The Importance of the Consulting Industry

The consulting industry is any form of advice given by any person in a position of providing specialized advice based on different business processes. The main purpose of hiring consultants in the consultant industry is to improve performance as well as demand for concrete results in every step of projects. Consultants can be a local institution, a hard-working employee or a global consulting firm. The three significant trends in a consulting industry include client expectation which on the rise since customers are expecting high-quality work, more value, and faster service delivery. The aspects expose firms to risks hence forcing them to over-stretch their resources to satisfy the client needs. Secondly, competition an element that was previously curbed through benchmarking to other organizations. However, the digital market has disruptors that have made customer service of great importance. Thus, forcing service providers to design unique ways to meet clients' needs. Thirdly, the changing of the resource model. Companies have to scale their workforce based on demand. The demand allows service business to acquire new skill and resources. Outsourcing can be a fundamental problem in cases where a firm can avoid considerable investments associated with time, recruiting, managing resources and training. Therefore, outsourcing contributes to the growth of a firm.

The primary issue facing the consulting industry is constant creativity that has destroyed existing models due to lack of proper management. For this industry to curb this issue, it needs to innovate new ideas and find ways of generating new strategies to face the problem. Thus, affirming the importance of the consulting industry as illustrated in the findings where employees confirm market expansion after its introduction.  Consulting firms and individual consultants should recognize limitation in their employed approaches while exploring the gaps to tap into emerging innovations particularly in technology.  New deliveries and procedures will have a better opportunity of surviving in the fast-approaching undisputed future based on this approaches.

Introduction

The consulting industry comprises not only the strategy consulting, but it also covers a wide range of expertise across several sectors. The primary purpose of hiring consultants in the consultant industry is to improve performance and demand concrete results in every step of projects. Therefore, consultancy is described as any form of advice given by any person in a position of providing specialized advice based on different business process. The consultant can be from a local institution, a hardworking employee or a global consultant firm (Fincham, 2013). Employees of business consulting firms aim at improving the performance of the client and not their status quo. Hence, the success of any consulting projects is determined by the extent to which the consulting firm achieves the set objectives.

Consultancy begins when clients want to improve their performance in different parts of their businesses. When they realize they do not have the expertise required they are forced to hired individuals qualified in that sector. It is, however, challenging when the client wants to solve an issue within a limited time. In such a scenario, it becomes difficult or rather impossible for clients to train their staff to solve such a problem. Thus, resorting to consulting firms which provide economical access to specialized professional (Meritus Knowledge Center, 2012). The cost of training and developing the teams of external professional are instigated by consulting firms who then spread it to their clients

Findings

While illustrating the power of pressures attributed to the need for consulting services, half the senior executives surveyed stated that the speed of change they experienced is unmatched. Further, 63% of the executives noted that it was harder operating service business as compared to 52% in the previous years (Sarvary, 2009). The percentage of executives who indicated that the condition for operating service business is changing more quickly than before doubled over the past ten years that is from 12% to 52% (Sarvary, 2009). Companies are finding it challenging to meet margin targets and profit through the traditional methods. According to the responses related to top business challenges, 44% stated that competition was their primary challenge, 37% was prioritizing the customer expectation and 31% addressing of limited access to essential skills (Sarvary, 2009).

Top Trends in the Consulting Industry

Three significant trends are witnessed in the consulting industry that is client expectation, competition, and changing resource models. A large number of service providers confirmed to the surveyors that the expectations of the client are on the rise. Clients expect high-quality work, more value as well as faster service delivery (Fincham, 2013). They also demand more accountability and transparency on work delivery. However, meeting this heightened expectations is creating worry among service providers since some are difficult to achieve.

The increasing expectations from the client have resulted in rising in different services that providers deliver to their clients. Notably, this is an aspect that exposes firms to risks hence forced to over-stretch their resources to satisfy the client. In a research conducted in 2009, 89 % of the service providers confirmed to have expanded their service offerings for the clients (Sarvary, 2009). Clients tend to assume that their service provider partners are in a position of supporting their individual’s business needs by demanding them to deliver services that are outside their significant capabilities. Subsequently, this main not be a rational expectation in the long term.

