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The latest annual ranking of leading consulting groups and companies prepared by the RAEX agency (Expert RA) shows that this market has moved from contraction to stagnation. He was supported by orders from authorities, state-owned companies and defense industry enterprises.

At the end of 2016, the growth in the total revenue of the largest consulting groups participating in the current, already eighteenth ranking, amounted to 5% (hereinafter, the rates are calculated based on comparable data from the participants in the current ranking, including due to the change by the organizer of the ranking since 2017 approaches data consolidation audit teams. - Approx. ed.), and its volume reached 97.5 billion rubles. If we introduce an adjustment for inflation (5.4% according to Rosstat), then we can state that this market has left the negative zone. Indeed, in previous years, formally large growth rates actually did not keep pace with price increases (in 2015, the revenue growth of the rating participants was 7% with inflation of 12.9%; in 2014 - 9% and 11.4%, respectively).

Ranking participants earned 8.6 billion rubles from financial consulting (an increase of 7%)

The reason for the protracted failures is obvious: the demand in this market is directly and closely dependent on the general economic situation. Companies start saving on third-party advice in the first place. Competition also makes its contribution, which inevitably intensifies in a shrinking market, and this is a direct road to dumping. According to Irina Vishnevskaya, CEO of Berkshire Advisory Group, the average bill for consulting services is steadily declining. "More and more companies are switching to procurement in accordance with Federal Law 223 on public procurement, where the price of services remains a key criterion." Nevertheless, going to zero after two years of decline is quite a worthy reason for optimism.

Long game

Like for many years in a row, the largest amount of revenue of ranking participants comes from IT consulting. In 2016, it accounted for as much as 64%: in total, public and private customers provided groups and companies of the ranking with 53.27 billion rubles: 13.64 billion rubles - management consulting (an increase of 3%) and 39.63 billion rubles - consulting within development and system integration (growth 2%). In general, the segment of IT consulting last year amounted to 3%.

Ranking leaders continue to implement complex and complex megaprojects for business and government. " It's about on the implementation of solutions for automation of design and technological preparation of production at the enterprises of the United Engine Corporation, the Russian Helicopters holding, etc. Also last year, our group specialists implemented business process automation systems at Sberbank of Russia, as well as anti-skimming protection systems for ATM networks of large banks, participated in the construction and equipping of data processing centers for telecommunications companies for the World Cup. Consulting services are an integral part of all these projects," says Vladimir Gribov, LANIT Vice President and Executive Director.

The Technoserv group spoke about the tangible positive dynamics of projects for the financial and transport sectors, where customer loyalty is extremely important for business. "From a technological point of view, projects in the field of Big Data and iBanking were the drivers. For example, the project to introduce a dynamic segmentation system based on Big Data technologies at Aeroflot. Such a system helps the air carrier to actively develop online sales and increase the number of new passengers for the airline. As for iBanking, this is integrated system remote banking service. Projects based on this technology have been implemented for several major Russian banks," explains Sergey Korneev, president of the Technoserv group of companies.

According to the segment leaders, the vast majority of customers in the current economic conditions wants to ensure the smooth functioning of the IT infrastructure and its development under minimal cost. "In this regard, a comprehensive examination and audit of computing power is in demand, which allows you to understand how you can improve the performance of databases and applications without increasing the server base. The recommendations received enable customers to optimize the costs of maintaining an IT infrastructure and plan investments in such a way as to fully utilize the potential inherent in equipment and software with a horizon of up to three years," shares his experience Stepan Tomlyanovich, CEO FORS - Development Center (GK FORS).

As for the slowdown in the IT consulting segment, it is explained, among other things, by an increase in the share of projects with a duration of more than a year. More and more tasks arise in projects related to the transformation of the business as a whole (for example, the creation of shared service centers), rather than individual business processes. There is no pronounced industry specificity here. "In our current portfolio, the share of such "long" projects is approximately 2/3," explains Igor Zimnenko, Deputy General Director of I-Teco and head of Witte Consulting (I-Teco Group).

Practicing small things

Financial management and evaluation. Revenue from financial consulting and appraisal activities in 2016 amounted to 13.42 billion rubles, having increased by 8% over the year. Ranking participants earned 8.6 billion rubles from financial consulting (an increase of 7%), and 4.82 billion rubles from valuation (an increase of 8%).

