Consulting Playbook: Overcoming Today’s Challenges in the Banking and Financial Services Sector The Consulting Playbook, Edition #7 We all are aware that the Banking industry went through a lot of major changes and serious challenges in the past eight years. Banks are no longer perceived as the safest or most reliable organizations even though we can’t imagine economic activity without their ubiquitous presence. In today’s fast paced environment, the banks can be left inadequately weak in dealing with the changes. Uniting Bank Leaders on Core Principles in Reorganization The case below de ..read more

How is Management Consulting being transformed? | Podcast The consulting industry in recent years was shaped by 3 major trends: Digital transformation, Technological disruption, and Cultural shifts within the industry due to globalization. Right now, the future holds exciting promises as well. The expertise topics offered to Clients expand and multiply even further in niche markets. On this week’s Smart Consulting sourcing podcast, I want to talk about Transformation.   Key Takeaway: In the US, Micro-Consulting firms represent 87% of all consulting firms. However, the remaining 13 ..read more

Wednesday, February 2nd 2022 This week in Consulting How AR and VR will impact all of us in 2022 Editorial From the early days of “second life” in the late nineties where you could develop a second life thanks to a custom avatar in a fully digitized version of Paris to the “Ready Player One” I have always been fascinated by virtual reality. I am already looking forward to our next global convention in a fully virtual reality mode. Obviously, the technology is still a few steps away from a fully functional VR but we can see where we are heading and it looks great! And what about the a ..read more

Consulting Playbook: Optimizing portfolio and program management in Financial Services The Consulting Playbook, Edition #21 Keeping the Momentum After Years of Continuous Growth in Financial Services A major Financial Services company experiencing rapid growth for many years (both in assets under management and staff) faced a number of issues with it. The industry has become increasingly complex with methods and products ever more sophisticated, as the assets under management grew to over $100B, the management required help in identifying clear goals, in pace with the growth. The operation ..read more

Consulting Playbook: Implementation of a Client-Centric Organization If your company is left behind on the ever-changing market environment, and struggles with new business models that can increase growth and profitability, you might need to look at the benefits of a Client-Centric approach. The Obstacles Were Starting to Pile An organization had to deal with slow growth in a mature market and find ways to expand market share and promote growth. An increased level of competition made their competitiveness subpar. In addition to this, the company had to deal with poorly mobilized staff, and ..read more

In today’s world, consultants strive to stay on the cutting-edge of knowledge by evolving and enhancing their expertise. Clients get the best out of the consultants but even consultants are benefiting from this as they get to build better portfolios and ensure long-term success. On this week’s Smart consulting sourcing podcast, I will explain how the top 5 industry are leveraging consulting. Key Takeaway: Consulting is often following the ups and downs of the economy, and without surprise, the highest spending industries in consulting are the more active economically. industries like Fin ..read more

Wednesday, January 26th 2022 This week in Consulting Blockchain Beyond Currencies Editorial Have you had your first transaction in cryptocurrency yet? With developing countries starting to accept bitcoin and several central banks creating their own national cryptocurrencies, what seemed like a dystopian future seems to be only a matter of months away for most of us. Indeed, we are surrounded by applications of the blockchain. From traceability to the internet of things, smart contracts, digital identities or even the multiverse, the use cases seem endless. If you are like me, you mig ..read more

Consulting Playbook: Pay attention to Integration when Preparing a merger of equals The Consulting Playbook, Edition #14 Two major global mobility providers were merging and wanted to move fast but were not yet allowed to discuss directly for antitrust reasons. Any delay in the integration would delay the synergies, generate anxiety for the teams and could result in some customers moving away to a more stable situation. What would the new organizational set-up be? What synergies would be expected? What should the new culture be? What was the best roadmap for the new company for the next 24 ..read more

What is the value for a consulting project? Are procurement and business leaders talking the same language? Are we talking about savings? Cost avoidance? Or is it the impact of the project on the business? On this week’s Smart consulting Sourcing podcast, I want to talk about the value created by consultants. Key Takeaway: Consultants do bring in a significant amount of value for the project that they are hired! These values can be defined in two dimensions which are Technical values and Political values. The political value is more difficult to appreciate. But anyone that has been aroun ..read more

Wednesday, January 19th 2022 This week in Consulting Back to the future of travel (2022) Editorial Have you ever experienced having your room service delivered by a robot? It happened to me a few years ago in Singapore. Turns out the robot’s food delivery door got jammed and I had to call the super to save the day, but the first impression was awesome. Now I don’t know when I will see this little robot again as like most business travelers I think twice before taking up any long-distance travel. The travel industry is adapting rapidly to the new behaviors of both business and leisure ..read more