Emerging digital trends in consulting
August 2013Victor Jiang
Started first consulting company in Australia at age 23
Took it to Europe and worked across UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands etc for 8+ years
Worked with the 5 largest global consultancies; 35 of the Fortune 50 as client companies
Ran IBM’s second largest enterprise-data-management business
outside of Wall St – the London banking and financial markets BU (delivering 410% revenue against target during the Global Financial Crisis)
Ran biz-dev at IBM’s Business Analytics and Optimization GBS practice in Australia. It grew 200% within 12 months.
A short bioBackground:
Over 50% of professional services will be booked via online channels within 5-7 years1 ”
A Bold Prediction
Global Mega Trends
Web 2.0:
Me centric
web
The next 10 years:
Web 2.0: mass personal connectivity?– (rise of social networks; the web centered around “me”)
Web 3.0: mass customization?? (incl. services) Already seeing this – first with Dell, now “growth hacking” behavioural-driven advertising at FB, Yahoo, LinkedIn
Intrepreting the Trends
Big data analytics will enable, and indeed, drive this
More organic networks
Portals will become Platforms
Those who don’t catch-up will be left behind
The next 10 years will see the rise of Online Reputation Management ”
Bold Prediction #2
Tsunami of Change
Where’s the wave?
Traditional services industries knows it has to adapt & change
Many – including senior partners at AmLaw100 firms and other big firms – are feeling the “tsunami” about to be awash in their industries
They should.
Refer:Legal: AxiomLaw, ClearSpires, VirtualLawNetwork, LegalForce, Rocket Lawyer, Trademarkia
IT Outsourcing: Elance, Odesk, Freelancer
Medical: ZocDoc, RateADoctor
Travel and hospitality: TripAdvisor
Localised SMB: Yelp, Angie’s List, ServiceSeeking, TrueLocal, YourMechanic
Yet…
Is time really = money???
In today’s consulting world:
- Can be sold in sub-seconds- Traded 24x7, globally- Valued through established ratings
agencies and brokers- Supply & demand publicly tracked and
instantly visible- Hedged via futures/derivatives
- Can NOT be sold easily in days, or even weeks!
- Traded Mon-Fri (9-5), locally- Can NOT be easily valued- Demand and supply NOT publicly
tracked – NO visibility- Currently NOT hedged through any
futures or derivatives
Compare 2 Assets
A corporate bond: A consultant’s time:
Why?
Visibility
No independent ratings / comparison platform
And:
Mainly used for lead-sourcing
Not marketplaces for services
Quickest race to the bottom
Best suited to offshoring
High attrition (on both sides)
No in-depth matching
No scheduling/booking
No platform for trading
But:
Expertise Sites:
Freelancing sites:
Social networks:
Skill buyers and sellers have resorted to:
Current Attempts to Solve the Problem
Utilization Rate
Sales Cycle
Profitability / Break-even point
Profit
Loss
Current Ideal
Also, none of them are addressing…
The Utilization Vicious Cycle
The “Utilization Lag”:
Given a client’s first search nowadays is…
You’d want…
Featured ExpertScalability;
Instant Reach;
Autonomy
- Contextually relevant;
- Keyword-sensitive ads
Then you’d want that link to lead to something like …
Make all buying decision criteria visibly met:
Have a way to…
Provide feedback loop via service scoring / rating
Credentials
Reputation
Availability
Pricing
Have exposure while you sleep!
Soon, pricing of professional services will fluctuate in real-time, like airline tickets or hotel rooms ”
Bold Prediction #3
Transparency transforms pricing.
Such online platforms exists There will be more and more of
them Utilize them, leverage them
In conclusion
And…
Differentiate. Differentiate. Differentiate.
My advice:
Leverage “gated business communities”
Constantly increase & improve your online exposure!
(because a tidal change is coming!)
Victor JiangFounder, CEO | [email protected] | Cell: +1 415-283-6214 | Twitter: @victor_jiang | Skype: Skillsapien425 Broadway St, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA | 65 Hume St, Crows Nest, NSW 2065, Australia