The benefits of forging a partnership with a niche consultancy
Clients within the rapidly developing world of consultancy are faced with a difficult challenge as boutique niche consultancies take the foreground of the sector, creating indecision regarding the pros and cons of choosing a smaller source. Despite the ongoing impact of the “Big 4” through their reputation and client intake, the benefits of forming a partnership with a niche consultancy are becoming increasingly apparent. These aforementioned benefits are going to be further explored in this article, with specific reference to client interaction, specialisation and flexibility.
Primarily, smaller consultancies represent a far more personal approach to business. Large consultancies tend to allocate many people working on each project, and while this may sound desirable it also removes the personal interactions with the majority of people one would work with. At niche companies like CBI, we pride ourselves on our client-centred approach. While it may not be possible to have multiple senior consultants focusing on solving the issue in larger firms, at niche consultancies this is not only possible but incredibly common.
Additionally, as niche consultancy owners are typically involved in projects and client engagements there is a higher stress placed on the success of your business. The smaller workforce entails ensures to a much greater extent the scope of support surrounding your problem, as there is a higher level of expertise and communication between smaller scale departments.
This leads to the next area of discussion – specialisation. Larger consultancies have standardised, uniform approaches to standardised, uniform issues, created by people who have a great understanding of said issues. These approaches lack innovation.
In Niche consultancies, consultants don’t just have to understand the necessary approaches, but also how and why they work. This ensures that your business problems are broken down intelligently in order to find a unique and bespoke solution. Large companies undoubtedly work with efficiency as the consultant moves their way down the checklist of classic questions, but what this means is that they don’t necessarily ask or provide for unique solutions outside of this. Small consultancies, on the other hand, hire people who can function outside of these standardised processes. Due to the smaller workforce, a lot of thought and effort goes into which candidates are employed.
Flexibility is one of the largest and most recognisable differences between large scale and niche consultancies. In large organisations, there’s often a set structure that means you have to jump through quite a few hoops to get things done. Large companies don’t necessarily tailor their solutions to your specific needs, but instead provide what they are good at giving. Due to the standardisation of services offered by larger firms, clients may find that the service is not as specific to their approach and could be applied to a variety of projects. Within the topic of flexibility, it’s fundamental to engage in the discussion of adaptability – specifically what would happen in a changing economic environment. Some businesses today would argue that the basic models of big consultancies aren’t changing with time. What this means is that they aren’t adapting to the new trends like smaller boutique consultancies. By extension, companies like the “Big 4” can therefore be inefficient and lack alignment with the high rate of change businesses are facing today.
One obvious benefit of a larger company is their longstanding and wide range of relationships. Many of the larger firms have long-standing relationships with their big accounts, and that’s often a significant competitive advantage when it comes to selling and building your opportunity pipeline. However, this highlights the importance of niche consultancies and the effort they have to put in in order to compete. Niche consultancies have to go the extra mile to prove that they not only know what they’re talking about, but that they also have the methodologies, tools and resources to deliver – all of which can ultimately contribute to much longer sales cycles.
Evidently, it is apparent that boutique consultancies in today’s environment have a paramount of benefits. At face value, large consultancies may seem like the best option due to their reputation and number of projects. However, these projects are completed with standardised approaches lacking personal client interaction and innovation solutions. All of which can be provided by organisations such as CBI.
https://www.consultancy.org/hire-a-consultant/faq/working-with-large-versus-small-consulting-firms
https://fieldverified.com/3-reasons-a-small-consulting-firm-is-huge/