One thing I’ve learned after 17 years running a consultancy: the consulting industry often rewards dependency more than transformation. Join the conversation on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/antlerboy_one-thing-ive-learned-after-17-years-running-activity-7465665799828013056-EXhT?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACuq-oBecVFDW6PCf3lkoG-peMeuLBeoho
One thing I’ve learned after 17 years running a consultancy: the consulting industry often rewards dependency more than transformation.
Clients say they want change. Many consulting models quietly optimise for indefinite extension. More phases. More artefacts. More embedded teams. More reassuring PowerPoints explaining why the real work is the programme artefacts, and the merely operational implementation will come, in due course.
On the podcast I did this week, I talked about why we’ve tried – imperfectly – to resist that model.
The goal should be to leave clients stronger, more capable and less dependent over time. Not emotionally attached to your slide templates.
In the conversation, John Degnan and I discussed:
• why public procurement systems mostly test compliance rather than capability
• why large public bodies become overwhelmed by management noise
• why relational trust matters more than formal governance in complex systems
• and why genuinely useful consulting often looks much messier than the brochures suggest
There was also a slightly painful but honest discussion about business development. Because the truth is: there does appear to be a mysterious parallel universe where my competitor consultancy grow rapidly! I tell myself it’s through networking dinners, conference circuits, and strategic friendliness… We’ve never entirely mastered that world.
Meanwhile we’ve tended to rely on:
• repeat work
• open competitive tenders
• long-term trust
• and the radical commercial strategy of ‘trying to do a good job’
Commercially, this may not always have been optimal. Ethically, I can still sleep at night. But I’m still working on our goal to do more good work!
Cc Guillaume Jouvencel
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/2yQFitiYY5R9B4O3LVFqit
YouTube:
chosen path 