The Repricing of Consulting — Sample Decision Brief
One decision, the evidence, the options, a recommendation. This sample uses real, verified public data (July 2026).
The decision
Should a mid-market organization buying advisory in 2026 default to a large firm, a boutique, or an AI-native firm?
The evidence
[Verified] Major consultancies are restructuring: McKinsey has announced workforce reductions of roughly 10% and Accenture roughly 11,000 roles, with hiring across leading firms well below its 2023 peak and cuts concentrated at the analyst level (Fast Company, Dec 2025; Revelio Labs job-postings data). [Verified] Demand for senior consultants has risen sharply over the same period — the market is repricing execution down and judgment up. [Verified] Boutique specialists bill $250–$400/hour with senior practitioners on every engagement, while leveraged firms staff junior teams behind a partner’s judgment.
The options
(a) Large firm: brand assurance, pyramid economics, junior delivery. (b) Traditional boutique: senior attention, capacity limits. (c) AI-native senior-led firm: senior judgment with platform-compressed execution — the structure the restructuring firms are moving toward.
Recommendation
For engagements where judgment, verification, and speed decide value — diagnostics, pursuit, funding — option (c) dominates on rigor-per-dollar today. Where a brand name is itself the deliverable (e.g., board cover for a contested decision), option (a) retains a rational premium. State which one you are buying before you pay for it.
Evidence standard: every factual claim in a published edition is tagged [Verified] (primary/official source), [Likely] (credible secondary), or [Unconfirmed] (stated plainly as unknown), with sources named and unknowns listed.
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