The shifting landscape of trust
For decades, the major consulting firms have shaped the way organisations think about transformation. They built playbooks, frameworks, and strategies that defined corporate change. Yet in the last five years, something fundamental has shifted.
According to Source Global Research’s 2025 Global Consulting Market Report, 62% of senior executives say they are now less likely to engage large consultancies than five years ago.
When asked why, their top reasons were:
- Lack of measurable impact.
- Slow delivery.
- Poor cultural fit.
In short — clients no longer want theory. They want execution that delivers results they can see.
Where traditional consultancies fall short
Strategy without ownership
The hallmark of traditional consulting is elegant strategy — but strategy alone no longer creates value.
McKinsey’s 2025 Transformation Performance Index found that only 22% of transformations led by large consulting firms achieved sustainable impact beyond 18 months.
The reason? Execution is outsourced to the client, or to a separate implementation team disconnected from the strategic intent.
Clients are weary of “recommendation fatigue”: beautifully designed PowerPoints that never reach production.
Pace vs. relevance
In a world where AI tools evolve monthly, a 12-month strategy cycle feels archaic.
Large firms struggle to move at the speed their clients now expect — hindered by layers of governance, billable-hour models, and global delivery bureaucracy.
By the time frameworks are signed off, the market has already moved.
Generic models for unique problems
Big consultancies excel at scalable methodologies — but those methodologies often prioritise consistency over context.
Clients increasingly see through templated solutions that ignore their industry nuances, data maturity, or culture.
As one CIO quoted in Harvard Business Review (2024) put it:
“They sell us ‘best practice’ — when what we need is competitive difference.”
Data and AI expertise still fragmented
Despite their investment headlines, most legacy firms still run AI and data projects as isolated centres of excellence, not embedded capabilities.
A Gartner 2025 CIO study found that 57% of enterprise AI projects run by major consultancies failed to progress past pilot stage — primarily due to integration and change-management gaps.
Clients want partners who understand not just AI technology, but how it transforms the operating model itself.
What clients actually want now
Across industries, the new decision drivers are consistent. Clients want:
- Transparency over theatre – fewer 200-page decks, more data-driven insight in real time.
- Speed and adaptability – engagements measured in weeks, not quarters.
- Practical collaboration – consultants who build capability, not dependency.
- Visible ROI – transformation that can be measured in numbers, not narratives.
- Cultural alignment – teams that feel like partners, not auditors.
These are not procurement criteria — they are emotional drivers of trust.
Executives want to feel that their partners are in it with them, accountable for outcomes, not just deliverables.
Why clients are turning to new consultancies like Surtori
The modern client doesn’t need another advisory report — they need translators between strategy and technology, able to turn ambition into working capability.
At Surtori, we were built for that gap.
Our Fusion Framework™ bridges strategy, design, engineering, and adoption — ensuring every recommendation is executed, measured, and improved in-flight.
Clients choose us because we:
- Operate faster and lighter, without the overhead of global bureaucracy.
- Deliver context-specific solutions, not generic playbooks.
- Embed AI, automation, and data intelligence from the start, not as an afterthought.
- Focus relentlessly on measurable performance improvement, not just activity.
In a world fatigued by consulting theatre, we offer clarity, speed, and tangible impact.
The new consulting equation
Clients don’t buy hours — they buy outcomes.
They don’t want frameworks — they want evidence.
They don’t need transformation explained — they need it delivered.
The consulting landscape is resetting.
The firms that thrive in the next decade will be those that combine the rigour of strategy with the agility of engineering — those that deliver measurable, intelligent transformation.
That’s the space Surtori was designed to occupy.
Surtori. Intelligent Transformation. Proven Impact.