A viewpoint on managing highly skilled consulting boutiques (and personnel) in a digital world.

1. Advisory business:
Managing highly skilled advisory teams in digital world
Ayush Gayaprasad
04th July 2016

2. Advisorybusiness is changingfast due to industrymacro-trends
TheMarket – digitalization and disruption
Business value chain and organizational changes are moving towards Exponential business models* and
participant eco-systems due to digitalization and its associated disruptions/opportunities
*http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/05/exponential-organizations-are-the-future-of-global-business-and-innovation/
**https://hbr.org/2013/10/consulting-on-the-cusp-of-disruption
• Exponential/circular
economy & participant
eco-system
• Customer expectations
of an Omni-channel
experience
Lineareconomy and
valuechain
• Technology driving operational
strategies; demanding innovation
• People (customers and employees)
are at the center of change with
varying degree of wants
Efficiency inbusinessprocessesin
departments (processleading)
Visionà Strategyà Operationsà Outcome
• Expertise network to enable rapidly
changing strategy and operations;
‘capability investment’ as differentiator
• Delivers value through predictive
advisory over reactive problem solving
Structured to diagnoseand try to solve
problems(scopeisundefined)
Consulting organization**:Customer organization:Customer business:

3. Advisorybusinessis changingalso due to micro-trends
TheAdvisor : Role changefrom ‘oversight’ to ‘participative steering’ to ?? ….
*Ability to ‘talk’ and ‘walk the talk’ with a wider force-field in consulting engagements (CMO/CDO/COO are almost always engaged alongwith CIO role)
Traditional oversightin:
• Timing
• Technique
• Co-ordination
• Economics
• Cost-benefitdecisions
….
Anticipating change;Predictiveinsights/participatinginresponses
• Innovationsupport
• Partner ecology expertise
• Consumerbehaviorinsightsand design-thinkingenablement
• Outcomebased transactionsupportand Peopleenablement
• ….??
++Steering onTiming,Technique,Co-ordinationand Savings
Ex: From CIO advisory to CXO* advisory with international span and ability to ‘anticipate and support change’

4. Advisors and Advisoryof tomorrow
Network of skills and solutions
Focus on Solution sales;
Customer engagement;
Capability requests
F
LogicNets
F
A
C#
B
Practice-C Practice-B
Practice-A
C
CapabilityMgmt, Innovationand
Solution/Sales support
….....
C#
….
Advisoryclient
engagement
Manufacturing value chain
Consumer behavior changes
New operating models
New participants and competitors
International Consolidation/Divestment
Growth strategy levers
New technology evolution
Circular economy for sustainability
Tracking new market
participants;
Evaluating opportunities
and trigger solutions
…....
Industrythought
leadership
Insights on sourcing advisory shiftsin focus: http://outsourcemag.com/qa-bill-huber-alsbridge/
Technical
Strategy
Business
Transaction support
…
D
E
C
A
…
B
F
…
Academy
Rationaliz
ation
Quality
Architecture
Risk
Audit and
DD services
…
…
Product
(Application space)
Process
(Transaction support)
People
(Training/Certification)
Autonomous
vehicles
RPA
IoT MPoS
3D
printing
FinTech
RegTech
Drones
Wearabales

5. What we can do at boutique consultancies
Changefocused advisory for industries and strategic clients
The key focus for growth oriented advisors and advisory networks would be to continuously rediscover
their TRUE NORTH* i.e. their basic identity as a network of consistently learning experts/analysts AND
change agents focusing on best practices.
• Self and organizational nurturing of industry focused professionals with a helicopter view and
execution depth (esp. from diverse experience and skill sets). Existing knowledge Is
democratized/commoditized and new knowledge is at a great premium If at all available
• People-first focus and multi-cultural and diversity-rich sensibilities (open to new ideas and ability to
transcend administrative restrictions)
• Agility in reading market trends and timely investment in innovative capability improvements (it is an
iterative process and its unreasonable to expect getting existing experts with 5/10+ years of experience
for technologies which themselves are 1/2/3 years old). Improvements in existing capabilities are best
made while executing assignments rather than separate investment.
*http://www.aleanjourney.com/2014/01/what-do-we-mean-by-true-north.html

6. Example:ChallengesinProducts industry
> Automations
> Flexibility/Interoperability == Acquisitions
> Operational excellence
> Visibility/Transparency in value/cost/waste
> Contract manufacturing
> Skills
SMART factory: Assembly line (Cobots, Robots, AI, IoT )
Electric and sustainability opportunities
Customer side: The connected traveler, autonomous
vehicles and the digital enterprise/ecosystem
AIIT – Auto, Industrial, Infrastructure and Travel
https://www.accenture.com/t20160505T044104__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/PDF-16/Accenture-wef-Dti-Automotive-2016.pdf

7. Contact
+31681845689
ayushgv.sri@gmail.com
@ayushgv
Questions ?