Consultancy survey shows size isn’t everything and better qualifications don’t mean better pay

The findings below reflect the 1,741 responses received as of Monday 16 August. More precisely, they reflect the 1,002 responses from consultancy providers and consultancy purchasers. Over 60% of respondents are senior consultants, senior management, or company directors. 83% are edie users and 57% are readers of Environment Business. Unlike previous surveys, we have invited everyone involved in the provision or purchasing of consultancy services to take part rather than just getting one “official” response from each company. We think this adds value by presenting what people really think rather than just the official line.

Bucking recent trends, most consultants expect to see more growth in private than public sector work and CSR came in last of our 7 potential growth markets. Waste management was seen as the single biggest growth market, with nearly 70% of respondents placing this in their top four ‘most important’ categories. Unsurprising perhaps, given the recent restrictions on landfill and new packaging rules across Europe.

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How to choose a consultant
We asked consultants, and then their clients, which factors, of a list
including price, reputation, advertising, and proximity of local office,
they thought contributed most to decision making when choosing a consultant.

Reputation was the prime reason for both consultants and clients, followed closely by the specialised capabilities of that consultancy. Personal recommendation was the second highest reason for choosing consultancies from a client point of view, and tied in with the importance placed on after-care by the consultants.
Interestingly, all but two of the factors were rated higher in importance by consultants than by their customers – the exceptions being mainstream media coverage and price!

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Who has the best reputation?
So we took the 36 firms who turned over more than £1m in FY April
02-March 03 (according to the Environment Business survey, 2003 – apologies
to Arup and anyone else who wasn’t in that) and asked who has the best
reputation. The Top 5 according to customers were: Entec UK, Enviros Consulting,
Atkins, ENVIRON UK and ERM.

When you compare reputation to turnover, it is evident that some firms are punching well above their weight. Environ UK, for example, are one fifteenth the size of the largest firm in the industry but score significantly higher on reputation.

It is clear that environmental consultancy is a friendly and co-operative industry, as all but nine of these firms were rated higher by their peers than by the customers. It also looks we could all learn a lot from firms like Entec UK, and Enviros Consulting, and White Young Green, who were all rated significantly higher by customers than by consultants.

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Sizing up
In December 2003, Environment Business published a league table of consultancies
declared turnover in the environment sector. We asked people who they
thought had the highest turnover. Clients were firmly of the opinion that
Entec UK did the most business, followed closely by Atkins. Other consultants,
however, put Atkins at the top, followed by ERM, Environ UK, Enviros,
and put Entec fifth.

Do you know who I am?
Apparently not, in many cases. Taking the same 36 firms we asked people
which firms they were aware operated in the environmental sector.

Atkins had the highest recognition factor, with 60% of consultants and 57.2% of customers knowing they are active in this sector. Entec UK had the second highest recognition among customers with 56.4%, followed by ENVIRON UK with 53.8%. The same two companies were listed by the consultants but with ENVIRON UK coming second, and Entec UK coming third. In both lists Enviros and ERM came a close fourth and fifth behind the others.

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How do people source consultancies
Both consultants and customers agree that industry websites are essential
for sourcing consultants. Customers actually said they used industry magazines
slightly more – putting them in the number one slot – while consultants
themselves put magazines in third place. There was a pretty clear consensus
that Yellow Pages and other paper directories are rarely used these days.

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Show me the money!
If you are a consultant or would like to be, the million dollar question
is: “How much should I be earning?” The tables below should go some way
towards answering this, though we plan to do some more detailed analysis
and cross referencing to produce more useful answers.
One thing, however, is clear. If you are planning on doing a PhD in order
to increase your earnings, you should think again. You might get a pay
rise when you publish your thesis, but from a financial point of view
those years of your life would be more profitably invested in gaining
work experience. Only 18% of those earning over £60K/year have a PhD or
equivalent qualification.

Rows How much do you earn before tax? Total
including benefits & bonus
Columns What academic qualifications/titles
do you hold MSc or equivalent

Rows How much do you earn before tax? Total
including benefits & bonus
Columns How many years relevant work experience
do you have?

Rows How much do you earn before tax? Total
including benefits & bonus
Columns What
is your job position

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