Bridget Van Kralingen believes that changing the world is hard — and a little soft, too.

Equipped with a business degree in organizational psychology, the U.K. native spent two years conducting organizational development research in South Africa during the 1980s as the country and its institutions were in the throes of shedding apartheid.

After two years in that role, Van Kralingen drew two conclusions. First, she witnessed a strong desire among the majority of people inside organizations “to do better in the world and to do better for those around them.”

Second, she realized that her “softer” skills were not sufficient in leading people and organizations through that change. “It was clear that the people with well-intentioned soft-skill programs could not make the impact that they could have made if they went in with a clear business-change agenda,” she recalls. “If you really want to have an impact, I saw that the best way to do so was through the hard side of the business.”

That's what hooked Van Kralingen on the consulting profession, which she believes can satisfy the collective organizational desire to bring about change. “Consulting gives you that opportunity,” she adds, “which is why the profession is so great.”

She joined Deloitte Consulting's strategy practice in South Africa, where she began to overlay her OD expertise with “harder” strategy and financial analysis skills. Her immersion into consulting was intense, but, as she views it, necessary.

Van Kralingen hopped to IBM in 2004. She says that IBM and its consulting business are centered on service and helping people as well as innovation and learning — qualities that foster an environment in which consultants can help clients change their organizations.

In the past year, Van Kralingen’s financial services sector team has been responsible for IBM winning a growing number of engagements with leading banks and Wall Street firms around risk and compliance, business-process modeling, and management and culture change. She was also recently named as one of the top 100 people in finance by Euromoney magazine.