The Partnership Paradigm: Why building the future takes more than good advice

I’m a partner at Co-Created, one of the few “venture builder” firms specializing in helping large organizations make big, strategic bets on building better futures (aka “good growth”). That means I spend a LOT of time thinking about how we deliver real value. Not just ideas, workshops, and decks full of theoretically sound recommendations, but real value. Real progress. Real outcomes.

In this rapidly changing world, the needs of companies, their customers and the world as a whole are shifting at warp speed, which means those of us who bring the “outside-in” must continue to evolve to meet corporate partners where they are at…with more than billable hours and advice.

How should we do that? Why do I think this way? Strap in…

(Easter egg at the bottom for music fans)

State of the advice business

Last weekend, I found myself with a rare hour alone (I have two little girls), engrossed in a Wall Street Journal article on the current state of management consulting. The headline: we are seeing a seismic shift in the industry. For the first time, leading firms are not just downsizing their workforce but are also parting ways with partners, a previously unheard-of practice. A 2022, a report cited that the management consulting market had grown to $973.67 billion in spend globally, reaching a fever pitch during the pandemic. So what changed in the last two years? 

Rising interest rates, fears of looming recession, and an uncertain geopolitical climate has caused global enterprises to scale back investment in external “for-hire” expertise and change management. The environment is now very different from the record-setting years of early pandemic when large enterprises poured billions into consultant coffers to get help imagining transformation in an all-of-a-sudden remotely working, masked, terrified and economically dislocated world. Now, more companies are taking the reins themselves, increasingly choosing to internalize the monumental tasks of envisioning their futures and driving transformation.

This shift reaffirms a long-held belief of mine that the management consulting role and business model are rooted in a bygone era: One in which the pace of change in business was slower. Before software began “eating the world” and the information revolution brought us not just the world’s information in our pockets (thanks internet, qualcomm, apple, google) but now the means to critically analyze that information in seconds (thanks AI). 

 Management consulting’s core value proposition historically was about professionalizing ‘management’ itself: 1) helping good leaders consistently make great decisions in service of shareholder value and 2) managing complexity through rigorous research, analysis, and benchmarking to well-understood standards. The best do it so very well. And truly, some of the brightest and most successful executives I’ve encountered in business are former consultants.

The consultants aren't the problem. The model is.

The management consulting model is at its best when change can be easily dimensioned and predicted, based on historical precedent. But the accelerating pace of disruption over the last 30 years has demonstrated that exponential change from novel sources is impossible to accurately predict from the safety of your desk. Advice based on models does not cut it. You have to get your hands dirty building the future to really understand the future.

💡When access to expertise and critical analysis was hard to come by, establishing and standardizing frameworks that could then be packaged with advisory was brisk business.

💡So was becoming the trusted partner for optimization and financial engineering that signaled professional management, efficiency and fiscal responsibility. The street loved it all.

However, as the world adjusts to a pace of change that only continues to accelerate, the traditional consulting model of dispassionate, research-based opinion falls short. Why?

Because at some point providing opinions without having "skin in the game" or direct accountability for execution and the long-term success of the organization, leaves the "client" short. 

In a breakfast of bacon and eggs, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed.

Tell me something I don't know

A former colleague at a large company once said to me that consultants are paid millions “to take your watch and tell you the time.” More generously IMO, management consultants often serve as highly effective tiebreakers, lending their reputation and brand weight to confirming what clients may already suspect, rather than challenging clients to explore less familiar, riskier, unventured paths.

This all hit home for me and our work at Co-Created when a corporate partner, who genuinely valued our collaboration, referred to us as "the best consultants" they had ever worked with. Great vibes to be sure, and yet I found myself internally stuck on the label. Consultants. Who, me? Us?

That moment led me to explore what truly differentiates a partner from a consultant. We at Co-Created consider ourselves “partners,” and “operators,” not consultants. Why? Because partnership is not about delivering a presentation and walking away; it's about ownership of outcomes, about being as invested in the success of an initiative as our clients are. It's about rolling up sleeves and doing the doing—opportunity identifying, venture building, growth fostering, co-creating—activities that go beyond advice and counsel. It’s getting in the trenches at all levels of the organization; digging in with the business leads, testing with marketers, building alongside the PMs, not just behind closed doors in the boardroom. We embrace risk, we innovate, we deliver—not just once, but repeatedly, iterating beyond the initial idea to truly meet the market and its real-world complexities arm-in-arm with our corporate partners.

Why "Partner" mindset?

We believe our role is to de-risk the future for our partners, transforming the first good idea into an even better reality through rapid experimentation and testing in the market. Our work with leading organizations across industries goes beyond advisory to actively participating in the creation and operationalization of real-world offerings;  often paving the way for these solutions to be internalized, built, and launched at enterprise scale by our partners.

Co-Created is composed of founders, operators, and builders who understand the gravity of taking risks for long-term growth and are willing to build that future alongside our partners. Our commitment is to not just predict but to actively shape the outcomes alongside our partners. In this rapidly evolving business landscape, our mission is to help companies boldly build better futures - delivering value beyond this quarter’s earnings call.

We don’t simply sell advice or time. We de-risk. We develop. We deliver. Beyond the deck. We value learning through experimentation, focusing on the right problems and moving fast because we know the only way to navigate uncertainty is to do.

So for those of you who maybe aren't familiar with how we use venture building to unlock impactful new growth and then double down, reach out. Always happy to chat.

For now let me quote the inimitable Jay Z:

Allow me to reintroduce myself. 

My name is Ron J Williams, partner at Co-Created, and we are not consultants.

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