| | By Mick James
When I heard on the
BBC that the UK economy
had “come to a
standstill”, I
immediately rushed into
the street to have a
look at all the
abandoned shops and
factories. I was
disappointed, however,
because all that had
happened was that growth
had dropped to precisely
0% which is not quite
the same thing. What
does this mean?
Compulsory calculus
lessons are clearly a
priority but on the
other hand it’s clear
that things only need to
get a little worse this
quarter for us to
actually, really,
finally, truly, madly
and deeply be in the
recession that’s been
predicted for so long.
This will be an
interesting time for the
new breed of consultancy
that we’ve been
following for so long in
these columns, that
itself sprang from the
turmoil the consultancy
industry experienced
five or so years ago.
These firms have known
little else but growth
since they began – how
will they react to a
downturn?
Vipul Kapadia is a
founder and director of
Qedis, a consultancy
that in many ways
epitomises this modern
trend. Formed by a group | |
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| | principal or partner
level.
“It’s possible that a
more experienced senior
person, someone who is
maybe a year away from
promotion, would be
thinking twice about
moving,” he says. He is
wary, however, of
stating the exact job
titles he is looking
for, because “our
industry grading system
is becoming increasingly
useless in understanding
where someone is in
their career and their
potential value to the
business. A lot of
people have partner or
director status but
they’re just good
managers rather than
consultants – it’s
possible to have the
title and it not mean
anything. That’s our
biggest recruitment
challenge.”
Performance
management has also
become an issue as the
company has outgrown its
smaller, more intimate
past. “You can’t have
everyone in a company be
exceptional, and with
greater scale and
diversity you can’t know
everyone personally,” he
says.
The response has been
to invest massive
amounts of time in
getting feedback from
clients and each other –
sometimes not easy to
encourage when
consulting staff have | |
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| | come in from highly
partner-dominated
cultures. “It creates a
huge amount of extra
overhead but we see it
as a valuable thing,”
says Kapadia.
Another key change
has been subtly
realigning the firm to
react to what it sees as
changes in the way the
role of its key audience
– CIOs – is evolving.
“IT organisations, in
terms of headcount, are
getting smaller,” says
Kapadia. “But that’s
because IT people are
getting embedded in
other parts of the
business. So, the
question is how to make
those people successful.
For the CIO or IT
director the biggest
challenge is now how to
develop a team, rather
than how to improve
systems and processes.”
As a result Qedis is
positioned less and less
to do purely technical
projects. “We don’t want
to be in that space with
Wipro, Accenture and
TCS, we want to compete
for client relationships
rather than the ability
to deliver and execute
technology,” says
Kapadia. “It’s the only
way to provide our
people with meaningful
careers over a long
period.”
The firm has launched
a new service, called
Aspire, which is all
about what it takes to | |
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| | be successful as a “new
generation” CIO, and
which recognises that
very often the CIO role
is being taken by
non-technical people.
“The old-school IT
directors know their
days are numbered,” he
says. “We’re interested
in meeting the ones that
know that and want to
change.”
Kapadia believes that
Qedis needs to grow from
its current headcount of
75 to 120 to get to
critical mass and become
self-sustaining. “We
have to grow to allow
the promotions to
happen, in order to
create those sustainable
careers and keep the
spirit and pace we have
at Qedis,” says Kapadia.
With market shares
that can only be
measured in a fraction
of a percentage, firms
like Qedis have the
potential to defy
business cycles and
build businesses that
are successful because
they rest on long-term
relationships rather
than short-term
exuberance. Firms like
these, and others I’ve
profiled over the years,
have contributed to
making the UK
consultancy industry a
more diverse and
exciting place and,
hopefully, that will
continue to be the case
for a long time to come. | |
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