The Networked Consulting Firm
I've been intrigued lately mulling over the possibility that the next big consulting firm might be a network of individual firms. There are four or five elements that are coming together that would support this and make such a network a serious competitor to today's major consulting firms.
1. eBay
I'm drawing on two characteristics of eBay. One is the evaluation system that eBay uses to rate traders. The second is the marketplace of buyers and sellers.
2. B2B Technology and Affinity Groups
Within the network there will be affinity groups. These serve as the analog to practice areas in the major consulting firms. The affinity groups will be subnetworks of consultants who like working together and who have complimentary skills that together give them the breadth of abilities to tackle difficult challenges. It's likely that leadership will emerge by situation. Job-based contracts keep teams of consultants together for the duration of each job, providing some security for clients and for the team members themselves. It is also likely that consultants will stay members for longer periods of time than the current average turnover in major consulting firms.
3. Creative Commons
A creative commons license would allow members to use each other's IP but more importantly to adapt it and feed it back into the network for others to use. The best would tend to be used more. Databases of IP would hold rating and use information for members to use. This rapid adapatation could keep the network ahead of the competition.
4. Member-based Support
The network would be formed as a membership organization that can provide a number of valuable services from insurance, to basic legal support (contracts, etc.), to assistance with accounting, to discounts for purchases. Members would provide basic financial information to the membership organization so that the combined financial strength an be used in larger RFP's. Rapid deployment team building allows larger teams for big deployments to rapidly come up to speed. Members submit case studies and non-proprietary information after each job so that a repository of knowledge by industy and company segment can be built and accessed by all.
The network would also benefit from its lack of overhead. No major buildings. No battalions of staff. No top heavy structure that requires overworked junior consultants to support the income of senior partners.