ABSTRACT
What is the role of consultancies in promoting client change and in what circumstances might this be innovative? This chapter will review the qualities possessed by consultancies which are potentially innovative, based on the types of people they employ, how they are organized, and their technical skills, in recent years increasingly associated with implementing information and computer technology (ICT) systems. Consultancies codify and adapt knowledge to the specific needs of various clients. As we saw in the last chapter, some operate increasingly on an international and even global level. Consultancy is thus part of a system of expertise exchange which includes the international transfer of innovative ideas. As the influence of consultancies grows, this may have wider organizational and social impacts. For example, consultancysupported innovation may differentially affect various types of enterprise (for example large v. small) and region (core v. periphery). This chapter concludes with an examination of the forces of polarization implicit in both consultancy supply and their influence on client behaviour.
