Posted on April 22, 2023
Consultant Employment Structures
There are several different organisational structures that you might work under. Each differs in terms of the responsibility, range of assignments, and the opportunity for growth they may afford you as a consultant. At any given time, you may decide that one structure is better than another for your career, and over time, you may experience employment under each of the various structures.
| Consultant Employment Structures | |
| Structure | Description |
| Sole Consultant | Freedom to take what work you want, and to work how you want, are the major upsides of a solo consultancy. This is what drives many people to become an independent entity. The risks include variable income (potentially very high), and the need to find your own work. Sole consultants sometimes find the sales aspect of the role challenging. |
| Partner/Co-owner | If you are one of a small number of partners (co-owners) in an organisation, you will benefit from a larger and more flexible structure to sell, support, and deliver work. There may, however, be reduced opportunity to choose what type of work, and how much of it, to deliver as the realities of working in a more commercially-focused entity hit home. |
| Small
(Boutique) Consultancy |
This organisation will provide support and possibly a more effective sales operation. In addition, if the consultancy has a niche that matches your specialism, then this may be a perfect fit. Small consultancies, though, can provide limited variety, and often find themselves under considerable commercial pressure with the ebbs and flows of work that consultancy generates. There are tens of thousands of these types of organisations providing consultancy or other professional services across the world, from legal firms to human resources service providers. |
| Research
and Advisory |
Included in this category are organisations such as Gartner, Nielsen, and Ovum. These organisations focus on knowledge acquisition and distillation, and often specialise in a certain domain, such as technology or marketing. These firms are often approached when organisations are looking to find the latest trends in the market, or to obtain advice on which other service providers are a suitable match for their requirements. As an advisor in this sort of firm, you will spend large amounts of time researching and meeting with clients who wish to take advantage of your research, analysis, and insights. |
| Expert Networks | Expert networks pair corporate clients, or investment funds, with individuals in the market who may have access to on-the-ground knowledge about certain industries or geographies. This can often be taken up in addition to engaging with the Research and Advisory sector. This type of consulting is ad hoc and occasional but is potentially lucrative. Companies who provide this type of service are middlemen and include GLG and AlphaSights. |
| Large
(Tier 1 or Tier 2) Consultancy |
Large consultancies include McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company, and Boston Consulting Group, each with well over 10,000 employees. Working in these types of large organisation may be significantly different from a smaller consultancy, with significantly more support and more opportunity for variety. The downside is that you may have little influence over consultancy strategy, and little ability or opportunity to make any internal impact. |
| Service Providers | Organisations in this category include global giants, such as Infosys, Capgemini, and Accenture, and the Big Four companies: KPMG, PWC, Deloitte, and Ernst & Young. In addition, there are thousands of smaller, local service providers in every region of the world. Here, consulting is one of many services provided. The advantage of a structure of this kind is the large variety or opportunity available (the ability to do things other than consulting). The downside may include a lack of real independence based on the commercial necessity to help other areas of the business. |