Global Consulting Industry Revenues to Hit $415 Billion
1. Consulting Industry
Global consulting industry revenues (including HR, IT, strategy, operations management and
business advisory services) will be about $415 billion in 2013, according to Plunkett Research
estimates. This represents reasonable growth from $391 billion in 2012. In the U.S., accounting
and related services (such as tax preparation) generated an additional $131.6 billion in 2012, up
from about $123.0 billion the previous year, according to the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxUMGE2f5SQ&feature=player_embedded
Growth in global trade has rebounded from the very low levels of the recent recession. This
fueled demand for consulting of all kinds, including management, HR, industrial and
technology. Such nations as South Korea, Taiwan, China, Singapore and Indonesia are providing
a wealth of new work for consultants.
Firms with multi-cultural staffing capability and offices in strategic cities worldwide will benefit
in particular. Recent growth in these nations has created myriad opportunities for consulting
firms, both in government and private sector contracts, in industries ranging from
transportation to energy to health care.
Consultancies that do well in such an environment will be those that emphasize their ability to
create cost-savings, enhance efficiencies and deal effectively with government austerity
programs or other dramatic changes in governmental goals.
Consultancy & Professional Services
Our consultancy, design, project management and service management are
designed to help you achieve clear business goals.
• Overview
• Services
Colt’s professional services are your introduction to our subject experts and unrivalled, award-
winning customer care.
We operate in complex and dynamic environments across 18 European countries and are
dedicated to designing and managing solutions which support business transformation.
Businesses are looking for expert advice to help them make the right choices and weigh value
added against cost and risk.
Colt Consulting offers a portfolio of tightly defined consultancy engagements that deliver the
support businesses are looking for. We offer a consistent methodology and customer experience
2. right across Europe showing customers how they can get real results — often in just a few
weeks.
Colt’s engagements are focused, short-term projects designed to produce results quickly. They
help customers:
• Know where they are and how to move forward
• Align IT with the needs of the business and make intelligent investment choices
• Understand and better manage risks and interdependencies when transforming the IT
landscape.
Consultancy & Professional Services
• Managed IT Services
• Network & Facilities Services
• Design
• Service Management
• Consultancy
• Project Management
Colt's consultancy & professional services offer network design, project ... We have 14 years experience
of designing complex projects to exacting standards all
Consulting Research & Advisory
Consulting market intelligence trusted by the world’s leading companies
Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory has provided market data and operating benchmarks to the
management consulting and IT services sectors since 1970. Our in-depth research, indigenous analyst
resources and over 40 years of market expertise create invaluable business planning tools for both
professionals on the buy and sell sides of consulting services.
Kennedy analyzes the nature and state of client demand trends, current spending, and growth forecasts,
by three critical market perspectives: consulting service area sub-segment, key geography, and client
vertical industry.
In addition to a thorough explanation of market trends, demand drivers and inhibitors, spending
projections, market share, and the dynamics affecting the consulting landscape; Kennedy research
includes exclusive assessments and rankings of consulting practices that are capable of meeting clients’
evolving demands — and identifies those which are not.
Research series and titles include:
Consulting Service Line Series
3. o IT Consulting Series
o Financial Consulting
o HR Consulting Series
o Strategy Consulting Series
o Operations Management Consulting Series
Client Industry Series
o Financial Services Consulting Series
o Healthcare Consulting Series
o Public Sector Consulting Series
Geographic/Regional Market Series
Firm Management Series
o Fees in Consulting
o Utilization in Consulting
o Consulting in Compensation
o Benchmarks in Consulting: Financial and Operational Metrics
Advisory Services
For Consulting Providers and Buyers of Consulting Services
Kennedy provides confidential assistance to both management and IT consulting providers, as well as
buyers of those consulting services. Kennedy Advisory Services works with a wide range of clients, from
leading Fortune 500 companies and global management consultancies, to industry-specific boutique
advisory firms and the embedded services units of global corporations.
Advisory Services clients look to Kennedy for unparalleled industry expertise that builds on a 40-year
foundation of consulting profession knowledge and proprietary databases to provide services that have
the most impact on today’s consulting market.
