| | By Mick James
Top Tip* for
Consultants: if you’re
feeling a bit chilly,
cast your mind back to
your firm’s antics
during the dotcom boom.
The resulting warm glow
of embarrassment will
carry you through the
coldest weather.
Watching the
consultancy sector go
through the dotcom era
was one of the more
entertaining experiences
of my career. Pots of
money were poured into
start-ups and
“incubators”, selling
everything from pet food
to artists’ supplies.
Service offerings were
rebranded at “e-speed”
to remove any mention of
non-internet related
services, while
everything else got its
own little e-prefix.
Young British artists
like Damien Hirst had
their works ruthlessly
plundered to produce
suitably modern-looking
websites (although sadly
they went for his spot
paintings rather than
the – in retrospect more
appropriate – rotting
cow carcasses).
The climax came when
“new economy” rising
star USWeb/CKS found
itself possessed of
enough e-dollars to buy
up the well-established
strategy firm of
Mitchell Madison (the
partners later bought
the name back from the
receivers and started
again).
In all of this hectic
activity, the process of
actually consulting to | |
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| | I do).
It raised an
interesting question:
why are so many websites
– even from firms that
are seen as successful
online players – so
terrible?
“We do a lot of work
to help businesses make
their existing websites
work,” says Pitt. “They
appear to be usable, but
from the end-user
perspective they’re
useless – no-one’s
understood the
requirements of the
end-user.”
This is where Pitt
sees his market
opportunity – there may
be a lot of providers in
the digital world, but
when it comes to
specific consultancy
advice, there’s not a
lot to be had.
“Our USP is that
there are a lot of
people who can help you
build stuff or sell
systems, but very few
who understand what
digital is about from
the customer
perspective,” he says.
“We don’t sell software,
we don’t design and
build websites, we take
the role of the expert
advisor – and provide
expert, impartial
advice.”
Generator has been
around since 2001,
operating as part of the
i-level digital
advertising agency. In
November 2005 it was
spun out as an
independent company.
The new company
potentially faced a
double handicap of being | |
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| | seen as either a market
researcher or a web
designer: “It’s
potentially a very
oversupplied market,”
says Pitt. “There are a
lot of people out there
who can help you decide
who the customer is, for
example. But a
researcher can’t help
you with site design, or
a web designer with
customer research.“
In order to make
Generator’s positioning
clearer, both Pitt and
his co-founder Jeremy
Swinfen-Green joined the
Institute of Management
Consultancy and took the
CMC (Certified
Management Consultant)
qualification. Generator
is now an IMC-recognised
practice and on the way
to becoming a premier
practice.
“We want people to
know that they are
working with a
consultancy that is fit
for purpose,” explains
Pitt. “It gives us
credibility in terms of
procurement, compared
with the other agencies
and consultancies on
their books who don’t
subscribe to a code of
practice and
professional ethics.”
Pitt believes that,
as companies’ continued
lack of understanding of
the principles of the
online world is leading
to massive shortfalls in
potential online
revenues, there is a
virtually open-ended
market for Generator’s
services.
“Customer
expectations are far | |
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| | greater than sites can
deliver,” he says.
“It’s an area where big
business should learn
from the smaller
players. The smaller
businesses do really
adapt to changing
conditions – they create
very good customer
experiences because they
have to.”
In all the firm’s
assignments, Pitt says
it focuses not on making
the website look good,
but delivering
measurable bottom line
results.
“We have clients that
have made their website
their most profitable
channel.” It’s an
approach that has
already won Generator
projects and plaudits
from the likes of the
AA, Motley Fool and
BSkyB.
With the papers
warning that a renewal
of dotcom fever may be
around the corner,
Generator Consulting’s
appearance is very
timely.
“We’ve just launched
a training company,”
says Pitt. “There’s a
massive demand for
knowledge transfer. The
dotcom bubble burst
because of bad advice –
what people want now is
impartial advice.”
*with
acknowledgements to Viz
Comics
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| | clients involved in the
digital world somewhat
fell by the wayside. The
consequence is that,
while the online world
takes up more and more
of our time and
consumption, many of the
experiences we have
there are pretty
sub-standard.
This was brought home
to me when I visited the
offices of Generator
Consulting, one of the
vanishingly few firms
operating nowadays that
is prepared to call
itself a digital
management consultancy.
Its managing partner,
Matthew Pitt, was
demonstrating a neat
little tool which
records the actions and
comments of a user as
they navigate the site.
In this case the firm’s
own financial director
was attempting to buy
some laptops from a
well-known on-line
retailer. Having been
through the same process
myself a few days
earlier, I was amazed to
see my experience
re-enacted, pretty much
stumble-for-stumble and
word-for-word (although
Generator’s FD doesn’t
swear nearly as much as | |
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