Publications
Publications
- 2019
- HBS Working Paper Series
The Creative Consulting Company
By: Robert S. Kaplan, Richard Nolan and David P. Norton
Abstract
During the past 50 years, several consulting companies introduced important new ideas that extended management theory and improved management practice. This paper draws upon public sources and the authors’ personal experiences to describe how three management consulting companies created and sustained several big management ideas. The consulting organizations identified companies that had introduced an innovation to address a practice gap or anomaly. It then described the innovation in articles, cases, and public conferences and proceeded to help a new set of companies implement the management innovation, which led to enhancements in the original innovation that made it more understandable, generalizable, and robust. The consulting leaders sustained their thought-leadership positions by creating an ecosystem with senior executives at pioneer corporations and academic/thought leaders. The paper also describes how other consulting companies did not sustain an initial thought-leadership position because of a failure to recognize the synergistic interplay between knowledge application and knowledge creation.
Keywords
Management; Theory; Practice; Performance Improvement; Innovation and Management; Consulting Industry
Citation
Kaplan, Robert S., Richard Nolan, and David P. Norton. "The Creative Consulting Company." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-001, July 2018.