Consulting Skills for 2030

The Consulting Skills for 2030 research project, conducted by the Centre for Management Consulting Excellence, took place in 2018 and involved 157 participants from the consultancy profession, academics and clients. The aim was to understand the skills that consultants will need to sell and deliver services, at a time of considerable technological and societal change. The research consisted of face-to-face interviews and a survey, exploring drivers of change including AI, Big Data, Cyber, Robotics, IoT, increased self-employment and globalisation. We also asked to what extent “timeless” skills of consultants such as Change Management would still be relevant in 2030. Finally, we invited unprompted insights from our respondents. The results ranked Cyber Security, AI, and Self-Employment as having the highest impacts, and we investigate the reasons and consequences. We also address the impact of clients seeing a more radical requirement for a skill shift among consultants than do consultants themselves.