Management Consulting Business Models: Operations through and for Digital Transformation

摘要

Management consulting as a service has become part of almost every company's daily business. The growth is being exponential, even with all the non-consensual issues and controversies in the industry. However, the market is increasingly competitive, with new competitors coming from everywhere. At the same time, the world is changing at a speed never seen before, and the challenges are several: automatization, scarcity of resources, democratization of the information, big data, and regulation are some examples. Thus, it's not possible for consulting firms to keep providing the market needs without adapting continuously their own business models. The companies that can outperform these challenges more efficiently will win against the competitors. Investigate which strategies and mechanisms adopt to be agile and flexible enough, in which sectors invest the most, and how reinvent their business model in order to be resilient in a fast changing and technological world are the main objectives of this research. Several interviews with the top management of fifteen of the biggest consulting companies in Portugal were conducted. The results suggested that companies are now trying to differentiate by the services delivered, and these business models' adaptation to the digital transformation is rather than a reality, a need.