COMATCH Consulting Climate

Launching the COMATCH Consulting Climate

  • Katrin Schwarzenberg
  • November 18, 2022

Monitoring industry trends is crucial for businesses as well as individuals. Observing forward-looking data helps track market expectations and prepare for changing economic situations.

The COMATCH Consulting Climate is an indicator of developments in the Consulting Services industry across Germany, France, and the UK. The index is published on a monthly basis and aims to not only reflect the current business climate but also to map industry trends.

The data comes from a survey we send out each month  to 9,500 experts and independent consultants based in Germany, France, and the UK. The consultants are asked two close-ended questions. The first is about their analysis of the current business situation, to which they can respond with “Poor”, “Satisfactory”, or “Good”. The second question asks them to describe their perception of the future business expectations for the next six months as “More unfavorable”, “Unchanged”, or “More favorable”.

The difference in percentage responses of “Good” and “Poor”, is the balance value of the current business situation. Similarly, the difference in percentage responses of “More favorable” and “More unfavorable” is the balance value of the future business expectations in the consulting industry.

Finally, the business climate is calculated as the mean value of these balances, and ranges from -100 to +100. The index values can then be calculated by normalizing the balance values to the base month value (November 2022).

An Illustration

Based on data from November’s respondents, 54% evaluate their current business situation as “Good”, 36% as “Satisfactory”, and 10% as “Poor”. The consultants who respond with the second option “Satisfactory” are considered as neutral, and so these responses are not taken into account while calculating the balance value of the current business situation.

The percentage shares of the other two responses are then balanced to arrive at the following value:

Current Business Situation = Percentage response “Good” – Percentage response “Poor” = 54% – 10% = 44 percentage points

Next, consider that the response shares for the future business expectations are 60% “Unchanged”, 23% “More Unfavorable”, and 17% “More Favorable”.

Similar to the value calculated above, the business expectation for the next six months is estimated as follows:

Business Climate Expectation = Percentage response “More Favorable” – Percentage response “More Unfavorable” = 17% – 23% = -6 percentage points

The COMATCH Consulting Climate value is then calculated as the geometric mean for these two values, which yields a percentage value.

Aggregated Consulting Climate = {√(44 +200)*(-6+200)} – 200 = 17.66%

The COMATCH Consulting Climate can range between values of -100 to +100 based on how many consultants evaluate their current business situation as good or poor, and whether they expect an improvement or deterioration in their business.

If all consultants believe that their business is currently good and will continue to improve, the COMATCH Consulting Climate value would be +100 percentage points.

The index value of the COMATCH Consulting Climate can then be calculated by normalizing against the average value of the base month, i.e. November 2022.

Index Value = (Balance in Current Month + 200 / Balance in November 2022 + 200) x 100

Index Value of COMATCH Consulting Climate (November 2022) = 100

The COMATCH Consulting Climate is an effort to build an index that is trusted by consultants and companies for decision making and planning. The accuracy of the index will enhance as more and more consultants from our network participate in the monthly surveys.

Want to be part of the COMATCH Consulting Climate Network? Join now.

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