A Rite of Passage

Becoming a consultant is a sort of badge of honor for those in the corporate world. It signifies years of experience, education, and success. A sort of rite of passage to bestow your years of experience on hungry up and comers. But in 2019, that industry is under threat.

There are several issues that the consulting model produces. First, it’s quite labour intensive, as the consultant is essentially the product. Second, it’s a billable, time-based model. Every hour, no matter how productive it is, will be billed to the client. Finally, the consulting firm is only as good, and can only last as long, as it’s consultants. If a firm has a few consultants that have great experience in the automotive industry, the firm can only be a leader in that field if those partners are still working at the firm, unless they can find someone with the same specialized knowledge to fill their spot.

What’s more, many CEO’s feel their talent strategy is the true backbone of their success, not business strategy under a consultant. One survey of 156 CEOs had 30% rank their talent strategy as their top priority, with a focus on business strategy taking the passenger seat.

This idea makes sense. If the human is the driver and backbone of your business, everything else doesn’t work unless the people side works.

How Does This Change The Future?

So how will management consulting firms need to shift in order to take advantage of the next wave of consulting? Artificial Intelligence and Software. They are flexible, customizable, scalable, and never leaves the company. It can also better adapt to management consulting trends because of its data-driven approach.

When looking to make a decision about that same automotive industry, AI or software programs could make choices based on 100 terabytes of the most up to date industry information available. This allows companies to increase decision time, take in to account more data, and all around make a more informed choice. The best part is that the programs get smarter as they are used more.

The Predictive Index System™ is an example of large-scale decision software that is already in place. By giving potential candidates two questions survey and matching that to the characteristics of over 3,000,000 other job models, that software can predict the best candidate for the job. No more relying on the hiring consultant’s gut instinct.

The Predictive Index System™, offered by the Predictive Success Corporation, uses Predictive Analysis to rank candidates against positions.

Take Aways

AI and other software will be the future of consulting. Although the need for humans will always be a reality, the data-driven approach allows companies to utilize a wider variety of data, and make a more informed choice.

Want to learn how your business can utilize the software-consultant in their hiring process?

Click here, or contact hharrison@predictivesuccess.com to learn about the new Talent Optimization Program.

Sources

https://resources.predictiveindex.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/CEO_preferences_disrupting_consulting.pdf

https://www.inc.com/soren-kaplan/the-business-consulting-industry-is-booming-and-it.html

https://hbr.org/2017/07/ai-may-soon-replace-even-the-most-elite-consultants