LSE - Small Logo
LSE - Small Logo

Hannah Spencer

October 16th, 2017

Helping companies own the future: An insider’s guide to growth consulting

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Hannah Spencer

October 16th, 2017

Helping companies own the future: An insider’s guide to growth consulting

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Annabel Tio is a Senior Associate at Innosight and is based in the company’s European headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Having started her career at one of the “traditional” strategy consulting firms before joining Innosight, she offers her insights into how growth strategy differs from other types of consulting for this guest blog. For more information about career opportunities for LSE students at Innosight please write to lse.apply@innosight.com before the application deadline of 12th November.

“Our company is at a crossroads. Digital is changing the playing field and we are being disrupted. Our leadership is divided as to what is happening. We know we must transform and do things differently but we don’t know where to go or how to get there.”

In the autumn of 2016, we were called in by a major industrials client in South East Asia to determine the impact of transformational digital technologies on their business model, and what their response should be. Through a 6-month engagement, we assessed the disruptive potential of digital to their core business, developed three highly innovative new business models to help them sustain growth into the future, and aligned their top leadership – including the skeptics – on the strategic imperative for digital transformation.

The question I get most often from people about our firm is “how is Innosight and its work different to that of other consulting firms?”[1] In this blog post I describe three unique characteristics of growth strategy consulting, including how growth strategy compares to other types of consulting (e.g. core strategy, operations) and what life is like for growth strategy consultants.

The problems we solve

Innosight works on future-focused growth and strategic transformation challenges for the leadership teams of the world’s leading organizations – primarily Global 500 companies. Our work focuses not on helping them optimize their core businesses of today, but rather on developing entirely new growth engines for tomorrow. We work with clients who find themselves facing a myriad of constantly evolving disruptive threats and opportunities, and must act.

The kind of problems we solve are often complex and ambiguous, for example:

  • How can we improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes through services designed to support them in their journeys through life?
  • How can we address chronic water shortages and drive security of supply through technology and business model innovation?
  • Where should we invest as a leading automotive manufacturer given industry transformation and the emergence of fast-growing non-traditional competitors?
  • What does the future of our own industry of consulting look like given forces such as automation and the gig economy?

The approach we take

We work in case teams of about three to five people, similar to other strategy consulting firms. Projects can last from two to six months. Like other firms, we start by defining the client problem, developing hypotheses, validating them through research and analysis, and forming and delivering a client recommendation.

However, shaping the future with our clients requires us to apply different methods to develop and validate hypotheses compared to traditional consulting firms. Data exists only in the past, and extrapolation can at best only partially predict a future that is five or more years out, particularly as the world continues to change ever more rapidly. We rely instead on deeply understanding customers’ jobs to be done – which are stable over time – to drive business model innovation that leverages new technology. Given the highly strategic and ambiguous nature of the problems we solve, we collaborate closely with our clients, and drive leadership alignment and action through interactive strategic dialogues.

The people we look for

The good news is that many of the skills necessary to succeed at traditional consulting firms – such as exceptional analytical skills, business acumen and emotional intelligence – apply to growth strategy as well. In addition, we look for people who can not only navigate, but shape the future through innovation. This ability requires a high degree of structured creativity, intellectually curiosity, collaboration, and a passion for client impact. Because of the future-facing nature of our work, Innosight consultants are comfortable with ambiguity and must be highly adaptable and able to revise hypotheses as new insights emerge. We have to navigate without a map and lead our clients and teammates in the process.

How the story continues

One year on, our industrials client continues to invest heavily in digital innovation. One of the three digital business models that we developed with them is now being scaled across the entire product line (with leadership pushing the team to move ever faster!). Another business model is in the prototype, test, and learn phase of development. The framework we provided them has been adopted company-wide. A member of the client team recently reached out to say, “your legacy is everywhere in our company”.

[1] If the question you are asking is “What is consulting like?” there are many resources available for you to find out about the work, lifestyle and how to land a job, such as www.managementconsulted.com and www.caseinterview.com

About the author

Hannah Spencer

Posted In: LSE Careers

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Contact us

LSE Careers
Floor 5
Saw Swee Hock Student Centre
1 Sheffield Street
London
WC2A 2AP
Maps and directions

careers@lse.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7955 7135

Opening times
9:30am - 5pm (Monday-Wednesday and Friday)
9:30am - 8pm (Thursday)
Open during term time and vacations
(except when LSE is closed)

Bad Behavior has blocked 2 access attempts in the last 7 days.