Yesterday’s strategies: is your consulting firm being run in the rearview mirror?

In our experience working firsthand with consulting firms, we’ve noticed that many of them still find themselves relying on outdated strategies, managing their business with hindsight rather than foresight. This was the core theme we explored in our CMap Insights webinar, where Ben Edwards, Head of Consulting at CMap, discussed this and more with John Howard and Simon England from Garwood Growth.

· Watch the webinar

· Listen to the podcast

· Keep on reading for the highlights

With a focus on how boutique consulting firms can transition from reactive to proactive management, the session offered a wealth of insights for firms ready to shift gears and embrace future-facing strategies in 2025. Let’s have a look at the key takeaways:

The problem with rearview management

Boutique consulting firms are often high-touch, people-driven businesses. This makes them excellent at delivering client results, but vulnerable to operational blind spots.  

Many of these firms operate using fragmented systems like spreadsheets for resourcing, separate time-tracking tools, CRM platforms that don’t talk to finance systems, and siloed project data.  

The result? Leaders are forced to look backward to understand performance, rather than having real-time, predictive insight into the health of their business.

This backward-looking approach leads to reactive decision-making. Firms only realize things are going wrong after the damage is done - when utilization is down, revenue targets are missed, or team burnout hits.

“The first step is recognizing you have a problem. The highest-performing firms strike a balance between learning from the past and staying focused on the future. If you’re always looking backward, you risk becoming reactive, and that’s when you get knocked off track.”
— John Howard, Partner at Garwood Growth

What forward-looking firms do differently

By connecting sales pipelines with resourcing and finance tools, consulting firms can gain a real-time view of their business. More importantly, they can forecast where they’re going, not just report on where they’ve been.

Here’s what high-performing, future-facing consulting firms do:

• They align pipeline with delivery: Instead of scrambling when a new deal closes, they anticipate demand and begin resource planning early.

• They manage utilization proactively: With visibility into future resourcing gaps or overloads, they can balance workloads and reduce burnout.

• They integrate systems for insight: Rather than operating in silos, they use platforms like CMap to bring together CRM, project management, timesheets, and finance data in one place.

From broken spreadsheets to strategic clarity

Ben described what he calls the “operations black hole”: a place where spreadsheets go to die, full of outdated formulas and disconnected systems.  

Many boutique firms patch together their operations using a series of point solutions, with tools like Excel, Google Sheets, and Monday.com. While this might work when the business is small, it quickly becomes a liability as the firm grows.

By replacing broken spreadsheets with purpose-built platforms, firms gain access to accurate, up-to-date information across all business functions. They no longer rely on lengthy manual workarounds to answer basic questions like “Who’s available next month?” or “Which projects are at risk of overrunning?”

“It’s worth taking the time and investment to connect the dots between your systems. When finance and HR tools operate in isolation, you end up with a mess of spreadsheets and manual workarounds. Integrated systems let information flow, which is essential for scaling effectively.”
— Simon England, Partner at Garwood Growth

The metrics that matter in 2025

Another major theme John and Simon highlighted was the importance of choosing the right metrics to steer the business.  

Simon pointed out that many firms focus too heavily on lagging indicators (revenue, profit, and utilization) without tracking the leading indicators that drive those outcomes.

Forward-looking firms monitor:

• Pipeline value vs. capacity: “Do we have enough work lined up to keep people busy?”

• Revenue forecasting: “Based on current and future engagements, are we on track to hit targets?”

• Project health: “Are projects on budget and timeline, or are there early signs of risk?”

• Staffing forecasts: “Do we have the right mix of skills and capacity for what’s coming?”

With the right data, leaders can spot issues before they escalate and make smarter decisions about hiring and delivery.

Changing the culture around data

Ben also touched on the cultural shifts needed to make this transformation stick. Tools are one thing, but trust, accountability, and ownership of data across the business is equally as important.

“Having a single source of truth means people stop arguing over who’s right and start solving the problem,” he noted.  

When teams trust the data, they use it to drive actions. And when everyone (operations, finance, resourcing and c-suite) is working from the same playbook, the business becomes more agile and resilient.

But how can teams start the conversation? Here’s what John and Simon suggested: