Well it’s been a long road and we are down to 24 hours to complete a significant merger between two successful consulting services companies here in the Seattle area. The combination of the two firms will be significant and challenging for our competitors.
I’ve been hammering away at the endless agreements and schedules required to put the merger together. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
The company will need to remain vigilant and continue to drive costs out of the organization. This year and next will be a very trying for all of the services firms in the area. I would like to think there are a few niche players that will continue to grow, but given the budget constraints and the availability of talent, the only growth will come from those niche players that are concentrated with one client. My hat is off to them, but that concentration is a risk Iwill not take.
There will be other mergers and consolidations as the year goes on. And, we’ll continue to see companies close down. On my white board in my office I am tracking the number of services firms gone out of business so far this year…7 and it is only February. The other day Bearing Point filed for BK…times are changing.
Hang in there all!
