What are advisory services, and what do they mean for your practice?
3 min read
In our profession, the term “advisory services” is used frequently, but there is little consensus about what it actually means. When we ask multi-service firms which advisory services they offer, the spectrum of responses is incredibly broad and often overlaps with traditional compliance services.
Vanguard Economics team of 17 advises governments, development partners, and foundations on a diverse range of areas including gender, climate and finance. Past clients have included the Development Bank of Rwanda, UNDP and World Vision.
We are a research and advisory firm based in Kigali, Rwanda. Our work is focused on maximising the impact private sector development, trade & logistics, and the commercialisation of agriculture can have on delivering transformation for markets and populations across Africa.
Our Services
Market Research
We advise decision makers in the design and implementation of policies and strategies to deliver socio-economic transformation and justice for entire populations.
Monitoring Evaluation & Learning
We design and implement innovative market driven solutions to development challenges. We also take these solutions to scale
Advise Policy Markers
We deliver data driven research and analysis to our clients with a focus on private sector challenges to growth, food systems transformation and environmental sustainability
Programmatic Work
We ensure our clients are maximising the impact of their efforts and resources while supporting adaptable and responsive delivery of projects within a local context.
Why does it matter?
Compliance services are required, and there is very little differentiation in the deliverable between practitioners. A tax return or financial statement usually looks the same no matter who prepared it. The fact that most firms include the exact same compliance description on client invoices reinforces that there is nothing special about the compliance report.
Conversely, the advice, expertise, planning and strategy that went into the process before the report was created are very differentiated.
Advisory services grow from our unique experiences and expertise, and are the secret sauce that creates value for our clients.
We know this intuitively, but many firms do a poor job of separating advisory from compliance, and communicating their advisory expertise to clients. Advisory supports specialization, which leads to higher-value services and separation from the sea of generalists. However, if we can’t articulate our advisory expertise, it’s a certainty that clients won’t be able to untangle our compliance services from higher-value advisory services.
