Part 4: Sarah Edwards – Make Every Consultant Your Best Consultant

No, I really appreciate that.

And about 30 years in it myself.

So I think it's been lots of change and lots has evolved over those years.

Yes, we just stay on the leaders and consulting thing for a bit.

When you're speaking to people who are leaders in the industry, what's coming up most consistently in conversations right now? And how does the mood feel at the moment?

Yeah, the mood is an interesting one.

I think overall, the mood is definitely urgency.

I think everyone recognises, I mean, I think whichever industry you're in at the moment, let's be clear, you know, technology and AI is rapidly changing everything.

I mean, we all learn something on a daily basis.

So there is definitely a sense of urgency.

I can't afford to run my business how I've always just run my business.

I need to really evaluate, you know, how do I change my operating model? I think people are seeing that the operating model is really under pressure.

And I think, you know, there's a sense of urgency.

I think that is balanced with optimism.

And I think people are optimistic and excited about proving what they can do with AI and technology and how that's enabling them to change their business.

But there's also a lot of unknowns as well.

I mean, I spoke to one of our large customers yesterday where he was really excited.

Actually, they can see real growth opportunity because actually AI is enabling them to actually go a lot faster and deliver benefit and opportunity to their customers that their customers were always a bit afraid to undertake.

So actually for them, they can see a huge potential over the next 12 to 18 months.

What he said to me is my challenge is I can't really see beyond that at the moment because I don't really know what it's going to look like in three years' time.

I mean, if you think about just traditionally how consulting firms, you know, have grown and scaled over the past, and I would question that this is an industry that, to be honest, in my 30 years hasn't really changed that much.

We still go out and bill on hours and we rely on people and heroics to deliver.

Yeah, I'm not speaking to someone that isn't under pressure to grow revenue and margin without necessarily that linear growth of headcount.

Like I think that commercial pressure is really increasing on organisations.

That traditional T&M model is under pressure.

No, I really appreciate that.

And about 30 years in it myself.

So I think it's been lots of change and lots has evolved over those years.

Yes, we just stay on the leaders and consulting thing for a bit.

When you're speaking to people who are leaders in the industry, what's coming up most consistently in conversations right now? And how does the mood feel at the moment?

Yeah, the mood is an interesting one.

I think overall, the mood is definitely urgency.

I think everyone recognises, I mean, I think whichever industry you're in at the moment, let's be clear, you know, technology and AI is rapidly changing everything.

I mean, we all learn something on a daily basis.

So there is definitely a sense of urgency.

I can't afford to run my business how I've always just run my business.

I need to really evaluate, you know, how do I change my operating model? I think people are seeing that the operating model is really under pressure.

And I think, you know, there's a sense of urgency.

I think that is balanced with optimism.

And I think people are optimistic and excited about proving what they can do with AI and technology and how that's enabling them to change their business.

But there's also a lot of unknowns as well.

I mean, I spoke to one of our large customers yesterday where he was really excited.

Actually, they can see real growth opportunity because actually AI is enabling them to actually go a lot faster and deliver benefit and opportunity to their customers that their customers were always a bit afraid to undertake.

So actually for them, they can see a huge potential over the next 12 to 18 months.

What he said to me is my challenge is I can't really see beyond that at the moment because I don't really know what it's going to look like in three years' time.

I mean, if you think about just traditionally how consulting firms, you know, have grown and scaled over the past, and I would question that this is an industry that, to be honest, in my 30 years hasn't really changed that much.

We still go out and bill on hours and we rely on people and heroics to deliver.

Yeah, I'm not speaking to someone that isn't under pressure to grow revenue and margin without necessarily that linear growth of headcount.

Like I think that commercial pressure is really increasing on organisations.

That traditional T&M model is under pressure.