CATERING TO A MORE SOPHISTICATED CLIENTE

Consulting clients are taking steps to ensure that the advisors they employ have the competencies and expertise necessary to produce the desired results.

Such awareness is becoming more commonplace, especially in dealings with management consultants, who wield considerable and increasing influence in both the public and private sectors as industry experts, business advisors, conflict resolution mediators, external analysts, and change facilitators. The field is predicted to grow 18 to 26 percent through 2014, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The clients’ growing zeal to demand better results from consultants stems from simple necessity. Rare are the organizations that can afford to spend millions of dollars on consulting engagements that fail to produce tangible results—or worse, result in costly fiascos.

As clients become more demanding consumers of consulting services, some analysts are calling for the restructuring of the current consultant career model.

According to Ray Manganelli, senior managing director at Tunnell Consulting, the traditional pyramid model—where consultants gradually gain more experience by moving up in their organizations—does not work anymore.