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Roundtable showcases marketing campaign for consultancy change

Roundtable showcases campaign for consultancy change

At an industry roundtable event, the introduction of Consulting 4.0 will be discussed, a new campaign to present and highlight the changing offerings of today’s consulting companies. Rob O’Connor reports.

Consultants, clients and other stakeholders across the construction industry need to better collaborate with a collaborative approach that unlocks the full potential – and value – of the supply chain campaign and website.

The Consultancy 4.0: Delivering Consulting in a Changing World Roundtable was led by Andy Walker, Editor of Infrastructure Intelligence. WSP and Chairman of ACE’s Future Markets Group, Peter Reekie, General Manager of the Scottish Futures Trust, Tony Slater, Alliance Manager at Highways England and Hannah Vickers, General Manager of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE).

Vickers said she sees Consultancy 4.0 as the beginning of a phase of engagement with clients to highlight the changing role of consulting, and she hopes clients would be actively involved in the campaign too. While Vickers acknowledged that taking a different approach was always challenging, she said the rewards for both clients and consultants could be substantial if they both embraced changes together.

Paul Tremble expressed his hope that the new Consultancy 4.0 website would be seen as a point of contact for clients to learn about industry best practices in the consulting sector and to act as a catalyst for more knowledge sharing across the industry. Tremble advocated a constructive and pragmatic approach that recognized where consultants were now on their path of change, while pushing the boundaries of how labor relations and commercial frameworks could change to support improvement.

Emma-Jane Houghton welcomed the new campaign enthusiastically and praised ACE for an important initiative for the industry. She also had a warning for the industry. “The ambition is there (for change), but there is still a lot of work to be done to educate this group of customers and build trust that there is another way of doing things,” she said. Houghton also cautioned that consulting firms must also reach out to clients and have the necessary dialogue in an honest and open manner.

Peter Reekie said that “increasing the value that consultants can add is an important goal of the Scottish Futures Trust,” and he welcomed the Consultancy 4.0 campaign as a step towards achieving this. Reekie said ACE’s previous Future of Consultancy campaign played an important role in bringing new mindsets to the industry and he believes there is a real opportunity for change. “Customers are starting to think differently, and we need to better understand the broader goals they are trying to achieve, such as net zero and social value,” he said.

Tony Slater wanted the consultants to be more involved throughout the project in order to add value to the clients, and he was very keen for them to bring that approach. He also realized that clients also needed to change their tenders for projects to avoid standard answers to questions and encourage more creativity, strategic thinking, and an “out-of-the-box” approach that would more clearly demonstrate the value of those he knew consulting firms could provide, but too often didn’t talk about it.

The round table also heard that the Advice 4.0 campaign had identified four new advisory roles and 12 standardized advisory services that provide additional options for customizing customer offerings. The four new roles have been described as follows on the campaign website at https://www.acenet.co.uk/consultancy-40.

  1. Strategic advice / solution definition: Provision of input and expert advice on all aspects of strategic challenges that affect a client’s asset base through systems thinking expertise. Examples of this are the master planning of cities or the mastering of cross-sectional challenges such as net zero.
  2. Operational advice: Providing input and expert advice on operational challenges that affect a client’s asset base. This includes ongoing partnerships as well as one-time commissions. Examples could be increasing the productivity of an asset or addressing cross-functional challenges like net zero.
  3. Solution development and delivery: Delivering defined products and solutions to a customer, including design delivery, reviews, and surveys or business cases.
  4. Non-construction solutions and delivery: Complete solutions and advantages without construction costs. Examples could be digital solutions or social solutions that influence behavior.

Both Vickers and Tremble urged participants to get involved with the Consultancy 4.0 campaign by providing case studies for use on the website and also by engaging in constructive dialogue across the industry. Houghton said these conversations need to be honest, with a realistic view from both sides of what is possible, while realizing that change is necessary and must happen. Reekie and Slater said they look forward to working constructively with the campaign over the coming months and welcomed ACE’s initiative, which they hoped would improve client and consultant collaboration.

Click here to view a recording of the Round Table Advice 4.0: Providing Advice in a Changing World.

The Infrastructure Intelligence LIVE event series is organized in collaboration with our strategic partner for events and communication, BECG.