INDEX
Glossary........................................................................................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................................2
Sector Composition.......................................................................................................3
Key Trends....................................................................................................................3
Top Companies .............................................................................................................4
Market Share................................................................................................................5
Future Trends................................................................................................................6
Challenges......................................................................................................................6
GLOSSARY
1. Action Plan: A detailed action plan charts out all the individual sub-activities that must be completed to accomplish
a goal, including timelines for completing each sub-activity, metrics that aid in tracking completion and fidelity of
implementation, and the assignment of ownership and accountability for the work. It can be broken down into 7
steps: a) Define the Problem(s), b) Collect and Analyze the Data, c) Clarify and Prioritize the Problem(s), d) Write a
Goal Statement for Each Solution, e) Implement Solutions: The Action Plan, f) Monitor and Evaluate, g) Restart
with a New Problem, or Refine the Old Problem.
2. Bandwidth: A way of describing how much capacity you have to take on additional work, both from a time and
energy perspective
3. Buy-in: Previewing an idea or proposal with clients and team members to identify ways to strengthen it and get their
support. Eg. When we develop a proposal with our team, we'll need to get buy-in from the project manager before
we can proceed.
4. CAGR: An abbreviation for compound annual growth rate. It calculates the average annual growth rate of a
financial variable (e.g. revenues, costs, the value of an investment) over time.
5. Change Agent: There can be various perspectives on this role. An example could be the person internal to the
organization who leads the change in the organization by setting direction and influencing others to follow that
direction. Also, could be the person external to the organization who provides ongoing expertise and guidance to
those internal to the organization in order to change their organization
6. Drill-down: To drill down means to focus in on something. Applied to the field of business intelligence, it means
being able to dig into a piece of data, to go deep into its specific layers and understand all the ins and outs in order
to make good decisions on company strategy
7. External Consultant: Someone considered not to be an official, ongoing member of the organization. The onetime
relationship of the consultant to the organization is determined usually by a project’s contract or Letter of
Agreement. Payment is on the basis of a particular project that specifies certain desired results and deliverables from
the consultant. Payroll taxes are not withheld from the person’s paycheck – the person pays their own payroll taxes.
8. Founder’s Syndrome: It exists when an organization operates more according to the personality of someone in the
organization (not always the founder) than to its mission.
9. Generalist: A generalist provides less specialized help that usually spans several different systems and/or functions,
for example, a consultant who addresses numerous management functions in order to change the organization, such
as the Board of Directors, executive leadership, strategic planning and business planning.
10. Internal consultant: Someone considered to be an official, often ongoing member of the organization. The
relationship of the consultant to the organization is determined usually by a job description and various personnel
policies. Payment is on the basis on their ongoing official roles in the organization. Payroll taxes are withheld from
the person’s paychecks. Successful internal consultants for change often use a highly collaborative and facilitative
approach – the same style required by internal leaders to successfully guide change. Therefore, leaders can also
sometimes be considered internal consultants.
11. MECE: “Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive” which describes a way of organizing information into
categories. The best way of breaking things into categories is to make the categories Mutually Exclusive – there is no
overlap between the categories – and Collectively Exhaustive – the items each fit into one and only one category
12. Polarity: A situation in which there seems to be two “sides” and one “side” is highly dependent on, or can be
affected by, the other “side.” The sides are seemingly contradictory, but cannot completely exist without the
presence, of the other. Examples include: inhale versus exhale, cost versus quality and decentralize versus centralize.
13. Sniff Test: Assessing whether something makes sense at a high level before accepting it as the truth or correct. The
term comes from a way to check whether fruit is rotten – you don’t need to slice and dice it to figure out it’s gone
bad, just sniff.
14. Strawman: – A potential solution or course of action used, not because it is perfect, but just to generate discussion
about its advantages and disadvantages so that it can be improved upon. Consultants often prefer to solicit
reactions to a strawman than to start a discussion from a totally blank slate, because it is often more efficient
1
INTRODUCTION
Consulting as a service came about as far back as the late 19th century when the world’s first modern consultancy
firms were founded because the industry had started to move away from simple trading and traditional products to
things that called for specialized knowledge in setting up, maintenance and growth.
From the turn of the 20th century, consulting and in particular, those with a focus on engineering and finance found
increasing acceptance in the world of business and enterprise. Today, a century down the line, the consulting
industry is one of the most mature in the professional services industry that generates revenues anywhere close to
USD 250 billion YOY.
India has seen substantial growth (and slumps), not only in terms of size but also in terms of the service offerings. In
recent years, the demand for specialist consulting services is being sought in a big way in India. This presents a
never-before opportunity for a large number of consultants to help businesses with their expert knowledge base and
resources. This is despite the pandemic-induced slowdown.
In the Indian scenario, facts, figures, and salient points include:
The presence of over 6000 consultancy firms in metropolitan areas.
