In our view, firms wishing to disrupt the Gartner and Forrester models must have two particular attributes. First, they need a significant differentiator. It can be in specialization, the business model, service delivery or other areas. Equally importantly, they must be able to scale. That means substantial funding, an effective sales operation, well-honed M&A skills, or a combination of all three.

One of the potential differentiators getting attention lately is “open source research.” In theory, it follows the open source software model: research is developed openly and collaboratively with a marketplace and published under a Creative Commons license. Benefits include lowering research costs while driving consulting and other revenues. Challenges include quality control and the prerequisite of building a large and engaged community of collaborators that will be equally accessible to competing Advisory firms.

- Barbara French and Gideon Gartner, Advisory Industry Competition: Pushing Past ‘Business as Usual’ (Part 2)

I think the key factor in microadvisory firms will be narrow focus. In my case, for example, I exclusively focus on social technologies, and as a result I can remain deeply aware of what’s happening in that (growing) niche. Others will track mobile, or enterprise software, or CRM.

This allows a different sort of scale — not breadth but depth.

As I said a few years ago, ‘I am giving up on balance, I am going for depth instead.’