• Compensation, Fees & Utilization Benchmarking
• Marketing & Development
• M&A Appraisal
• Procurement Analysis
• Consulting Spend Management
4. Analyst Services
Custom research engagements leveraging Kennedy's extensive knowledge
base
Kennedy's analysts offer customized research to buyers and sellers of consulting services. Using
our existing research as a basis to deliver analysis tailored to your organization's specific needs,
these projects provide unprecedented detail on micro-markets, consulting firm operational
benchmarks and practice assessments.
The world's top organizations utilize our analytical expertise and research portfolio to obtain
specific market perspective based on their particular needs. In addition, Kennedy analysts travel
the world for custom speaking engagements in support of both buyers and sellers of consulting
services.
Kennedy's custom research analyst services are provided across three areas:
• Firm and Practice Ratings
• Consulting Capability Assessments
• Custom Market Sizing
• Benchmarking Analysis
Consulting Firm Competency Reports
• Consulting to the Banking Sector: Cards & Payments
• Leadership Development Consulting
• Consulting to Life Sciences: R&D and Commercialization
• Forensics & Dispute Advisory
• New Market Entry Strategy Consulting
• Consulting to the Capital Markets & Asset Management Sectors
• Human Capital Strategy Consulting
• Consulting to Healthcare Payer, Provider and Government Sectors
• Digital Strategy Consulting
Consulting Market Index Reports
• Strategy and Operations Management Consulting Market Index Research 2013
• Financial Consulting Market Index Research 2013
• Information Technology Consulting Market Index Research 2013
• Human Resources Consulting Index Research 2013
• Geographic Consulting Market Index Research 2013
5. Crafting real-world solutions
We’ve been there. We’ve faced the same challenges and opportunities your organization sees
every day. Our consulting professionals have the unrivaled ability to work with you regardless of
the situation or demands. Because our deeply honed expertise stems from a unique understanding
that only comes with hands-on industry experience, and from crafting real-world solutions that
get results.
Our consulting teams have worked throughout the higher education, healthcare, financial and
legal spectrums as CEOs, CFOs, vice presidents, and budgeting directors. We’ve been board
members and managing partners, acted as General Counsel and medical school deans. We
deliver expertise that crosses boundaries into every facet of your industry, with hands-on
strategic, operational, financial, functional, and technological proficiency.
Home / Expertise
Expertise
We’ve been there. We’ve faced the same challenges and opportunities your organization sees
every day. Our consulting professionals have the unrivaled ability to work with you regardless of
the situation or demands. Because our deeply honed expertise stems from a unique understanding
that only comes with hands-on industry experience, and from crafting real-world solutions that
get results.
Our consulting teams have worked throughout the higher education, healthcare, financial and
legal spectrums as CEOs, CFOs, vice presidents, and budgeting directors. We’ve been board
members and managing partners, acted as General Counsel and medical school deans. We
deliver expertise that crosses boundaries into every facet of your industry, with hands-on
strategic, operational, financial, functional, and technological proficiency.
Education
Research Enterprise Solutions
Strategic Solutions
Technology Solutions
University Performance Improvement Solutions
Financial
Capital Advisory
Forensics & Litigation
6. Operational Improvement
Restructuring & Turnaround
Valuation
Healthcare
Clinical Documentation Improvement
Clinical Operations
Human Resources
Labor
Non-Labor
Physician
Revenue Cycle
Strategy
Legal
Discovery
Law Department Management
Law Firm Strategy & Management
Records & Information Management
Staffing
Technology Implementation
Life Sciences
Pharmaceutical & Medical Device Solutions
Research Enterprise Solutions
7. Industry Focus
Academic Medical Centers
Automotive
Energy & Utilities
Financial Services
Healthcare
Higher Education
Legal
Manufacturing & Distribution
Media
Metals & Mining
Pharmaceuticals & Medical Devices
Real Estate
Technology
Trucking & Logistics
Software
Click® Portal Solutions
ecrt® Effort Reporting Solution
efacs® F&A Solution
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Consultant
For other uses, see Consultant (disambiguation).
For Senior Physician Consultant, see Consultant (medicine).
A consultant (from Latin: consultare "to discuss") is a professional who provides professional
or expert advice[1]
in a particular area such as security (electronic or physical), management,
accountancy, law (tax law, in particular), human resources, marketing (and public relations),
finance, engineering, or any of many other specialized fields.
