The Role of the Internal Consultant
Description
Internal consultants are typically looked down upon, but an increase in the role of the internal consultant will have a profound impact on the necessity of external consultants. The advantage of internal consultants stretch from security to acceptance to continuity. There is also a potential emergence of hybrid consultants. Technically external consultants, but only have 3-10 clients that are serviced for life. While there will always be a need for external consultants, a shift towards more internal consultants will greatly diminish the power and demand for external consultants.
Enablers
- Proprietary information and intellectual property rights
- Openness of Information
- The role of University research
- Focus on internal security
- Desire for more long-term committed relationships with consultants
Inhibtors
- The growing trend and acceptance of outsourcing
- Rising intellectual power of emerging markets
- Availability of human capital from emerging market
- Increasing gap in intellectual capital base of clients
Paradigms
Depending on openness of information moving forward, the demand for consultancies may change dramatically. If information continues to open up at the current rate, there may be a point in the near future where specialized knowledge is public domain. This would limit the need for consultants to usher in new innovation and relegate the consultants role to simply implementation and covering capacity shortages. On the other hand, if IP right become tighter and information sharing becomes a thing of the past, consultants may become the owners innovative knowledge that requires clients to become increasing dependent upon.