Consulting in 2050

CONSULTING IN 2050

The consultancy industry has evolved and at times revolutionized itself with the sweeping changes the world economy has experienced overtime, right from the first consultancy firm (Arthur D. Little – 1909) which specialized only in technical research to the emergence of general management consultancy in the 1930s. The industry’s growth was triggered by the demand for advice on various functional aspects of business such as finance, business operations and overall organisational strategy. The Post World War II era and the advent of the electronic business brought about a fresh set of challenges and opportunities which the industry had to deal with in order to survive. The dot com crash in 2002 as well as the credit crunch in 2009 led to drastic changes in the industry’s outlook, strategy and business functioning.

The last 50 years have brought about dramatic if not drastic changes in the world economy and there is nothing to stop us from predicting that over the next 50 years, the changes would be just as widespread as before.

A research study conducted by Goldman Sachs in 2003 concluded that over the next 50 years, the economies of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) would be a force to reckon with in the world economy. The projections were based on various aspects such as economic size, economic growth, income, demographics and global demand patterns. The report stated that if sound growth and development policies are implemented by the BRIC countries then their economies put together would be larger than that of the G6 countries (United States, Japan, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Germany) in terms of US dollars by 2050.

The BRIC countries by 2050 would prove to be an absolute gold mine for the consultancy industry but consulting firms need to be aware of the fact that as markets mature there is a shift in the needs of the clients, from hiring consultants to help stimulate new ideas to hiring them for pre-defined and...