| | By Mick James
The last five years
have been boom years for
the consultancy
industry. There’s been
growth at all levels:
from the headcount of
the established
consultancies whose
numbers run into the
tens of thousands to
smaller firms who’ve
rapidly grown from a
handful of founding
partners to established
names employing anything
up to a hundred
professionals. The
hunger for staff has
meant that there have
been opportunities at
all levels, both for
experienced consultants
to advance their careers
and for people with the
right skills and
experience to move
across from industry and
join consultancy firms,
often at senior levels.
Junior-level recruitment
has been slower, but
recently we have seen
the revival of graduate
recruitment. But is this
all about to end? Last
time there was a minor
downturn the consultancy
industry responded by
cutting staff costs
drastically, only to
have to spend small
fortunes reskilling once
things picked up again.
This time, however,
there seem to be reasons
not to expect a
catastrophic turnaround | |
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| | for the industry, even
if things get as dire as
some commentators
expect. The first is
that the industry has
learned its lesson from
recent experience, and
will try to hold on to
key skills. The second
is that consultancy has
changed, becoming
increasingly operational
in its approach. This
means that consultants
are not purely concerned
with growth and
expansion, but also with
the pragmatic issues of
cost and effectiveness,
which underlie genuinely
sustainable business
success.
“For the last two
years it’s been the case
that the client needs to
see bottom-line savings,
“says Terry Nolan, group
HR director of
operational consultancy
Celerant. “For many
businesses that’s now
imperative. Since the
spring we’ve seen a
definite uptick in the
numbers of people that
we need.”
This means that not
only are companies now
finding they can no
longer put off vital
projects, but that there
are new roles for
consultants to play, as
Alan Leaman, chief
executive of the
Management Consultancies
Association points out:
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“It’s important that
companies are as
well-organised as
possible to meet the
challenges of a downturn
and to make sure they
are ready for an upturn
when it comes.”
Consultants have a
lot to offer companies
in this quest, and it
doesn’t simply mean
cost- and
headcount-cutting: “On
the contrary, a lot of
it is about helping
companies to hang on to
their best people rather
than hacking and
slashing.”
Leaman also expects
that the “credit crunch”
will intensify the push
towards outsourcing in
areas such as financial
services, a trend
identified by the MCA’s
recent survey of British
Banking Association
members. However, only
half of those surveyed
felt they adequately
understood how to get
value from outsourcing,
which further underlines
the ongoing role of
consultants: “To do
outsourcing well you
need advice and help, if
you are going to keep
quality and service
levels high and make
sure the effect on
existing staff is
positive.”
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As to the effect of
any downturn on overall
levels of employment in
consultancy, Leaman
believes we are too
early in the cycle to
say, but that it is
certain that there will
be some effect. What
makes this hard to
assess is that in many
areas we are still in
the final throes of the
“war for talent” – last
year’s recruitment
figures from the MCA
showed what appeared to
be a slowdown in the
take-up of IT staff, but
on closer inspection
this turned out to be a
reflection of an
absolute shortage of
people in the face of
increasing demand for IT
consulting services.
Leaman notes that the
consultancy industry has
recently tended to focus
on recruiting senior
people with very
specific skills, and the
recruitment industry
confirms that for people
with the right “mix”
demand remains high.
“We’ve just had our
biggest month in August,
which is generally the
slowest month, plus
there’s supposed to be a
recession,” says Tim
Kemp, senior client
partner, professional
services at executive
search and talent
management firm Korn | |
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| | Ferry International.
While previous “talent
wars” in consultancy
have led to either big
shakeouts in the
industry or structural
weaknesses, it seems
that this time around
the consulting industry
has prepared itself by
not lowering its quality
standards. Even in those
areas where
consultancies are still
crying out for staff,
actually getting a job
is no shoo-in, as Kemp’s
fellow client partner,
Jonathan Krogdahl
confirms: “Candidates
for senior positions can
often go to as many as
14 interviews,” he says.
So this is not
necessarily the time to
put dreams of a
consultancy career on
hold –indeed for those
candidates with the
right mixture of skills,
experience and
flexibility this could
be a very interesting
time to join the
profession. As the MCA’s
Leaman puts it: “The
consulting industry is
now very nimble at
positioning itself and
providing the right
services to clients –
wherever they are in the
business cycle.” | |
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