| | By Mick James
Some academics have
argued that the main
value of consultancy is
its role in a knowledge
economy, transmitting
knowledge, innovation
and best practice around
and across industries.
If you accept that
argument, then the next
obvious question is
whether the traditional
consulting model is
either the most
efficient or
cost-effective way of
doing this?
The Office for
Business Architecture is
a new consultancy firm
which has spent the last
year pioneering an
alternative approach –
getting clients to help
solve each other’s
problems.
“Whenever a client
has an issue, for
example in supply chain,
we try to find them
someone outside their
industry that has solved
that problem and bring
the two companies
together,” explains
managing director Bill
Bronsky. “The reason
this is a brilliant idea
is that it cuts out the
middleman: they hear
about the key issues and
challenges and also get
to see and hear about
another industry.”
While this
cross-industry approach
is necessitated by the | |
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| | need to avoid
competitive conflicts,
Bronsky believes it has
a deeper value.
“The deeper reason we
wouldn’t put, say, a
Shell with a BP is
because the step change
answer is not going to
come from inside their
own industry but from
thinking outside the
box.”
The obvious question
is ‘what’s in this for
the company dispensing
the advice?’, but
Bronsky says this isn’t
an issue.
“The interest is
quite disarming – none
of the clients that have
provided something have
ever asked for anything
in return other than to
take part,” he says. ”It
seems to be about
building a network and
meeting executives in
other companies. So it
might look like a 90:10
meeting but what happens
is much more like 60:40.
In the 95 times we’ve
done this we’ve only had
one company that wasn’t
interested.”
Bronsky believes that
what distinguishes this
approach from other
networking or special
interest groups is the
focus on specific issues
rather than general
trends or subject areas.
“The process is that
we debrief the client to
get to the heart of the | |
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| | issue and take away any
clutter and noise,” he
says. “Then we look into
our network to see where
the issue could be
solved, whittle it down
to the most appropriate
company and bring the
two together. We
facilitate the process,
take all the notes and
produce a package that
encapsulates the answer
and the transition.”
None of the big firms
can do this, Bronsky
feels, because of
sensitivity about taking
the full story about a
previous client project
to a potential client.
“We’re more
interested in the bad
stories and the things
that go wrong,” he says.
“You get to see how,
despite the things that
go wrong, the company
survives and that’s
highly productive for
clients.”
Understanding what
the other company
underestimated, how what
they thought they could
achieve differed from
what happened in
practice is valuable to
the client, not only in
helping them to mitigate
risk but also to
understand the true
nature of their problem.
“Often a problem that
manifests itself as IT
may in fact be a change
management issue,” he
says. “When you’re | |
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| | locked into a large
programme and having to
decide whether to
continue it can be very
valuable to have someone
come in and shake the
foundations.”
While OBA’s work may
have profound effects on
what happens downstream
in change projects,
Bronsky says the company
wants to remain at the
value-added level rather
than go down to the
transactional level. At
the moment its model
allows the firm to be
highly cost effective.
“Because our costs
are 99% variable the
fees we can charge are
half those of the big
firms,” says Bronsky.
“Also, the problems we
can solve are not
restricted by the
experience inside OBA
and we’re creating an
organisation where the
knowledge and value are
not locked into
individuals."
OBA’s structure is
built around a core of
five non-executive
directors, each of whom
sits on the board of a
large corporation and
spends 15 days a year
with OBA.
“The non-execs are
incentivised to create
connections and that’s
given us the network,”
says Bronsky. “The
second part is our
associates of whom we’ll | |
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| | have 18 by the end of
the year. We spend most
of our time on
recruiting issues,
looking for people
who’ve solved the issues
the client has.”
At the moment OBA is
recruiting both
non-execs and associates
to cope with faster than
expected growth, and,
says Bronsky, the
opportunities being
generated by OBA's
growth offer a range of
possibilities for its
future direction.
“There are a four or
five choices as to where
we take the business,”
says Bronsky. “One is to
formalise the network,
another might be about
generating content such
as research articles.”
At the moment though,
there is still much to
be explored in the basic
idea that “the answers
are out there”. “When
you put two clients
together something
interesting happens,” he
says. “When they start
to grow and develop an
idea, it takes on a life
of its own – a
multiplier effect
happens when people
share their
information.”
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