Strategy consulting firms jolted into action

Reflecting a somber 2009-2012 forecast period, Strategy consulting practices are reconfiguring their services portfolios and operations to remain relevant to value-minded clients. Kennedy analysts contend that to retain market share, Strategy practices increasingly will direct their focus on the key differentiators of analytics, "assetization," and global delivery.

In particular, the macroeconomy has shifted short-term and long-term client trends, and significantly re-shaped demand for Strategic Planning, Marketing & Branding Strategy, Financial Strategy, Organizational Strategy, and IT Strategy & Planning Services.

Of particular interest, Kennedy notes that analytics -- a rapidly advancing area of management science -- is changing traditional views on Strategy consulting. Tom Rodenhauser, Vice President, Kennedy Consulting Research & Advisory, says, "Analytics has a notably high demand potential in terms of accurately predicting the result of future strategies, not just analyzing past trends. Strategy firms, which are viewed as the purveyors of analytical thinking, must now create and develop higher-level analytic tools to justify their value proposition to clients. Analytics-leveraged strategy work must generate insight, predict results, simulate benefits, and optimize performance."

With respect to services "assetization," Kennedy's research indicates that, unlike other consulting services, few Strategy practices have been able to package their consulting assets in ways that are more easily leveraged with clients. Strategy consulting is still very much reliant on people working side by side with clients.

In examining global delivery as a differentiator, Kennedy notes that the leading strategy practices have moved beyond the traditional network of global offices. These firms have created global resourcing and delivery networks that enable them to remit their best talent and IP to clients without regard to where resources are located, or where their clients want their consulting services deployed.

"Strategy Consulting Marketplace" scrutinizes the Strategy consulting provider landscape with a keen eye on how Strategy consultancies of different sizes are advancing in the different areas of analytics, "assetization" and global delivery. Kennedy analysts assessed the following practices on the current state of their service offerings as well as their momentum within the Strategy consulting market: Accenture, A.T. Kearney, Bain & Company, Booz & Co., The Boston Consulting Group, Capgemini, CSC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, IBM Global Business Services, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, Monitor Group, Oliver Wyman, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. The strongest practices are featured in "The Kennedy Vanguard of Strategy Consulting Firms and Practices."

Kennedy's Vanguard of consulting practices is developed for each specific research offering and is relied upon by the world's top organizations to rationalize their consulting spend with major service providers.