Consultants often mistake trend awareness for strategic advantage. When everyone sees the same trend, acting on it gives your clients zero differentiation.
Obvious trends create consensus, which kills margin. The value is not spotting AI. It is predicting which middle management functions become bottlenecks after AI adoption is universal. Clients pay for the non-obvious consequence, not the headline. (1/3)
Try this approach. List three trends your client considers obvious. For each one ask what second order consequence emerges 18 months after the trend is universally accepted. Map those effects on an impact and uncertainty grid. Identify the high impact high uncertainty intersection for your strategic recommendation.
You will shift from confirming what clients already know to delivering genuinely differentiated insight. (2/3)
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