Four challenges for technologyconsultantfirms

Technology-based consultants are an important and growing category of companies that affect the Swedish economy positively. Still, there is little knowledge of how this type of company is managed, controlled and organized.
 
Maria Hammarström PhD candidate and the researchers Mats Engwall and Fredrik Lagergren have examined how technology-based consultancy firms works, in order to contribute to a better understanding of the strategic business development of the industry.
 
The report, entitled "Management challenges in consulting" (“Ledningsutmaningar i konsultföretag” in Swedish), is based on interviews with 13 executives in engineering consulting firms and provides an overview of how the business logics differ. It also highlights the importance and managerial challenge of the relationship between the consultants and their group manager.
 
One contribution that the three authors presents is that the executives of these kind of firms primarily focus on keeping the company together and indirectly trying to create good organizational for consulting business. It also describes three stylized consultant logics related to governance, management and organization of businesses, these are:
 
The Agency, whose consultants provide expertise to their customers and independent finds his own mission.
The Staffing Company, whose consultants are largely interchangeable and fill resourcing needs of customers.
The Factory, whose consultants have fixed roles and strive to re-use knowledge within the company.
 
The main challenges are in the report is divided into four themes:
 

• Secure the supply of competence
• Control and communication
• Developing leaders, corporate culture and diversity
• Create processes and reusing knowledge