| | By Mick James
A while ago we looked
at the rise of a new
kind of consultancy, or
to be more precise, a
new way of solving
client problems,
pioneered by The Office
of Business
Architecture. OBA has
created a "peer-to-peer"
network of blue chip
clients. The basic idea
is that "the answer is
out there" and OBA's
role is to facilitate in
putting together a
client with a particular
issue, with another
company (in a
non-competitive
industry) that has
already solved the
problem.
The idea has
prospered, to the extent
that managing director
Bill Bronsky says that
the firm is now
regularly being asked to
do proposals for
projects which are
otherwise being offered
as mainstream
consultancy projects.
"The remarkable thing
is not just that the
answer is out there but
that it is hugely
under-leveraged," says
Bronsky. "It's a
combination of a lack of
awareness and inertia."
Clearly, consultants
fill this gap to an
extent by transmitting
best practice around the | |
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| | economy. But Bronsky
believes there's an
advantage in getting the
message straight from
the horse's mouth:
"It's raw and
undiluted, and it's
unbiased," he says.
"Most of the value, in
fact, comes from sharing
the stuff that didn't
work – it's seen very
differently if it comes
from a client rather
than a consultant."
Last time we spoke,
Bronsky was
investigating different
ways to expand the
concept: one was to
supplement client
experience with
research, and this has
now happened with the
launch of the
"Innovation Exchange".
OBA polled its network
to come up with the
three topics that were
at the forefront of
clients’minds (these
turned out to be:
product innovation; the
disconnect between
supply and demand; and
process driven change)
and commissioned the
London Business School
to come up with research
on these topics. Then a
series of events based
around each of these
topics brought together
20 or so companies to
share their own insights
and discuss the research
on each of these topics. | |
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"The day itself is
very simple," says
Bronsky. "The process of
getting somebody from,
say, a bank to solve the
issue that an oil
company has is more
complex."
Already, he says, the
Innovation Exchanges
have taken on a life of
their own, with clients
demanding follow-up
meetings to explore
topics that have come
out of the initial
sessions. Another
interesting development
that came out of the OBA
network is that the
discussion between two
companies has led to an
individual actually
being seconded on a
part-time basis to work
in the client company to
help resolve the issue.
"That's the first
time this has happened,"
says Bronsky. "The
company receiving the
person gets someone
who's two to three years
in front of them, while
you get back someone
who's grown by a
tremendous amount."
The OBA concept is
still evolving – the
network is still largely
informal, and how that
develops is still a
matter for discussion.
Bronsky admits to being
slightly taken aback by
the rapid take-up of the
idea:
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"The whole thing has
evolved very quickly,"
he says. "There's no way
I would have predicted
this rate of growth."
At the moment OBA is
setting itself a fairly
modest target of growing
from its current base of
19 associates to 27 by
the end of the year.
In many ways the most
surprising thing – once
you've grasped the
concept – is that there
is a business there at
all. Surely OBA's
one-to-one meetings and
Innovation Exchanges are
merely facilitating
something which should
be a well-established
part of normal business
practice? Shouldn't the
sharing of information
and the flow of ideas –
and individuals –
between sectors be an
everyday occurrence?
It's long been my
contention that
companies – and
consultants – are far
too jealous of their
so-called "intellectual
capital". The sharing of
ideas and innovation
also chimes in well with
these
hyper-environmentally
sensitive times. If
companies are struggling
with an issue, that is
likely to involve
serious waste, both at
the time and potentially
in the longer term. It | |
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| | will be interesting to
see whether sharing
knowledge in this way
does in fact become the
norm, and if so it will
be fascinating to watch
how OBA's model evolves
to continue to support
this in the long term.
Should consultants be
worried about the rise
of "consultant-free"
consulting? Probably
not. One of the issues
that normally arises in
these discussions,
according to Bronsky is
"who do I talk to next?"
and clients are very
open about discussing
their experiences, good
and bad with consultants
and implementation. For
those consultancies that
live on their reputation
and the quality of their
work, OBA can only act
as an extra vector for
referrals. And the OBA
model still leaves
plenty of room for
genuine innovation and
completely new ideas to
come from the outside,
whether it be
consultants, academics
or entrepreneurs.
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