Virtual consulting- How you can make it work for your consulting business

Virtual working is something that we have all had to get to grips with over the last two years and, in some ways, we’ve stumbled into it without having the opportunity to step back and reflect on how to make the best of it. Luckily for CMCE, international transformation and growth consultant Luca Collina has applied some academic rigour to the area and CMCE January Showcase gave him the opportunity to share his findings and gain input from the attendees. Building on a paper published in the Management Consulting Journal, Luca covered the following points:

• The distinction between virtualisation and digitalisation, with digitalisation offering the opportunity to create new business models.
• Trends in virtualisation and the distinction between commodity and specialised services - perhaps not surprisingly the vast majority of attendees considered themselves to be offering specialised services.
• Value and business models - building on the potential synergy of specialised and commodity services it may be possible to create new hybrid services.
• Benefits of virtualisation - results from the Luca’s analysis show that the benefits of virtualisation are increased efficiency, consultant-client collaboration and an improved level of services.
• The four pillars of trust over the project lifecycle are:
  • Signalling expertise and competence.
  • Demonstrating personal commitment and caring.
  • Demonstrating integrity and consistency.
  • Establishing emotional connection.
• The skills required for success in virtual consulting, distinguishing between soft and hard skills. Emotional connection was viewed by attendees as the most useful skill.

Luca’s slides, which expand on these points, are available here and the full video recording of the session is available here.

 

Luca Collina is an International Transformational Consultant with a background in management consulting, project and change management. He has recently completed an MBA in consulting with York St John University.