Odgers Connect report (click here) is music to my ears! It makes very interesting reading (thank you Carolyn Douthwaite of PiR for flagging it to me). I am infamous for my misquotes, but I am sure it was a famous entrepreneur (it is usually Gates or Jobs) who said ‘I wish I had gone to the experts sooner’. It is an adage I have tried to keep close. There are far too many business leaders spending time grappling with issues that aren’t within their strength area. Surely the answer is to buy in a flexible resource from the professional gig economy.
Odgers Connect’s report suggests that of the estimated £9.75 billion spent in the UK Economy in 2016 approximately £2 billion was with independent consultants. What is more, the report highlights that:
• Flexibility was more important than price in selecting independent consultants
• In 2 of the 4 categories polled independents were regarded as higher quality than consultants at traditional firms (in the other 2 categories they were regarded as on a par)
• The use (and willingness to use) independent consultant is on the rise
Reluctance to engage with Independent consultants (the Odgers Connect) report suggests relates mainly to two areas:
1. A lack of quality control
2. An over reluctance of personal relationships
Both of these issues are addressed by Marshall Wolfe’s Virtual Bench Team Solution (info@marshallwolfe.co.uk), but also, in my opinion, by considering the middle ground of niche consultancies. Many of whom have registered track records and a small resource pool of similarly skilled individuals (indeed these niche consultancies are themselves often formed from independent consultants recognising the advantages of delivering with some scale / bandwidth).
From my own perception, gone are the days when you had to pretend your entire delivery team was made up of permanent employees, buyers embrace a solution made up of trusted partnerships (and these will often include Independent Consultants performing key roles).
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