BCG just did something it has never done before.
Last week, the world’s second largest strategy firm announced it will pilot placing interim executives – CFO, COO, CTO – directly inside client organisations. Starting in Germany, expanding to France next.
That’s not what strategy firms typically do.
Interim leadership has always been the territory of specialist firms. Strategy firms advise. They don’t embed. They don’t own the outcome. They deliver the recommendation and move on.
Whether this pilot succeeds or not, the fact that BCG is testing this model tells you something important about the questions large firms are asking themselves right now.
Because underneath that move is a client demand signal: organisations are asking harder questions about what they’re actually getting from consulting engagements. Outcomes, accountability, and demonstrable change are becoming the new bar.
A few weeks ago I put together a framework on consulting delivery formats and AI replaceability (see comments). At the top – hardest to replace – advisory and strategy, executive coaching, fractional leadership. Not because they’re prestigious.
Because the value lives in relationships, judgment, and the ability to create real organisational change.
BCG testing interim leadership confirms that direction.
Which raises the question for independent consultants and boutique firm owners:
👉 What are you doing to demonstrate that your work creates real, measurable change?
If your offer is built around reports, workshops, or tool implementation – those are deliverables. Not outcomes. The gap between “I’ll deliver this” and “I’ll change that” is becoming the difference between winning and losing.
Three questions worth sitting with:
➡️ How do you create real, measurable change in an organisation?
➡️ Why you, over every other consultant making similar claims?
➡️ How do you communicate that in a way that makes a senior buyer say yes?
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