| Mick James talks to Tony McNeill, B2E Resourcing managing director, about the future of the interim consultant as a management consultancy business model. |
| Economic uncertainty could deliver a new management
consultancy business model |
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| | By Mick James
As we venture deeper
into the uncharted
territory of the
recession, it is
becoming clearer and
clearer that consultancy
will be playing a vital
role in helping clients
adapt and change quickly
enough to cope in very
difficult conditions.
But what of consultancy
itself? What new models
will emerge to cope with
the changing nature of
client demands?
One firm that
believes that it has
tapped into a new trend
is B2E Resourcing, which
is developing the notion
of the “interim
consultant” –a flexible
consulting resource that
dovetails into the
increasing ability of
clients to plan and
direct, but not
necessarily staff, their
own change projects.
This leads to a demand
for consulting skills,
but not necessarily the
overhead that comes with
them from a traditional
consulting firm.
B2E Resourcing is | |
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| | itself an outgrowth from
just such a firm–B2E
Solutions, which was
formed by ex Big Five
consultants in 2001.
“We knew we didn’t
want to do ‘friendly
co-pilot’ consulting,”
says B2E Resourcing
managing director Tony
McNeill, who previously
worked for Accenture and
Watson Wyatt.
Contact with alumni
groups such as
Excenture, a group for
ex-Accenture and
Andersen Consulting
employees, enabled B2E
to build up a
substantial network of
former consultants from
major consultancies,
which in turn piqued the
interest of clients.
“We had a number of
meetings with clients
who basically just
wanted the consultants,
but needed help with the
‘bodyshopping’,” says
McNeill. “What clients
wanted was individual,
independent consultants
to go in and work on an
interim basis with no
supervisory input from a | |
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| | consultancy.”
The reason this model
is feasible is because
of the large number of
ex-consultants who now
find themselves working
in industry.
“Since 2003 a lot of
people have been shaken
out of consultancy,”
says McNeill. “Clients
now want to find some
‘workhorse people’ who
can work around them and
do the heavy lifting.”
This change on the
client side has been met
by an increased supply
of consultants who are
leaving major
consultancies at a
junior level.
“More and more people
are seeing the path to
partner extending and
extending, and are
thinking, ‘I must be
mad–I’m slogging my guts
out and at the end of it
I’m only going to be on
£150k’,” says McNeill.
Continued on page
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