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Are consultants really getting shorter?

Edward Haigh
It came as something of a shock to me, as I was reading our recently published report on HR Consulting this afternoon, to discover the following two sentences: "Where the business case for using consultants is insufficiently compelling, clients are making more use of their own staff. Consulting teams are therefore typically smaller and shorter."... Read More

In the balance

Fiona Czerniawska
If we look for a moment at the UK consulting industry (every country is a bit different), we can divide it into three parts. On one side of the scales is the market in financial services; on the other is that in the public sector. Each of these markets is similar in size: in the middle and a little bigger than both is everything else: telecoms, utilities,... Read More

The five Bs of consulting

Fiona Czerniawska
Consultants really don’t help themselves sometimes. The word “product” is one most firms would like to steer clear of. They think it smacks of a supermarket approach: put a standardised consulting process in a box, pile it high and sell it cheap. But this is a very narrow-minded way of thinking about it. Sure, you can productise... Read More

2010: The year of living dangerously

Fiona Czerniawska
January is one of the high points of the consultant's year so far as business planning is concerned. For the firms whose financial year starts in the summer, the New Year is a good time to check progress against assumptions; for those whose financial years start in the next couple of months, it is the last chance to take stock. Two things are striking... Read More

Is it true? Was Beatrix Potter really anti-consultant?

Fiona Czerniawska
Like me, you’re no doubt reeling from the revelation that Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse” is actually a diatribe against consultants. According to the FT, she eventually narrows the door so that Mr Jackson, a toad, cannot get in, a strategy Greg Dyke, former Director General of the BBC, says is the ideal way... Read More

New business models: Part 2

Fiona Czerniawska
Internal consultants have a chequered history: one minute they are on the up, eager recipients of corporate largesse; the next they are on the down, seen as a luxury the organisation can no longer afford. Lacking the brand and independence of external resources, they have widely been seen as the “poor manager’s consultant”, the people... Read More