Consulting into the new era

There's more value in making change happen than in knowing what to change

For decades, strategy consulting has run on a simple model: define the problem, then advise on the answer. That model is losing its value.

Analysis has never been easier to get. In-house strategy teams, former consultants now working inside the business, and AI tools mean most organisations already know what they need to change. What they lack is the capacity and experience to make that change happen, at pace and with results that show up in the P&L.

Delivery needs a different skillset: deep operating experience, the credibility to influence across an organisation, and a track record of top- and bottom-line impact. The senior people who have it now often sit outside the big consulting firms. For execution-heavy transformation, clients are increasingly deploying them directly in small senior teams, the model Private Equity has run for a decade.

This white paper draws on Movemeon's network of more than 100,000 strategy and transformation professionals and on our own delivery data. It sets out what's changing, why, and how to choose the right model for the work in front of you.
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Key findings

• Only 9% of senior consulting alumni in our network still work at a major consulting firm, against 23% across all levels. The more experienced people get, the more likely they are to have left.
• 49% of the independent consulting projects we delivered over the past two years came from PE firms or PE-backed portfolio companies. The investors closest to value creation have already changed how they buy.
• A quarter of the mandates clients approached us about in Q2 2026 mention AI in the job description, against roughly one in six a year earlier. Clients want people who can put AI to work in the business, not just a strategy for it.
• £300k versus £800k–£1.6m: what an assembled senior team costs against a traditional engagement over eight weeks, delivering 160 senior days instead of around 8.
  
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What's covered

1. Clients need delivery, not more advice. How in-house teams and AI have commoditised analysis, why the value has moved to implementation, and where the traditional consulting model still fits.
2. Senior talent has moved outside the firms. Why senior partners and principals are leaving, what they're doing instead, and the rise of the Senior Operator Consultant: people who combine consulting rigour with hands-on operating experience.
3. The Private Equity playbook. What PE firms buy when they bring in outside help, why the model works, and a worked example of the economics against a traditional engagement.
4. Choosing the right delivery model. A practical guide to when to use a traditional firm, an independent consultant or an agile consulting team, based on the problem, the timeline and the kind of change you need.