Data Consulting Firms – Where Have All the Good Ones Gone?
Recently, I made an employment transition that felt like getting off an extremely turbulent roller coaster ride, thinking “I survived the experience, but I never want to do that again!” I’m at a smaller firm that feels more like a team than a big corporate machine. This has caused serious reflection and raised the question: “why are we doing this?” What motivates the consultants who provide services to customers and how does that translate into the quality of the work they perform?
As I’m writing this, it is early morning in a small cottage in a quaint fishing village in Iceland. My girlfriend and I hope to see the Northern Lights and explore volcanos and waterfalls here on our way to a community conference in Denmark. We will visit New Zealand and Australia later this year on similar “working vacations”. These trips are possible because my profession connects me with a community of user group leaders and independent IT professionals who also navigate the fine line between work and pleasure. I absolutely love what I do and love to share it with other people. That’s why I’m a consultant.
Where are the Experts?
What motivates people who are truly passionate about their craft — particularly data consultants? Where can consulting customers look to find the experts who will be invested in seeing customer solutions through to completion? Executive leaders of the big company that I recently left had the idea – and built their business model – that they could find small consulting companies who employed the most talented and capable technology experts in the industry, that they could assimilate a huge company of expert consultants and lead the industry. With investment backing, they would buy up all these little companies, use the experienced workforce to be the senior team leaders and then use offshore staff to do the ongoing work and widen their profit margin. What could possibly go wrong with such a plan?
