Boutique Consulting Firm: Your Personalized Solutions Partner

Just like a small store selling beauty products, Boutique Consulting Firm is a small firm that offers niche or limited services to their clients. They are usually headed by one or two people who specialize in their business domain and hire other consultants who also possess expert domain knowledge. Firms are represented by teams who are completely dedicated towards the services they provide, have a passion for their work and motivation to look past small business hurdles.

In recent times, Boutique consulting firms have grown exponentially in numbers. From business strategy, operations, human resources or IT business consultants,  are an integral part of the corporate world. Boutique consulting firms play a key role in implementing better-refined work standards with a prime focus on implementing strategic business operational concepts into real business situations.

Boutique consulting firms are gradually taking over generalist consulting due to a number of reasons such as having an upper hand in functional expertise areas such as sales, customer satisfaction or a business vertical expertise such as finance, pharma, and manufacturing. There are other boutique consulting firms which specialize in niche skills, such firms are headed by entrepreneurs who are specialists in their areas.

Key aspects of a Boutique Consulting Firm

The Culture

Boutique consulting are attractive for a number of other reasons such as their close-knit culture, refined business focus, operational flexibility over the bureaucracy and hierarchy of other large general consulting firms. They typically offer their specialized services in no more than two or three areas and they only offer their services on specific projects.

Employees

A typical boutique firm could have from 10 to 200 employees, which means they incur less overhead expenses. They also have a lower employee attrition rate, since the consultants get higher job satisfaction, this also builds a long term stable relationship between the firm’s consultant and the clients. They generally hire consultants who are experts in their particular fields, as well as possess a passionate outlook towards their work.

Pricing Model

Since the overhead expenses are lower, they charge lower fees in comparison to big consulting firms. They also offer a value-based pricing model over the traditional per diem pricing model used by generalist consulting firms. This definitely helps them in bagging larger deals with the end clients.

Consulting Solutions

Some Boutique firms provide their services to only a specific business domain such as Human Resources, Healthcare and IT etc. It has been said that due to their expert skills they are also hired by government agencies. Whereas, larger consulting firms dabble in more diversified services. Boutique firms also integrate their consultants into the client’s activities much faster and are asked to multi-task on work areas.

Learnings

Nothing is spoon-fed to new hires, consultants mostly practice self-learning by handling challenging business situations. There is a lot of responsibility and work pressure to deliver the best solutions. Young consultants learn on the job by working closely with their bosses who possess specialized skills.

Benefits of specialist Boutique Consulting Firm over Traditional Consulting Firm

1. Focus on expertise area
2. Expertise in services
3. Higher value as a result of efficiency and lower overhead costs
4. Flexibility in offering services as per the client’s requirements and business needs
5. Choice of consultants, the clients have the flexibility to pick consultants based on their business profile and skills
6. Better culture, the consultants have a better approach while collaborating with other teams and third parties
7. No conflict of interest with the clients

In a nutshell, rapidly changing business trends have created a new need for expert services. By creating solutions that cater to specific problems, these firms give a glimpse into service solutions that have the potential to unlock the next phase of business growth. The key to success is to keep exploring newer opportunities and service delivery models.