What can consulting firms learn from disruptive companies such as Uber and Airbnb?

Consulting firms and companies such as Uber and Airbnb are both problem solvers, where the former is

best in solving known problems with its traditional problem solving approach that is trough frameworks

and the latter tries to solve unknown problems with a “design thinking” methodology which is used by

designers to solve complex problems, and find desirable solutions for clients. “Design Thinking” is a logical,

imaginative, intuitive and systemic approach to explore possibilities and to create desired outcomes that

benefits the client. A design mindset is solution focused, and action oriented rather than problem focused.

Airbnb, Uber and companies alike have focused on solving problems with their users rather than solving

for them. These companies go one step ahead by understanding and empathizing with the customers

rather than just relying on the understanding patterns and trends in the data previously collected and

concluding with causes and correlations.

When Airbnb’s revenue got flat lined, their data analysis could only provide them insights about the

declining sales but nothing about the probable reasons for the decline. They submitted themselves to an

immersive experimental learning with their clients. They explored the reasons of decline from the

customer’s and hosts’ perspective by surveying their customers about their experience with Airbnb and

by brain storming on solutions to improve the experience. ‘Design thinking’ problem solving approach,

helps us to analyze future uncertainties or unknown problems and, helps to develop solutions which are

difficult to solve with one’s past knowledge or experience. These companies stress more on developing

solutions rather than applying solutions which are developed for other similar problems. When Airbnb

identified the reason for the flat lined revenue, they prototyped their solution and implemented it on a

sample. Then they compared the outcomes of the treatment group to the control group and further

refined their solution before they implemented it across all their listings. These companies emphasize

more on the practical application of the innovative solution on a small level in order to review the

outcomes. Refining the solution and repeating the process till you obtain the best suitable solution than

just identifying the problems and proposing solutions in principles, remains their main motive. However,

these solutions tends to stand out because of their creativity, innovation and uniqueness. Prototyping

solutions generates emotive response from the users which further guides you to solve the problem

effectively. Prototyping and experimentation lets you to innovate your future business strategies as

opposed to structured fact based analysis. Consulting firms have the best brains and the lot of most

talented people who can identify and solve complex problems effectively and efficiently. They work their

best till the problems are known and can solved with known frameworks, proprietary knowledge and

potential solutions from similar problems. When it comes to identify future’s unknown problems and

solving them, the current consulting firms are less capable. In my opinion, consulting firms should

embrace ‘design thinking approach’ in their problem solving strategies as this would enable them to come

up with user centered solutions and solve problems in the space of innovation.

Video Pitch Dropbox link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/w0w3lfkgkmqcksq/AADYBtBgWEEME2G0Ox67s313a?dl=0