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What effect does the abrupt resignation of Perot Systems CEO James Cannavino have on the firm's nascent consulting operation? None, according to chairman of consulting services James Champy. In an exclusive interview with CN managing editor Tom Rodenhauser, Champy reflects on the challenges of leading his new organization a year after departing CSC Index (CN Sep. '96).
CN: We're always trying to segment the consulting world according to strategy, operations, implementation and so on. We're seeing everything pushing together. Do you see the same?
Champy: Clearly, our strategy represents a belief that the marketplace is collapsing. It's not that every client wants a single source. Does every client want to be able to buy all their consulting services from EDS? No, you find very few people come at it from that perspective.
I think it's the market that ultimately will drive the collapse of a lot of those services into what will eventually get to be real single firms, but we're far away from that. Most firms still operate in a highly fragmented way. I'm convinced that there will not be a change in the marketplace until a new group of firms almost grow organically.
CN: Who is out there doing it or trying to do it?
Champy: Everybody says they're trying to do it.
The closest is my old firm, CSC. I think they're a good firm, good people, but they still have to overcome the fact that they have multiple business units. That's what they've got to overcome. Andersen, you see doesn't have the full set of capabilities. Andersen can't do the operations part.
Cambridge Technology Partners has an aspiration to provide a broad or more integrated set of services. And it will be interesting to watch them.
Look...