Management Consultancy in the 21st Century

Management consultancy is one of the fastest growing markets in the world today: it is also one of the most influential and pervasive in corporate life. Although this pace of growth looks set to continue, the future holds significant challenges for both consultants and the clients who hire them:

• the client-consultant relationship is changing with clients demanding more tangible benefits in shorter timescales
• access to new intellectual capital will determine the survival of consulting firms — not just their short-term success
• relationships between consulting firms will become much more complex, creating new alliances between traditional rivals in order to address new markets
• the boundary between the roles of the clients and consultants will become much more blurred, with consultants 'doing' as much as 'advising'

This book, by an author with substantial experience with large consulting firms, assesses the key opportunities and risks facing the consulting industry over the next twenty years. It also quotes the views of leading partners from some of the world's most influential firms, including A D Little, Andersen Consulting, A.T. Kearney, Bain & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, the Deloitte & Touch Consulting Group, Gemini Consulting, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. It will be essential reading for anyone already working as a consultant or considering doing so, and for people who buy or work with consultants.

1. Introduction
• Part I: Consultancy in the Next Ten Years
2. Changes in the Client-Consultant Relationship
3. Consultancy in the Next Decade? An Overview
4. Innovation: The Over-production of Truth?
5. Managing Existing Intellectual Capital
6. No Consultancy Is an Island: Alliances and Networks
7. Branding and Differentiation
8. Specialisation
9. The Changing Balance of People and Technology
10. Globalisation
11. The Polarisation of Consulting Styles
12. From Advising to Doing

• Part II: Consultancy in 2020
13. Changes in the Business Environment and Their Impact on Clients' Use of Consultancy
14. Segmenting the Consulting Industry of the Future
15. The Future Nature of Consulting Services
16. Client-Consultant Relations
17. Critical Success Factors
18. Key Threats and Challenges
19. Globalisation
20. recruiting and Retaining People
21. Intellectual Capital
22. Branding

Interesting book about the future of the consulting industry.

But Fiona also manages to give a realistic overview of where the industry is coming from, where it is now as well as thinking about its future.

Recommended if you really wants to understand the consulting industry, warts and all.