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Task automation was more than half the business, approaching 70% in some markets.

Profitable, in demand, and clients kept coming back for more of it… then the new revenue chief decided it was the problem.

Mark Robbins, Chief Outcome Officer at ABP Consultancy, had watched a technology category commoditize once before, from the vendor side, during 13 years at IBM. His diagnosis: clients were choosing task automation because it asked less of them, not because it delivered more. And a nearshore company of around 100 people was being priced against offshore providers who could simply quote lower.

He calls that a sustainability problem rather than a margin problem. In this episode he walks through what ABP rebuilt because of it, and tells the story of a client with £190K a year in verified savings, around £500K a year in fees, and the value that would have closed that gap sitting in a team nobody had measured.

You'll learn:
1. Why the work that sells most easily is often the work turning into a commodity, and how to spot it in your own portfolio
2. How to instrument an engagement for benefits realization at the point you scope it, rather than reconstructing evidence after go-live
3. Why ABP refused to run a pilot or a POC on a technology vendor's terms, and what writing its own methodology cost the executive team
4. What replaced the credentials deck in ABP's business development, including the 30 minutes of preparation Mark says you owe a client before asking for 30 minutes of their time
5. Why Mark wants the word revenue taken out of his own job title

Mark is open to connecting about commoditization, value attribution, and rebuilding a consulting proposition around outcomes. If you'd like to exchange perspectives, reach out on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-robbins-81531310/

Sarah Edwards is Chief Product Strategy Officer at Kantata and has spent over 30 years helping professional services firms scale, transform, and deliver measurable business value across the US and Europe. She is passionate about how AI is reshaping the consulting industry, from how firms win work and deliver outcomes to how they empower talent and strengthen client relationships.

Get in touch with Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahedwards3/

More episodes and insights: https://www.leadersinconsulting.com/podcast

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Jill Foley, Founder and Chair of On3 Partners, built a licence-based revenue line that now makes up 40% to 50% of her business, without growing headcount to do it.

Her diagnosis: most firms trying to build recurring revenue start with the technology. Jill started by identifying the unmet business need and building a methodology to tackle it. Only then did she invest in technology enablement. She began that journey with clear investment parameters (at worst, how much she was prepared to lose; at best, the timescales for ROI). She split her business into two companies to ensure clear and focused performance management.

In this episode, she explains why she made the technology side the answer to the consulting business rather than the other way round, what that discipline cost her, no profit in the technology business until year 3, limited scale until year 4 or 5, and what it eventually bought her.


You'll learn:

1. Why starting with a technology instead of a client problem is the most common way to fail at productisation
2. How to structure a product bet so a failure can't spread into the rest of your business
3. Why the order you build in, method first or technology first, decides which side makes the money
4. What a realistic timeline to profit actually looks like when you're building recurring revenue
5. How Jill decided in advance what she was willing to lose before she risked anything

Jill is open to connecting about building recurring revenue in consulting without losing control of the risk. If you'd like to exchange perspectives, reach out on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-foley-9a6100/

Sarah Edwards is Chief Product Officer at Kantata and has spent over 30 years helping professional services firms scale, transform, and deliver measurable business value across the US and Europe. She is passionate about how AI is reshaping the consulting industry, from how firms win work and deliver outcomes to how they empower talent and strengthen client relationships.

Get in touch with Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahedwards3/

More episodes and insights: https://www.leadersinconsulting.com/podcast

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Was passiert, wenn dein Geschäftsmodell auf Zeit basiert, aber Zeit keine Rolle mehr spielt?

Michael Nenninger, CEO von Voycer Digital und ehemaliger EVP Digital Consulting bei MSG, beschreibt, warum das klassische Consulting-Modell strukturell unter Druck gerät.

Sobald AI Methoden reproduzierbar macht und Projekte von Wochen auf Tage schrumpfen, beginnt sich die Logik hinter Auslastung, Pyramidenstruktur und zeitbasierter Abrechnung aufzulösen.

Im Gespräch zeigt Michael, wie sich Beratung von projektbasierter Arbeit hin zu systematischer, skalierbarer Wertschöpfung verschiebt und warum es für Führungskräfte nicht mehr um Effizienz, sondern um eine bewusste Neuausrichtung ihres Geschäftsmodells geht.

In dieser Episode erfährst du:
1. Warum AI den Wert von Beratungsleistung neu definiert.
2. Wie Agentic AI die klassische Pyramidenstruktur auflöst.
3. Warum schnellere Delivery dein Pricing-Modell unter Druck setzt.
4. Wie sich Beratung von Projekten zu skalierbaren Systemen verschiebt.
5. Welche neuen Wettbewerber durch AI im Consulting entstehen.

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Michael Nenninger ist offen für den Austausch zum Thema Geschäftsmodell-Transformation im Consulting.

Wenn du Perspektiven teilen möchtest, vernetze dich auf LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-nenninger/

Michaels Buchempfehlung:
Die Logik des Misslingens | https://amzn.eu/d/04awGcZJ
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Über den Host Sammy:
Sammy und SAWOO bieten einen B2B-Community-Building-Service, der Dich als Vordenker in Deiner Branche etabliert und Dir hilft, echte, zwischenmenschliche Beziehungen zu Deinen Wunschkunden aufzubauen.

Schreibe Sammy einfach via E-Mail unter sammy.gebele@sawoo.io oder connecte Dich auf LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sammygebele/
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Bisherige Gäste des LEADERS IN CONSULTING Podcasts: Friederich von Hurter, Melanie Tobler, Tilman Au und viele weitere!
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Wenn Du mehr darüber erfahren möchtest, wie Führungskräfte im Consulting mit aktuellen Themen der Branche umgehen, folge der LEADERS IN CONSULTING Community auf LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/leaders-in-consulting-dach