| | By Mick James
A new Management
Consultancies
Association (MCA) report
released today reveals
that the UK consulting
industry generates
annual benefits worth
£56bn to UK clients. The
MCA’s report The
Value of Consulting,
based on pioneering
research involving
analysis of 1800
consulting projects [1]
and in-depth interviews
with 30 clients, found
that the majority of
projects in both the
public and private
sectors generate
financial returns of
between two and 20 times
their cost.
The MCA report
provides a simple yet
meaningful and
authoritative way to
quantify the value
consultants add, to both
their clients and the
wider economy.
Key findings from the
MCA report indicate that
in 2008:
• The UK consulting
industry spent more than | |
|
| | £180million on
innovation, £85million
on training and
£80million on pro bono
work for charities.
• 58 per cent of
clients say they are
very satisfied with the
work their consultants
do; 41 per cent are
satisfied.
• For these very
satisfied clients, the
value of the benefits of
using consultancy was
between two and 20 times
its cost or, on average,
around 10 times the fees
paid2. This suggests
that the benefits of
using consultants are
worth around £56bn to UK
clients, a return of £6
for every £1 invested.
Alan Leaman, Chief
Executive, MCA said:
“Too many conversations
about consulting start
and end with the
assumption that it is
just a cost; we can now
see that there is a
significant return on
this investment as well.
This work is based
exclusively on the views
and experience of | |
| |
| |
Tim Morris, Professor
of Management Studies at
Oxford University,
commented: “This was an
important but difficult
project to carry out. It
has involved clarifying
how we can understand
the ways in which
consultants can add
value to clients,
developing a robust
model to reflect this
and then
operationalising it to
generate results, which
as far as we can tell,
stand up to critical
review. As a result, the
findings and
implications are worth
taking seriously.”
Next steps...
The MCA report is the
first step towards
developing a
comprehensive
understanding of the
contribution consultants
make. The MCA’s
conceptual framework,
developed to help
analyse and explain the
value that consultants
bring, will also be a
useful tool for clients
to assess their reasons | |
|
| | for using management
consultancy, and help
set expectations about
the outcomes that are
being sought. The
framework can be
downloaded from
www.mca.org.uk/value-con
sulting.
Alan Leaman
concluded: “The results
of this initiative will
help consultancies
engage in the sort of
dialogue they need to
have with their clients,
and help clients to be
demanding and
intelligent customers.”
[1] This is the
largest ever survey of
client satisfaction with
consulting services. MCA
member firms were asked
to provide all the data
they gather directly
from clients. To ensure
validity of this
research, firms had to
send complete years’
worth of data: they were
not allowed to pick only
those where feedback was
positive. | |
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