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Management Consultancy recruitment specialists Prism provide this occasional column examining some of the key trends impacting management consultants' careers. Team moves - utopian vision or practical reality?     In this week's column Keith Evans, a Director of Prism, comments on the rise of team moves - whereby a whole team rather than an individual moves from one consultancy to another.    In some parts of the financial services industry "Team Moves" have been an endemic part of the recruitment landscape for a number of years. In management consulting circles there is an equally long, though less widespread     precedent and currently a very strong demand for such transactions from both employers and candidates alike.    For an employer the benefits are clear - the ability to scale up existing capabilities quickly or to "bolt on" new but complementary offerings for their client base will add value. This competitive advantage will be magnified further if it can be achieved at the expense of a major competitor! The     potential revenue streams and resources will be clear and the business case unambiguous.    Equally, for the potential team members there are compelling arguments. At the more senior levels an opportunity to negotiate their preferred operating mandate and a confidence in existing capability and revenues; at the more junior levels an opportunity to continue working with, and learning from,     existing mentors and to maintain senior sponsorship in a new organisation.    Clearly though, there are potential hurdles which can include:    - Non-compete, non-solicitation and non-dealing restrictive covenants within contracts of employment.    - The potential issues of who to involve and at what stage of the process, along with the subsequent management of the prospective     interview process.    - The preparation of a compelling business case and a proposition to fit a specific set of circumstances.    With a good understanding of the practicalities and pitfalls, these potentially hazardous waters can be successfully negotiated, turning your utopian vision into a very achievable goal.

The magic formula for winning more consulting fees in less time     Utilisation and fee rates are both on the road to recovery in today's rebounding market.    But structural changes within both consultancies and client firms mean we must adapt in order to thrive.    These were the key messages to emerge from the enlightening session "The 5 key steps to winning more consulting fees in less time", attended by senior consulting figures from firms like Marakon Associates, Aon Consulting, Motorola and Atkins Management Consultants.    Opening the event, John Niland stressed the importance of building     health of just a few key rainmakers.    Later in the day Fiona Czerniawska, author of The Economist's new book Business Consulting, revealed benchmark data that demonstrated just how much the industry has changed in recent years. For example the ratio of consultants to partners within the industry has grown over 25% since the beginning of the downturn in 2001, whilst the ratio of support staff to consultants has fallen by a similar percentage over the same period.    Over the same period, firms have greatly increased their reliance on associate or     freelance consultants, permitting growth without tying the firm into long-term employee costs. This was, of course, during a period spanning the downturn. With the market rebounding and the risk of making permanent hires now declining, many firms are expected to reverse this dependence on external consultants over the next months, bringing more consultants in-house to streamline costs.    Aside from resourcing, the next big development Czerniawska expects us to be talking about is the growth of collaborative arrangements between     consultancies - whereby the firm to win a piece of work is not necessarily the firm that provides all the resources to carry out the assignment.    Possibly the most eagerly awaited speaker was Alan Gotto, Chair of the IMC's Consultancy Purchasing Group. It was fascinating to hear his insights into the evolving client - firm relationship. Representing prolific purchasers of consultants' services such as Shell, Barclays, Royal Mail and the Office of Government Commerce, his views were certainly attention grabbing.        an automated prospecting "machine" to generate client leads all year-round. Generating an automated stream of client enquiries is the only way to get over this problem and Niland revealed it's the approach the smartest consulting firms are using to overcome the feast-famine cycle and to ensure the success of the firm is not so closely tied to the

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