Consultancy stands ready to serve

To read some of the articles in the press, you would think that every penny spent on management consultants was a waste of money, and every government project they were involved in happened despite their contribution.  

At the Management Consultancies Association (MCA) we know the truth. We know our member firms bring significant experience and deep specialist expertise across the entire spectrum of sectors to deliver long-lasting impact for clients, transferring skills and providing excellent value for money.  

UK PLC knows this too. Our members serve tens of thousands of clients in this country, including most of the FTSE 100 and many of Britain’s best loved brands. Their faith in us has translated into double-digit growth for our industry last year, outpacing the wider UK economy and that of the US too.  

The wider world holds our industry, the second-largest consulting hub after America, in the highest regard. Governments from across the globe and the biggest multinationals rely on us to help deliver everything from huge infrastructure projects, critical cybersecurity work and complex organizational changes; exports have trebled in recent years.  

Despite this record of delivery and global reputation for quality services, which we should be proud of as a country, there has been a negative media narrative about consultants, critical of the recent growth in our work. We need to change this deeply distorted narrative. Britain should be backing the businesses we are good at both here and abroad. 

In recent years, spending on consulting rose quickly, as firms were drafted in to help the government deal with the successive generational challenges of Brexit, Covid-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which brought their own unique challenges to businesses and organizations working across our country. Our industry is proud to have helped government departments throughout this period, providing critical support and capacity, finding cost efficiencies and helping to improve productivity and digital innovation.  

We respect that the new Labour administration faces a challenging economic outlook and there is an obvious need for savings in all areas to balance budgets. 

Our MCA members absolutely understand the critical need to focus on value – particularly when it comes to public money – now more than ever. Every penny must be well spent and must deliver clear outcomes in the shape of efficiency and productivity gains. Our members have highly stringent governance procedures in place, which ensure staff working on public sector projects meet the highest standards in ethics and are held to account to ensure the public interest is being served.  

The MCA has in fact been at the forefront of raising standards and implementing quality assurance. Every one of our members must adhere to the principles of consulting excellence. We developed the rigorous Chartered Management Consulting accreditation for consultants to help them demonstrate their gold-standard credentials and commitment to ethics. We have also worked closely with the government to support their Consultancy Playbook, which makes sure that procurement follows strict processes that secure the best value. 

At the same time, we are working hard to correct the dated and false stereotype of a London-centric industry staffed by consultants sharing similar backgrounds, career paths and characteristics. Modern British consulting is proudly diverse; indeed, we lead the way when it comes to the representation of women and ethnic minorities, and we are committed to ensuring inclusivity at every level of our organizations. We are also increasingly regional; last year, our firms recruited more people from outside London than inside it.  

Our work in the public sector forms around a quarter of our overall revenue, with the vast majority delivered in the private sector. But the work with the government is of course a very important part, because it is where we have the biggest impact on society and it is where we can serve our country. We believe our role working in partnership with the government is still vitally important – for three reasons.   

First, the current issues facing our society like the climate crisis, the rapid need for technological innovation and geopolitical uncertainty demand that governments, like businesses, adapt quickly to new realities. From cybersecurity to solar energy, consultants have the expert knowledge and capacity that is needed to implement change at pace. We bring with us a wealth of experience of supporting clients in the private sector with these issues too. 

Second, governments across the world need to do more with less. Driving up productivity and increasing efficiency is part of our core offering and time and time again public sector clients highlight the powerful role we have played in helping to realize cost savings and improve procurement processes to provide best value. 

Third, our country needs to relentlessly pursue growth. We are fully on board with the new government’s growth mission as an industry that doesn’t just help businesses to grow, but is an engine of growth in its own right.  

 Next month we will be showcasing the excellence and value we deliver to clients at the MCA Awards, and the standard of the finalists is higher than ever.  

  As part of the process, those shortlisted consultants were interviewed alongside their clients by our esteemed roster of judges. In the public sector categories, where clients are interviewed alongside consulting teams, it is truly inspiring to hear some of Britain’s top civil servants passionately acknowledging the value of using consultants and describing their impact. 

  These essential projects have a real-life impact on people across the country and around the world. Whether that is helping Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, slash its carbon emissions, or enabling the RAF to securely and safely control the airspace 8,000 miles away in the Falklands. Whether it is working with councils to reduce the number of children being taken into care, or improving patient outcomes in the NHS through work with local trusts. 

  We stand here, as trusted advisors, with a strong track record and an offering that is essential to our economy and society, and we stand ready to serve.