"Now the place of an initiative or investment appraisal has been taken by a mandatory appraisal, primarily by order of government agencies and state corporations. The appraisal of state property and blocks of shares for various purposes (rent, sale, privatization, inclusion in authorized capital). There is also a growing demand for valuation and judicial valuation in the process of forcible seizure of property,” says Kirill Kulakov, First Deputy General Director of Center independent expertise property".

Orders for evaluation are also growing due to B2C. "It was in 2016, when the regions switched to new system calculation of property taxes, not only legal, but also individuals began to actively apply for the possibility of challenging the overestimated, in their opinion, cadastral value," says Irina Vishnevskaya.

Legal and tax consulting. Total turnover by sector legal services amounted to 3.69 billion rubles in 2016 (an increase of 26%).

Another 2.77 billion rubles of the revenue of the ranking participants is accounted for by tax consulting services minus 8% per year. Apparently, the crisis factors were superimposed on the consequences of the stabilization promised by the authorities in the field of taxation, as well as the steady improvement of administration in this area.

Cumulative revenue in sectors strategic planning and consulting in the field of marketing and PR at the end of 2016 amounted to 3.74 billion rubles (growth rate of 4%). In 2016, there was a significant increase in attention domestic industry, including the defense industry, to the creation and launch of civilian products on the market. This desire has led to a significant increase in demand for services in the field of strategic marketing and the development of strategies for "citizen diversification" of the product portfolio. industrial enterprises", - explains Alena Fomina, General Director of the Central Research Institute "Electronics".

Moses Furshchik, managing partner of FOK (Financial and Organizational Consulting), also points to the increased demand for strategy consulting in the public sector from regions, municipalities and state-owned companies: " the federal law N 172 on strategic planning makes it mandatory to develop a strategy at the regional level, and at the municipal level it is advisory. Therefore, if earlier strategies were ordered only by the largest or "oil and gas" cities, which did not experience a lack of funds, now orders have also begun to appear from problem municipalities that are trying to form a long-term plan to overcome the crisis."

Consulting in the field of personnel management brought the participants of the ranking in 2016 1.4 billion rubles (minus 2% per year). The sector is supported by large customers. "AT oil industry, power industry, metallurgy, banks and trade. The stage of initial process automation has already passed, and we see the transition to new technology platforms- cloud technologies. "Clouds" in the future will provide analytics, "big data" (Big Data) and most importantly "smart data" (Smart Data)", - said Mikhail Panchenko, CEO of MOLGA Consulting.

The demand for HR consulting from business is also told at Talen Q: "One of the most important trends in 2016 is A complex approach to staff appraisal. We are also seeing a rise in the popularity of remote valuation tools. Sales of adaptive ability tests, personality and motivational value questionnaires, ability tests and competency questionnaires, and 360-degree assessment solutions increased by more than 30%. We also provided consulting services for the formation of competency models, drawing up plans individual development, developing "success profiles" for specific positions based on HR analytics, and so on," Elena Kadyrova, CEO of Talent Q, spoke about trends in the field of personnel management.

Interview

- Please describe the current state of the consulting services market. What factors, in your opinion, continue to slow down the development of the market? And what, on the contrary, favors the development of consulting practices?

Julius Somsikov, Managing Partner of Swiss Consulting Partners: The crisis had a multidirectional impact on the consulting market. As expected, some customers picked up the trend of reducing costs by refusing some services, in this case - consulting, others, on the contrary, began to turn to consultants to help optimize their business. Consulting is needed, but the demand for it is not so great. They save on it, but its revenue is gradually growing.

Julius Somsikov, Managing Partner of Swiss Consulting Partners

The slowdown and uncertainty in the economy remain the main factors negatively affecting the consulting market. However, both private and state-owned companies in the real sector remain active customers of consulting services.

The rate of change is why Russian market consulting is lagging behind. As a business, it appeared in Russia relatively recently, and its young age leads to the fact that experience based on the use of the most effective approaches, with rare exceptions, is inherent only in international companies. Naturally, clients and consultants alike may feel that now is not the right time to innovate and experiment, and that a "conservative" business plan is best. Such a judgment is quite fair, however, as practice shows, in a crisis there will always be some new idea, which can "shoot".

