Management Consulting International, November 2003

Website: www.management_consultant_international.consultingcentral.com

“Consulting Networks Compete Aggressively With Strategy Houses”

(Summary of the article)

A new breed of consulting firm is taking on branded firms with a far more aggressive approach to winning business. London-based strategy boutique Candesic has a radical take on both employment and the skills needed to deliver strategy advice effectively. Consultants receive no fixed salary, but are remunerated on the basis of their contribution to the project, both for winning business and for execution.

Founder Dr Leonid Shapiro says, “this model aligns the internal market of the firm with the external market for consultancy services.” This micro-economic environment creates “a very different working style from a traditional consultancy. If someone’s not a good person to work with – for example someone who burns out of team – people won’t want to work with him.”

“It’s very difficult for large firms to modify their business model in line with the market,” says Shapiro. “By the time consultancies installed new incentives to retain people during the dot-com boom, they had lost all the good people.”

Candesic currently offers strategy consultancy at one third the cost of an equivalent McKinsey or Boston Consulting Group study.

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