A consultant is usually an expert or a professional in a specific field and has a wide knowledge
of the subject matter.[2]
The role of consultant outside the medical sphere (where the term is used
specifically for a grade of doctor) can fall under one of two general categories:
• Internal consultant - someone who operates within an organization but is available to be
consulted on areas of specialism by other departments or individuals (acting as clients); or
• External consultant - someone who is employed externally (either by a firm or some other
agency) whose expertise is provided on a temporary basis, usually for a fee. As such this type of
consultant generally engages with multiple and changing clients.
The overall impact of a consultant is that clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than
would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the
outside consultant as desired.
Common types
In the business, and as of recently the private sphere, the most commonly found consultants are:
• Engineering consultants provide engineering-related services such as design, supervision,
execution, repair, operation, maintenance, technology, creation of drawings and specifications,
and make recommendations to public, companies, firms and industries.
9. • Strategy consultants working on the development of and improvements to organisational
strategy alongside senior management in many industries.
• Human-resources (HR) consultants who provide expertise around employment practice and
people management.
• Internet consultants who are specialists in business use of the internet and keep themselves up-
to-date with new and changed capabilities offered by the web. Ideally internet consultants also
have practical experience and expertise in management skills such as strategic planning, change,
projects, processes, training, team-working and customer satisfaction.
• Process consultants who are specialists in the design or improvement of operational processes
and can be specific to the industry or sector.
• Public-relations (PR) consultants dealing specifically with public relations matters external to
the client organisation and often engaged on a semi-permanent basis by larger organisations to
provide input and guidance.
• Performance consultants who focus on the execution of an intuitive or overall performance of
their client.
• Immigration consultant who helps through legal procedure of immigration from one country to
other country.
• Information-technology (IT) consultants in many disciplines such as computer hardware,
software engineering, or networks.
• Marketing consultants who are generally called upon to advise around areas of product
development and related marketing matters.
• Interim managers as mentioned above may be independent consultants who act as interim
executives with decision-making power under corporate policies or statutes. They may sit on
specially constituted boards or committees.
A more comprehensive list of types is shown below.
• Biotechnology
consulting
• Contingent workforce
• Economic consulting
• Interim Management
• IRS Reclassification
• Management
consulting
• Permatemp
• Political consulting
• Public consultation
• Tax advisor
• Umbrella company
• Immigration Consultant
• Biotechnology
consultant
• Consultant (medicine)
• Consultant pharmacist
• Creative consultant
• Consulting psychology
• Educational consultant
• Elevator consultant
• Employment consultant
• Environmental
consultant
• Foreclosure consultant
• Human Resources
consultant
• Image consultant
• Independent contractor
• Interim Managers
• Information Technology
consultant
• Lactation consultant
• Legal nurse consultant
• Loss control consultant
• Magic consultant
• Market entry consultant
• Media consultant
• Performance consultant
• Political consultant
• Process consultant
• Statistical consultant
• Theatre consultant
10. Ways of work
The range of areas of expertise covered by the term consultant is extremely wide. One of the
more general attributions is as a Management Consultant but this is not an exclusive term.
The process of consulting and the means by which the (external) consultant is engaged vary
according to industry and local practice. However the principal difference between a consultant
and a temp is generally one of direction. A consultant is engaged to fulfill a brief in terms of
helping to find solutions to specific issues but the ways in which that is to be done generally falls
to the consultant to decide, within constraints such as budget and resources agreed with the
client. (A temp on the other hand is normally fulfilling a role that usually exists within the
organization and is helping to bridge a gap caused by staffing shortages for whatever reason.
They fall under the direction of the normal management structure of the organization.)
There is however a hybrid form where a consultant may be hired as an Interim Manager or
Executive, bringing a combination of specialist expertise to bear on a role that is temporarily
vacant (usually at a senior level).
Some consultants are employed indirectly by the client via a consultancy staffing company, a
company that provides consultants on an agency basis. (The staffing company itself does not
usually have consulting expertise but works rather like an employment agency.) This form of
working is particularly common in the ICT sector. Such consultants are often called contractors
since they are usually providing technical services (such as programming or systems analysis)
that could be performed in-house were it not easier for the employer to operate a flexible system
of only hiring such technologists at times of peak workload rather than permanently.
Place of work
Though most of the back-office research and analysis occurs at the consultants' offices,
consultants typically work at the site of the client for at least some of the time. The governing
factor tends to be the amount of interaction required with other employees of the client.