In the 21st century, the consulting market has not only economic challenges. It is no secret that in our time almost any information can be found on the Internet, and in the near future there will be more and more data on the network. From here potential client and a huge misconception grows: "Why should I go to a consultant and pay him to help with business planning, if there is Google?". But it is important not only to have access to the ocean, but also to be able to swim in order to stay on the water, not drown and move in the right direction. For consultants the main task- just to be able to analyze large amounts of information, accumulate the experience of best practices and find the most effective solution for the client as quickly and accurately as possible.

Yes, there is actually a lot of useful and accurate information on the World Wide Web, but for a client, the risk of stumbling upon unverified, outdated and publicly available data is, of course, very high. Therefore, a consultant who is "live" and able to build work with an individual approach will be much better than clicking on a result in a search engine.

What are the prospects for the development of consulting in the current economic situation? In your opinion, is there an increase in competition between market players?

Julius Somsikov: First, the number of customers representing small and medium-sized businesses will continue to grow. Secondly, as in the past year, the operational improvement review service will attract more new customers in the near future - it does not hit the budget of companies and, at the same time, is implemented in the shortest possible time.

We are also seeing a growing interest in consulting services from government customers: they need advice on the content and support of innovation and industrial policy, investment, and regulatory impact assessment.

In general, the difficulties in the consulting market cannot be called neglected: Russian consultants are doing their best to meet the challenges of both the economy of our days and the time in which they exist in general.

There is always competition between market participants. And the statement is absolutely true that during the crisis period it only gets worse. At the same time, in the struggle of consulting companies, not only those who offer the best price for their services win, but also those who have a unique approach to the customer, a high level of work performance and access to international competencies.

With what, for Last year and now, is the demand for marketing and strategic planning services related? Which areas of work from these areas are most in demand by customers and why? Are current customer needs different from those of the past?

Julius Somsikov: If we talk about marketing and strategic consulting, then we again run into the topic of the crisis. During such a period, these services may become the best way take the company to the next level. The most demanded direction is the complex study of the project. Customers understand that it will not be possible to implement any specific functional strategy in isolation from the development strategy of their company as a whole.
It cannot be said that other areas of activity of consultants are becoming less in demand. On the contrary, there is a demand for management and financial consulting: in particular, for the development of feasibility studies investment projects, assessment of their attractiveness in the investment plan, business planning, etc. Not inferior to them, for example, cost consulting, assistance in asset management and risk analysis.
In terms of past trends, IT consulting services have been popular, and this is again directly related to the macroeconomic environment. In the conditions of austerity, many companies seek to automate some business processes, and for this they need to introduce new IT solutions.

Your group has a fairly strong position in the consulting market. What advantages of your business could you identify?

Julius Somsikov: A prerequisite for a worthy position of a consulting company in the market is its readiness for transformations. The main concept of our work today can be called the principle: "If today the market is only thinking about the need to improve something, then tomorrow morning the consulting company should offer the market New Product or a solution." A good consultant must inspire and lead the client, so you always need to be half a step ahead of the market.

Equally important for Swiss Consulting Partners is the issue of creating an effective team: we have created a team that thinks quickly, we are revising it in favor of more experienced and multifunctional employees, attracting specialists who are well versed in the latest technologies, both in their technical and informational components.

In today's consulting, the principle of Agile, which appeared at the beginning of the century, is gradually being introduced. In essence, he is integral part customer focus and flexibility. In other words, a company working with a client according to this principle always puts his opinion first and pays great attention to changes in the situation, instead of strictly following the plan. Swiss Consulting Partners is committed to supporting this approach.

Our top 10 consulting companies in the world will tell you about a dozen well-known agencies and companies that are engaged in consulting.

10 Manning Selvage & Lee

Manning Selvage & Lee was founded in 1938. This company is headquartered in the USA. Representative offices of Manning Selvage & Lee are located in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

9 Ketchum

Ketchum was founded in 1923. At first, this company was engaged in advertising, and then changed its direction of activity to public relations. This company is headquartered in New York, USA. Ketchum is a global public relations firm. It provides services in five areas, namely brand marketing; corporate communications; healthcare; food and nutrition; technologies. The firm includes 23 offices, 46 branches and associations located in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Asian region in the West Pacific.

