What position is your firm growing toward?
Five questions about everyday choices that reveal which position your firm is growing toward.
If you could invest more in just one client relationship, which one would it be?
How much leadership time goes to clients with no open question or current engagement?
A colleague wants to deviate from the standard approach for a client. What happens?
A client needs something another firm does better. What do you do?
A client meeting runs over because more is at play than the question at hand. How do you see that?
Your position
Provider — Reliable delivery
Your client relationships are clearly ordered: the client asks, you deliver, the client pays. That clarity carries today's revenue, and clients value it.
The tension: in this role, you're mostly compared on delivery — price and turnaround.
The opportunity: a firm that has delivered on its promises for years has more standing than any outsider to open a conversation about what the client is really trying to achieve. Which relationship gets that conversation this quarter?
Your position
Advisor — Expertise on request
Clients come to you with an issue and rely on your expertise: they define the question, you deliver the answer.
The tension: those same questions can be asked elsewhere tomorrow, faster and cheaper than ever.
The opportunity: you see things in your clients' situations that they haven't spotted yet, and that's exactly where a hard-to-replace position begins. Starting the conversation before there's a question turns you from the one with answers into the one who sets direction. Which client deserves that unprompted conversation this quarter?
Your position
Trusted Advisor — A trusted sounding board
Clients bring you into strategic choices and sensitive decisions, and rely on your judgment and your discretion. What sets this position apart: you advise on solutions; the issue and the choice stay with the client.
The tension: advice, however trusted, is still something a client can weigh, compare, and set aside.
The opportunity: one shift, from advising on solutions to developing them together. The trust is already there; what's missing is the first shared undertaking. Which client has an issue that calls for building together rather than advice?
Your position
Partner — Building together
You develop solutions together with clients: same table, shared risk, shared results. The issue belongs to both of you.
The tension: a partnership built around today's challenges says little about the challenges of 2029. Without a shared picture of the future, the partnership carries the current work and misses the next move.
The opportunity: you already have a seat at the table where that conversation belongs; it's just waiting for a spot on the agenda. What should this partnership be worth in 2029, to the client and to you?
Your position
Steward — Sharing responsibility for the future
You work on your clients' lasting ability to handle complex challenges on their own. Rare and demanding: it takes sustained investment and letting go of being indispensable.
The tension: staying power. Which relationships will still carry this level three years from now?
The opportunity: an organization that can do this gets to choose, relationship by relationship, which position fits, and makes the whole continuum its playing field.
Your position
A mixed profile
Your answers point in different directions, and that spread is the insight: somewhere the work is running ahead of the relationship, or the relationship ahead of the work. Clients often feel that gap before you do.
The opportunity: where the gap becomes visible, the next move is already waiting. The extended reflection shows where it sits, across eight dimensions.
These questions sit where Service Evolution and Change Leadership meet. Service evolution is where we’re going. Change leadership is how we get there.
Service Evolution
How your services create meaningful impact in a changing world
Change Leadership
What kind of leadership the change demands of you
We work on both. Together with leaders and professionals in midcorp service providers who want to excel today while building for what’s coming.
Five depths a firm can operate at
Vendor | Advisor | Trusted Advisor | Partner | Steward
Most firms know which one they’d claim. Fewer ask whether their organisation can actually hold that position.
The gap between the position you name and the position you can sustain — that’s where relevance is decided.
Curious where your firm actually sits? Let’s talk.
Imagine - what becomes possible?
Back to the core of why you started. A true partner for your clients. Deeper relationships. Work that creates meaning. An organisation that moves with what the future brings.
Where To Begin
About MCH Consultancy
Since 2010, we’ve been working with service providers who want to excel and evolve. Together, we discover what’s possible. Anchored in our focus on midcorp service providers, our Service Evolution framework, and deep change expertise that delivers impact.
“ The shift from service delivery to meaningful impact doesn't require becoming someone else. It requires fully expressing who you already are”
Björn Bierhaalder, Co-founder MCH Consultancy
Two items on your leadership agenda come with deadlines. The third decides your relevance. Why that question slides, and how to give it room.