History – Development of the Sourcing Advisory Industry
In 1886 Arthur D Little formed a new company, designed to provide consulting advice to businesses
for a fee. We’ll never know his vision, but that effort began an industry that has flourished and
grown for more than a century into a wide array of:
- Diversified organizations offering a range of services including IT consulting (Examples: Accenture, IBM, Deloitte);
- Management and Strategic Consulting specialists (Examples: Bain & Company, Booz
& Company, McKinsey & Company, The Boston Consulting Group, A.T. Kearny); and,
- Boutique firms focused on specific industries, functional areas or techniques.
Beginning in 1989, Warren Gallant and Denny McGuire co-founded TPI to advise and assist buyers on
sourcing choices. Without recognizing it, a new specialized boutique practice was emerging. Initially
focused on the IT industry, many of the methods and approaches to structuring sourcing transactions
developed by Gallant at TPI have become de-facto industry standards.
With the growth and success of TPI, a number of competitors have emerged, both through existing
firms creating a sourcing practice area and new firms emerging. Spin-offs from TPI offer a greater
range of choices in advisory firms – each with different specializations and approaches.
While the Sourcing Advisory industry was maturing, firms developed standardized processes and
training programs to enable them to grow and increase profits. At the same time, clients were accepting
sourcing as a business solution and their expectations and capabilities were evolving. Client procurement
organizations emerged with processes and methodologies for sourcing services.
In 2009, Warren Gallant and a team of veteran sourcing advisors decided to
form the Sourcing Board, in an attempt to re-align with the emerging capabilities of clients. Sourcing Board will re-focus on
some of the core principles of consulting from the foundation of Arthur Little through the late 1980s
founding of the Sourcing advisory specialty, re-introducing the concepts of:
- Experienced Advisors only;
- Tailored deals one client at a time, built on best practices; and,
- Accountability for the outcome – advice that promotes lasting relationships that are practical and workable.
Sourcing Board is committed that a consulting firm should be focused on
bringing experience and value to clients. The market pressures firms to focus on
faster growth and higher profitability. This can lead to practices that detract
from the close one-on-one relationships required to make a sourcing transaction
successful. To avoid this, Sourcing Board is committed to remaining a small
boutique firm – staying focused on our core principles and delivering an
evolving market with the experience and value it demands.