Helping to Build High-Performing Consulting Firms

🔴 EDITION #140 | December 17, 2025

Dear reader, 

Edition 140 is here, and we’re discussing why we think that 2025 marks an inflexion point for the consulting industry.

For years, the default consulting model has been simple: assemble teams, load them with juniors, sell hours, and wrap everything in methodological language. However, 2025 strained that equation.

Enjoy reading, 

Luk & Florian

Our New Article

2025 – The Year Consulting Finally Ran Out of Excuses

2025 was the year consulting came face-to-face with its most fundamental weaknesses. A softer market, brutal budget scrutiny, and a noisy AI wave combined into a straightforward impact: buyers started asking much sharper questions about where consulting fees actually go and what value they get in return.

In short, it has been a challenging year, one that we really think marks an inflexion point for the consulting industry. And that’s the lens through which we’ll look back at 2025 in our new article:

"The year as the point in time when long-standing habits in consulting started to show deep, structural cracks."

Or, as a consulting firm partner told us: “We seem to have entered a period of painful and public reckoning.”

Read the New Article

Our Recent Articles

TRUST-BUILDING

Why Prospects Freeze. And How Consulting Firms Can Fix It

VALUE PROPOSITION

The Ultimate Guide to Consulting Value Proposition Design

DIFFERENTIATION

The Best Consulting Pitch I’ve Ever Seen

BUSINESS MODEL

Why Big Consulting Firms Need a Better Proposition – Now More Than Ever

Our Recent LinkedIn Posts

🔴 LUK SMEYERS

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Clients do not respond to broad consulting claims, but to the specific situation they are stuck in.

INTERNAL ALIGNMENT

If two partners interpret value differently, the consultancy has already lost the room.

PROSPECT ENGAGEMENT

Silence from prospects is a big red flag.

VALUE ARTICULATION

Ask ten consulting leaders “what business problem do you solve” and most will answer with ‘what they do’.

STRATEGY

Many consulting firms pour money into sales training and wonder why nothing changes.

FUTURE OF CONSULTING

Consulting Myth: AI pushes consulting firms to outcome based pricing.

🔴 FLORIAN HEINRICHS

STRATEGY

FY2026 Planning Season: How Strong Consulting Firm Plans Get It Right (And How Weak Ones Fail)

BUSINESS MODEL

Current Consulting Growth Playbooks Are Becoming a Liability: Here's How You Fix Yours in Time for 2026

VALUE ARTICULATION

Too Many Pitch Decks? That’s a Proposition Problem.

VALUE PROPOSITION DESIGN

“Isn’t Consulting Proposition Design Just a Messaging Exercise?”

Here's How We Help Consultancies

1. Consulting Value Review

A structured, 4 to 6-week, value-proposition-anchored rapid assessment of a consulting firm's growth and performance potential.

Best for:

• Buyers or Investors evaluating the proposition and performance of a consulting firm pre- or post-acquisition/investment

2. Value Maximisation Program

A 10 to 12-week intensive program designed to define, sharpen, and operationalise a firm’s consulting proposition. 

Best for:  

• Boutiques struggling with differentiation & business development
• Practices in large consultancies needing a clearer positioning
• Consulting firms launching new service lines
• Enterprise SaaS companies starting a consulting/service function or needing to improve their current consulting proposition

3. Service Portfolio Optimisation Program

A deep dive into the cohesion, efficiency, and superior client value of a consulting firm’s service portfolio.

Best for:  

• Large consulting firms with too many overlapping or unclear service offerings
• Consulting firm practices seeking to scale profitably by optimising service-market fit

Want to work with us?
SEND US YOUR SUPPORT REQUEST →

Not yet subscribed to 'The Authority'? Subscribe here.

Previous 'The Authority' edition: Edition #139

Wanna send The Authority to friends or colleagues? It lives here

Connect with us on LinkedIn: Luk | Florian