In the last post
I suggested that, when it came to new ideas in IDM (Infrastructure Decision Making), the usual sources of new ideas, namely academic research, think tanks and in-house research were limited in their ability to provide workable solutions.
If academics have an incentive to continue research rather than provide answers, who has an incentive to provide answers? If Think Tanks have an incentive to contain their solutions to the subset of possibilities supported by their funders, who has an incentive to look more widely? And if in-house research provides depth but is limited in scaleability, where can we look for answers that can apply over a wider field?
A Suggestion:
I am going to suggest that, curiously enough, it may be the often maligned consulting industry that is, today, most capable of producing the more interesting research outputs when it comes to infrastructure decision making.
There is a growing number of consulting companies that use their in-depth access to many organisations to test and develop ideas in their search for practical applications.
- They have the incentives: increased reputation and customer satisfaction lead to sustained and increased profit.
- They have access to some of the brightest of today’s asset managers, many of whom have, or are in the process, of developing post graduate research theses.
- They have detailed access to information from a large variety of organisational clients.
These are the elite consulting companies. They don’t have to be large, although access to a large client base helps. Small or medium sized consulting companies may achieve the same level of innovation by developing a sharper focus.
Of course, not all consultants necessarily act in this fashion. There will always be those who choose a ‘cookie cutter’ approach and try to fit your problem into an already conceived solution. But what you will see in the better, more innovative, firms are that they apply themselves to thoroughly developing an idea; they stick with it over the time it takes to bring it to fruition (often years); and they expose their ideas to others (in conference presentations and in papers on their websites).
Nearly always the effort will revolve around one or a few talented and motivated individuals. For this reason, it pays to follow the activities of such individuals in consulting organisations that you are thinking to use. LinkedIn is a good source for this.
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