US Strategy Consulting - why are so many firms looking for strategists?

Hi there - Bryan here from Top-Consultant.

I was approached by a journalist from 'Time' last week who was researching a piece on the state of the US strategy consulting market. He was particularly interested in why there's been such an upswing in recruitment activity for strategy consultants by firms that 2 or 3 years ago we would not have thought of as being interested in recruiting in this area.

I suggested that many consultancy clients see some consulting services, IT for instance, as increasingly commoditised, and consultancy firms selling these services have taken to focussing not on killer applications but killer service. IT houses have taken to trading upwards and are effectively giving away strategy services on the back of larger IT project wins.

Is this your reading of what's happening? Is this sustainable? How are the strat-houses countering?