Emerging trends in consulting

- in the digital era

August 2013
Victor Jiang
Started first consulting company in Australia at age 23
Took it to Europe and worked across Western Europe (UK, France, Belgium,
Netherlands, UK again) for 8+ years
Worked with the 5 largest global consultancies; 35 of the Fortune 50 client
companies
Ran IBMs second largest enterprise-data-management business outside of
Wall St: the London banking and financial markets BU (and delivered 410%
against target during GFC)
Ran biz-dev at IBMs Business Analytics and Optimization GBS practice in
Australia. It grew 200% within 12 months
victor@skillsapien.com
A short bio
Over 50% of professional services
will be sourced from online channels
within 5-7 years
1

1
According to a Skillsapien survey of over 500 consulting and legal practice (incl. AmLaw100) owners across 3 continents.
A Bold Prediction
Global Mega Trends
Me
centric
web
Web 2.0: mass personal connectivity?
(rise of social networks; the web centered around me)

Web 3.0: mass customization?? (incl. services)
Already seeing this first with Dell, now growth hacking
behavioural-driven advertising at FB, Yahoo, LinkedIn
Intrepreting the Trends
Big data analytics will enable, and indeed, drive this
More organic networks
Portals will become Platforms
The next 10 years will see the rise of
Online Reputation Management

Bold Prediction #2
Tsunami of Change
Wheres the wave?
Traditional services industries knows it has to adapt & change
Many including senior partners at AmLaw100 firms and other
big firms are feeling the tsunami about to be awash in their
industries
They should.
Refer:
AxiomLaw, ClearSpires, VirtualLawNetwork, LegalForce, Rocket Lawyer,
Trademarkia
Elance, Odesk, Freelancer
ZocDoc, RateADoctor
TripAdvisor
Yelp, Angies List, ServiceSeeking, TrueLocal, YourMechanic
Yet
Is time really = money???
- Can be sold in sub-seconds
- Traded 24x7, globally
- Valued through established ratings
agencies and brokers
- Supply & demand publicly tracked
and instantly visible
- Hedged via futures/derivatives
- Can NOT be sold easily in days,
or even weeks!
- Traded Mon-Fri (9-5), locally
- Can NOT be easily valued
- Demand and supply NOT publicly
tracked NO visibility
- Currently NOT hedged through
any futures or derivatives
Compare 2 Assets
Why?
Visibility
Mainly used for lead-sourcing
Not marketplaces for services
Quickest race to the bottom
Best suited to offshoring
High attrition (on both sides)
No in-depth matching
No scheduling/booking
No platform for trading
But:
Expertise Sites:
Freelancing sites:
Social networks:
Current Attempts to Solve the Problem
Utilization Rate
Sales Cycle
Profitability /
Break-even point
Profit
Loss
Current Ideal
Also, none of them are addressing
The Utilization Vicious Cycle
What youd ideally want..
Given
Featured Expert
Scalability;
Instant Reach;
Autonomy
- Contextually
relevant;
- Keyword-
sensitive ads
And youd want that link to lead
to something like
Make all buying decision criteria visibly met:
Have a way to
Provide feedback loop via service scoring / rating
Have exposure while you sleep!
One day (soon), pricing of professional
services will fluctuate in real-time, based
on market demand & supply, just like
airline tickets or hotel rooms!

Bold Prediction #3
Transparency transforms pricing.
Importance of business communities
Package Includes Cost
S 2-4 hours from any of:
- Expert CFO; CTO/CIO; CMO; GC; IP
Attorney; Sales coach; Motivational /
Leadership Mentor
$500 / month
M - 8-10 hours from any of above expert
PLUS:
- 15-20 hours from a mid-tier professional
$4000 / month
L - 16-20 hours from any of above expert
PLUS:
- 60-80 hours from a mid-tier professional
$10,000 / month
Expertise-in-a-box Offerings
Such online platforms exists
There will be more and more
of them
Utilize them, leverage them
In conclusion
And finally
Leverage gated business
communities, use them as your
viral prospecting base
Constantly increase & improve
your online exposure!
(because a tidal change is coming!)
Victor Jiang
Founder, CEO | Skillsapien
victor@skillsapien.com | US Cell: +1 415-283-6214 | AU Mob: +61 435-004-656 | @victor_jiang | Skype: Skillsapien
425 Broadway St, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA | 65 Hume St, Crows Nest, NSW 2065, Australia