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The consulting work he is referring to is rapidly disappearing. Mostly because the big global consulting firms are execution-focused, and they're essentially wi

by exelius 11y ago

The consulting work he is referring to is rapidly disappearing. Mostly because the big global consulting firms are execution-focused, and they're essentially willing to give away the recommendation work for free as part of a bid for the execution work. Buyers caught on, and realized that instead of hiring McKinsey, all they really needed to do was issue an RFP for the implementation and they would get what they needed. McKinsey/Bain/BCG have had to branch out to other types of work as a result.

aaroncohn 11y ago
Yep, agree with you that pure "strategy" is rapidly disappearing. I was at PwC -- their whole mantra was "strategy through execution." Which is why they bought all these strategy shops (Booz/Diamond/etc), because clients were saying they were sick of Bain/McKinsey/BCG leaving them with strategic plans they couldn't execute on. Deloitte is pursuing much of the same, evidenced by the Monitor acquisition. And now EVEN the Big 3 MBB strategy shops are getting into the execution side of the game to compete.
- exelius 11y ago
  Yep; though for the purposes of consulting you have to consider the pure execution shops as well (Accenture, Infosys, etc.) Those guys are throwing in strategy for free as well; albeit with a different model (they just hire ex-McKinsey/Bain/BCG partners to sell big projects for them, which often includes doing any strategy work that needs to be done up front). Scale will win since consulting (and the larger professional services market) has both huge network effects and huge economies of scale/scope; so I'd look for the consolidation trend to continue and the "big 3" strategy shops to either merge with or form a close alliance with the remaining "big 4" professional services firms (PwC and Deloitte have seen such a boost in consulting revenue from the network effects with their tax and audit practices that ENY and KPMG will be expanding consulting soon as well). There's too much overlap in the overhead functions (travel management, billing, finance, HR, training, branding, etc.) of any professional services business.

by exelius 11y ago

aaroncohn 11y ago

Yep, agree with you that pure "strategy" is rapidly disappearing. I was at PwC -- their whole mantra was "strategy through execution." Which is why they bought all these strategy shops (Booz/Diamond/etc), because clients were saying they were sick of Bain/McKinsey/BCG leaving them with strategic plans they couldn't execute on. Deloitte is pursuing much of the same, evidenced by the Monitor acquisition. And now EVEN the Big 3 MBB strategy shops are getting into the execution side of the game to compete.

exelius 11y ago
Yep; though for the purposes of consulting you have to consider the pure execution shops as well (Accenture, Infosys, etc.) Those guys are throwing in strategy for free as well; albeit with a different model (they just hire ex-McKinsey/Bain/BCG partners to sell big projects for them, which often includes doing any strategy work that needs to be done up front). Scale will win since consulting (and the larger professional services market) has both huge network effects and huge economies of scale/scope; so I'd look for the consolidation trend to continue and the "big 3" strategy shops to either merge with or form a close alliance with the remaining "big 4" professional services firms (PwC and Deloitte have seen such a boost in consulting revenue from the network effects with their tax and audit practices that ENY and KPMG will be expanding consulting soon as well). There's too much overlap in the overhead functions (travel management, billing, finance, HR, training, branding, etc.) of any professional services business.