Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Industry Specialists

Same problems, different markets - the importance of industry knowledge

Organisational talent across all sectors and industries is extremely diverse - this variance is apparent when assessing the effectiveness of external consultants. Highly technical occupations, such as technology professions and scientific roles, are often deemed more credible as they require years of training and a great deal of time putting theory into practice.

The accumulation of experience and informational yield is important in whatever field or level of knowledge being sought after. Mahmoud Mohieldin, who served as the World Bank Group's Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda, previously stated that $600 million per annum was being invested in knowledge services such as primary data collection, research, and technical assistance on topics ranging from government reforms, health and communications to infrastructure. The total spend on all knowledge services amounted to approximately $4 billion per year.

Why repeatability is so powerful

Management consultants, from traditional consulting firms or expert networks, should have comprehensive experience, techniques and a large validated knowledge base in relation to identifying and solving business problems. Through the myriad of consulting assignments they have been tasked to work on, there should be an innate awareness of what works and what does not work in a given scenario.

Therefore, consultants and industry specialists who have accumulated knowledge from repeat assignments in just a single industry or a few industries often elevate results. In addition, expertise oriented in leading strategy implementation remains prevalent today. Harvard's 'State of Leadership Development' report, surveying HBR council members, corporate L&D and business line leaders, showed that there was a shifting view of leadership development focusing more on collaboration, employee engagement and transparency.

However, the top three performance indicators for transformative results were driving strategy at 63%, delivering financial results at 58%, and managing operations well at 44%.

Repeatable business models which produce high-value results, especially those that can be applied to related industries, can be difficult to find. Once unlocked though, differentiation against the competition can be strengthened which in turn can lead to greater scalability and sustained profitability.

Vanguard Group's core business is serving long-term investors and index fund management and they have invested in repeatable routine customer service procedures and activities designed to minimise costs—expense ratios. This differentiation has resulted in Vanguard achieving significantly better than industry average redemption levels as well as successful market segment expansion.

One of the world's top multinational power companies Enel S.p.A., an integrated provider with a presence in over 30 countries and a focus on Europe and Latin America serving over 70 million customers, demonstrated their pathway to success through the delivery of personalised services and local management support. To support the large scale implementation of a Utility Bill Management system and data monitoring for Banco Santander, Enel's Argentinian team were supported by the Brazilian team to ensure the best possible client solution was developed and guided them through a phased management approach first working on electricity then shifting focus towards water and gas.

In addition, Enel S.p.A.'s embrace of the digital revolution under CEO Francesco Starace in 2014 led to a committed and forward-thinking shift to a full-scale digital transformation. Critical cloud-based IT infrastructure was rolled out across its operations and to business unit level so that they could be more responsive - up to six times faster than before.

Pangea SI's client and expert community discussions support the view that gaining access to operational models which have proven successful in the same industry or similar markets is invaluable. Knowing relevant repeatable strategies also provides clients with a means to ask new questions, conduct different analyses, map out different scenarios and reinvent differentiation that perhaps would not have been considered if they did not have the preceding industry knowledge.