Making capabilities count

Mainardi said the concept he built was largely attributable to his background as an engineer, which gave him a disciplined thinking of the world that he brought to his consulting work.

His knowledge of engineering helped him deal with manufacturing clients during his early years on the job. But, later on, it brought systemic thinking to developing strategies for clients across industries.

"I believe individuals with almost any background can thrive in consulting, not just engineers. It's all about having a passion to serve clients, generating high-impact ideas and possessing the ability to help clients drive change," he said.

Nowadays, consulting is no longer just about smart people getting on planes to visit companies. The real magic of consulting is weaving together all kinds of different consultants with many different skill sets into a high-performing team that can truly deliver the specific change each client requires.

"This has been the most amazing career I can imagine," he said. It is what has kept Mainardi with Booz for 26 years.

Chinese clients

While admitting that he is not an old China hand, Mainardi said his company saw a rapid surge in its Chinese business. The number of clients Booz serves in China is "a healthy mix".

"We don't believe the right answer in China is to work with multinational companies alone. The right answer is to also serve local businesses," the senior consulting sector practitioner said.

Mainardi has noticed a paradigm shift in the market. During the first phase, as Mainardi called it, the "China for the rest of the world" stage, everybody had a key interest in the country so that many foreign players were seeking advice on how to operate in China.

A few years later, there was the emergence of Chinese companies that were looking for advice on the professionalization of management.

Now, consulting in China has evolved rapidly from advising companies on how to run businesses in China and exchange best practices into how to build winning institutions on a regional or global basis, whether it is a Chinese or foreign company. Especially after the global financial crisis, performance consciousness in China is increasing. Chinese companies, like their foreign peers, have grown far more sophisticated.

They are fed up with simply receiving advice, market studies or ad hoc projects. Because of the global financial crisis, the market now demands actual outcomes, results, and enduring capabilities.

So the function of the industry has transformed from giving general advice toward providing specific expertise to make a measurable difference.

For instance, Booz helped Hengan International Group Co Ltd, a leading manufacturer of personal hygiene products, enhance its operational flow, performance assessment mechanisms and corporate structure in 2009.

Looking to the future, Mainardi said that it is not easy to compete in an environment where top-tier strategy firms, such as McKinsey & Co, Bain & Co and Roland Berger, have a high-profile presence.

"They are all great firms in our peer set. But we want to stand out as a firm that's different in terms of who we are. We've always been the practical strategists by informing strategy through a capabilities lens. It's an unmet need in the market and we're poised to fill it," Mainardi said.

hewei@chinadaily.com.cn