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Emerging trends in consulting- in the digital era

August 2013

Victor Jiang

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Started first consulting company in Australia at age 23

Took it to Europe and worked across Western Europe (UK, France, Belgium,Netherlands, UK again) for 8+ years

Worked with the 5 largest global consultancies; 35 of the Fortune 50 clientcompanies

Ran IBMs second largest enterprise-data-management business outside ofWall St: the London banking and financial markets BU (and delivered 410%against target during GFC)

Ran biz-dev at IBMs Business Analytics and Optimization GBS practice inAustralia. It grew 200% within 12 months

victor@skillsapien.com

A short bio

mailto:victor@skillsapien.commailto:victor@skillsapien.com

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Over 50% of professional services

will be sourced from online channelswithin 5-7 years1

1According to a Skillsapien survey of over 500 consulting and legal practice (incl. AmLaw100) owners across 3 continents.

A Bold Prediction

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Global Mega Trends

Me

centric

web

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Web 2.0: mass personal connectivity? (rise of social networks; the web centered around me)

Web 3.0: mass customization?? (incl. services) Already seeing thisfirst with Dell, now growth hacking

behavioural-driven advertising at FB, Yahoo, LinkedIn

Intrepreting the Trends

Big data analytics will enable, and indeed, drive this

More organic networks

Portals will become Platforms

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Tsunami of Change

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Wheres the wave?

Traditional services industries knows it has to adapt & change

Manyincluding senior partners at AmLaw100 firms and other

big firmsare feeling the tsunami about to be awash in their

industries

They should.

Refer:

AxiomLaw, ClearSpires, VirtualLawNetwork, LegalForce, Rocket Lawyer,

Trademarkia

Elance, Odesk, Freelancer

ZocDoc, RateADoctor

TripAdvisor

Yelp, Angies List, ServiceSeeking, TrueLocal, YourMechanic

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Yet

Is time really = money???

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- Can be sold in sub-seconds

- Traded 24x7, globally- Valued through established ratings

agencies and brokers- Supply & demand publicly tracked

and instantly visible- Hedged via futures/derivatives

- Can NOTbe sold easily in days,

or even weeks!- Traded Mon-Fri (9-5), locally- Can NOTbe easily valued- Demand and supply NOTpublicly

trackedNOvisibility- Currently NOThedged through

any futures or derivatives

Compare 2 Assets

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Why?

Visibility

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Mainly used for lead-sourcing

Not marketplaces for services

Quickest race to the bottom

Best suited to offshoring

High attrition (on both sides)

No in-depth matching

No scheduling/booking

No platform for trading

But:

Expertise Sites:

Freelancing sites:

Social networks:

Current Attempts to Solve the Problem

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Utilization Rate

Sales Cycle

Profitability /

Break-even point

Profit

Loss

Current Ideal

Also, none of them are addressing

The Utilization Vicious Cycle

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What youd ideally want..

Given

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Featured Expert

Scalability;

Instant Reach;

Autonomy

- Contextually

relevant;

- Keyword-

sensitive ads

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And youd want that link to lead

to something like

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Make all buying decision criteria visibly met:

Have a way to

Provide feedback loop via service scoring / rating

Have exposure while you sleep!

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One day (soon), pricing of professional

services will fluctuate in real-time, based

on market demand & supply, just likeairline tickets or hotel rooms!

Bold Prediction #3

Transparency transforms pricing.

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Importance of business communities

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Package Includes Cost

S 2-4 hours from any of:

- Expert CFO; CTO/CIO; CMO; GC; IP

Attorney; Sales coach; Motivational /

Leadership Mentor

$500 / month

M - 8-10 hours from any of above expert

PLUS:

- 15-20 hours from a mid-tier professional

$4000 / month

L - 16-20 hours from any of above expert

PLUS:

- 60-80 hours from a mid-tier professional

$10,000 / month

Expertise-in-a-box Offerings

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Victor JiangFounder, CEO | Skillsapien

victor@skillsapien.com | US Cell: +1 415-283-6214 | AU Mob: +61 435-004-656 | @victor_jiang | Skype: Skillsapien

425 Broadway St, Redwood City, CA 94063, USA | 65 Hume St, Crows Nest, NSW 2065, Australia

mailto:victor@skillsapien.commailto:victor@skillsapien.com