Consulting At Scale

A Quaint Scene.

I took my first building consulting job in 2010. Doesn't feel all that long ago, really. But boy have things changed since then. Picture the quaint scene; desktop computers, big printers, a central office, commuting to the office etc. A very stable and comfortable world, with reports written for a small number of local clients on a one-to-one basis (we'd visit properties and assess their condition). It was a familiar setup, with little changing for nearly 25 years. We had an office manager who would deal with fee requests, invoicing, general admin, all that good stuff. Although we had certainly moved on from paper to PDF, this was very much a localised, manual craft.

Now 11 years later, the landscape is utterly different. I can create the output of a 3-5 person team with a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection. Everything has moved to a SaaS business model. Nearly everything is automated. Lead generation. Financial reporting. Report formatting. Client liaison. It has all become part of a smooth software process.

The potential market has increased massively, too. Skills and knowledge once restricted geographically can now be spread across the world via a zoom call. This is even true of something so damn physical like real estate! So instead of being bogged down in localised admin tasks, the very best consultants can now concentrate on what they enjoy. Offering their insight and experience to a global market, at a mere touch of a button.

Organisations are now also distributed. I had a chat the other night with a colleague in the UK, whilst I am in Melbourne. We discussed what advice we'd give to clients (and assets) located in London. Prior to that I was joining the discussion about remote work with folks across the USA. It is an incredible, exciting world that we inhabit. And for those willing to grasp the nettle, the opportunities are endless.

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Signing out, Steven.

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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash