A View on the Future of Strategic Consulting & Advisory: A Q&A with Andrew Tingay

In today’s market, our clients are facing diverse, dynamic and competitive challenges. 

Whether they’re looking at digitization/automation, climate change, decarbonization or aging infrastructure, more than ever organizations are being asked to achieve more and scale quicker within an acceptable level of risk and cost.  

Our strategic consulting and advisory teammates provide custom strategic solutions for our clients worldwide that leverage deep domain of knowledge in strategy, business organization and assets. With strategic partners like PA Consulting and Simetrica-Jacobs, we transcend market and operational silos to deliver a full-life cycle offering.  

Through practitioners like Global Director of Strategic Consulting & Advisory Solutions Andrew Tingay, we engage with the right stakeholders at the right time to deliver comprehensive solutions, positively impacting an organization’s future. In this Q&A, we connect with Andrew to discuss the trends and opportunities ahead for consulting and advisory services in a changing world and how we’re helping our clients achieve their goals.  

Tell us a bit about what a day in the life is like as Jacobs Global Solutions Director for Strategic Consulting & Advisory Solutions, and what we offer to our clients in this area. 

In my role, I develop and grow Jacobs’ global advisory practice across regions. I love the opportunity to work with passionate people solving infrastructure modernization, digitization, automation, inclusive growth and climate response issues.  

Together with our clients, we’re figuring out how to apply those solutions in different parts of the world. The challenges differ week by week and month by month. One week, we're working on a massive water infrastructure digitization project using artificial intelligence (AI), and next, we’re solving a transport decarbonization issue. That's what we’re about at Jacobs – recognizing the brightest talent and deploying those insights to deliver on our clients’ most pressing needs without being constrained by a single market or region.  

How do we advise clients to think differently to respond to future challenges?    

When we discuss some of the world's significant opportunities and challenges, the conversations move from, 'Do we need to do something?' to now, "Yes, what and how can we do it?' That's our sweet spot, where we can work with the client to understand why action needs to be taken and advise on how pragmatically to get it done.   

Traditionally the problem-solving process has been linear. You create a strategy, you develop a policy, follow that with a business case, follow that with the design and on we go. Now, we've got the chance to flip that linear process and make it much more iterative and agile, solving problems earlier by getting the right mix of people in the room. That's a unique offering and differentiation that Jacobs can bring – working across engineering, science, design and consulting. So, while it’s exhilarating when we get the right people in the right room having the right conversation, it’s a challenging piece to do. 

Is there a project you’re particularly proud of? 

It's hard to talk about one project because there are so many that we’re proud of, but one strong example would be our work with National Highways, one of our biggest clients in Europe. In partnership with several other firms, we’re now a strategic advisor, helping National Highways determine the best ways to invest billions of dollars to modernize their road networks. We’re considering different technologies for decarbonizing the entire road network and transport system. This project is on a scale that will require the best minds in our company in the long term.  

Looking to the future, what are some of the biggest opportunities ahead for strategic consulting and advisory?  

We advise our clients through all the big challenges and opportunities. Whether they’re looking to decarbonize or replace aging infrastructure, we can help them by moving from concept to implementation quicker and with greater confidence. By assisting them to see the entire picture, we develop a holistic and integrated strategy that pulls solutions from multiple technical disciplines. I’m excited to continue doing this for our clients and the communities they serve as we work together to co-create our future.