Over 200 supporting R & D labs.
Low entry barriers bringing about a mix of big and small players.
Huge manpower with the right education and experiences that can cater to varied industries and fields including
IT, management, civil engineering, telecommunication, petrochemicals, power, and metallurgy.
The right education and experience of the players make them quite sought after in markets abroad including
those in the US, UK, China, Japan, and the Gulf region.
Strong interpersonal skills and ability to think out-of-the-box and accept differing perceptions.
Ability and willingness to follow best practices in every aspect of working including data management and
security.
Figure 2.1: Sectoral Composition of FMCG
Source
The Global Consulting Service Market size is expected to grow from USD 321.52 billion in 2023 to USD 395.14 billion
by 2028, at a CAGR of 4.21% during the forecast period (2023-2028). The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively
impacted multiple industries, including management consulting. To recover from the impact and adapt to the post-
pandemic scenario, consultancies have been devising various work opportunities and new business strategies.There is a
growing need for management consulting services, owing to the strong economic growth in the European markets,
regulatory reforms in the financial sector, outsourcing back-end operations to low-cost economies, and public
investments. Over the forecast period, faster economic growth, the emergence of digital consulting, and the rise of
globalization are expected to drive further growth.
2
SECTOR COMPOSITION AND KEY TRENDS
The market is Segmented by Service Type (Operations Consulting, Strategy Consulting, Financial Advisory, and
Technology Advisory), End-user Industry (Financial Services, Life Sciences, and Healthcare, IT and
Telecommunications, Government, and Energy), and Geography.
Figure 3.1: Sectoral Composition of FMCG
Source
Multi-Sourcing
Companies today are not limited to a single consultant firm. There is a growing trend amongst clients to switch away
from the mega-deal with one consultant, and pressure to get multiple firms to collaborate on projects. Clients may feel
that no one firm can handle either the scale or complexity of their large projects, and they may require a partnership
with five or six firms.
Fast Growth
The business world is desperate for consulting help. With excess staff being cut down, most organizations lack in the
technical, strategic and project management skills to handle the benumbing rate of technological and market change.
The consulting industry is trying its best to accommodate the demand. Big consulting firms are inhaling new
employees, gulping up smaller firms and merging with peers.
Offshoring
In addition to a boom in the number of consulting firms, the size of individual firms is growing in response to the other
industry trend: one-stop shopping. Providers that can’t compete on size will still try to offer one-stop shopping by
outsourcing a chunk of a client’s project to another firm, while maintaining responsibility for the overall project.
Premium Hiring
Top consulting firms such as Bain, BCG and Ernst & Young are hiring fresh engineer graduates like never before, and
most of these have almost doubled the number of offers they made in this campus placement season in the country’s
top institutes. Lately, many of the consulting firms are getting a lot of work in the engineering space and this is pushing
the demand for the engineers at colleges such as IIT’s and NIT’s.
3
TOP COMPANIES
Figure 4.1: Sectoral Composition of FMCG
Source
The consulting service market is highly competitive and consists of many global and regional players. These players
account for a considerable market share and focus on expanding their global client base. They focus on research and
development activities, strategic alliances, and other organic and inorganic growth strategies to stay in the market
over the forecast period.
October 2022 - Accenture and Atlassian formed a strategic partnership to help organizations drive more value
from technology investments, improve customer and employee experiences, embrace change and create new
business value with enterprise agility services. Bringing together teams from across Accenture, an Accenture
Atlassian Center of Excellence will provide coaching, education, agile practice disciplines, and platform
enablement to clients worldwide.
August 2022 - PwC India completed the acquisition of Venerate Solutions Private Limited ('Venerate'), one of
the fastest-growing and highly innovative salesforce consulting firms in India. This acquisition of Venerate's
technical expertise will enhance and complement existing Salesforce consulting capabilities. It will line with the
global strategy, The New Equation, to solve clients' most critical problems by delivering human-led and tech-
powered solutions.
June 2022 - PwC's partnership with FICCI organized an industry symposium themed "Reimagining Odisha:
Unlocking the opportunities for Economic Transformation," which will further strengthen reforms and boost
investment and employment opportunities in the state.
4
MARKET SHARE
North America is presumed to be the most significant revenue-generating region, as there is a particular focus on
innovations in the US and Canada. These nations have the world's most competitive and quickly changing consulting
service market. A higher rate of infrastructure growth and the massive growth of consultancy requirements from all
industry verticals are expected to make North America one of the top potential markets for growth.
The United States is the world's largest revenue-generating consulting service market. It is home to top global
consultancy firms catering to various end-user verticals. Furthermore, the highly volatile marketplace across the US
economy, along with the sustained reforms in government regulations, is driving companies to turn to management
consulting providers for acquiring assistance in their financial operations across the country.
