6 examples of consultancies working with innovative start-ups.
The very nature of consulting firms is that they strive to understand today’s innovation trends in order to gauge the future. Consultancy collaborations with start-ups might be seen as a natural outcome of such strategies. Several big consulting firms have embraced partnering with start-ups from a wide span of industries. The background and goals of some of these alliances have been reviewed in an array of professional publications.
Examples of Consultancies Collaborating with Start-ups
A.T. Kearney — A.T. Kearney recently collaborated with the start-up seed funding entity, Berlin Technologies Holding. This alliance allowed A.T. Kearney to use its industry expertise and existing client base in order to interact with the start-ups that are under the guidance of Berlin Technologies Holding.
Bain & Company — Bain & Company appears so focused on start-ups that they partnered with the start-up database, CrunchBase, in order to offer their analytical expertise to CrunchBases’s vast data. The collaboration may help Bain to offer clients insights on which technological trends may be experiencing early traction.
BCG — Consultancy.uk reported that consultancies may be so involved with start-ups because they are in pursuit of the next “unicorn.” In particular, BCG teamed up with Hello Tomorrow, which is a non-profit organization that helps to support technology oriented startups. BCG will be supporting Hello Tomorrow regarding their efforts to run competitions for various start-ups, in order to inspire innovation.
Capgemini — Regarding Capgemini’s interaction with start-ups, they indicate that they offer a three-fold benefit to the startup community with their collaborations: immediately gain more insight on what clients want, a solid go-to-market strategy and helping to enable new ideas regarding IT platforms.
Deloitte — Deloitte and blockchain start-up Colu partnered to bring the Rubix software platform that allows Deloitte clients to build their own apps. Colu is a start-up that allows users to add metadata to a given blockchain transaction. Other upstart companies involved with Deloitte include Blockstream, Counterparty and Ethereum.
PwC — Tanium and PwC partnered so that they could help companies secure themselves from cyber attacks. Before PwC had officially partnered with Tanium, they had worked together for two years.
A recent article in Computer Business Review (CBR) actually contended that the collaboration that consulting firms do with financial technology start-ups are helping start-ups to disrupt the industry even faster than they would have done by themselves. Examples provided by CBR include Accenture’s various fintech innovation labs, Ernst & Young’s support of fintech accelerator programs and KPMG’s promotion of the Fintech Innovation Challenge.
Conclusion
Start-up collaborations with consulting firms span an array of industries, including bitcoin, security, fintech, augmented reality, hardware and marketplaces. By being aware of the pulse of the start-up community, consultancies can continuously be alerted about the latest innovations. Start-ups gain benefits in such relationships, as well, since they can gain access to clients that they would have otherwise had difficulty reaching. Thus, a mutually beneficial relationship can be achieved, as evidenced by the constant press on new and fruitful collaborations.
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