Careers in Consulting-- Tracking Industry Trends and Outlook
The consulting industry is tricky to search for since it is its own industry, a niche within many different industries, as well as a functional role within organizations. What this means is that you have to be especially creative and flexible when creating your search strategies.
Trade Journals, Newsletters, Newspapers
Consulting Company Publications
Market Research
Trade journals, newsletters, newspapers
These databases are especially good for locating consulting industry-related articles:
Suggested strategies for searching Factiva on industry trends and outlook:
- Expand the industry section
- Type "consulting," click Look Up button
- A list of Industry Results will display
- Business Consulting
- Management Consulting
- IT Consulting
- Click once on the appropriate link; it will turn pink
- Type keywords in the search box
- hd=(trend* or outlook or growth or future or forecast* or challeng* or market*
Consultants News
One of the leading consulting industry newsletters; published monthly, it covers industry news, trends and outlooks, and contains key industry statistics
- Topics include: future of the profession, rankings, specific
industries and consulting niches, best practices, and more
- Print copies are located in CAREERREF collection
Consulting Company Publications
Following are a few examples of the wealth of substantive industry insight and analysis which is available on the free web. Always check out the web sites of the heavy players in the industry that you are tracking.
Kennedy Publications Market Research Reports
- Kennedy is one of the leaders in reporting on and forecasting about the consulting industry
- Substantive executive summaries in .pdf are available for many
of their most frequently referenced research reports
- The Global Consulting Marketplace: Key Data, Trends & Forecasts
- The Global IT Management Consulting Marketplace: Key Data, Forecasts & Trends
- The Global Financial Services Consulting Marketplace: Opportunities in Banking, Capital Markets & Insurance
- The McKinsey Quarterly is available selectively for free on McKinsey’s web site
- Browse articles by:
- Function (Corporate Finance, Strategy, Operations, etc.)
- Industries (Automotive, Energy, Financial Services, etc.)
- Sign up for free e-mail alert when a new issue is released
- Also available in Business Source Premier
- Click on Publications tab on the home page to view Bain’s selection of industry articles relevant to their service lines
- Browse articles by:
- Capability (Process Redesign, IT, M&A, etc.)
- Industry
- Access a large quantity of BCG’s reports, studies, and articles for free
- Click on the links to BCG Publications and BCG News &
Ideas on the home page
- Browse by:
- Industry
- Function
- Publication Type
- Language
Market Research
A handful of market research firms are watching the consulting industry, reporting on the competitive marketplace, trends, key players, products and services
Gartner
Group
Gartner monitors, analyzes, and forecasts primarily for the
IT and computer services marketplace. BUT, it is increasingly expanding
its coverage to include other consulting niches, such as strategy
and operations, the CEO perspective, and strong specific industry
analysis — all of which make it worth looking at.
- Begin by conducting a keyword searching from Gartner's public
web site, www.gartner.com
- click on Advanced Search link on upper left corner
- Search for the word: consult* in the title
- Make note of Title, Author, and Date for the reports of interest
- Next access Gartner from the eresources page and use the Browse by Date or Author to locate the text of the report
