Blog Posts

Generalist vs Specialist Consulting in the GCC: Is the Traditional Model Still Tenable?

Key takeaways:

  • Major trends: traditional consulting industry is set to undergo a sea change with the technology-driven evolution, partnership ecosystem development, market democratization, and value creation transformation;
  • GCC example: the industry paradigm shifts, as well as the regional market dynamics entail a 180-degree turn towards a more specialized approach, with notable case studies featuring Accenture, Oliver Wyman, BCG, and Worley.
  • A step-by-step guide for consulting companies: to successfully embrace changes, a strategic implementation approach, tailored to firm size, resources, and risk tolerance is required.
The future of traditional consulting is disrupted, with a few big changes looming large.

Key factors disrupting the traditional consulting model

  1. The proliferation of new technologies streamlines research and analytics, freeing junior staffers up (for more meaningful work?) – as more consultancies draw on the latest developments in AI and ML, replacing low-value tasks, senior experience and domain expertise grow in demand;
  2. To address the increasing complexity of the challenges their clients face, consulting firms forge partnerships with subject-matter experts and specialist service providers, contributing to the development of open consulting ecosystems;
  3. Leveraging partner networks to expand service offerings, boutique consultancies enter the scene. Concurrently, the rising competition forces major industry players to encompass a broader spectrum of specializations or hire sub-consultants;
  4. Ensuring fast and successful execution of projects requires both small and large consulting companies to collaborate on the creation of real products and services – they go beyond offering just strategic advice and insight, thus improving risk/reward sharing and gradually transforming consulting value chains.
With all these factors, one thing is for sure: to remain relevant to modern business, consultants need to reconfigure their approach and reject obsolete legacy models. Let’s take a regional perspective.

Consulting in the GCC: navigating the generalist vs specialist divide

The traditional approach practiced by top firms in the region has been more generalist just recently: the Gulf consulting market provides compelling case-studies of such engagements, ranging from PwC's Strategy& supporting Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 implementation to Ventures Middle East offering services across more than 20 industries. However, it now seems like more specialized knowledge is necessary.

Specialist consulting success stories in the GCC

The industry paradigm shifts are not the only reason – significant political and economic changes might be another sign: although the region’s consulting market is forecast to grow by around 12% in 2025, governments’ budget cuts and the collapse of GCC projects market raise doubts about the prospects.
The one takeaway is: traditional consulting strategies won’t work anymore. What steps could then undertake regional players to stay ahead of the curve?

The ever-evolving GCC consulting landscape: your business model is not dead, it just needs to be adjusted

The industry has changed dramatically, questioning the core reasons consultants exist: both external (AI, automation, new entrants) and internal (a trend towards protectionism and building in-house capabilities) factors are rapidly reshaping client expectations.
At Kanpeki, in line with other players, we believe “the future of consultancy is about embracing disruption” – as a management consulting firm, we realize the importance of constantly adapting our strategy to the market shifts. Here’s how we see companies should navigate the latest changes:
1. Large consultancies
With more resources necessary to go beyond traditional service delivery, top firms could focus on:
  • building strategic alliance networks and cross-sector collaborations;
  • implementing hybrid consulting models and developing end-to-end value chains based on expert knowledge along with strategic advisory;
  • creating result-oriented engagement models and delivering tangible value to clients;
  • embracing personalization at scale.
2. Boutique consultancies
Recommendations for smaller companies include:
  • identifying an optimal niche and systematically building deep expertise;
  • harnessing automation and tech to eliminate routine work while prioritizing human-centric services;
  • establishing mechanisms to rapidly form agile cross-functional teams, tailored to specific projects or challenges;
  • smartly building expert networks and partnerships with flexible engagement models;
  • developing human-to-human relationship and stakeholder management excellence;
  • learning to effectively collaborate with larger players;
  • adopting value-based business models.
What would then a step-wise implementation look like? Is it as simple as large companies taking a planning-focused (‘plan-build-test’) and boutique firms – an experimental (‘test-learn-scale’) approach? Think about resource availability, risk management, varying implementation timelines and success criteria.
Check what we can do for you to make it simpler.

References

2025-08-04 16:51 Strategy Opinion Markets