The usefulness and attractiveness of consultancy : is it possible to predict a transformation ?

Is consultancy a rather costly service whose usefulness, in many cases, remains to be proven ? Prejudices about consultants die hard even though this activity continues to grow in France and throughout the rest of the world. What is consultancy all about ? What are its features, problems and perspectives ? Christian Chattey explains that consultancy is practised in various ways ranging from multidisciplinary consultancies to small, specialised businesses, and from strategists to those working in the field. Nonetheless, the major impression appears to be that the service has become trivialised and consultancy is increasingly considered to be a service provider like any other by its clients — or rather by their purchasing departments. This has reached the point where ‘low cost’ consultancies are emerging and may revolutionise the sector’s economic model.