Q&A with Robert Jones on Opening the Right Business Doors

We speak to XpertiseNow Singapore’s Country Leader, Robert Jones, about opening the right business doors for specialist consultancies. 

Q: What are the frustrations smaller consultancies encounter in terms of getting visibility with larger clients? 

A: There’s a couple of dimensions to that. There is just the visibility having the contacts having the network, getting in to see the right people. And that’s half the battle. The other half of the battle is becoming part of that decision making process. That’s both engaging with the right people, but also going through the procurement process as well. Many companies, historically have been set up to deal with the large consultancies and not necessarily the boutiques and I think the market is changing, but it’s about enabling the market to change. 

Q: What can XpertiseNow do to help the bigger companies better engage with smaller companies? 

A: If we look at some of the bigger companies wanting to engage more with smaller companies – and as the CEO of a smaller specialist consultancy called Blue Fire I see this a lot – I see that  there’s a lot of feedback from bigger clients that many of the traditional larger consultancies aren’t really what they need. So there’s a shift in the market towards smaller teams. Instead of teams of 50 or 100 people that are a lower level on the ground, they want people that can execute. And they want practitioners that have had hands-on expertise in industry. People that can deliver results, people that are hands on and provide that high level of specialisation. I think is a shift that’s happening in the industry now.  

What XpertiseNow facilitates is the ability for larger clients to work with a smaller expert entity. Now, they are able to reach many different candidates they might not be able to reach from a specialist consultancy point of view and then be able to go through that governance process with one contract and one engagement that can mix and match the talent and the skills that have a high level of expertise in the specialist consultancy market. 

Q: And what can XpertiseNow do for specialist consultancies that want bigger business clients? 

A: XpertiseNow provides credibility. We help specialist consultancies cover a wider piece of work by bringing together networks of experts that can form a wider team. Specialist consultancies broaden engagement and this allows them to move up the chain beyond where it’s just their own resources. Essentially, our networking capability makes it easier to engage with new partners.  

Q: Do you think that the larger clients are going to be more predisposed to work with a company like XpertiseNow that looks more like a virtual big consulting group? 

A: Every consultancy that’s out there has their own areas that they’re very good at focusing on, but one of the things that’s been a strength for our business over the years is really being able to say, we need someone who is, for instance, a data centre expert or a cybersecurity expert. It might be outside of some of our comfort areas but we know how to get in and how to get those, those people that have really deep expertise. We providing that top level expertise across the board in many different areas and that’s done through the network.