Qualifications
There is no such thing as a single qualification to be a consultant other than those laid down in
relation to medical & engineering personnel who have attained this level-degree in it.
Internationally the accreditation of Management Consultants is overseen by higher education
training and accreditation organizations —
Consultant, Peter Block, defines a consultant as "someone who has influence over an individual,
group, or organization, but who has no direct authority to implement changes." He contrasts this
with a surrogate manager who is a person who "acts on behalf of, or in place of, a manager."
The key difference is that a consultant never makes decisions for the individual or group,
whereas a surrogate manager does make decisions.
11. Consulting Industry:
• Market Research
• Industry Trends Analysis
• Technologies Analysis
• Business Intelligence
• Top Companies Database
• Business Leaders and Corporate Executives
• Industry Associations Database
• Export Tools - Build
Mailing Lists
Positive factors for the consulting industry over the mid-term:
1) Continued growth in health care expenditures and significant changes in health care
coverage are creating demand for consulting projects. This includes a focus on digital
health records and a dramatic need for greater efficiency and cost control.
2) Consultancies that focus on projects that clearly reduce business costs and enhance
operating ratios in a reasonably short period of time will find a ripe corporate market
(such as consultants who focus on cash flow enhancement, supply chain efficiency and
manufacturing efficiency).
3) Vast new labyrinths of government regulation will create numerous opportunities for
consultants who can show companies how to navigate rapidly changing relationships
between government and certain industries, or deal with government oversight,
particularly in financial services and health care.
4) Consultants who assist firms in lowering employee benefits costs are in high demand.
5) Consultants and advisors in the fields of corporate expansion into emerging markets,
information technology, mergers and acquisitions will be in high demand.
Importance of Consulting Firm
In recent years, many types of consulting and accounting projects have been offshored to a
growing extent. Initially, this was due to efforts by firms in North America and Europe that
wanted to take advantage of the lower hourly fees charged by professionals in emerging
nations. More recently, however, offshoring of such tasks has become necessary in order to
conduct consulting projects in the growing nations where practices must be applied. As
multinational companies headquartered in the U.S. and elsewhere continue to open offices,
factories and research facilities in nations such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia and China,
consultants must follow.
12. Consulting Executives
At the same time, China and India are investing heavily in their own upper-level education
systems, and they are now graduating large numbers of MBAs, scientists, researchers and
engineers from their universities. Many Asian nations have already achieved excellent success
in this regard, including China, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. This means that a
growing global cadre of young people with graduate degrees and high ambitions are seeking
entry-level work in consulting of all types.
The consulting industry is a multifaceted, global business sector that is facing many challenges
and evolving quickly.
Operating Structure of Consulting firm
The growing globalization of business and industry in general led inevitably to the globalization
of the leading consulting companies. Major consultancies operate offices in the most important
business centers in Europe and Asia-Pacific as well as in North and South America. Africa is the
next consulting frontier, as rapid economic growth is being enjoyed by a handful of African
nations. Many consultancies operate worldwide and have multiethnic, multilingual employee
bases. In particular, major consulting firms have opened significant offices in Brazil, India and
China in recent years.
Revenues of Consulting Firm
At the highest level of the business is “management consulting,” the segment that advises top
executives and boards of directors at Fortune 1000 firms on strategy and
organization. McKinsey & Company, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., Boston Consulting Group, Inc.
and a handful of other companies are the most elite. Such firms may charge their clients
anywhere from $300,000 to $1 million in monthly fees, with top consultants billing as much as
$5,000 daily plus expenses, and associates at $1,500 or so. These consultants’ engagements for
a multinational corporation may include analysis of multiple divisions and involve travel to
several continents. Their suggestions often result in sweeping organizational changes, adding
(clients hope) tens of millions of dollars to the yearly bottom line. Management consultants
may take assignments involving many aspects of a client’s business, including marketing,
acquisitions, finance, information technology, manufacturing, distribution, human resources,
divestitures, government relations, facilities, telecommunications, environmental matters and
more.
Annual revenues at top, global consulting firms run in the billions of dollars, and top
consultants may each earn $200,000 to $500,000 or more yearly in return for grueling hours,
high stress and many, many days spent traveling far from home. Despite these drawbacks,
13. considering the high pay and the prestige, the best students at the best business schools
frequently pine for posts in consulting. (An interesting exception to the grinding work and travel
required of employees at many consultancies is found at Atlanta-based North Highland,
www.northhighland.com). At this innovative mid-sized firm, consultants find that their
assignments are largely in the cities where they live, negating the need for extensive travel, and
work/life balance is encouraged by the firm’s business practices.)
