Innovation in the consulting industry - what do clients want?

Fiona Czerniawska, Source’s CEO and Emma Carroll, Source’s Head of Content, discuss innovation in professional services firms, on the latest episode of our The Future of the Firm podcast.

They discussed the following and more:

• When clients think about the types of innovation they see from firms they talk about blue-sky thinking, best practices that they can apply in their organisation, and flexible ways of working.
• If firms want to convince clients that they are innovative then they need to prove it rather than talk about it. A concrete example might include a small technology tool they’ve created or a solution to one, small pain point.
• Innovation has fallen from the top of clients’ wish lists of the attributes they want to see in firms. They still think it is important, but have prioritised things like expertise and the ability to implement in 2024. We wouldn’t be surprised to see this rebound when growth hits the business agenda again.
• “Tried and tested innovation” may not be innovation at all. And the value of innovation to a client can be eroded if firms roll the idea out more widely.
• Managed services offerings have a tricky tightrope to walk between being innovative and tailored to each client versus being commercially viable for firms.
• When clients talk about innovation, they often mean technology. Firms can help clients innovate fast with small-scale, quick tech wins, rather than large-scale, extended projects.

This podcast can be listened to in conjunction with Source’s new publication, The Innovation Challenge, which takes a deeper dive into the subject and is available to subscribers of Source’s White Space programme. If you’d like to learn more, please get in touch.

If you enjoyed this conversation, don’t miss our sister podcast, Business Leader’s Voice. In a recent episode, we talked to Andy Haywood, former Chief Modernisation Officer of Yorkshire Water, about the recurring challenges in businesses that he’s experienced during his career.