8 The Hoffman Agency

The Hoffman Agency was founded in 1987. This company is headquartered in San Jose, California, USA. The Hoffman Agency is a global public relations firm. The company includes 9 offices located in Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and the USA.

7 Porter Novelli

Porter Novelli was founded in 1972. This company is headquartered in New York, USA. The firm's focus is on public relations. "Porter Novelli" includes approximately 100 offices located in 60 countries around the world.

6 Waggener Edstrom

Waggener Edstrom was founded in 1983. This company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, USA. The activity of the firm is concentrated on public relations. Waggener Edstrom has offices in many cities including New York, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Ora, Austin, Texas, London and Munich.

5 Hill & Knowlton

Hill & Knowlton, based in the USA, was founded in 1927. The activity of this company includes services in the field of corporate and financial communications. Basically, Hill & Knowlton provides services to companies that specialize in pharmacology and healthcare, as well as on-line communications. This company includes 86 offices located in 46 countries of the world.

4 Burson-Marsteller

Burson-Marsteller was founded in 1953. The company's headquarters is located in the USA. This global company focuses on public relations and communications. "Burson-Marsteller" includes 77 offices and 85 branches located in 110 countries of the world.

3 Edelman

Edelman was founded in 1952. Its founder was Daniel Edelman, after whom the company got its name. The company's headquarters is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. This consulting firm provides services in the public relations and marketing industry. Representative offices of the company are located in various US cities (Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, Silicon Valley), there are also representative offices in other countries North America, South America, Europe and Africa.

2 Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick was founded in 2001. Its foundation was the result of the merger of three companies: Weber Group, Shandwick International and BSMG. Weber Shandwick is headquartered in New York, USA. The activity of the company is concentrated on public relations. Weber Shandwick has experience in the following areas: journalism, law, healthcare, technology, etc. The company's representative offices are located in 82 cities around the world.

1 Fleishman-Hillard

Fleishman-Hillard was founded in 1946. The company's headquarters is located in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Fleishman-Hillard is an agency that provides services in two areas: public relations and marketing. Representative offices of the company are located in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

Consulting is often necessary service for those who want to be successful in business. For this reason, there are a huge number of consulting companies in the world.

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The Vault website has released a ranking of the most prestigious consulting firms. It's a bit like the Oscars in the film industry, rankings are based on a survey of consultants who rate their peers and competitors. Vault conducted its study for six weeks, in March and April, and collected votes from 9,000 consultants out of 65 American firms.

For the prestige of the rankings, the consultants were not allowed to vote for their own firms, they were asked to rate only those consulting companies with which they were familiar. The consulting company is rated on a scale from 1 (least prestigious) to 10. The rating has been compiled for 14 years in a row, and every year McKinsey comes out on top. Indeed, the top four places are unchanged from last year: McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain and Deloitte Consulting.

Fifth place this year has shifted. In 2014, Booz & Company was at the site, but last spring, PricewaterhouseCoopers bought it and gave it the unfortunate name "Strategy&" Suddenly the firm lost its name, although Booz's history was confusing even before the acquisition. Booz & Company was founded in 1914 and grew into the government consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton (where Edward Snowden worked under contract to the NSA before he leaked classified data). Booz & Company, a corporate business consulting company, spun off in 2008 and was acquired by the Carlyle Group in 2008. Are you confused yet? In fifth place this year: Booz Allen Hamilton, up from sixth last year. Strategy& dropped to 19th place.

Why is prestige so important in the consulting business? For job seekers submitting their resumes to McKinsey or Boston Consulting, this can open up new opportunities, it's like The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal for a journalist. Also, people just care about prestige. For many people, it defines their career. They want to work for the most prestigious consulting firms.

The ranking of consulting companies is dominated by huge firms with several thousand employees and several offices. Exception: Bridgespan Group, which is located in Boston's Copley Place. The company has 158 employees and focuses on the non-profit sector. It spun off from Bain in 1999 but retained its ties to the firm. Bain consultants can take time off work from six to 12 months at Bridgespan.

Top 10 most prestigious consulting firms:

1. McKinsey & Company

2. The Boston Consulting Group

3 Bain & Company

4 Deloitte Consulting

5 Booz Allen Hamilton

6. PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC

7. EY LLP Consulting Practice

9. KPMG LLG (Consulting Practice)

10.IBM Global Business Services