Clients think firms’ industry expertise is in decline, and that matters
Expertise is the foundation stone of consulting. Clients pay big bucks to bring in firms that have the knowledge to drive growth in a way they cannot do themselves. But with Source’s latest research showing that clients now believe they know more about their sector than consultants do, is the very premise of value creation on shaky ground?
In our latest survey of buyers of consulting, we asked clients to consider who had more expertise about the industry they work in—was it them or was it their advisors? They were asked to consider the situation today and to look back ten years, too. The results are stark. Remembering a short decade ago—the year Alibaba listed, Facebook acquired WhatsApp, and Russia annexed Ukraine—69% of clients said that they think consultants then knew more about their industry than they, themselves, did. Fast forward to today, and this has fallen to just 40%.