utilise the online space enough to position themselves as experts in their field.
The numbers for management consulting growth
The year ahead will generate challenges as we deal with global staff shortages and the increased specialism of global consultancy firms. The big four, PWC, Deloitte, EYA and KPMG continue to outperform others in the consulting industry. Management consultancy is expanding globally, however, and this will continue with the emergence of specialist and niche consultancies that meet specific organisational needs. This may provide an opportunity for those that specialise in change management consultancy.
As internal leadership restructures to accommodate diversity and inclusion targets and process development alongside the implementation of technology and the management of supply chains, fresh needs and goals will emerge. Management consultancy firms that are agile will adapt to meet these changes in businesses and global markets.
