Top-Consultant.com gave us this report last week on the latest news to come out of the UK consulting industry. “It’s official – the UK consulting industry is no longer booming at the growth rates seen in 2005 and 2006. Growth slowed to 10% in 2007 and is expected to dip further in 2008; but rather than facing a dot-com style crash, the industry will instead experience a period of subdued growth for the next 1-2 years.

These are some of the key findings to emerge from the annual consulting industry report produced by the Management Consultancies Association. Entitled “The UK Consulting Industry 2008”, the report presents data collected from dozens of the leading consulting brands, plus a myriad of smaller niche players.”
The article goes on to say, “Encouragingly, the worst of the market conditions may already have been weathered by the UK consulting industry. In July 2007, growth was so strong that the firms were foreseeing a 2007 year-end growth figure of 20%. The fact that the outcome has been growth of only 10% highlights the severity of the slowdown that was experienced in the second half of 2007. By contrast, growth of 6-7% in the current year would feel reasonably buoyant – and perhaps explains why so many firms have restarted their recruitment drives in the last months.”

Although growth rates for 2007 were lower than in the previous 2 years, traditional management consultancy increased by 10%, IT consulting by 16% and financial services was up 20%.

In the current economic climate, there remains a significant demand for consulting services. The ability to look into the future and help organisations improve their performance is more crucial than ever.

What are your views? Do you share the view that growth will remain subdued over the next couple of years or are you optimistic that the current credit crunch will not have a negative impact on the consultancy industry?