Instead, says Lochhead, "The next economy has hit the brakes. We're looking at a choppy, rocky, stormy market." Apple Computer, Microsoft, Motorola, and Nortel Networks all have warned of profit disappointments to come. Chief executives at client companies are growing wary. Capital spending on technology is softening. "And we don't know when that's going to end," says Lochhead.
Suddenly, that's a common refrain. Uncertainty pervades the consulting trade, mirroring the anxiety and self-doubt eating at the economy. Analysts and many executives within the industry expect rapid, painful consolidation in the next year. Some of the newer entrants, they expect, will simply fold; many others will be absorbed by the Big Five or by other large rivals. The consulting business will step out an evolutionary dance that it has done before.
What we are witnessing, experts say, is the death of the Internet consultant. As Internet technology becomes ingrained in business strategy, the appeal of firms that specialize in e-business solutions will diminish rapidly. Instead, clients will seek in consultants that which they always have sought -- great ideas and flawless execution.
Most observers expect that Scient will survive the transition, along with Diamond Technology Partners, Sapient, and a few others with enough scale, talent, and institutional credibility to do so. But ultimately, who knows? If the new economy is dead, the next economy hasn't quite arrived. Scient is locked, for now, in the "flaky economy" -- where anything can happen.
In any case, Bob Howe hopes for something more than survival, of course. He left IBM not to start something ordinary but to build one of the great franchises of the service world. "People talk about Goldman or McKinsey in a certain way," he says. "Those are fabled companies. We'll know we're a fabled company when everyone talks about us in the same tones as those companies."
Scient will become fabled if it offers superior value to its clients, if it remains a great place for people to work, and if it brings wealth to its shareholders. It will win if it delivers on its six core values. "It has to become what we say it is," Howe says.
Scient will win, ultimately, if it has the organizational mettle to weather "the worst day in our history" and the turmoil that certainly will follow. It must survive the present. And it wouldn't hurt if the next economy got here real fast.
Keith H. Hammonds (Khammonds@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company Senior Editor based in New York. Learn more about Scient on the web (www.scient.com).
Email
Digg
StumbleUpon
Facebook
Buzz Up!
LinkedIn
