| | By Mick James
...continued from
page 15
Generally these
consultants are absorbed
into industry or join
other consultancies. The
sole practitioner route
can be very hard until
you have built up a track
record of projects. Now
the interim route offers
another option.
“If you look at the
market for professional
managers, interim
management started in the
1970s,” says McNeill. “We
predict that what
happened there will
happen to consultants and | |
|
| | there will be a take-off
in the interim consultant
market.”
How big this market
will be is a
chicken-and-egg kind of
question, as at the
moment many of the
potential buyers of
interim consultants will
be unaware of the
potential resource or how
to access it. While this
will become an
increasingly accepted way
of delivering change
projects, McNeill is not
predicting the end of
traditional consultancy
firms which will still
continue to provide
direction and assurance | |
|
| | where clients need it.
“But if you’re doing a
project where there is
likely to be no comeback
and the commercial risk
is low, why pay the risk
premium?” he asks. “Also,
you find that the big
firms don’t want to deal
with one-man projects,
whereas we’re pretty much
exclusively dealing with
one-man projects where
it’s low risk and people
just want a safe pair of
hands.”
As well as continuing
to develop the market for
interim consulting,
McNeill is now looking to
grow the consulting arm, | |
|
| | B2E Solutions, in
conjunction with the
network that has been
developed by B2E
Resourcing.
“If clients want us to
take more responsibility
for projects then we are
more than happy to
provide them with a
partner,” he says. “We’re
now looking to bring some
partners into the
consultancy business to
grow that. Our resource
pool is now so potent –
we have 4,000 people on
the books and no bench.”
There are an infinite
number of ways to slice
the consultancy cake, and | |
|
| | clients are the ultimate
beneficiaries of the
variety of models on
offer. At the moment
clients are faced with a
tough dilemma.
Reduced headcounts and
pressure on resources
means it is harder to
deliver change projects
internally, but at the
same time all external
budgets are under tight
scrutiny. Could the
interim model offer them
a way out of this
impasse? We shall watch
its development with
interest.
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