I’m discussing this with another veteran consultant, Janet Tokerud, and also on a LinkedIn forum. I’d like to hear your 2 cents. Here are a few factors:
YES
1. Companies can’t keep up with the firehose of change. Many have downsized their expertise, knowledge, and wisdom. They have to rely on outside consultants. We are the only ones with the mandate to stay on top of change, and the only ones who get paid enough to make this feasible.
2. We traffic in ideas and solutions and information. These are constructed of data and numbers and words. Thus the internet is the ideal medium for us. It connects us with each other anywhere in the world, as is happening on this forum this instant. We can communicate and publish with no middleman or gatekeeper. Internet forums like this provide the nexus for us to flourish and to provide value.
NO
1. Economic volatility puts us at the end of the tiger’s tail, where we are thrashed back and forth unpredictably. For example, my clients are small professional businesses that serve larger corporations that engage in the global market. When the markets hiccup, the corporations shudder, my clients can have a heart attack, and I can get dashed on the rocks. Where is the stability for us to get ahead?
2. Every year, more and more lucrative consulting tasks are outsourced across the world or programmed into an app. What will be left for us to do?
3. We lack the resources to innovate to keep up with the big players. We’re doomed to fall behind and slide into irrelevance, to be overtaken by the next newly-minted generation of PhDs and quants.
What’s your take on the outlook for independent knowledge professionals such as consultants?