Historically, U.S. governments at local, state and federal levels have provided lucrative
consulting contracts. Government at all levels has large needs for consulting in IT, security,
human resources and other areas. For example, the latest Washington Technology
(www.washingtontechnology.com) list of Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors, based on
contracts granted during the federal government’s 2012 fiscal year, ranks Lockheed Martin
($17.4 billion), Northrop Grumman ($9.1 billion), Boeing ($7.4 billion), SAIC ($5.9 billion)
Raytheon ($5.6 billion), General Dynamics ($5.4 billion), Hewlett-Packard ($4.1 billion), Booz
Allen Hamilton ($3.8 billion), Computer Sciences—“CSC” ($3.5 billion) and DynCorp
International ($3.3 billion) among the top 10 firms in prime federal contracts for the year. Many
of these firms’ federal contracts were down substantially from their 2010 and 2011
totals. These contracts are for consulting and services in information technology, defense,
telecommunications, professional services and engineering. Note that the largest awards went
to firms that are predominantly defense or aerospace contractors. The winding down of U.S.
involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is having a deep, negative impact on these defense-related
contracts.
Today’s largest IT consulting firms often provide outsourced IT services of many types. In
fact, successful consultancies with IT roots have evolved into full-service companies. In many
cases, they are now integral departments within larger technology-based firms. The IBM Global
Services unit of computer giant IBM best illustrates this trend, as services now bring in more
revenues for IBM than computer hardware and software. At such tech firms, a large portion of
income is derived from outsourcing. That is, once these IT services firms have determined a
client’s needs during a consulting or analysis phase, they may deliver turnkey services that
include actual day-to-day operation of the client’s computer department and/or other
departments. Not all of IBM’s competitors have been as successful as IBM in this regard. HP has
also been focusing on its large consulting and services unit, which grew dramatically with its
2008 acquisition of EDS. While services now bring in about one-fourth of HP’s revenues, the
firm has not been meeting its goals in this field, and in 2012 it wrote down $8 billion of the cost
of its EDS acquisition. Dell acquired consultancy Perot Systems, marking a new strategic
direction for the computer manufacturer. Nonetheless, Dell has been struggling to maintain
momentum and was likely to go private via a buyout by investors as of 2013. Meanwhile, many
companies outside of the computer hardware and software field have successfully blended
14. consulting and outsourcing into their offerings, developing dependable additional revenue
sources by offering a complete line of services to their clients.
A major development in IT consulting has been the extremely rapid growth of large
companies that are based in India but compete globally, such as Wipro, Infosys and Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS). These companies quickly grew multi-billion dollar revenue bases as
major contenders in the global IT sector. Additional hot competition for IT consulting budgets
comes from software companies, such as Oracle, that have quickly built up large consulting
units of their own.
Size of Consulting Firm
In contrast to the size and infrastructure of the leading management consulting companies,
a large portion of the consulting industry is comprised of very small companies—in many cases
these are one-person shops, perhaps operating from a spare bedroom at home. This part of the
business has grown rapidly since 2000, as legions of well educated, highly qualified and
thoroughly experienced executives and professionals were laid-off during corporate downsizing
or took early retirement in exchange for an opportunity to work for themselves. These
professionals have turned to self-employment as consultants, focusing on their specialties and
combing their contacts for leads.
Consulting firm Challenges
Despite recent superb levels of profitability throughout many corporate sectors, the days of
unrestrained corporate spending are long gone. Corporate clients are now much more
demanding when negotiating consulting contracts. Their demands are likely to include specific
caps on overall cost, tight controls on travel and other expenses related to a consulting project,
a demand for lower hourly rates and sometimes a penalty if desired goals are not met.
Going forward, consulting firms will be forced to compete fiercely for their engagements,
and the engagements they receive may be relatively short-term or less profitable than
assignments of the recent past. Corporate clients will be focused on a provable return on
investment for consulting dollars spent. Specific goals will be set early in the process, and
consultants will be under intense pressure to meet those goals. Large, multifaceted consulting
companies will face fierce competition from smaller, niche companies. In particular,
consultancies that can quickly improve their clients’ profits may have the best competitive
advantage over the mid-term. Corporate clients may lean toward hiring consultancies with a
proven ability not only to point out a corporation’s problems and strategic deficiencies, but also
to implement solutions that cut debt, restore health to balance sheets and stabilize profits.
