Report

The Europe Strategic Consulting Services Market is expected to register a CAGR of 5.80% during the forecast period.

Key Highlights
- The rising trend of the performance-based billing business model is anticipated to fuel the Europe strategy consulting market growth. The strategy consulting industry has been working on the time-based billing business model. The business model involves the client interacting with the consultant to obtain value for money for the client in the form of operational efficiency and any strategy formulation.
- The European market has been evolving, making it necessary for businesses to adopt AI/ML-based solutions to execute research and analytical tasks for businesses' strategic growth and development. For instance, Accenture adopted a proprietary tool called myNav to assess existing business needs, architect the optimal cloud solution, execute cloud migration, optimize and manage the cloud estate, and continuously innovate cloud journey that maximizes clients' business value.
- The European market businesses are looking forward to expanding their services to clients, which has increased acquisitions and mergers with startups to develop new products and services instead of relying on in-house development. A multi-sourcing model has become more attractive as businesses' problems get more complex. Companies are now breaking their large projects into smaller ones to serve customers better. For instance, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) 's Smart Industry Readiness Index (SIRI) is a series of frameworks and tools to help Industries and manufacturers transform their operations for Industry 4.0.
- The organizations are having or developing in-house consulting groups. The lack of talent and the rise of Freelancers and independent consultants has changed the course of the market. New startups (entrants) in the strategy consulting market have increased competition resulting in pressure on prices and reducing profits for established consultancies. These are some of the challenges the strategy consultant market has been facing.
- The pandemic has reshaped the business process, consumption, and production patterns and attracted regulatory reforms in doing business. Accoridng to FEACO, the demand for durable products (automobiles above all) and fashion goods sharply declined, and lockdowns disrupted supply chains and many factory operations, leading to cancel consulting projects and an average 14.1% decline in the consulting towards Industrial and Consumer products. Therefore the European strategy consulting market has shifted more towards service sectors.


Europe Strategic Consulting Services Market Trends

Financial Sector will Hold the Major Share of the Market


- The European financial sector has been under considerable pressure in the past decade. Businesses, citizens, and national authorities have been affected by the Brexit, economic crisis, and pandemic, leading to challenges like developing new technologies and innovative solutions. The financial sector has been re-emerging. These challenges must be addressed as part of the EU economic recovery efforts.
- As per the survey report FEACO, 2021-22, the Pandemic has forced the market to adopt radical changes, and social scenarios have pushed many industries and clients to request more advice regarding strategic development. Therefore, digital transformation has been a key aspect of many consulting projects in 2020.
- The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic significantly impacted the digital transformation, creating an immediate need for banks to analyze customers' requirements for digital channels, such as apps and platforms. In the last two years, while social distancing was in effect, the number of digital users has increased significantly since the pandemic.
- Some of the challenges that the European Commission and National Development Banks (NDBs) have recognized are developing internal assessment tools, improving organizational structures, capacity building, Improving software infrastructure and analysis, enhancing prudential reporting set-ups, and assessing payment infrastructures, developing e-payment strategies. The financial reforms in the European region requires robust technological reforms which will help strategic consulting companies to gain more business in coming future.
- According to the report on financial reforms in banks in the European region, major challenges in banking sectors are related to developing internal assessment tools, Improving software infrastructure, analyze prudential reporting, set-assessing payment infrastructures, and develop e-payment strategies. Organizational structures and capacity building will attract businesses towards design consulting firms to tackle them and look for solutions, including digital transformation in the financial sector. Strategic consulting firms around the globe will find a good market opportunity for their business expansion and growth created by economic reforms in the region.


UK will be the Fastest Growing Region


- In the European region, the UK consulting business has been able to manage to record growth of double the rate before the pandemic as per the report from European MCA 2021 with the robust growth of strategic consultancies firms operating to tap into global demand to make up for declines during initial stages of the pandemic.
- In 2021 the UK consulting market, Strategy, Technology, and Operations were the three main service lines. These service lines have grown over the years in a relationship with the strong involvement of consulting firms in supporting digital transformation processes.
- Further, there was a high number of mergers and acquisitions by foreign companies in the United Kingdom in 2020, when a total l of 1,635 M&A deals were completed, according to the Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances (IMAA). In 2019, there were 1,443 M&A deals by foreign companies. The high occurrence of mergers and acquisitions has created an opportunity to adopt strategic consulting services in the country.
- With the recent trend toward digitalization and adoption of industry 4.0 practices, more businesses will be looking forward to making strategic changes in their business operation to remain competitive in the market, paving the way for more strategic consulting firms in the region to expand and collaborate with the major business group for major transformational changes in their core strategy of doing business.
- The UK strategy consultancy market is already on a growth trend expected to increase further with more partnerships, acquisitions, and mergers. For example, the Strategic alliance between Thomson Reuters and KPMG for expanding its business, providing HighQ platform access for UK corporate legal departments.


Europe Strategic Consulting Services Industry Overview

The European Strategic Consulting Services market is moderately fragmented, with local and international players having decades of industry experience. The vendors are incorporating a powerful competitive strategy by leveraging their expertise and spending a large amount on advertising. Quality certification, service offerings, costs, and technical capabilities are simple factors for attracting new contracts. Overall, the intensity of the competitive rivalry is high in the market, and it is expected to be the same over the forecast period.


- June 2022 - KPMG UK announced its partnership with Alteryx, the analytics automation company, as part of the firm's strategy to invest in technology to automate business solutions and help clients with data-driven business transformations. Alteryx and KPMG will combine their expertise in developing data strategies for digital transformation initiatives, assisting companies in injecting automated analytics into everyday business processes, and making smarter and faster decisions.
- June 2022 - Accenture acquired Greenfish, specializing in sustainability consultancy services. Accenture intended to develop Greenfish on April 20, 2022.
- June 2022 - Nexus and KPMG together open dedicated incubator space along with advisory support for scaling up businesses around the world. Now home to five companies: Caterpillar Health, Hero Wellbeing, Work And Communications, and Uplift 360 and interrupters with unparalleled access to commercial and research expertise through KPMG and the University of Leeds.


Additional Benefits:

- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
- 3 months of analyst support