| | By Mick James
Ever since the big
accounting firms moved
into the advisory space
there’s been debate
about large corporate
entities which launch
into the consultancy
market. There seem to be
two dangers: one that
the consultants will be
perceived as
“pre-sales”, steering
clients towards the main
product or service. The
other is that the
consultancy will lead a
semi-detached life,
raising questions about
whether it should be in
the portfolio at all.
There is a third way:
that the organisation
becomes consultancy-led,
where the consultancy
arm is neither servant
nor side-line, but
actually begins to
direct the focus of the
organisation based on a
deeper understanding of
the business needs of
customers. This
necessitates a more
radical transformation
of the business than
simply hiring a few
consultants but the
potential rewards are
enormous.
One organisation that
seems to be following
this path is BT. I’ve
long seen BT as one of
the sleeping giants of
consultancy. As a large
firm that owned the
medium-sized, but
well-respected
consultancy Syntegra, BT
could be seen as falling
into the “semi-detached”
category. But there was
also a wealth of
consulting resource
within the main BT
organisation, albeit
fragmented – a cursory
inspection of the
organisational chart
revealed at least six | |
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| | offerings, and that was
only those parts of the
business that actively
branded themselves as
consultancy.
Now consultancy is
emerging from the
shadows at BT as the
company not only unites
all its offerings under
the BT banner but
embarks on an ambitious
growth programme. What’s
particularly interesting
is how this new force
interacts with the rest
of BT. Graham Hughes,
technical design
authority within BT’s
Global Services, expands
on the point: “The
changing face of BT
means that there’s more
of a focus on doing
what’s right for the
customer rather than
taking an account led or
research-based approach.
It’s no longer about
building out a network
and expecting customers
to come and buy. Most
research is now based on
customer requests.”
This is also
expressing itself in
partnerships such as the
work BT is doing with HP
at the Bank of Ireland,
jointly developing
propositions for the
market. Consultancy will
thus be at the forefront
of transforming the
perception of BT from
being a traditional,
consumer-focused
telecoms company into a
leading provider of
business solutions.
Emmanuelle Roger was
a consultant with
Syntegra before it was
integrated into the
Global Services
division, and now has
responsibility for the
consulting career
development programme at
BT. She explains how the
changes have impacted on | |
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| | consultants pursuing a
career within BT:
“Syntegra was always a
consulting led and
customer-focused
organisation but we’re
even more customer
focused now.” While
Syntegra formerly went
to market with its own
sales force, now BT’s
consultancy offering is
part of a flexible
resource pool without a
dedicated channel to
market.
“For us it’s an
opportunity to develop
new relationships with
new people, and pursue
bigger opportunities
such as the recent
health contracts,” she
says. “The ultimate goal
for consultancy is to
work at the thought
leadership level, to
tell clients what they
need to do to keep
ahead.”
This means that
consultants at BT are
working in a much
broader context than
ever before:
“Consultancy does take a
number of forms,” says
Beverley Tighe, a
consultant with BT’s
Global Services
division. “One of the
benefits of working at
BT is variety: people in
BT need to be flexible
and adaptable – we need
people who can turn
their hands to different
roles.”
The transformation of
BT can be seen most
clearly in the area of
graduate recruitment.
There’s tremendous
growth taking place in
professional services
roles including
management consultancy,
project management,
technical design and
other consultancy
offerings. These | |
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| | services will now
provide nearly half of
all the new graduate
roles at BT for
2005/2006, illustrating
just how much resource
is being invested in the
growth of the consulting
business. With strategic
partners such as
Microsoft and Vodafone,
major contract wins and
the intention to grow
globally through
acquisition, BT can now
go head to head with
established consulting
brands in its efforts to
attract the best new
graduates.
In terms of career
development, BT always
had an impressive record
as a training
organisation – and that
is carried through to
its career development
programme for
consultants. This is a
highly structured,
18-month programme for
both external and
internal candidates
which aims to equip them
with all the basic
consultancy skills
during three phases of
on the job learning – BT
promises all its
graduate recruits “a
real job from day one”.
“If recruits don’t
have specific
consultancy experience
it doesn’t put us off,”
says Jo Stamp, who
started as a recruitment
specialist with the old
Syntegra business but
has since moved into a
consultancy role with
BT.
“In fact it can be an
advantage: someone who’d
done their graduate
training in another area
but had all the core
qualities – networking,
resilience,
communications skills –
might perhaps be a | |
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| | little bit more rounded
than someone who just
wanted to be a
consultant.”
Can a telecoms firm
become a global force in
consultancy? I can
imagine people asking
the same question about
accountancy firms a
couple of decades ago.
When the audit firms
made their play they
succeeded because they
were close to what was
then the “nervous
system” of the
organisation, the
rapidly automating
finance system.
Haven’t
communications networks
usurped that role? I’m
very excited by the idea
that a high-level
conversation about a
business issue in a bank
could directly lead to a
group of boffins
developing, say a new
approach to network
security. I often advise
people who are
considering a first move
into consultancy to look
beyond the usual
suspects and check out
firms like BT who can
combine the security of
a large organisation
with the opportunity of
a growing consultancy. I
think there are three
things to look for,
which I might as well
express as a TLA – the
ABC of ambition, brand
and clients – at the
moment BT seems
well-placed on all three
counts and is certainly
a consultancy to watch
out for in 2006 and
beyond.
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