15. Fastest-growing segments of consulting
One of the fastest-growing segments of consulting has been information technology
(IT). This segment includes consultants focused on e-commerce; telecommunications; intranet
and Internet strategies and functionality; hardware systems design and implementation;
software design, acquisition and implementation; and web site design and operation.
During the tech boom of the ‘90s, IT consultancies like the now defunct marchFIRST
appeared out of nowhere and quickly attained annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of
dollars. The ‘90s, through the widespread commercialization of the Internet and fiber optics, as
well as the rapid spread of networked computing, brought a tidal wave of technology
opportunities to light. Managers everywhere wanted to quickly ramp up new systems, from
web sites to private data networks to advanced e-commerce systems. A concern over potential
software problems when the new millennium turned in year 2000 (“Y2K”) also lead to massive
consulting projects. Corporate clients turned to consultants, and the IT consulting companies
boomed. These consultancies created marketing partnerships with leading hardware and
software manufacturers so that they could quickly recommend, purchase and install technology
system packages—at high profits to both the consultancies and the system
manufacturers. Enterprise-level systems, which were supposed to seamlessly deliver real-time
information from subsidiaries around the globe to top managers, became the standard at
Consulting Firm by Industry
Hospitality : In an effort to control costs, some corporations that were formerly desirable
clients have built their own internal consulting staffs. One interesting offshoot of this trend is
that the internal consulting units at a few companies have begun offering consulting services to
outside clients. This is increasingly common in industries, such as hospitality, that are focused
on high levels of customer service. At the Walt Disney Company, long famous for customer
satisfaction and innovative employment practices, a consulting unit called The Disney Institute
is now teaching other firms how to better engage their customers. Likewise, The Ritz-Carlton
Leadership Center, a unit of Ritz-Carlton Hotels (itself a luxury property subsidiary of hotel giant
Marriott), is teaching client firms how to provide high levels of service to picky customers.
IT consulting: Global 1000 companies. In the end, corporate clients invested massive
sums but didn’t always get the results they desired. Now, corporations have new IT needs
thanks to the rapidly expanding fields of social networking, mobile computing, online employee
collaboration and cloud computing and data storage.
16. For the near-term, the biggest opportunities for IT consulting growth will lie in three
exciting areas:
1) Big Data
2) Cloud-based IT infrastructure
3) Mobile apps and data services
ODMs consult: In an interesting development, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers)
of a wide range of products and components, from computers to hard drives to automobile
components, now consult intensely with their clients in the product development phase, and
are later involved in the actual manufacturing. This has led to the evolution of some OEMs into
ODMs (original design manufacturers). These ODMs consult with, design for and then
manufacture for their clients.
For example, an ODM might determine the needs for an in-dash stereo/radio system of an
automaker client, design the system and finally manufacture the system. The automobile
industry has become an environment in which major manufacturers, such as GM, rely heavily
on a handful of component and systems manufacturers, such as Delphi, to consult in the design
and engineering phase of new car planning. The newest generations of aircraft at Airbus and
Boeing are designed and manufactured to a large extent by ODM partners scattered around the
globe.
Electronics consult : The consumer electronics and personal computer sectors are heading
in the same direction. Contract electronics manufacturers such as Flextronics consult heavily
with their clients in the design of new products such as computers, stereos or
telecommunications equipment.
As technology has advanced rapidly and microchips have become integral components of
many everyday items, consulting regarding design and implementation has become necessary
to many types of manufacturers. Likewise, many types of service providers, such as those in
telecommunications, must consult to a large extent with customers regarding their systems’
needs. Consulting in these types of situations may or may not result in additional fees, but can
be vital pieces of the complete sales cycle. In many cases, the consulting functions at
manufacturing and services firms have been developed into true profit centers with specific fee
structures.
17. How to Promote Your Consulting Business BY Lou Dubois
There has been a notable increase in professional "consultants." Not surprisingly, consultants
that spend no money on marketing and advertising tend to do better than those who do.
For many consultants, while they may not view themselves as such, they in effect are
entrepreneurs. If they have multiple ongoing contracts, they are a consultant and not a contractor. And
making that distinction can be an important one to make.
