Contracting Woes 1 - Introduction

This is a short post to introduce a new series of posts.

The relationships between contracting and consulting is a vexed issue for many independent professionals, including many Ndarala members.

The downsizing that has taken place in waves since the seventies has in turn released waves of professionals and managers onto the market, many of who have then looked at contracting as a way of earning income pending acquisition of new jobs, in some cases as a new career option. Because the economics of contracting and consulting are different, these waves of new contractors have had an adverse impact on the consulting marketplace.

More recently, firms have moved to outsourcing and to flexible working arrangements including greater use of contractors. This, or so it is argued, has expanded the contracting marketplace. In fact, this is only partially true.

The importance of contracting to Ndarala members means that there has been a fair bit of analysis in the Group about contracting from the viewpoint of contractor, consultant and customer. We thought that it might be of interest to a broader audience if we reported on some of that analysis.

To make the material more reader friendly, we are going to use this post as a main entry point, progressively adding new posts at the end as they are completed.

We welcome feedback telling us your experiences.