Consulting in the Digital Age, with Prof. Joe O’Mahoney (The Price and Value Journey, Episode 123)
In this episode of The Price and Value Journey, host John Ray welcomes Professor Joe O’Mahoney, a leading authority on the consulting industry. They discuss significant shifts in the consulting field, including industry growth, client sophistication, and the impact of AI on consulting processes and pricing. Joe highlights the importance of managed knowledge and systems in consulting firms and how firms can leverage AI to improve efficiency. They also touch on issues like value-based pricing, the role of luck in business success, and how consultants can build reliable, scalable models for long-term growth. Joe shares insights from his latest book, Growth: Building a Successful Consultancy in the Digital Age, making a compelling case for why modern consulting firms must embrace both digital transformation and personalized client relationships.
The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton affiliate of Business RadioX®.
Prof. Joe O’Mahoney
Joe is a leading authority on the consulting industry and a consultant to boutiques and small consulting firms. His research on the profession has won several prestigious awards and publications and resulted in leadership of high-profile government-funded research into the profession. Joe’s textbook on management consulting, Management Consultancy (published by Oxford University Press) was the best-selling book of its kind in Europe and his academic research has been published in the top international journals. His most recent, evidence-based book on growing consulting firms in the digital age, Growth: Building a Successful Consultancy in the Digital Age (published by Routledge), is the “go-to” growth text for consulting CEOs and managing partners all over the world.
Joe also practices what he preaches: he has been a corporate consultant, an internal consultant and a solo consultant. He has spent fifteen years providing advisory services to small consulting firms on growth and, in 2007, sold his own company, StayMobile Technology Ltd. In addition to his private practice, he is the founder of Repair Café Wales CIC and Consulting Mastered Ltd.
Joe has taught and coached over 2,000 executives and MBA students about management consultancy and helped hundreds of students gain places at leading consulting firms. Joe’s work has been recognized by awards from the British Academy of Management, the Centre for Consulting Excellence, the ESRC and several university prizes.
Joe studied history at Oxford University and obtained his PhD and MSc at Warwick University. He lives within Cardiff with his wife, Hannah, and two sons.
Topics Discussed in this Episode
00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Prof. Joe O’Mahoney
01:36 Big Shifts in Consulting
04:08 Myths and Outdated Beliefs in Consulting
08:03 Scaling and Growth Challenges
14:23 Managed Knowledge and Intellectual Property
19:46 Artificial Intelligence in Consulting
23:35 Implementing AI for Long-Term Success
25:25 Strategizing with AI: Efficiency vs. Personalization
26:45 Leveraging Off-the-Shelf Solutions for Process Improvement
28:20 AI’s Role in Consulting: Current Capabilities and Future Potential
30:12 The Impact of AI on Consulting Pricing Models
36:19 Building Value and Trust in Client Relationships
44:50 The Role of Luck in Consulting Success
48:34 Conclusion and Contact Information
About The Price and Value Journey
The title of this show describes the journey all professional service providers are on: building a services practice by seeking to convince the world of the value we offer, helping clients achieve the outcomes they desire, and trying to do all that at pricing that reflects the value we deliver.
If you feel like you’re working too hard for too little money in your solo or small firm practice, this show is for you. Even if you’re reasonably happy with your practice, you’ll hear ways to improve both your bottom line and the mindset you bring to your business.
The show is hosted and produced by John Ray and the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. The show can also be found on all the major podcast apps. The complete show archive is here.
John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey
John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.
John owns Ray Business Advisors, a business advisory practice. John’s services include business coaching and advisory work, as well as advising solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing for business owners, as changing pricing is the fastest way to change the profitability of a business. His clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, coaches, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.
In his other business, John is a podcast show host and producer and owns the North Fulton (Georgia) affiliate of Business RadioX®. John and his team work with B2B professionals to create and conduct their own podcast using The Generosity Mindset™ Method: building and deepening relationships in a non-salesy way that translates into revenue for their business.
John is also the host of North Fulton Business Radio. With over 840 shows and having featured over 1,300 guests, North Fulton Business Radio is the longest-running podcast in the North Fulton area, covering business in its region like no one else.
John’s book, The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices
John is the #1 national best-selling author of The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices.
If you are a professional services provider, your goal is to do transformative work for clients you love working with and get paid commensurate with the value you deliver to those clients. While negative mindsets can inhibit your growth, adopting a different mindset, The Generosity Mindset®, can replace those self-limiting beliefs. The Generosity Mindset enables you to diagnose and communicate the value you deliver to clients and, in turn, more effectively price to receive a portion of that value.
Whether you’re a consultant, coach, marketing or branding professional, business advisor, attorney, CPA, or work in virtually any other professional services discipline, your content and technical expertise are not proprietary. What’s unique, though, is your experience and how you synthesize and deliver your knowledge. What’s special is your demeanor or the way you deal with your best-fit clients. What’s invaluable is how you deliver great value by guiding people through massive changes in their personal lives and in their businesses that bring them to a place they never thought possible.
The combination of all these elements is quite different for you compared to any other service provider in your industry. Therein lies your value, but it’s not the value you see. It’s the value your best-fit customers see in you.
If pricing your value feels uncomfortable or unfamiliar to you, this book will teach you why putting a price on the value your clients perceive and identify serves both them and you, and you’ll learn the factors involved in getting your price right.
The book is available at all major physical and online book retailers worldwide. Follow this link for further details.
