Big Four lag behind consulting rivals on thought leadership
06 May 2010, Kevin Reed, AccountancyAge
http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/1809012/big-four-lag-consulting-rivals-leadership
The Big Four accounting firms lag behind other top consultancies in terms of how they regarded as thought leaders.
A survey by Sourceforconsulting.com found that McKinsey, Booz, IBM and Bain are the top four regarded for how they differentiate themselves from other consultancies, and the depth of their research.
Deloitte came fifth in the research, while PwC were sixth; E&Y 13th; and KPMG 17th.
Fiona Czerniawska, joint managing director of Sourceforconsulting.com said: “Thought leadership is a complex and crowded area. Done well it can really strengthen a consulting firm’s brand, and done badly it can actually be quite damaging.
"What surprises me most is the huge variety in quality of output within a single firm, with some firms producing a high volume of material which is nearly all very poor."
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Visitor comments
Big four and thought leadership
Kevin, I've seen Booz's singular focus on innovation and it is a great thought leadership position for them. It is singular in its focus and they seem to own the space which is what you want as a thought leader.
Some of the larger consultancies seem to have a ton of great thought leadership content but now singular space that they own. The bottom line is that if your thought leadership position is getting you in front of clients and prospects, it's working.
Some of the engineering consultancies also do it well. In particular a company called SKM - see the write up here http://www.thoughtleadershipstrategy.net/category/thought-leadership-case-studies/
Posted by: Craig Badings , 08 May 2010 | 00:00
Big Four thought leadership
They're in the expertise business. Any inability or unwillingness to be inventive and substantive in thought leadership is irresponsible.
Their "research" tends to amount to interviewing trusted clients and deriving that the solution to problems is the services they offer.
They repeatedly fail to conceive of research, execute and present it from their customers' viewpoint.
They're Vogons.
Posted by: Doug Brockway , 12 May 2010 | 00:00