Mission, Vision & Tenets

The ICG Business Model

ICG is one of the world’s fastest growing consulting and project services firms. We operate unique talent hubs around the world, which unite the alumni of the world’s leading consulting firms, universities and employers, along with subject matter experts and leading boutiques.

We are uniquely positioned to offer clients any permutation of expertise and experience in almost any field, with a level of competence and value that exceeds that of traditional consulting alternatives.

Our business model is consistent with future models of work: it brings together adhocracies (temporary project-based teams that capture opportunities, solve problems, and get results) and facilitates expertise and capacity augmentation. Our model is based on four key tenets: transparency to clients and professionals; opt-in participation by all stakeholders; a market-clearing approach to ensure the very highest talent quality and an anti-fragile business model to protect the interests of all stakeholders.

Mission

To help professionalise the freelance, boutique and internal consulting industries around the world.

Vision

To be the world’s leading supplier of unbundled consulting, project services, capability building and professional association in the management consulting industry.

Tenets

ICG’s business model design is based on four key tenets:

1. Transparency
2. Opt-In
3. Market Forces
4. Anti-Fragile

Transparency: ICG is committed to transparency at all levels. Adapting the original thinking of Ricardo Semler, ICG shares information with its stakeholders at a level that is unprecedented in the consulting and project services industry. This allows Accredited Professionals to see who wins BAFs, all adhocracy team members to see legal, economic, and project information, and all Accredited Professionals with an economic interest in a project or an ICG entity, to be provided with transparency around money flows and governance.

Opt-In: To ensure its business model adds value at all levels to Accredited Professionals and clients, ICG is committed to involvement through opt-in participation only. This ensures Accredited Professionals only engage with ICG and support clients through the ICG model because they (and/or their clients) see upfront and ongoing value from collaborating with and through the global ICG platform, without the switching-costs and coercion implicit in employment.

Market Forces: To ensure ICG provides the very best of the platform in any client situation, ICG has developed a pragmatic and scalable version of the market matching model first proposed by Tom Malone. This ensures the very best platform components are configured into an Industrialised Adhocracy® for any client need, maximising client impact through the very best resources available from the platform globally.

Anti-Fragile: ICG’s business model is based on the work of Nassim Taleb and ensures ICG has no debt and takes the smallest amount of operational risk possible. As no-one with an economic interest in ICG – even its founder – has direct access to economic flows, ICG can better protect stakeholder economic interests and provide permanence, something increasingly valued in an industry known for the ‘sudden demise’ of even the largest players.