Recently there seems to be a boom in consulting topics.
I don’t know if it will be the typical filter effect of what when you are pregnant you only see pregnant or when you think to buy that new red car you only see cars like that red one (Known as the reticular activation system filter).
There are countless projects, podcasts, courses, books for entrepreneurs in the world of consulting. These are a few:
- Consultor Elite by Javier Cordero
- The podcast Canal Consultor by Agustí López
- Emprende Aprendiendo and Consultor Estratega by Euge Oller
- The podcast Masterminds and the course Valida Tu Idea by Franc Carreras
- A classic: Innolandia by Ángel Alba
- Another about innovation: Innogyzer by Marco Velasco
- Of course Innovamos Así by Tim Bradburn and myself
- And so many others
Some are very powerful, very instructive, very motivating.
Some of them are created or directed by consultants with great trajectory in the world of innovation.
Others look like sales courses aimed at exploiting this currently growing niche. They propose to train people without previous knowledge to become consultants for small and medium enterprises.
Watch out! The sale of consultancy services is an absolutely practical, vital and complex skill for those of us in this sector. What is doubtful is that the focus of some of these courses is exclusively in the commercial part where it seems that with some templates and some questions anyone can do that kind of advice as a professional.
In any case, this recent explosion has a reason to be.
It shows that there is a need in the current business world to have external knowledge to define the future strategy of companies.
This could already be more or less normal for large corporations. These companies are aware of what they need new ideas. But at the same time they need people who are not so involved in day-to-day business to be able to think strategically and act as facilitators so that the teams can focus their knowledge on evolving the business as such.
However, in the world of small and medium enterprises this was something much more difficult to find.
Being me the director of the company, usually the creator, the one who had the original idea and the one who has raised the company to where it is now. What will someone from outside explain to me about how I have to run my business? What do they know about my product? About my clients?
And that is precisely what has changed today. The change generated by the pandemic has created such uncertainty about the future that people are beginning to be aware that the knowledge acquired may not be decisive in deciding the future of companies.
We can’t solve problems by thinking the same way we did when we created them
Albert Einstein
This rethinking is what is leading to a flourishing of business consulting and in particular of digitalization and innovation.
And evidently when a sector flourishes, all kinds of people and businesses that see that niche as a possibility to grow their own businesses appear around it.
Well… This also applies to me, doesn’t it?