The polycrisis and professional services: Where are we now?
Our latest data from clients suggests that while the economic indicators may have improved somewhat, a sense that this will be a long-lasting crisis is undermining the response of CXOs, with implications for professional services firms.One of the long-term changes of the pandemic is that decisions about using professional services firms, and which firm to choose, are being made higher up in organisations.
Pre-COVID, roughly a quarter of such decisions were made at the CXO level; the rest, by heads of department and other people directly beneath CXOs. Today, 53% of decisions to bring in outside help are made by CXOs, reflecting both the extent to which many large projects span multiple departments and the important role consultants and other advisers have played during the turmoil of the last few years.