Disrupting management consulting

The concentration of major players, slow technology adoption, relatively outdated business practices are all characteristics of industries that have proven most vulnerable to disruption. Management consulting could be recognised in such a description, and indeed its human-based model is facing a challenging time. The increasing pace of technological change puts extra pressure on consultants to provide their clients with up-to-date recommendations.

Automation: a threat to consultants?

Repetitive or regular data analysis tasks, modelling, and algorithm work were at the core of a consultant's day-to-day life. With the rise of digitalisation and the emergence of automation in all areas of activity, corporates can now collect valuable actionable data themselves. The value-added brought by management consulting on data collection has decreased, but other challenges arose in parallel within the corporate world.

Digitalisation has created many human resources and organisational challenges within corporates. Indeed, driving the digital transformation of a 10K people organisation can require external expertise and skills. In this area too, startups have brought solutions: talent management software, Edtech solutions, etc. have proven to be useful tools to manage the evolution of large companies. Management consulting companies have also seized this opportunity to support corporates on change management.

Using startups to better serve your clients

Leveraging cutting-edge technology provided by startups to serve clients is now at the core of most management consulting firms' strategy. McKinsey for instance acquired QuantumBlack in 2015 to strengthen its capabilities in data analytics.

Acquiring a tech company can therefore be an option to build a new consultancy offer, or to internalise key tools used by consultants on a day to day basis. Partnering with startups can also enable consultancy firms to differentiate themselves. Most corporates now have open innovation teams, who how to handle partnerships with startups. But their business unit still often faces difficulties in deploying startup solutions at scale or in selecting adequate suppliers.

Early Metrics helps consultancy firms detect and qualify startups to bring the best value-added to their corporate and public clients.