Another trend is competition. Despite the ramping up of competition in various markets, 80% of service providers stated that they had experienced an increase in the consultancy services which is up to 62% up from the previous years (Sarvary, 2009). Previously, it was adequate to benchmark any organization to facilitate curbing competition. However, the digital market has disruptors that have made customer service of great importance. The aim of this is to mount the new challenges to market holders and make expectation achievement the only metric that matters. With the witnessed speed of innovation and new technology today and a combination of facts, this belief will eradicate as experts will design strategies to counter the situation (Sarvary, 2009). According to researchers, customer loyalty and advocacy will highly become one of the significant ways to stand out and establish a competitive advantage. The research also noted that there exists a new arising basis for competition. Therefore, businesses will be forced to risk by seeking consultancy services from highly skilled firms with innovative models for business.

As a result of increasing work-load of companies, the research reveals that service providers view their workforce structure as an obstruction to success. 65% of the experts stated that organizations had to turn down their works due to lack of significant resources and skills (Van den & Baaij, 2005). Also, companies fail to adopt flexibility in the working condition hence driving away female talent in the industry. The companies end up outsourcing talents from the external environment.

Companies have to scale their workforce based on the demand. The demand on workforce allows service business to acquire the needed skills and resources. Outsourcing can be a fundamental problem in cases when a firm can avoid considerable investments associated with time, recruiting, managing resources and training. 81% of the senior officials believe that leveraging service providers and contractors is a quick answer to the growth of the business (Sarvary, 2009). Nonetheless, it is essential to note that outsourcing at times contributes to the growth of a firm. However, perceptions and practices vary often regarding the aspect. Although the effective outsourcing policy is clear, 30% of the senior officials state that they find it difficult securing good contractors (Sarvary, 2009). Based on the future, only organizations that are successful in building and leveraging networks will emerge from the pack of professional services as well team champions. Indeed, this shows that executive service firms that use contractors and independents perform excellently. 94% of the higher performers leverage strategically the apparent network talents such as service providers as compared to 70% of the other population. 97% of the best performers articulated that their capability of liquidating workforce improved (Fincham, 2013). Indeed, this affirms that consultancy services result in business growth.

Fundamentally, the three primary trends indicate that the professional consultancy service worldwide is undergoing a significant change. Clients want quality, more demanding speed and agility for service providers. Challenges are still emerging in the sector hence disrupting resource models. The increasing pressure has driven the significant change thus pushing senior service providers into a new system of service delivery.

Emerging Issues

The biggest issue facing the consulting industry is the constant creativity that has destroyed existing models due to lack of proper management. It is in the nature of consulting to render your work product obsolete. The innovation of new ideas is another distinguishing feature for any consulting industry (Fincham, 2013). Firms need to find ways to generate the new strategies to face the encountered challenges. Firms also need to showcase their expertise, thought processes, and results to be able to emerge winners and show the world their innovative skills as well as establish a competitive advantage.

Organizations are required to find ways of controlling different pressures that are faced. They need to identify efficient and sophisticated approaches to contend the demands. While working towards countering new competitors and finding new clients, time and resources should be effectively utilized. Consultancy’s biggest issue is the need to continually reinvent itself without destroying itself in the process by moving too fast, too slowly or too far from what it is today.

Conclusion

Companies engage with consulting firms to acquire new perspectives on various problems. Consultants work with a large number of clients since they are familiar with business variety models within their field of specialization. Therefore, they are in a position of offering appropriate business techniques to their clients. Subsequently, they recommend changes that will help the client to surpass their competitors. The efforts of today’s success will ultimately lead to tomorrow’s failures. Consultant firms and individual consultants should recognize the limitation in their employed approaches while exploring gaps to tap into emerging innovations particularly in technology. New deliveries and techniques will have a better opportunity of surviving in fast approaching undisrupted future.

References

Fincham, M. (2013), Management consulting and uncertainty: mapping the territory

              International Studies of Management and Organization, 43(3), 3-10

              Meritus Insights. Retrieved from http://blog.meritusindia.com/2012/07/12/emerging-trends-in-indian-management-consulting

Meritus Knowledge Center. (2012).Emerging trends in Indian management consulting

Sarvary, M. (2009).Knowledge management and competition in the consulting industry California Management Review, 41 (2) (1999), pp. 95-107

Van den, M. Baaij, H. (2005). How knowledge accumulation has changed strategy consulting: strategic options for established strategy consulting firms: Strategic Change, 14, 25-34.