HBSQuarterly
Dear Reader,Welcome to the latest edition of the HBS Quarterly.
The relationship between business consultants and their clients has become increasingly problematic over the last few years. The main types of services bought in by marketing and business development departments have been Strategy Consulting, Market Analysis and Market Research. Increasingly, clients find it hard to justify the high fees charged by Strategy Consultants in terms of return on investment. As a consequence, we see many of the big strategy houses fighting to maintain their business levels. Market analysis consultancies struggle to convince clients of the accuracy and value of their data, which is often collected through poor methodologies and by inexperienced staff. Market Researchers at least can still maintain that their service is a key component in probing end-user opinion and preferences, but the more expensive methodologies like focus groups are increasingly questioned as to their true value.
On the other hand, few marketers or business developers would claim that they could do their job efficiently without good market information or the occasional outside opinion on a particular market issue. It will be interesting to observe how the consultancy / client relationship will develop. Methodologies and cost effectiveness are likely to come under greater scrutiny and the value of data, be it from publications or project work, will be more closely examined. Consultancies will be judged on whether they can deliver their client’s needs rather than selling their concepts. This will be good for both clients and the consultancies that try to position themselves through high quality, client focused, sensibly priced products. Eventually, consultants may again be seen as a flexible and valuable resource for marketing and business development management.
In this context, I would like to draw your attention to two articles in this edition of the Quarterly. The first, by Dr. Bhatti, a Senior Partner at HBS Consulting, highlights how we try to address the above issues. The second, the client forum, shows how Agfa Healthcare is re-evaluating its consulting support in the Business Intelligence area.
I hope you enjoy this edition of the HBS Quarterly and as always we are very pleased about any feedback or suggestions you may have.
Yours sincerely,
Rupert Houghton, Director of Business Development