Consulting Magazine - January 2016

Consulting® JANUARY 2016 19

Steve Chapman
PRESIDENT
Carlisle & Gallagher
Consulting Group

and distribution, private equity and healthcare. We expect they will lead the way, but that there will be growth in all areas. I don’t see any industries that will be contracting.

CONSULTING: What speci;c signs are you seeing that suggest an increase or decrease in demand?

POWERS: Companies are demanding
experts that understand their busi-
ness—the days of the client teaching
you their business have been over for
a long time. Our strategic focus on
deep specialization, the expanding
regulatory compliance market and the
hunger for data-driven tools within
our target markets are all signs that
point to strong growth and an increase
in demand for consulting services.

CONSULTING: How do you see the profession evolving in 2016?

POWERS: Recruiting and retaining people is still of the utmost importance in the consulting profession. We’re putting more emphasis on providing flexibility and mobility for our people.

We’ve instituted a new mobility strate-
gy with the underlying theme of mea-
suring what matters, including focus-
ing on delivering an exceptional client
experience and putting more emphasis
on providing flexibility for our people.
We’re moving away from focusing on
where you work and what you wear.

CONSULTING: What do you see as the biggest opportunities in 2016? POWERS: Getting the right people to join Crowe and keeping our existing people engaged is our greatest opportunity and greatest challenge. Our goal is to help clients and our people make smart decisions today that create lasting value tomorrow. To deliver on this promise, we must have the best talent delivering the best client service.

CONSULTING: As we close out 2015, where is your ;rm today?

CHAPMAN: 2015 was another strong year for the firm. We experienced diversified growth across our financial services client base including the addition of four new financial institution clients. Our consulting workforce grew by over 30 percent with a majority of that growth in some of our largest offices including Charlotte, Dallas and NYC. The biggest surprise was having such a strong year in the midst of our midyear acquisition announcement with NTT DATA. It is the synergies and complementary strengths of our two companies that make the acquisition powerful.

CONSULTING: How would you describe your ;rm’s outlook for 2016?

CHAPMAN: Given the combined go-
to-market strength of NTT DATA
and CG, we see another strong year
on the horizon. The combined firm
offers clients access to services and
solutions they won’t find anywhere
else—and from companies they al-
ready know and trust. Within the fi-
nancial services industry our clients
continue to face challenges in the
areas of corporate risk, regulatory
response, platform rationalization,
cloud computing and data. These
will continue to be areas of focus for
the firm as our clients see real value
in the services we provide.

CONSULTING: What signs suggest an increase or decrease in demand?

CHAPMAN: We know that many of our clients are challenged with top line growth and a difficult interest rate environment. In spite of that, we’ve seen a dramatic upswing across our entire business the 2nd half of 2015. We don’t see the demand for our services decreasing as we move into 2016. If anything, we see the need for our services increasing.

CONSULTING: How do you see the profession evolving in 2016?

CHAPMAN: Clients are more sophisticated in their buying and procurement processes for consulting services and are separating commoditized “ consulting” from true specialty advisory and delivery consulting. As such, demonstrating and delivering deep experience at a firm and individual consultant level is an imperative.

CONSULTING: What do you see as the biggest opportunities in 2016? CHAPMAN: Our biggest opportunities will come from leveraging the combined capabilities of NTT DATA and CG. As a consolidated firm we now have the ability to offer our clients a broader range of business and technology consulting services. Our biggest challenge will be maintaining our pattern of strong growth while successfully completing our integration activities.