Furthermore, the United States is a pioneer in the market and plays a significant role in bringing technological
advancements to the global market. The US-based consulting service providers, like McKinsey & Company, Deloitte,
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the Boston Consulting Group, Ernst & Young (EY), and KPMG, among others, are
some of the top market vendors globally.
In July 2022, White Wolf Capital ("White Wolf") portfolio company Consulting Solutions announced the acquisition
of iBridge Solutions, LLC ("iBridge"), an information technology consulting firm with over 20 years of experience
supporting some of the nation's largest companies, including a loyal base of blue-chip customers. The company's
headquarters are in St. Louis, Missouri. Adding iBridge's clientele and consulting talent will help consulting solutions
maintain its market position as one of North America's fastest-growing workforce solutions and consulting services
providers.
The key players in this region are focused on strategic acquisitions, research and development (R&D), functional
solutions, and people development. These investments will help them to improve its market differentiation and
competitiveness.
For instance, in August 2022, Accenture (NYSE: ACN) completed its acquisition of The Stable, a commerce agency
focused on assisting consumer brands in building and operating their digital commerce channels, as well as managing
their brand and sales performance across key North American retailers, bolstering Accenture's ongoing investments in
commerce to help clients accelerate growth and sustain relevance.
The consulting service industry in the country has expanded in recent years, as the number of people employed in
management consulting in the United States has also grown annually over the past five years.
Figure 5.1: Consulting service market growth rate by region
Source
5
FUTURE TRENDS AND CHALLENGES
India has been globally recognised for its speedy development, leading to an extensive expansion in the consulting
sector. The future of consulting is all about resilience and start up. The future of consultancies in India based on
the current and future prospects of the various sectors; will have critical success factors.
Increased demand for consulting services by domestic and foreign firms sector in India is consistently growing.
Today, nearly all industries are undergoing massive change. Rising opportunities due to booming economy and
growing demand for consultancy services are key factor for growth. The total market growth might slow down a
bit, but there will be considerable shifts amongst the market segments. Traditional management consulting will
stagnate and nearly merge with IT consulting. In general, there will be a shift from traditional advice to
implementation. This implies that clients will express the wish that their consultants share more risks of the
projects.
In a world of growing complexities, it is critical to ensure sufficient distribution of the existing knowledge
throughout the company. Large consultants will face structural problems. This would limit their ability to raise
capital and slow down decisions and changes. Some might even consider going public due to enormous
management incapacities. This would be an opportunity for other players to enter some poorly serviced fields.
Also, small firms are consistently thriving by becoming exquisitely specialized. They could network to fulfil
complex needs which would enable them to become medium sized consultancy on project basis.
Other changes will occur through new entrants. Attracted by the impressive market growth, many non-
consultancies will establish consultancy-divisions. An entry of sole practitioners and small consultancies is
expected. This wave of new entries will have dual effects. An increase in the competition would be evident, leading
to mergers and acquisitions or breakdowns. And, since there are no legal regulations as to who can call himself a
consultant; there will be quality problems in some cases which could damage the reputation of the whole industry.
CHALLENGES:
Mirroring the challenges faced by firms worldwide, consulting firms and consultants in India may struggle with
changes in everything from fields, scopes to methodologies and even the way clients are approached, and reports
prepared. Some of the more pronounced challenges the industry could now face include:
Use of local instead of global: International travel is a big no-no, local consultants with the right credentials
could be the first choice over international or multinational ones. This could mean an effective loss of foreign
business.
Increasing use of technology to solve ‘in-person’ problems: Continuing from the above, where the right kind of
consultant isn’t available, the next option would always be to use technology to hold online meetings. Zoom,
Google Meets and the likes shall continue to be favoured platforms for meetings with the likes of Zoho and
Google Office helping consultant worldwide do business just as wide
A complete change of strategic interests at the client’s end: ‘How to grow’ was the question once. Today it has
whittled down to ‘How to sustain’ or even ‘How to survive’. Making organizations lean and self-sustaining,
remote accesses, remote working, office-less working, on cloud working, remote 3-D printing, etc would be the
new areas of consulting that could see substantial changes in such fields as human resource, finance, and asset
deployment.
Increasing emphasis on digitization and mechanization: Before the pandemic, consultants were involved in
organizational development in its entirety in the backdrop of a holistic thought process. Today, it’s about
helping organizations survive and thrive with the use of technology in every possible area in any industry in the
context of methodologies including IoT, Edge computing, Industry 4.0, and the likes where data is central and
humans on the periphery.
Competition and differentiation: The biggest challenge for the Indian consulting firms is to compete with the
global players in the market. There is need for Indian consultancy sectors to define their specializations and
differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Adoption of New Organizational design: With increasing globalization of consulting firms, Indian consultancy
sectors need to adopt new organizational design that best suit their contexts and identities.
6
"...Many people have said that it's India's decade. I
actually think it's India's century..."
― Bob Sternfels
Research and
Scholastic
Development
Team