How to Promote Your Consulting Business: Proven Methods
A lot of consultants put all of their time and energy into becoming an expert in their field. They
undergo training and practice, but they don't invest time or energy into learning how to get
clients and grow their consulting businesses. Instead of wasting that time, money and effort on
advertising, here are a few tips and tricks (by no means comprehensive) for successful
promotions that will result in an increase in business and revenue, which is what really matters at
the end of the day for all consultants:
• Facebook page: in addition to your personal page, start a business page for your consulting
practice (free and easy) and use it to promote what you are working on but also to share
information.
• Twitter: create an account and share your own thoughts but also share relevant stories in the
field you are calling yourself an expert in.
• Blog: There are a variety of sites you can set up a blog at, but the big five are WordPress,
Posterous, Blogger, Tumblr and SquareSpace. The ability to customize the layout and sharing
features makes it considerably easier to cross-publish this content.
• LinkedIn: Obviously you should have a profile, but join relevant groups or start a group of
your own and organize questions, topics and event in-person meetings.
• Website: It's pretty hard to sell your business in 2011 without a well-designed, working
website. Luckily, domain names are cheap on sites like GoDaddy.com and you can use a variety
of free web design services to make it look like you really know what you're doing, even if you
know little to nothing about HTML.
• Consulting Associations: Depending on the field you are in, you may need a certification to
promote yourself as legitimate. Check out the Institute of Management Consultants USA to see
what might be required in your field.
• Speak at Events: There is no better way to promote yourself than to get in front of a room
full of people (both existing and potential clients) and speak on a topic you are an expert in.
You'll add serious credibility and get great audio/video clips that you can post to your website.
These are just some simple tips. Being a successful consultant takes hard work, commitment and
19. • » Strategy Consulting
Services that affect the long-term growth prospects of client companies, and their capabilities
that enable growth. These services include, but are not limited to, strategic planning,
organizational strategy, marketing, sales, branding strategy, and financial strategy.
» View all
• » Operations Management Consulting:
Services that improve the effectiveness of the value chain, including research and development;
sourcing raw materials or components; production; delivery; and customer interaction. These
services create more effective client operations by advising on and aiding in the implementation
of changes to the client’s operational footprint, management systems, processes, and employee
behavior.
» View all
• » Information Technology Consulting
Consulting services that include design and construction of IT–related business functions;
construction, installation and testing of enterprise applications that support those business
functions, infrastructure services that support enterprise applications; IT strategy and planning.
» View all
• » Business Advisory Services
Consulting services that result in business recommendations based on financial analysis and
alternative decision scenarios. These services are distinguished by the use of rigorous financial
and analytical processes that measure the effects of economic, tax, investment, risk,
competitive, and business decision dynamics.
Consulting Service to Industry
• Insurance
• Packaged Goods
• Energy
• Healthcare
• Financial Services
• Retail
• Public Sector
• Manufacturing
• Communications
• High Tech
20. The Top 25 Consultants, 2013:
Johan Aurik , A.T. Kearney
Scott Claus, Capco
Carl Carande, KPMG
George Cogan, Bain & Company
Monica Croy, Point B
Sharon Cunninghis, Mercer
Jim Folds , Carlisle & Gallagher
Jerry Friedman, Accenture
Barry Jaruzelski, Booz & Company
Jessica Kosmowski, Deloitte Consulting
Jim Lewis, Cumberland Consulting
Iván Martén, The Boston Consulting Group
Kevin McCarty, West Monroe Partners
Rob McKay, Capgemini
Andy Moose, North Highland
James Pajakowski, Protiviti
Jill Puleri, IBM
Ronald Ray, PwC
Maureen Scholl, Aon Hewitt
Paul Schur, Slalom Consulting
Carrie Shea, AMG Strategic Advisors
Carl Smith, Ernst & Young
Steven Strammello, Crowe Horwath
Ralph Tuliano, Mesirow Financial
Dr. Andrew Ziskind, Huron Consulting
The Top 25 Award winners, which represented 25 separate firms, were on hand to accept their awards,
and were recognized for excellence in one of eight categories: Leadership, Client Service, Healthcare,
Public Sector, Technology, Energy, Retail and Financial Services. Photos from the fifth-annual awards
dinner, which was the largest Top 25 gathering ever, can be found on Pages 16 to 21.